Administrative professionals are the backbone of an organization. These hardworking people manage all the behind-the-scenes activities, to keep the company running smoothly.

If you’re trying to fill an open administrative or clerical position, it’s important to perform adequate due diligence to make sure you’re hiring the best person for the job. Asking behavioral interview questions tailored to their willingness to go the extra mile, reliability, personality and flexibility is a great way to learn if they’re a good fit.

5 Questions to Ask Top Administrative Candidates

Searching for a new administrative professional? Don’t make any hiring decisions before asking the following five questions:

1. Tell me about a time when you had to meet an important last-minute deadline. It’s important to know you can count on the candidate to put in overtime if needed. If the person can easily explain a time they put in extra effort to get the job done, they’re probably a keeper. However, if they come up short, consider this a red flag. You don’t want to hire someone who isn’t a team player.
2. Explain a time when you had to manage conflicting priorities. Administrative positions come with a wide variety of responsibilities. You need someone with excellent prioritization skills, who has the capacity to use good judgment to manage their workload. Choose a candidate who seems comfortable doing multiple things at once and has great examples to prove it.
3. Give an example of a time when work interfered with your personal life. It’s inevitable that work duties may sometimes cross into an administrative professional’s personal time. This question allows you to see how much of a priority the job would take in their lives, if hired. You need someone with a history of putting their job first, who doesn’t mind pitching in when things need to be done outside of standard working hours.
4. Have you ever been in a situation where you had to take on additional responsibilities from a colleague? Administrative work is essential to the daily functioning of every office. If another administrative professional is out of the office or swamped, it’s important to know if they’re willing to take on additional responsibilities for the good of the team. Don’t even consider hiring anyone who scoffs at the idea of doing work not listed in their job description.
5. Describe a situation where you had to deal with an irate customer. Oftentimes, administrative professionals are the first point of contact with a customer. It’s important to know the candidate can remain calm and respectful even when dealing with a very angry and irrational person. Listen carefully to the situation they describe to see how they were able to handle it and what the end result was.

Need to hire a new administrative professional? Contact Barrington Staffing. We offer temporary, temp-to-hire and direct hire services for clients in the San Fernando Valley, Burbank, Thousand Oaks, the Santa Clarita Valley, West Los Angeles and the surrounding areas.