Creating and Maintaining Your Administrative Manual
As you begin documenting the various processes, procedures, checklists, and forms for your administrative manual, there are a few things to keep in mind that will make updating or revising this manual much easier.

• Create an electronic folder called “Admin Manual” for ease in filing these documents once you have them created. Not every document in your admin manual will be saved in this folder, but the ones that don’t already have a home in another folder should be placed here.
• Add the document path and file name to the footer of each document before you print it. If it’s not a file that you share with anyone else, you may want to leave it there permanently. It makes finding the file for quick updates or reprints a much easier process weeks or months down the road when you may not be able to remember exactly where you saved it.
• Do not store multiple copies of the same file in multiple online folder locations. If you make updates to your master copy, you don’t want to have to recall all of the various locations you may have it saved in to update those copies also. This is where the document footer with the filename becomes very helpful.
• Create a “Master Document” in Microsoft Word if you have a lot of electronic files that you want to be able to pull into your admin manual but they are stored in a lot of online locations. When you open the master document, all you have to do is click on the link and it will take you directly to the file you are looking for. I have used this as my “electronic” admin manual with a shortcut placed on my desktop for quick and easy reference if I don’t want to open up my binder and leaf through it page by page.

When assembling your admin manual, I recommend the following:

• Purchase a sturdy 3-ring “D” binder that is about 1 1/2″ to 2″ wide and in a color that is unique from all of the other binders on your desk.
• Create a fun, yet professional, cover and spine to clearly identify the contents on your desk.
• Print out nicely labeled tabs for your dividers once you have identified all of the various sections that you want included in your admin manual.
• Purchase some heavy duty sheet protectors for the commonly referred to lists, checklists or form templates that will receive the most use.
• Create a permanent home for your binder that is easy to reach from your computer and when you are on the phone. This may require reorganizing your desk slightly, but if it’s not easy to reach or use, it defeats the purpose of putting this together to begin with. So take a few minutes to reevaluate your desk setup/layout and assign your binder a home.
• Depending on the amount of information you assemble, you may want to consider a general table of contents listing the overall sections and the forms included in each section for quick fingertip reference. Do not include page numbers as those can change quickly if you are regularly updating/editing the documents in this binder.

How often do you need to update your binder?

When I realize there are things that need to be changed in my binder, I make the notes right on the page as I am looking at it. If I have time to do it on the spot, I will. If I do not, I may come back and do it when I see several pages have marks or post-its with additional information included on them. I find that reviewing it on a monthly or quarterly basis is reasonable depending on how busy your office is and how many changes occur from week to week or month to month. Add a reminder to your Outlook Calendar or Tasks so you don’t forget.

Not only will you look smart the next time someone needs to fill in for you when you’re on vacation, but you won’t lose out on other potential promotions or opportunities because no one knew how to do your job when you left. Plus, the person who follows you will know you were one of the most efficient, productive, and thoughtful administrative professionals ever!

If you would like to request a copy of my “Administrative Job Responsibilities” Template to get you started, click here.

Julie Perrine CPS/CAP
Certified MBTI Administrator

What should you consider including in your admin manual?

The list of things that you could potentially include in your administrative assistant admin manual or binder is almost endless. But I typically use these guidelines when thinking about what to include:

• What information/resources do I refer to on a regular basis? (i.e. phone lists, conference room locations, facility maps, executive or board contact sheets, travel planning forms, event planning checklists, corporate logo/branding guidelines, etc.)
• What processes or procedures are documented for my position that I can include? If you don’t have any elements of how to do your job documented, start with the documentation and include it in your binder. Anyone who picks this binder up should be able to fill in for you or at least know where to go to get the information with minimal snags with the information provided in your binder.
• What forms or templates do I use regularly? I always kept a couple of blank forms in my binder with a completed template in front of it so someone could see how to complete the form. If the forms were used primarily in an electronic format, I always kept hard copies in my binder as well in case I needed one immediately or my network went down for some reason and I couldn’t access it electronically.
• What events, board meeting dates, or recurring committee meetings did I need to be aware of for planning purposes? Keeping a list of all of these dates in your admin binder makes it easy to find them quickly. I still put this information on my Outlook calendar and on my managers’ calendars. However, when you don’t know which date the event is on, it’s much quicker to look at the list to find the date than to go week by week through someone’s calendar trying to hunt it down.
• Phone, Computer, Video Conferencing System User Guides. I always kept the phone and voice mail user guides in my binder for my own reference, but then I could copy them for new employees in my department as well. I created a “how to set up your Outlook auto signature” handout for my team that I kept in this binder, too. Any tips that I was given or shown in training sessions or by my IT guys went into this section. How to set up the video conferencing equipment in the various conference rooms was always an event, so having those user guides at my finger tips saved me lots of headaches and made me look like I knew exactly what I was doing every time we used the equipment.
• Department or Manager Specific Information. There may be manager specific or department specific sections you want to include to document how to handle specific things for an individual or for your department. There will always be general company practices and department specific. If someone from another department was filling in for you, what would they need to be aware of that may be different in your area? Those are some of the things to include in these sections.

