Your office manager does so much for your business. They keep your office running smoothly, help customers, and create an optimal work environment. Recognizing their hard work will help them feel valued. In fact, employees recognized at work are almost six times more likely to stay at their jobs than those not recognized.
You should track your office administrator’s performance with management metrics to see how they’re really doing. Performance metrics tell you what to watch for and will help you see how your office manager performs over time. With those key metrics, you can better recognize your office admin’s strengths and successes.
Let’s look at 11 key office manager metrics to help you evaluate your office administrator’s performance.
How to Evaluate an Office Manager’s Performance
1. Customer Service
Your office managers interact with your customers firsthand, setting the tone for working with your company. Naturally, your office staff should interact positively with new and existing customers.
Your office manager also needs to know how to navigate difficult situations. If an issue arises, they should have the conflict resolution skills to diffuse it. Excellent office managers can turn a negative situation into a positive one.
2. Communication
Paul J. Meyer, founder of Success Motivation Institute, once said, “Communication—the human connection—is the key to personal and career success.” And strong communication skills are absolutely essential for an office administrator.
Your office needs managers who excel in verbal and written communication. But that doesn’t mean your office managers must be professional writers or eloquent public speakers.
It just means that they know how to:
- Clearly get their message across, whether that’s to coworkers, suppliers, or customers
- Articulate problems in a way that makes sense to everyone, even to those who aren’t familiar with the situation
- Listen to what others are saying
3. Decision-making
Office managers are typically on the front lines of decision-making. They’re the ones who take care of scheduling, update accounting, order supplies, and interact with your customers the most.
They’ve got to make informed decisions on the spot based on what they know. They must be quick on their feet and able to consider multiple perspectives and outcomes.
Can your crew take on another roof replacement this week, or should they wait to schedule it for next week? Your office manager should have a good idea of how feasible that is and plan accordingly.
Remember that if you don’t see any problems, that’s a sign that your office manager is very good at making the right decisions.
4. Company Values
Your company should have a unique vision, mission, and values that help you run your business. Those business basics will also help your administrative staff know how to do their jobs.
When measuring managerial performance for your office employees, ask yourself if they know and live by your company’s values.
If they do, do they help others live up to those values too? They can verbally remind your team what your company stands for or simply exemplify your values.
5. Organization
If anyone in your company needs to be organized, it’s your office manager. Because of this, one of your management metrics should be organization.
When you evaluate your office manager’s performance, consider the following questions:
- Do they keep everything organized for the company?
- Are they staying on top of everything?
- Do they keep projects from slipping through the cracks?
A project management software like JobNimbus will help keep your office admin and crew more organized.
6. Job Knowledge
It’s hard for someone to do a good job without knowing what their responsibilities are. Check your office employee’s job knowledge by seeing if they know what their job requires of them.
Take those job requirements a step further. Do they currently have the skills to meet them? If they don’t, is that something they can continue to learn? Are they actively trying to improve their job knowledge?
You should give your office manager a high score on the job knowledge metric if they know their major responsibilities, how to do them, and have a track record of doing those things correctly.
7. Initiative
Does your office manager handle problems as soon as they notice them, even if it isn’t directly related to their responsibilities? Proactively getting on top of projects before someone tells them to is a good measure of your office administrator’s initiative.
A self-starting office manager is vital for your business since you and your crew won’t have the time to check in on your office admin.
8. Teamwork
Even if your office administrator is the only one who works in your office, they still collaborate with other team members, including you. When looking at the teamwork metric for your office manager, think about how well they work with others.
Do they get along well with the rest of your crew and help out when and where they can? Office administrators who learn from others and bring their strengths to a group should get a high teamwork score.
9. Productivity
Another essential management metric is how well your office manager uses their time. If they put in eight hours every day but fail to complete their projects on time, what are they putting their time toward? Busyness doesn’t always translate to productivity.
If your office manager isn’t getting their work done in a reasonable timeframe, this is an excellent place to explore why. Is it because they’re watching TikToks on their phone or because they’re so swamped with tasks that they don’t have time to take care of everything? Those are two very different situations that need to be addressed differently.
10. Reliability
You might think that accountability goes without saying as a management metric, but it’s worth discussing in an office manager evaluation.
Ask yourself the following questions about your office administrator:
- Do they do what they say they will?
- Do they follow through on projects until completion?
- Do they own up to their mistakes and create a plan to improve?
11. Problem-solving & Creativity
Every company runs into problems here and there, and the office manager often deals with them. You have a great office administrator if they can solve the problem independently and devise creative solutions.
How quickly can they solve problems? Do they come up with a few options and work out which one would be best? The better your office manager solves problems, the better your company will run.
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Measure Your Office Administrator with the Right Management Metrics
Your office manager plays a crucial role in your business! When they succeed, you succeed. And part of measuring their success is measuring the right things. These 11 management metrics will help you find the baseline for evaluating your office administrator.
What management metrics are you using to evaluate your office administrators? Let us know in the comments below!
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