Happy Administrative Professionals Day!
Happy Administrative Professionals Day!
Administrative workers deserve recognition and appreciation for the important role they play in organizations all around the world. They often have stressful jobs, serving in critical roles that span a variety of responsibilities–including acting as impromptu event planners!
Not only are administrative professionals busy keeping organizations running efficiently and acting as the right hands of busy executives; but they’re also often tasked with organizing, planning, and executing events of all sizes and types.
As anyone who’s ever worked in an admin role can tell you, it’s not as easy as it might appear to some outsiders. Being a great admin professional requires a lot of quick thinking, endless patience and flexibility, and superb organizational skills.
In honor of these mighty jack-and-jane-of-all-trades, we’re highlighting the important contributions of administrative professionals in the events industry and offering up suggestions for how to celebrate them on Administrative Professionals Day–and show your appreciation for them all year round!
When is Administrative Professionals Day?
Administrative Professionals Day is held on the last Wednesday of April, which means the exact date moves around each year. Here are the upcoming dates for Admin Professionals Day for the next few years so you can mark your calendar:
- In 2024, Administrative Professionals Day is April 24
- In 2025, Administrative Professionals Day will be April 23
- In 2026, Administrative Professionals Day will land on April 22
- In 2027, Administrative Professionals Day takes place on April 21
Why We Celebrate Administrative Professionals Day in the Events Industry
Plenty of admins fulfill event planning duties, even if it’s not their official job title. According to MPI, an estimated 80% of corporate meetings are planned by team members who don’t have “planner” in their title.
In many ways, administrative professionals are the backbone of the events industry. They play a vital role in ensuring the smooth execution of events by scheduling appointments, managing communications, coordinating logistics, and supporting event planners and organizers with ad-hoc tasks.
Admins are often required to juggle multiple projects simultaneously, navigate last-minute changes, and act quickly to ensure events and meetings go off without a hitch. Suffice it to say that many of the amazing events we plan, support, and attend simply wouldn’t be possible without their meticulous attention to detail and organizational superpowers.
How to Celebrate Administrative Professionals Day
There are plenty of different ways event organizers, executives, and other team members can show appreciation for administrative professionals. Here are some of our favorite ideas for celebrating admins during Administrative Professionals Day and throughout the year.
Ideas for Administrative Professionals Day
Recognizing administrative professionals on their special day goes beyond mere acknowledgment—it’s about showing appreciation for their hard work and dedication.
Recognize their efforts publicly
Your admin staff work hard–you know it, they know it. But so much of their job takes place behind the scenes that it’s possible the rest of your organization, your partners, and your customers might not realize just how much your admin really does!
So, why not take the opportunity to brag about their achievements? Give a quick toast if you’re in a small office, send an emoji-filled Slack post or email if you’re remote, or even share the love in a social media update from your organization’s account.
Host a team lunch onsite (or take them out!)
Catering lunch or taking your admin staff out for a meal is a simple yet impactful way to connect with your team and show your appreciation. Plus, a free lunch provides a mid-week boost for everyone.
Of course, one meal isn’t going to make undervalued team members suddenly feel good about their job; but a team lunch can be an enjoyable perk in addition to recognizing their hard work in other ways.
Order from their favorite local restaurant or give out vouchers for a meal delivery service so everyone can get exactly what they want. Alternatively, take them out to lunch so you can get to know them better and spend some quality time together.
Show your appreciation with a gift
Personalized gifts and gestures of appreciation can go a long way in showing admin professionals that you value their contributions. The gift doesn’t need to be elaborate or expensive, especially if it’s personalized or thoughtfully supports their interests.
Support a cause they care about
Another great way to honor your administrative professionals is by donating to a social cause that’s close to their heart.
Find out which organizations they care about and look for ways to get involved. For example, you could make a donation in your admin’s name, organize a paid volunteer day, or host a fundraiser. If you can give your admin team a full or half day to spend volunteering, they’re sure to appreciate it.
How to Appreciate Administrative Professionals All Year Round
Beyond Administrative Professionals Day, there are plenty of opportunities for ongoing recognition and appreciation of your favorite admins. Here are a few ideas for celebrating admin professionals all year round:
Equip them with the tools they need to excel
Make sure your administrative professionals have access to any tools or subscriptions they need to do their job well. This includes hardware, like a comfortable chair and an ergonomic desk set-up, as well as any software that streamlines their workflows. If you’re not sure what your admin team needs to excel, check in with them to see what could make their jobs easier.
Recommended Resource: 📺 Are you looking for cost-effective, easier ways to build and manage your events? Watch 8 short videos to learn how to deliver events in any format that engage attendees and offer sponsors more value—no matter your team size or budget!
Support their career goals
One of the best ways to ensure your admins feel valued and fulfilled in their roles? Support their career and skills development. What this looks like in practice depends on the individual goals of your admin professionals and what skills they’re interested in improving.
Ask about the types of professional development they’re interested in and consider offering to send them to relevant conferences or enroll them in online courses.
Promote healthy work-life balance
The stress of managing time-sensitive tasks and working long hours during crunch periods can take a toll on your admin team members. It’s important to encourage them to use their vacation or lieu days and take time to recharge after the whirlwind of planning an event or meeting. Make it clear that you do not expect administrative professionals to be available 24/7 or respond to emails on their off days.
Administrative Professionals Spotlight: Mara Schmidt
Mara is a coordinator at the Santa Catarina’s Federation for Business Associations. She coordinated all the operations for the annual event, which brought together 146 business associations from all over Santa Catarina, Brazil to discuss digital marketing, innovation, and technical solutions.
Mara partnered with EventMobi to create an app for the event. She took on the role of developing the entire app on her own–in addition to keeping track of everything involved in the event planning!
Mara quickly learned how to upload and personalize content with the easy-to-use Event CMS, and worked with her colleagues to test and provide feedback on all features before launching to attendees. She was as thorough and methodical as any professional event planner would have been.
During the event, Mara constantly posted pictures and promoted the Event App’s Activity Feed to increase engagement. By driving app adoption and attendee engagement, she did an amazing job at not only developing the event app but also ensuring her hard work paid off.
As a master of chaos management, Mara ensured the event ran smoothly and was a hit for everyone–from the Board of Directors to attendees and sponsors.
The post-event feedback survey received a huge volume of positive comments about how great the event was. Attendees, in particular, loved how the Event App improved and modernized the event experience. From Mara’s perspective, the app made it easy to engage her audience at every stage of the event lifecycle.
Thank You to All of the Outstanding Administrative Professionals Who Keep Events Running
Administrative Professionals Day serves as an important reminder for all of us to acknowledge the invaluable contributions of administrative professionals in the events industry and beyond.
To learn about the accomplishments of other incredible event professionals, planners, and admin professionals, check out more Event Success Stories here.
Interested in learning more about EventMobi? Book your personalized demo of EventMobi’s Event Management Software platform today!