30 engaging interview questions for interviewing admin staff 

Administrative staff play a key role in keeping business processes running smoothly, interacting with clients, and preparing calendars for their supervisors. They require a range of soft and hard skills to handle these duties successfully. When hiring an admin assistant, check their expertise and abilities using an Administrative Assistant test and effective interview questions for admin staff.

But which questions should you ask candidates in your talent pipeline? We have the answer you need.

Here is our list of 30 engaging interview questions for interviewing admin staff and learning more about their experience.

10 general and cultural interview questions for admin staff

Ask applicants these 10 general and cultural interview questions for admin staff to learn about their knowledge and values.

1. What about our company appeals to you? 

2. Why have you chosen to apply for this role?

3. In what ways can you contribute to our organization as an admin assistant?

4. Describe your admin assistant experience.

5. What is your best administrative assistant skill?

6. Which administrative assistant skill do you need to improve?

7. Please describe the type of office environment in which you’re most productive.

8. Please explain why you want to leave your current role.

9. Name one trait or quality that helps you complete administrative assistant duties.

10. Which values help you complete your administrative assistant duties?

5 sample answers and general and cultural interview questions for admin staff

When reviewing your candidate’s responses, refer to the sample answers to these important general and cultural interview questions for admin staff.

1. What is your best administrative assistant skill?

Applicants should have several administrative assistant skills, such as database management or computing skills, that help them complete their tasks. 

Some candidates will mention soft skills, such as problem-solving abilities, which may help them handle work-related conflicts. Others may discuss their time-management skills and how they ensure they meet deadlines.

Two ways to assess responses to this question include:

• Checking if the candidate’s best skill matches something you mentioned in the job description or job requisition specifications

• Using skills assessments when candidates respond to your administrative assistant vacancy

For example, if you need someone with good problem-solving skills, you can use a Problem Solving test as part of your candidate assessment.

2. Which administrative assistant skill do you need to improve?

Candidates should want to keep improving their administrative assistant skills to ensure they stay productive and should understand why this is important. 

When responding to this question, they should name one skill they wish to improve, such as proficiency in Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Excel. You can assess these skills with a Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Excel test.

How they aim to enhance their skills is crucial because it can indicate how they learn best – which will help you plan for their training. For example, if you know that candidates learn better by studying in a course, you might plan training sessions during onboarding that focus on the skills they lack. 

If candidates learn best with support from senior staff, you may plan to coach them or assign a mentor once you’ve hired them. 

3. Name one trait or quality that helps you complete administrative assistant duties.

From professionalism and adaptability to conscientiousness and influential abilities, many traits can help applicants complete administrative duties. 

Professionalism can enhance a company’s reputation, while adaptability will help candidates handle unique and complex situations. Conscientiousness helps candidates complete objectives, and influential abilities ensure admin staff can support and guide team members and stakeholders during their projects. 

Research suggests that a mix of personality types impacts team effectiveness. Therefore, it helps to hire to add to your company culture. 

In other words, you should find candidates who add to the diversity and inclusion in your team, considering how your candidates’ traits will boost the team dynamic. To achieve this, use a Culture Add or Big 5 OCEAN Personality test to assess their traits.

4. Describe your admin assistant experience.

The specific administration assistant experience that candidates possess and describe will be unique, and no two applicants will have identical work histories. 

Some may have legal administration experience that requires legal terminology knowledge and research. Others might have medical administrative assistant experience, which requires the ability to prepare medical reports.

Hiring a medical admin assistant for a legal position might not be ideal because their experience may not match your requirements. When you evaluate your applicants’ experience as a headhunter or HR professional, you should look for candidates with similar work histories to your role.

5. Which values help you complete your administrative assistant duties?

Values such as trustworthiness and honesty are crucial for administrative assistants’ duties. Trustworthiness is critical because admin staff typically have access to confidential files and data and must use the information discreetly – supervisors must be able to trust that their staff won’t share the data with others.

When you review your candidates’ values, consider whether they align with your company’s values and the requirements of the administrative assistant role. For example, if your company’s values include being proactive, you should look for candidates who take action instead of remaining idle – and who have the demonstrable experience to prove this.

Don’t forget that you can complete a background check to verify your candidates’ values and professional work ethic after the interview. This method ensures they are suitable for your opening.

10 interview questions for admin staff about specific skills

Ask applicants some of these 10 interview questions for admin candidates to learn about specific abilities, including soft and technical skills.

