Office Manager

An Office Manager is responsible for the smooth running of an office or administrative function. This typically includes managing supplies and equipment, coordinating support staff, handling correspondence, overseeing scheduling, and acting as a central point of contact for internal and external queries. The role sits between frontline administration and senior management, so strong organisational skills and clear communication are central to it.

A typical day might involve checking in with administrative staff, reviewing the day's schedule, following up on supplier invoices, and responding to queries from other departments. There may be time spent updating records or databases, organising meeting rooms, and handling any facilities issues that come up. In smaller organisations, the Office Manager may also take on bookkeeping tasks or HR administration. No two days are identical, and the ability to shift between tasks quickly is a practical requirement.

The typical entry point is completion of Year 12 combined with relevant work experience (JSA Occupation Profile). A Certificate III or IV in Business Administration could strengthen a candidate's position and may be available through state and territory fee-free TAFE programs. You can check current course options at yourcareer.gov.au or dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/free-tafe. Formal qualifications are not always required, and demonstrated experience in administration or team coordination is often weighted heavily by employers.

The Office Manager role can look straightforward from the outside, but it often involves absorbing pressure from multiple directions at once. You may be managing staff who do not formally report to you, resolving facilities or IT problems outside your direct control, and covering gaps left by absent team members, all while keeping day-to-day operations on track. Career progression from this role is not always clearly defined, and in some organisations the position can plateau without a deliberate effort to build skills in areas such as project management, finance, or people leadership. People changing into this role from other fields may find the breadth of responsibility rewarding, but the lack of a single specialist focus can make it harder to articulate career advancement to future employers.

In practice, Office Manager roles exist in most industries and locations, from large city-based firms to regional small businesses, because almost any organisation with a physical office may need someone in this function.

Published for ANZSCO unit group 5121, the wider group this job sits in, not for this job on its own.

This is the median for full-time employees who are not managers and are paid at the adult rate, before tax and salary sacrifice. It is a guide to what the work pays, not a wage rate.

Source: ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.

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• Appointment Schedulingcore
• Attention to Detailcore
• Invoicing and Accounts Receivablecore
• Microsoft Office Suite Proficiencycore
• Policy and Procedure Adherencecore
• Problem Solvingcore
• Record Managementcore
• Stakeholder Communicationcore
• Team Collaborationcore
• Time Management and Prioritisationcore
• Verbal Communicationcore
• Workflow Prioritisationcore
• Written Communicationcore
• Conflict Resolution
• Digital Literacy
• Electronic Document Management
• Onboarding Support
• Process Improvement Identification
• Regulatory and Legislative Awareness
• Reporting and Analytics

• ABS OSCA 2024, occupation definition and task statements
• ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
• ABS, 2021 Census of Population and Housing based on usual place of residence (Custom Report). OSCA Experimental Estimates.

Role data is drawn from official Australian Government sources, and each figure names where it comes from. Where a role is not in the ABS classification, the page shows no government figures for it. Data may not reflect every local variation.

Where our numbers come from.

What Office Manager workers move into, from ten years of tax records.

Last updated: 16 October 2026