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office manager: What are good questions to ask when interviewing office manager candidates?
I’m in the process of hiring an office manager for my small company. I’ve conducted a lot of interviews in the past for hiring people that do the same work I do but this is the first time I’m interviewing candidates for a position I know little about. Any good advice would be greatly appreciated.

The answer in the following: (Hint: For answers, no site audit.)

Answer by Jim G
create customer service issues, ordering supply issues, human resource issues scenariois and ask the candidate how they would handle the problem….

Answer by kidnotorious16
work or family,?this is a good question manger

Answer by emtesla
One of the best ever asked of me (and that I have since used frequently) is “What is the biggest work mistake you have made, and how did you resolve it?” This addresses several issues: is the candidate honest? Can s/he recognize an error and take responsibility for it? And, was his/her solution creative and effective? These are all areas that are important in a management capacity.

Answer by DJT
I would ask about their organizational skills and determine if they are good at delegating tasks. They should also be good at following up and checking the progress or status of projects. Ask about prior office management experience, and find out what size companies the person worked at previously.

Answer by bikerdg
Well good questions are important but here’s a trick. After the interview walk with them to their car and put an eye inside it to check out what kind of person this is. If the car is messy, bad for an office manager. Since you can’t ask if they smoke you can find that out also if needed just by the quick look in the car. It works.

Answer by Laura E
Well as a office/accounting manager of a small company I could give you a few suggestions, but not knowing how large a company or in what field makes a difference.
1) Take note of how they present themselves for the interview. A person who shows up in jeans for the interview is not a likely person to take instruction well. Even if you have a casual dress code an interview is not the same as working there. They should be trying to put their best foot forward, especially if they are potentially going to be the go to person in your business.
2) Read their resume! Is it detail oriented? Spelling/grammar errors? What computer programs do they state they know, ask them to provide examples of their usage of the programs from job history. For example:
I see you have an expert listing of Excel ~ how did you use that in your position with XYZ company?
3) Ask for written references! Most companies look down on giving these direct from the human resources office, but an employee can usually get one from their supervisor as long as it is clear they are not speaking for the company, only themselves.
Lastly ~ Listen to what they say in the interview and how they phrase it. Do they maintain eye contact? Are they ready to start speaking before you have even completed asking the question?(means they have stopped listening) Do they seem overly nervous?
Best of Luck!

Answer by Pink1967
Ask about their experiences in managing other offices, and how they dealt with day to day functions. (organizational skills)

If they will be interacting with the public either in person or on the phone, ask they how they would handle an irate customer. (customer service and problem solving)

Ask them if they have ever trained personnel who would be working for them, and what qualities they would look for, say, in a receptionist or clerk. (leadership skills)

Ask them how they would handle personnel issues such as inter-office personality conflicts, harassment issues, HR issues, etc. (chain of command and interpersonal skills)

These are some questions you could ask. I would suggest asking a lot of open-ended questions or scenarios and have them come up with possible solutions. An office manager has to be a diplomat, customer service oriented, multi-tasking, problem solving leader.

Answer by jeanniemalinda
1. What would you do if a customer became loud and irate about a billling issue in the waiting room in front of a room full of other customers?
2. How would you ensure that phone and front desk coverage is complete throughout the lunch time of day without any one person having to be overly burdened (and perhaps becoming resentful)?
3. What would you do if large amounts of supplies kept coming up missing and you had to far exceed your budget to keep re-ordering them?
4. How would you handle cancellations (in the case of a service business) or change requests (in the case of a product business) when the customer is making them so frequently that they are no longer a profitable customer?
5. What would you do if office employees begain dressing in improper ways, got really noticeable tattoos, or started wearing their hair in wild colors or styles? (assuming this is not ok in your office).
6. What would you do if one of your vendors was late on a promised delivery date, and as a result your compnay could not meet a contractual agreement?
7. What would you do if you knew your company owed money to a vendor, but the vendor never sent a bill or called or followed up in any way to try to get your company to pay?

Answer by be happier own a pitbull
Being an office manager is a difficult position in it’s self. I have worked as one and I own my own company and had to hire one.

1. Are you familiar with they type of work we do here? If they can not tell you the basic concept of your company then they really don’t know what position they are applying for?

2. Have you don’t ANY type of managing positions in this type of business? (since I don’t know what type you run fill in the blanks).

3. Are you familiar with what ever type of accounting software you use? This is a big one for me since I have specialized software for my line of business. While most office managers have worked on the basic software you will have to realize that you may need to train them on YOUR software.

4. Do they appear organized to you?

5. Ask them if they consider themselves organized person?
(since both of us know how organized an office manager needs to be)

6. How do they handle things under pressure? Can they handle deadlines?

7. DETAILES…Do they pay attention to the fine print? My ex-office manager almost cost me my business, due to her failure to multi-task and pay attention to the DETAILES.

8. Last but not least. CALL FOR REFERENCES!!!! Even though companies are not allowed to disclose why the person was fired or left the job most do….get a little nosey, after all your business is your lively hood.

I hope this helps you a little, I could keep going but they don’t give ya a lot of room here. Don’t make the same mistake I did, I took their word that they were a detailed, organized, multi-tasking, can funtion under highly stressful situations. It almost cost me my business. I NOW run the office!

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Wonderful office manager:

Office #2 of four offices



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