YOUR CAREER IN ADMINISTRATION AND OPERATIONS

The variety in administration and operational roles is unparalleled. Each day brings new challenges, collaborations, and problems to solve. Depending on your role within your organisation and how large that organisation is, you will be: 

• Communicating with different departments regarding larger-scale projects
• Estimating departmental budgets to ensure they line up with the business spending plans
• Discussing projects and finer details with relevant stakeholders
• Approving costs and departmental spending proposals
• Helping to solve problems with IT 
• Improving technology systems and processes within the workplace
• Reviewing and improving policies and processes
• Driving teams and KPIs to ensure business objectives are met

Talented administration and operations professionals are needed in many industries, particularly retail, service, manufacturing, warehousing, hospitality, transportation, production and technology.

The difference between operations and administration is slight, but administration focuses on supporting administrative tasks in a business. This can be budgeting, spreadsheet and document creation, office projects and tasks, customer service responsibilities, filing, and running administrative software systems. 

Professionals in operations have ‘umbrella management’ where they look after and are closely involved with the administrative functions of a business but are also involved in bringing other departments’ activities to align with business goals, both short- and long-term. This means being across the activities of finance, sales, customer service or front-facing departments, and marketing.

Around 87% of people employed as administrative and operations professionals work full-time hours, with an average of 45 hours per week in their main job.

Administration and operations leaders are faced with the unique challenge of managing people, processes and supply chains remotely or hybridly in a post-COVID world. Leaders who can think critically, innovate and pivot to take advantage of new opportunities, such as streamlining and digitalising more processes, can save businesses time and money where it matters most. 

Industries where operational leaders are needed most often have high levels of in-person interaction. But with the rapid rise of e-commerce, innovators will ensure their skills and knowledge are translatable digitally.