Administrative
The people who keep the week upright.
Executive assistants, coordinators, receptionists and office operations staff. Cover for a fortnight, a contract through a busy quarter, or the permanent hire everyone leans on.
- 6 functions
- from front of house and scheduling through to records and office operations
- Days, not weeks
- administrative cover is the fastest desk we fill in most markets
- Tested, not assumed
- systems and speed checked at screening rather than taken from a resume
Administrative
Six functions, one standard of judgement.
We recruit administrative staff from receptionists and data entry through to senior executive assistants supporting a leadership team. Offices, clinics, plants, public agencies and professional services firms.
Most administrative demand is urgent: someone resigned, someone is on leave, or a project has outgrown the person holding it together. Temporary and contract cover moves in days, and contract-to-hire is the usual route when the role is really permanent.
The part that decides it is rarely software. It is whether the person can hold a diary against three people who all think they are the priority, and still be pleasant on the phone at five o'clock.
Functions
What we actually recruit for.
Pick one and you get what they actually produce, the seniority we fill, and the tools and standards a screen has to cover.
Diaries, travel, expenses, board papers and the gatekeeping that protects a senior person's week.
- Seniority we fill
- Administrative assistant through to executive assistant and chief of staff support
- Tools
- OutlookMicrosoft 365ConcurTeamsDocuSign
- Standards
- Discretion and confidentialityCalendar and travel policy
Diaries, travel, expenses, board papers and the gatekeeping that protects a senior person's week.
- Seniority we fill
- Administrative assistant through to executive assistant and chief of staff support
- Tools
- OutlookMicrosoft 365ConcurTeamsDocuSign
- Standards
- Discretion and confidentialityCalendar and travel policy
The vocabulary
What we recruit against.
The systems administrative staff actually live in. We test the ones your role depends on rather than accept a list at the bottom of a resume.
Productivity
- Microsoft 365
- Outlook
- Excel
- Word
- Teams
- SharePoint
- Google Workspace
Business systems
- Salesforce
- NetSuite
- SAP
- Workday
- Concur
- DocuSign
- Zendesk
Coordination
- Smartsheet
- Asana
- Monday
- Trello
- Calendly
Checks we run
- Typing speed
- Excel exercise
- Written communication sample
- Background check
Administrative hiring is judged on the quiet weeks and decided on the bad ones. Screen for the bad ones.
Screening
How we screen an administrator.
Administrative hiring goes wrong when it is treated as a formality. The skills are testable, the judgement is not, and both have to be checked before anyone reaches your desk.
- 01
The week, described honestly
How many people the person supports, how much of the day is reactive, and who gets to interrupt them. It changes which candidate is right more than the job title does.
- 02
Systems tested, not listed
A short Excel exercise or a system walkthrough where the role depends on one. Proficient in Excel covers everything from sorting a column to building a model.
- 03
Written communication sampled
A short written response, because a great deal of this job is email that somebody senior will be judged by.
- 04
Judgement questions
Two conflicting priorities, a difficult caller, a mistake that needs owning. The answers separate experience from length of service.
- 05
A reference from the person supported
Not the HR file. The manager whose diary they held, who can tell you what happened on a bad week.
Straight answer
Where the market is actually tight.
What our recruiters see when they run these searches. Experience rather than a guarantee, and we would rather say it now than in week three.
| Role | What the market looks like | Realistic shortlist |
|---|---|---|
| Reception and front of house | Deep pool in most metro markets, and quick to move. | Days |
| Data entry and records | Readily available. Accuracy under volume is the differentiator, not availability. | Days |
| Coordinators | Plenty of candidates, fewer who have coordinated across sites or trades. | About a week |
| Office managers | Steady, though people who have run facilities and vendors as well thin out. | One to two weeks |
| Executive assistants at leadership level | The hardest administrative hire. Discretion and composure are hard to evidence and harder to replace. | Two to three weeks |
| Bilingual administrative staff | Market dependent, and worth flagging in the brief rather than discovering late. | One to three weeks |
Administrative cover is usually the fastest thing we do. If a search is slower than that, it is normally the seniority or the language requirement, and we will tell you which.
Shapes
Three shapes this usually takes.
Administrative demand almost never arrives with a month of notice. These are the three shapes we see.
Cover, now
A desk that has to be staffed tomorrow morning.
- When it fits
- Resignation, illness, parental leave or a sudden gap with a deadline behind it.
- The arrangement
- Temporary, from a single day upward. We are the employer of record.
A contract through a peak
Extra administrative capacity for a defined period.
- When it fits
- An audit, a system migration, a busy season, or a project that has outgrown its coordinator.
- The arrangement
- Contract, typically three to twelve months.
The permanent hire
The person the office will be built around.
- When it fits
- Executive support, office management, or a role where continuity is the whole point.
- The arrangement
- Contract-to-hire when fit matters most, direct hire when you are sure.
Before you call
What to have ready before you call.
Nothing formal. Knowing these turns a first call into a shortlist rather than a discovery session.
- How many people the person supports, and who can interrupt them
- The systems they will be in every day, and which ones are non negotiable
- How much of the role is reactive rather than planned
- On site, hybrid or remote, and the hours that actually matter
- The rate or salary band you can approve without a second meeting
- Whether this is cover, a contract, or a role you want somebody to stay in
Open roles
A sample of administrative roles we fill.
Questions
Before you call.
Often the same week, and sometimes the next morning for reception and data entry. These are the roles where our bench is deepest, and where being a day late actually costs you something.
Need a desk covered?
Tell us who the person supports, the systems they need and when. Administrative cover is usually the fastest thing we do.