Office administration staff provide assistance to office workers. They maintain records and filing systems and are often in charge of data entry. They may maintain a database of customers or inventory and produce correspondence for mailing, and they read and forward mail to the correct department. The overall goal of any office administrator is to make their supervisor's job easier.

Database Management

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An office administration staffer is not usually expected to build a database but will be required to enter details and be able to call up records which fulfill certain criteria at a moments notice. They also must produce reports based on database information. These reports are usually passed along to senior staff members or presented in a conference.

Preparing Correspondence

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Correspondence may be an individual letter or a newsletter intended for all clients. Office administration staff must prepare memos and announcements and send them to all staff. Office administration staff are expected to deal with e-mail inquiries and either reply pass the e-mail on to the appropriate department.

Schedule Management

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Booking appointments, planning conferences and informing the staff of schedules traditionally meant writing down all appointments in a central diary and sending weekly or daily updates to the staff. Now, most scheduling is completed electronically with data management programs such as Outlook, iCal or Eudora. This allows a office administration staff member to update and publish several calendars electronically. This allows other staff members to check the calendars simultaneously, making adjustments as necessary.

Answer Telephones

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Office administration staff answer phones and either deal with customers or transfer them to a department better suited to answer their queries. It's also the duty of office administration staff to record detailed messages along with any contact information of the caller.