Office Manager Interview Preparation Guide

Download PDF

Management is the function that coordinates the efforts of people to accomplish goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively.

Management includes planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization to accomplish the goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources. Management is also an academic discipline, a social science whose objective is to study social organization.

Office managers are responsible for organizing all of the administrative activities that facilitate the smooth running of an office.
They must make sure that office equipment is maintained, relevant records are up to date and that all administration processes work effectively.

Although the work of an office manager differs greatly across organisations, they all have the responsibility for ensuring that their office runs efficiently. Job titles vary and office managers typically enter at office administrator level and work their way up with experience.

You can speak about designing filing systems and ensuring that the records are updated regularly. You should also discuss how to achieve the security of these records.

It is the office manager's responsibility to ensure office functionality. The job involves many administrative tasks: HR issues - hiring and firing personnel, orienting and training the organization employees, coaching staff, and enforcing company rules and discipline.

Conflicts are often the result of stress, rather than any dispute or actual reasons.
There are a number of ways to resolve a conflict. The simplest way is to allow the employee to talk about it with you. Often, this alone makes him or her feel better. Coaching workers about stress management is another way to prevent conflict.

Describe your prioritization process: planning ahead of office procedures, scheduling, and layout and supplies maintenance. Explain how you've monitored employees' performance to identify functionality or anticipate problems and conflicts.

You may be tempted to share a specific management style but the best answer to this question is, "I choose to adapt my management techniques based on the present situation, as work environments are constantly dynamic and often need to be handled in unique, novel ways."

Interpersonal and team skills are key factors. You can also list management administration knowledge/skills, computer literacy, ability to multi-task, making decisions independently, and communicating effectively with office staff and senior management.

The best answer to this type of interview question is, "Management is about setting and reaching goals and employee/organizational relationships. I measure effectiveness by looking at the data, ensuring that I am meeting deadlines early and helping to achieve organizational growth, and keeping morale high and those under my supervision engaged and active in their tasks."

If you did, briefly describe any part of the training process and the training topics. The subjects of these sessions might be anything from time and stress management to office policies and computer literacy.

You should answer this question with specific examples of methods you use to delegate tasks, "For each staff member I create a sheet of detailed, relevant tasks and estimated deadlines. I then meet with each staff member individually to ensure they also agree to the deadlines and answer any questions they have. I also schedule regular work in progress meetings to check in on their status."

True leadership is about personal responsibility. That is why an effective answer to this question is, "I consider anyone who works with me to be an extension of my effectiveness as manager. I will discuss any problems with the employee individually and honestly, but if their work affects the bottom line of the company, their shortcomings are also my responsibility."

Candidates applying for manager positions need to demonstrate that they are able to manage all types of people. Anyone can manage a self-motivated, successful employee, but managers who bring out the best in marginal performers will be highly valued in any company.

I am equally comfortable working as a member of a team and independently. In researching the ABC company, your mission statement and the job description, I could see similarities to my previous position where there were some assignments that required a great deal of independent work and research and others where the team effort was most effective. As I said, I am comfortable with both.

I will continue my professional development my participating in conferences, attending seminars, and continuing my education.

The first step is to think about occupational health and safety in a comprehensive manner. Consider all the possible threats to the well being of workers in your past workplace. Of course, physical safety in settings like production, construction, agriculture, mining and transportation comes to mind since accidents are common.

The best way to respond is to describe your responsibilities in detail and to connect them to the job you are interviewing for. Tie your responsibilities in with those listed in the job description for the new position.

In my next job, I would like to be able to have a positive impact on my patients. Your facility offers patients a total recovery program, and I feel that my experience, education, and specialization would make this a good fit for me.