Vanessa works as an admin for Beacon Enterprises. She wears many hats during the week and reacts to others’ requests across various company platforms. She has trouble planning her days because no two days look the same. In her latest review, Vanessa’s boss asked her what she had done over the past month. Vanessa didn’t have a good answer. Keeping all the plates spinning didn’t leave her time to track performance metrics.
Vanessa isn’t a real person, but her story represents the situation for many admins.
You are not alone if you are like a deer in headlights when your boss asks you what you did this week. A lack of job performance metrics is likely one of the reasons two-thirds of admins find it difficult to move up or into a new role (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Unlike other roles, there are no standard KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for admins. But you can create your own.
First, you’ll need to answer these two questions:
- Where do you want to go? The most common areas admins move into are Chief of Staff, People Ops, HR, Events, or Marketing. Knowing what role you want will help you determine what metrics you should be tracking.
- What do you want to track? Think about KPIs that will mean the most to your boss or others evaluating your ability to perform in the role you ultimately want. We’ll give some examples in just a minute.
Once you know WHAT you need to track, you’ll want to make it easy. Below, we walk you through the steps required to get you to that impressive performance report.
Centralize Your Workflow
Do you ever find it challenging to get into a flow of work with the constant barrage of email and chat conversations? It’s a growing problem as we become more accessible to our co-workers.
Task management tools are trying to catch up with the growing number of communication tools. Our philosophy at Office Otter is that you should find a management tool that integrates with the communication tools you already use. This will improve your workflow and make you more efficient.
Today’s main communication channels are email, chat, calendar, and mobile. We’ll unpack some keys to managing each of these tools in an upcoming blog.
Track and Measure Performance Metrics
Now that your workflow is centralized, you can begin tracking and measuring your KPIs. Here are a few ways to do that:
Evaluate your job title and responsibilities
Find your original job title and description of responsibilities. Does it align with your day to day? What has changed since you were hired or since your last raise? Do you work from home or in the office? Do you have new responsibilities?
Track everything
Flag all emails and communication related to your job responsibilities. Look at your calendar and color code the activities you perform so you can track the time you spend for each category.
Quantitative vs. qualitative
Quantitative is tracking by the numbers. Examples include tracking your volume of tasks and time spent on different categories. You can track your work by department, individual, etc.
Qualitative performance means looking at your division’s or company’s goals and how you impact those. Let’s say you work at a nonprofit. Even though you are not directly doing the fundraising, you handle decks, emails, and meetings for your boss. Your activities directly impact your boss’ fundraising goals.
Establish performance summaries
Get used to bragging about and communicating what you do with weekly or monthly summaries of work completed. A monthly check-in makes you more prepared for your 6-month or annual review. If your goal is a raise, communicate that desire before asking for it. Use your performance metrics to back up and share that desire.
Leverage Your Performance to Move Up
Performance metrics give you the confidence to ask for what you want. You can prove your value to your boss, team, and company at large. Establishing this kind of routine and mindset will serve you well throughout your career. The next time you have a job interview, you’ll already have a running list of key accomplishments to share.
Here is a set of tools to help you track job performance.