1. How would your boss rate your Microsoft Excel knowledge?

2. Why should administrative assistants have good time-management skills?

3. How important are Microsoft Word skills for administrative assistants?

4. Please explain why communication skills are crucial for administrative assistants.

5. How proficient are you with communication tools?

6. How proficient are you with Microsoft Outlook?

7. Please explain why attention to detail is important for administrative assistants.

8. How important are problem-solving skills for administrative assistants?

9. Why are written communication skills vital for administrative assistants?

10. Please explain why Microsoft PowerPoint skills are important for this role.

5 sample answers to interview questions for admin staff about skills 

Here are sample answers to five of the above skill-related interview questions for admin staff. Gauge your applicants’ responses and knowledge using these answers.

1. Please explain why attention to detail is important for administrative assistants.

Data-entry tasks are a great example of a task that requires attention to detail – this is crucial to ensure that an admin assistant submits accurate information. In addition, other administration tasks also require attention to detail, and these include:

• Reviewing and responding to correspondence with correct grammar

• Creating and submitting accurate reports to senior staff and stakeholders

• Organizing team-wide events and planning itineraries 

Candidates should have honed their attention-to-detail skills to help them complete these duties effectively. The simplest way to test their attention to detail is with an Attention to Detail test, which you can add to your candidates’ skills assessment.

2. Please explain why communication skills are crucial for administrative assistants.

Administrative assistants need excellent communication skills because they are frequently the link between teams and departments in your company. Candidates should know that admin staff also liaise with customers or clients on behalf of the company – they’re the face and voice of the business, so good communication is essential.

Since they need to speak on the phone or face-to-face with stakeholders, admin assistants must tailor their voices and use appropriate etiquette to represent the company correctly. 

Part of good communication for admin staff also involves active listening to receive customer queries or feedback. Therefore, you should ask if your candidates have experience with these duties and ask for examples of when they have used these skills.

Want to test your admin candidates’ communication skills? Then look no further than our data-driven Communication skills test to find your perfect candidate.

3. How proficient are you with communication tools?

As mentioned above, admin staff need excellent communication skills, and the right communication tools are crucial for helping staff carry out their duties. Research suggests that social technologies can improve productivity by up to 25%, which is one reason you should ensure applicants are proficient with appropriate communication tools.

Admin staff who use tools such as Slack, Zoom, Asana, Trello, Toggl Track, and Gmail can share company updates, manage projects, and receive information from their teams. They can also share files, use the correct tone with sophisticated communication features like auto-suggestions, and meet with team members virtually.

Check whether your candidates have experience using these tools and software by asking how they used them for recent projects. Their responses will reveal whether they have the right experience for your role.

4. Why should administrative assistants have good time-management skills?

Managing time and organizing tasks is another essential skill for admin staff. Those with good time-management skills will increase their productivity, but this skill has several other advantages.

Experts emphasize that candidates can mitigate stress by using time wisely and avoiding burnout with time-management techniques and time-tracking software. They can also enhance their decision-making within deadlines by examining possibilities and potential outcomes without overthinking a decision.

With advanced time-management skills, candidates will increase their job satisfaction by meeting objectives and finishing their duties within a set time instead of overworking, which benefits both the business and the individual’s health and well-being.

If you need to assess your candidates’ time-management skills, use our Time Management skills test in your candidate assessment.

5. How important are Microsoft Word skills for administrative assistants?

Microsoft Word skills are crucial for administrative staff, helping them to write reports and record meeting minutes. Candidates with administrative experience may also draft documents or write letters to customers, and they can use Microsoft Word to format and edit their correspondence.

Evaluating your applicants’ Microsoft Word skills is easy – just use our Microsoft Word skills test before you hire someone.

10 situational interview questions for admin staff and questions about work styles

Ask interviewees these 10 questions for admin staff to learn about their work styles and how they handle tricky situations.

1. Have you ever had to be discreet to maintain a good relationship with a client?

2. Tell us about a time when you had to handle a challenging project. How did you approach it?

3. Name a time you had to report to several supervisors. How did you handle their requirements?

4. Please tell us about the most interesting project you’ve completed as an admin assistant.

5. Describe a time you had to manage a large project. What methods did you use to stay organized?

6. Please tell us how you would deal with a co-worker you don’t get along with in the office.

7. Name a time you had to deal with a frustrated client. What strategies did you use to handle it professionally?

8. Please describe a typical day in your administrative assistant role. What are your main duties?

9. Would you replace any tools in your role? Explain which changes you would implement and why.

10. Have you ever solved a conflict in the workplace? Explain how you handled the situation.

5 sample answers to situational and work-related interview questions for admin staff

Use these five sample answers when assessing your candidates’ answers to the situational and work style-related interview questions for admin staff.

