REB Submission. Amy Barnham - Office Administrator of the Year 2017

Amy Barham

20 17

REB SUBMISSION Office Administrator of the Year

People First Doing the Right Thing Being Courageous Fun & Laughter

Contents.

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Highlight how you have elevated the operational, financial and business performance of your office through effective administration.

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What sets you apart from other office administrators - what makes you unique?

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What steps did you undertake during 2017 to improve your office administration capabilities and how did that positively impact on the office where you work?

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What was your greatest achievement as an office administrator during 2017?

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Supporting documentation

Highlight how you have elevated the operational, financial and business performance of your office through effective administration.

I was initially employed to be the director of first impressions – being situated in the reception area of our office.  I was also to be of assistance to our marketing manager, Rachel Knappstein. By starting in this position, I was able to alleviate some of the work load, so that the marketing was being produced at a faster level. I also assisted with day to day admin tasks such as setting up the entrance of the office, making sure the flowers were fresh, candles were lit, piped music was playing and ensuring it was an all-round lovely place to walk in to.

By the time Harcourts Conference came around, I had been working for the business for 2 months and within that time the business owners entrusted me enough to leave me with the entire marketing role as Rachel was attending the conference. Through my eagerness and quick learning capabilities I was able to cover this role throughout the week of conference with no issues.Â

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When marketing a property and discussing with vendors there are loads of options. The sheets that were being used to showcase these options were becoming outdated very quickly and with different suburbs having different prices – relating back to RealEstate.com.au it was becoming a hassle for both the administration team and the agents. They were constantly having to check which price suited which area, or even the admin staff which wasn’t a great utilisation of time.

With the help of Rachel, we came up with a new marketing sheet and received a Realestate.com.au suburb price-list. By creating a marketing sheet with an excel spreadsheet to change the formulas of the prices, agents were able to check it themselves and enter the appropriate price for their suburb and the new (and correct) price would reflect. This took a lot of pressure off the admin team as the agents were able to check their own suburbs, freeing up more time for other work.

My role quickly changed due to movement within the team and I was moved into a sales support role for our whole Stirling office team. I then trained the person taking over from my front desk position, although I still took parts of my role with me. The sales support position opened as an assistant to the team providing the support required for all agent marketing – this position was offered to me as a promotion. A lot of my work was with that team, assisting the agents with contracts, property marketing, appraisals and general administration work. I learnt a lot about time management within this position as I was needed by every team member. I would have to juggle my priorities and make sure that the agents had what they needed by a certain time.

During this role, I was still assisting Rachel with booking and compiling property marketing elements.

Throughout this Sales Support role, I seemed to pick up a lot of the ‘over-flow’ work from others, this especially became prominent if people were leaving early for the day or having a day off. I self-taught myself a lot of the HarcourtsOne and Campaign Track systems in this time, trying to gain a sound knowledge for when people had questions for me. At times I had to go further to the Harcourts Helpdesk and on some occasions, I ended up teaching them something new!

Another way I have elevated the office - specifically in a financial way is matching buyers who come through or call our office to a property. There have been a few instances where we have a prospective buyer come into the office looking to for a property and I have managed to find the perfect pairing for them. One instance comes to mind the most with a lady coming in to find an investment property in the area. I suggested a property, got her to speak with the agent's assistant and she bought it 3 days later before auction.

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What sets you apart from other office administrators – what makes you unique?

After starting I quickly built up a reputation for being a ‘do-er’. I’m a multitasker and like having a few things to do at once. Whilst being on the front desk, I juggled phone calls, walk-ins, marketing for properties and helping the rest of the team.

Although while I was on my computer, I could be uploading images while I was working on a brochure or signboard. I like the fast pace that the office can run at, it makes me feel like I’ve achieved a lot of work in my day and help to take the weight off someone else’s shoulders. The other thing that everyone knows me for in the office is being efficient. Prioritising work is a must and if something needs to be done quickly, it is.

My own work pace is fast, especially when there is a lot of work to get done. This was soon noticed after being awarded the monthly administration award during my second month.

It didn’t take me very long to gain a sound knowledge of the HarcourtsOne system alongside Campaign Track. I’m quite a visual learner and paired with going through the steps a few times I was able to pick up on how to use the systems for the work that required it.

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I’m quite an approachable person, which means that while I was on the front desk the people that walked through the door were greeted with a friendly smile and someone who is easy to talk to.

