300+ [REAL TIME] Office Management Interview Questions

1. How Would You Keep Staff Members Motivated?

“I do my best to show recognition and acknowledgement to all employees that meet goals, which keeps morale high and employees on task. Also, when applicable, I keep tasks interdependent within the team, so that staff members require and encourage fellow staff members to complete their work.”

2. How Do You Handle Stress And Pressure As An Office Manager?

The best way to answer this question is to give an example of how you have handled stress in a previous job. That way, the interviewer can get a clear picture of how well you work in stressful situations.Avoid mentioning a situation when you put yourself in a needlessly stressful situation. For example, do not share a story about a time when you were stressed because you procrastinated and had to finish a project quickly. Focus on a time that you were given a difficult task or a multiple assignments, and you rose to the occasion.

3. What Are The Typical Work Activities Of An Office Manager?

The role varies according to the type of employer, the size of the organisation and the management structure, but activities typically include:

☛ Using a range of office software, including email, spreadsheets and databases.

☛ Managing filing systems.

☛ Developing and implementing new administrative systems, such as record management.

☛ Recording office expenditure and managing the budget.

☛ Organising the office layout and maintaining supplies of stationery and equipment.

☛ Maintaining the condition of the office and arranging for necessary repairs.

☛ Organising and chairing meetings with staff – in lower paid roles this may include typing the agenda and taking minutes, but senior managers usually have an administrative assistant to do this.

☛ Overseeing the recruitment of new staff, sometimes including training and induction.

☛ Ensuring adequate staff levels to cover for absences and peaks in workload, often by using temping agencies.

☛ Carrying out staff appraisals, managing performance and disciplining staff.

☛ Delegating work to staff and managing their workload and output.

☛ Promoting staff development and training.

☛ Implementing and promoting equality and diversity policy.

☛ Writing reports for senior management and delivering presentations.

☛ Responding to customer enquiries and complaints.

☛ Reviewing and updating health and safety policies and ensuring they are observed.

☛ Arranging regular testing for electrical equipment and safety devices.

4. What Can You Do For This Company?

First of all, be sure to have researched the company prior to the interview, so you are familiar with the company’s mission. Respond by giving examples why your education, skills, accomplishments, and experience will make you an asset for the employer.Take a few moments to compare your goals with objectives of the company and the position, as well as mentioning what you have accomplished in your other jobs. Be positive and reiterate your interest in the company, as well as the job.

5. What Strategies Would You Use To Motivate Your Team?

ultimately you should convey your understanding that different approaches work for different personality types. A good starting point is to mention that you would take the time to get to know your reports or team members, and assess their needs and preferences. Also review these examples of motivation skills to get an idea of what employers are looking for.

6. How Did You Handle Challenges?

Best Answer:

A long-term client was about to take their business to a competitor. I met with the customer and was able to change how we handled the account on a day-to-day basis, in order to keep the business.

7. What Are Your Most Difficult Decisions To Make?

give one or two concrete examples of difficult situations you have actually faced at work. Then discuss what decisions you had to make to remedy the situations.You want to come across as confident and capable of making big decisions. Avoid examples that make you seem indecisive or uncertain.

8. What Do You Expect From A Supervisor?

I would like to be able to go my manager if I have an issue or idea and to be able to feel comfortable to expressing my thoughts. I would also expect my supervisor to be open and honest with me and to let me know if there is anything I could do to improve upon or do differently in my work.

9. What Do People Most Often Criticize About You?

Best Answer:

I had a supervisor many years ago tell me that I was too critical of other people’s work. I took that to heart, and made sure from that point forward that my analysis and suggestions are always supportive and helpful rather than critical.

10. What Is Your Biggest Management Weakness?

“Sometimes in the heat of a deadline, I have found that I have overlooked great work by a staff member. I am working on making sure everyone I work with gets their deserved recognition for successful completion of their tasks, because it is important that every individual staff member be recognized for their contributions toward building the company’s success.”

11. What Can You Contribute To The Company?

The best way to answer questions about your contributions to the company is to give examples of what you have accomplished in the past, and to relate them to what you can achieve in the future.Describe specific examples of how effective you have been in your other positions, change you have implemented, and goals you have achieved. Talk about the depth and breadth of related experience that you have.

12. What Applicable Attributes/experience Do You Have?

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.

13. How Have You Impacted Health And Safety Of A Worker?

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.

14. How Do You Plan To Achieve Your Goals?

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

15. Do You Prefer To Work Independently Or With A Team?

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.

16. Describe How You Managed A Problem Of An Employee?

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.

17. What Will You Do If You Had A Subordinate Doing Their Job Inefficiently?

“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.”

18. How Do You 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.”

19. Have You Ever Conducted Or Supervised Training Sessions For Employees?

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.

20. How Do You Measure Your Success As An Office Manager?

“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.”

21. What Are The Most Vital Skills For An Office Manager?

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.

22. How Will You Describe Your Management Style?

“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.”

23. What Are The Actions You Can Do To Maintain Office Efficiency?

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.

24. How Would You Treat Any Conflicts That Might Arise In Your Office?

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.

25. What Are The Responsibilities Of The Role Of An Office Manager?

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.

26. Are You Qualified To Maintain Office Records?

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.

27. What Is The Work Of An Office Manager?

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.

28. What Is An Office Manager Responsible For?

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.

29. What Does Management Include?

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.

30. What Is Management?

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