Three Personal Metrics That Could Help Your Admin Career

Businesses often employ metrics as a way to track progress and productivity over time. If you are serious about career development, you can use the same strategy to boost your administrative career. By establishing personal metrics, you determine your professional value and identify the personal and professional strategies that are most effective in moving you forward.

Efficiency

For administrative professionals, both speed and accuracy are key. Most admins have a wide range of responsibilities, and to be successful at your job, you must find ways to accomplish each task quickly without sacrificing quality. To track your performance over time, one of the most important personal metrics deals with efficiency. The specifics of the metric depend on your job duties. If you are an administrative assistant, for example, you might track the amount of time it takes to respond to executive requests. If you are an administrator, you might use a metric that tracks how closely you adhere to corporate deadlines. In the end, the metric you select should deal with something that is important to success and career development in your current position.

Quantifying Accomplishments

In many organizations, metrics deal with profit. Many administrative positions do not have a direct influence on a company's financials, but you can use personal metrics that quantify your accomplishments in other ways. If you developed a new way to handle travel planning, for example, you might establish a metric that tracks the money saved on transportation. If you coordinate shipments and receiving, you might track delivery times. Personal metrics that place a specific number on your performance make it easier to track your growth. As an added benefit, they give you measurable achievements to cite during your next job search.

Personal Satisfaction

Many administrators deal with a variety of tasks and people on a daily basis; after a while, the high stress and challenging workload can lead to burnout. If you are unsatisfied in your career, it is unlikely that you will stick with it. By employing personal metrics that track happiness and job satisfaction, you can avoid getting into a miserable professional situation. A simple option is to track the number of days that you dread going to work in the morning. When the number starts to edge up, it can indicate that it is time for a change. You can also measure the number of times that you feel challenged at work or when you feel in line with the company vision, or track the amount of time you spend on social media or job sites. When the majority of your time is spent procrastinating, it can indicate boredom or job dissatisfaction.

When you choose personal metrics that reflect your idea of success, it is easier to keep tabs on progress in your career. By establishing metrics early and tracking them regularly, you can monitor development at a glance.

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