Assembling a complete administrative assistant binder or manual takes a little time. If you commit to adding one element to it each day for the next month, you’ll have 22 more items in it than you do right now. By the time your next peformance appraisal roles around, you’ll have a comprehensive guide and documentation of all that you do to contribute to and support your team. No manager can argue with that!

If you would like to request a copy of my “Administrative Job Responsibilities” Template to get you started, click here.

Julie Perrine CPS/CAP
Certified MBTI Administrator

If something happened to you and you missed work for a week…or two weeks…or maybe even a month, could your co-workers or manager step in and fulfill your resonsibilities without a major interruption to your office or business?
 
Do you have the processes and procedures that you do each day documented for easy reference?

Does your manager really know ALL of the things that you do for your company each day?

Creating good step-by-step documentation takes some thought and effort, but the end result is a product that can be used over and over again by anyone who needs it. When you’re out of the office, it’s nice to be missed. But it’s also nice when things can run smoothly while you’re out so you don’t return to a pile of problems or unhandled business. A smooth operating office is a sign of a prepared and polished professional who has the best interests of their co-workers and company at heart.

STEP 1: Where to begin
If you don’t already have an administrative reference of some type started, here are a few ideas on where to begin:

• Create a list of your specific job responsibilities and how often you handle them (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually)
• Create a list for each manager you specifically support and identify the types of recurring meetings, events, or items that you handle for them (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually)

By starting with these two things, any person who sat down at your desk should be able to do a quick scan of your list and determine what they need to be aware of and for whom or what they need to be asking about during the timeframe for which you may be out.

STEP 2: Pick your top five
Next, choose the top five (5) daily items from your lists and begin to develop a step-by-step procedure for how to accomplish those items. For example, if you have “sort and distribute incoming mail” as something you do daily, add some details to your procedure about how you sort it and route it. It may look something like this:

• All incoming bills, bank statements, invoices, payments – Route to Accounting
• All incoming trade magazines and trade show flyers – Route to Sales and Marketing
• All incoming resumes and interview thank yous – Route to HR
• All incoming contracts – Route to Legal
• Any office equipment or office supply mail – Leave in my inbox

You may want to add specific names and specific mail stations, if applicable. The person who is filling in for you should be able to sort the majority of the incoming mail with ease if you have good documentation in place.

Step 3: Keep adding to it
Go through this process for your top five, then pick another five and keep building from there.

This reference tool doesn’t have to be the most perfectly formatted book in your office, it just needs to be functional and available to the person(s) who may need to assist in your absense from time to time.

Additional Benefits
One of the best reasons to create a list of specific job responsibilities for yourself and those you support is for use during your annual performance review. Many executives know that their assistants handle “everything” for them and “do a lot” for the team. But many of them would be hard pressed to fill a page with specific activities or tasks if they were asked to. When it’s time for your annual performance appraisal, how do you demonstrate the value you add to the team and the amount of work you do every day, week, month, quarter, and year? This list can provide a great resource to educate your manager. You may be pleasantly surprised at how it positively impacts your performance review results.

In my next segments, I’ll go into more detail on things to include and how to assemble a great administrative resource guide for your position.

If you would like to request a copy of my “Administrative Job Responsibilities” Template to get you started, click here.

Julie Perrine CPS/CAP
Certified MBTI Administrator