The atmosphere for the entrance of our office is quite relaxed being in an old church which only adds to the feeling that someone gets when walking through our doors, which might I add, is a great conversation starter.

I think my major point of difference is my marketing background paired with being versatile. Coupled with my eagerness to learn, it means that I can pick things up very quickly. The knowledge that I have and continue to grow on means that anyone at anytime can come to me with something and I can provide them with an answer or solution and if I don’t know it, I make sure that I find it for them – which in turn only grows the bank of knowledge that I’m building.

This is one of my favourite parts of my position, the fact that people come to me to learn and I love being able to share what I know and have learnt and to see that it somehow benefits them.

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What steps did you undertake during 2017 to improve your office administration capabilities and how did that positively impact on the office where you work?

To begin with, I spent a few weeks learning the ropes under Rachel. She taught me how she ran things and what I needed to learn/do within my role. Harcourts State Office also provided me with training days on the HarcourtsOne system as well as how to manage the website. Before attending these training sessions, I did spend time in both HarcourtsOne and the website fumbling – and teaching myself how to use the systems.

Harcourts State Office showed me parts of the HarcourtsOne system that I hadn’t managed to teach myself. I learnt about email marketing, creating templates and how and when to send them out. I also learnt little tips on entering data so that it was all cohesive and nothing was lost. I also found out about the Harcourts Library, a whole database purely for learning. I spent quite a bit of time in there learning the parts that I needed or helping someone else find what they were looking for.

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I also spent time learning off others. As my role progressed from marketing to more of a sales support position, I spent time learning from Ashleigh Boehm. She had, at that stage, spent 18 months in a personal assistant/sales support role. Although I only had a short amount of time to spend with her, I learnt about putting together a contract, appraisal reports and packs along with what reports went out to existing clients.

The knowledge I quickly gained was put to good use.

Whilst Rachel was at the Harcourts Conference I was left to look after the marketing component of our office by myself, which then led to having my own offices’ marketing. Our Unley office or ‘Brock Estates’ was becoming busy and with only one office administrator the role was becoming too big. I was asked to take over the marketing for these agents – who quickly came to know that it would be done quickly and well before deadline.

This part of my role really grew who I was and who I am as a worker. I was given my own responsibilities and components that I loved doing. This had a clear positive impact on all the offices I played a part in as the team could depend on me.

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What was your greatest achievement as an office administrator during 2017?

I have two greatest achievements in 2017 that go hand in hand. Firstly, one of my greatest achievements for 2017 was having my own role produced. Late in the year, my hard work paid off as a specific marketing role was created for me as my skill set was valuable to the team. I have a degree in marketing and communications as well as qualifications in design and advertising. My new role takes on these elements and relies on both a business and creative mindset. Part of my role was creating and collecting new buyer databases – taking the enquires from platforms such as RealEstate.com and Domain and pooling them into price ranges which gave the agents yet another marketing tool. The next step of what I have been able to create falls in to 2018 and hence can’t discuss any further here, however I am exceptionally proud of what I have created and look forward to sharing the leaps and bounds in marketing that I have created this year.

I was nominated as South Australian Office Administrator of the Quarter for October – December 2017 and I happened to win! I was extremely excited and surprised that I was nominated and even more so when they called my name to come on stage as I had won. It was a surreal moment of recognition and all of the work I had put into my role. I’m incredibly thankful to the whole team for giving me something to look forward to each day that I come to work, because they appreciate what I do for them. Receiving that recognition really cements what it is to be fulfilled in a sales support role.

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Supporting Documentation.

Administration Awards.

"Our nomination for the Administration award is someone who is young and ambitious and is able to think on her feet whilst completing numerous tasks at once.

They have a bright, bubbly and outgoing personality and always has a smile on their face.

Her presentation is always exceptional being the first person our clients meet when walking into our office. She is prepared to give anything a go to be better at what she does. Her willingness to take on new projects, a rather large workload and sometimes other staff member's roles has been extraordinary.

Working under pressure is what she loves and is evident by the numerous positive comments from our team. She works at a fast pace, often with a couple of screens going at once to speed up her productivity.

She is voted time and time again by our entire team as providing exceptional help to them and we are all very thankful for the work she delivers from her administration/agent marketing role."

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Supporting Documentation.

Marketing Sheet.

Excel Spreadsheet *See next page

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Supporting Documentation.

Marketing Sheet.

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