1. Tell us about a time when you had to handle a challenging project. How did you approach it?

From organizing international conferences to gathering team training materials, there are many challenging projects your applicants may have completed. Candidates should use specific examples and discuss their steps to complete the tasks.

For example, if they gathered team training materials, they might have had to:

• Check the learning objectives

• Find supporting materials

• Create a format using software and tools to present the material

• Provide teams with the training materials

To evaluate your applicant’s approaches, don’t forget to ask them about the outcomes of their work. 

If they mention some unsuccessful results, ask them how they would improve their efforts to enhance the projects – an unsuccessful result is not automatically bad and will give you an insight into how the candidate handles challenges and setbacks.

2. Please describe a typical day in your administrative assistant role. What are your main duties?

Admin staff have a varied routine, and all candidates working in this role should be able to name their primary duties. For example, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics explains that the main duties of administrative assistants include:

• Preparing comprehensive documents

• Scheduling appointments for stakeholders

• Supporting team members and senior staff

Candidates may also mention some other responsibilities, including answering telephones and transferring calls, updating calendars and arranging events, and completing basic bookkeeping and database maintenance work.

Check whether your candidates have the right experience to help them perform the duties in your company’s open role.

3. Have you ever solved a conflict in the workplace? Explain how you handled the situation.

Conflicts occasionally happen in the workplace, including disagreements about task requirements, project misunderstandings, or personal issues. Admin staff should know how to solve these conflicts and have a few methods to help them.

Some steps they might take to solve conflicts include:

• Identifying why the conflict occurred

• Encouraging calm communication and communicating with those involved

• Negotiating and finding mutually acceptable methods that meet both parties’ interests

• Asking for mediation support if required

Since a significant part of conflict resolution involves negotiation, it’s worth assessing your applicants’ negotiation skills, which is easy to achieve with our Negotiation skills test. 

Always remember to ask candidates for specific examples: What was the conflict? What was their role? How did they manage the conflict? What was the outcome? The answers to these will give you a clearer, more in-depth picture of their skills.

4. Please tell us how you would deal with a co-worker you don’t get along with in the office.

Suitable candidates should get along with co-workers in their work environment, and it may be a red flag if it seems like they constantly disagree with others. However, applicants should have the correct approaches to resolving conflicts when they arise.

Applicants should maintain focus on the requirements of the business, and they should also try to be social and communicate effectively in these circumstances. 

By focusing on business needs, personal disagreements will often dissipate. Ensure you look for applicants who put business requirements ahead of personal issues and can always remain professional.

5. Name a time you had to deal with a frustrated client. What strategies did you use to handle it professionally?

Since admin staff members are the face of the company, they must deal with all clients – whether they’re frustrated or want to provide feedback. You’re looking for candidates who can use empathy, communicate with the client, and accept feedback to improve the company’s services.

Problem-solving and customer-service skills are essential for resolving such issues. If candidates can apologize on behalf of the company and offer a few methods to solve an issue, they might be an ideal match for your organization.

Use a Customer Service skills test to assess how well candidates can assist customers and use their professionalism to enhance the company-client relationship.

When should you use interview questions for admin staff in the hiring process?

Skills assessments can work in tandem with interview questions for admin staff, and starting with skills assessments provides you with valuable information you can use in an interview. This approach makes it easier to select the most skilled, suitable candidates for the interviews. 

Skills assessments also allow you to enhance the candidate experience and give applicants a chance to prove their knowledge, so it’s important to include them at the beginning of the hiring process.

Using skills assessments when sourcing candidates is also best to avoid resume screening. You can check the assessment results of each applicant to consider how well their skills match your company’s requirements and select suitable candidates.

Hire professionals using interview questions for admin staff and skills assessments

If you’re a hiring manager looking to hire for your admin staff vacancy, there’s no better recruitment method than combining skills assessments with engaging interview questions for admin staff.

With our Administrative Assistant test, you can learn if applicants have specific admin skills that will help your company achieve its goals. Then, you can ask them some interview questions in this article to learn about their traits.

If you’re curious about skills assessments, find out more with TestGorilla. You’ll discover the science that proves skills tests work and learn how to use these tests in a free demonstration.  

Check out TestGorilla and find out how it can improve your hiring processes.