Introducing the Salesforce Admin Skills Kit- A Guide for Employers and Daring Admins

Salesforce Admin Skills Kit is designed to upskill Salesforce Admins in today’s rapidly increasing competition. For instance, employers looking to hire Salesforce Admins will need the kit to write job descriptions and interview candidates.  The Salesforce Admin Skills Kit is useful for existing Salesforce Admins. They can use the kit to prepare for performance reviews and showcase their skillset using Salesforce. Let’s say you have been an Admin for at least two years; the skills that will empower you could describe your product management experience in your current role, where you manage multiple products across the Salesforce Platform, and look for a position that provides the opportunity to implement new products and features within an organization. Some tips for getting the most out of the Salesforce Skills Kit include;
  1. You do not need to include all 14 skillsets in your resume when applying for an Admin position.
  2. Don’t forget transferable skills from previous roles that can help an admin succeed.
  3. Remember that this kit is not intended to be a one-size-fits-all tool; rather, it’s meant to be a guide that enables you to select the skills most relevant to your situation.
  4. Familiarize yourself with all 14 skills before adding them to your resume or job description.

Salesforce Admin Skills Kit: What Should Employers Look For?

Employers looking to hire Salesforce Admins should consider the following factors during the interview processes. 

Attention the Details

You want to hire a Salesforce Admin who is keen on every detail. They must demonstrate that they can work closely with stakeholders in delivering projects with attention to detail.  The significance of attention to detail includes;
  • Time management is about managing your workday to ensure you have time to complete tasks without mistakes. Good planning is essential. You’re involved in all kinds of plans and deadlines as an admin. Knowing how much time you have, how long tasks take, and where you depend on others.
  • Organization – Structuring tasks by complexity and urgency can be a more significant challenge. Knowing what needs to be done by when and not feeling overwhelmed requires dedication and focus.
  • Proofreading and design work – This is all about being consistent in your writing style, using correct language and grammar, and fact-checking your work. Practicing attention to detail is relevant for the Salesforce org you maintain and your daily communication, like chats, emails, and presentations. 

Communication

Salesforce Admins who possess excellent communication skills. You want Admins that can translate businesses requirement into technical solutions using Salesforce products.  Communication is essential for all stakeholders in the following ways; 
  1. Business Stakeholders: It’s essential to understand the big picture, ask the right questions, gather detailed requirements, and drive the conversation toward shared understanding. Ask clarifying questions to ensure all stakeholders are aligned.
  2. Managers and Teams: It’s often our responsibility to relay the detailed requirements we receive from business stakeholders to our managers and teams. We must ensure the team understands the business vision and the technical scope.
  3. End Users: Communication should be simple, concise, and straightforward. Documentation should have more of a walk-through style than lengthy documents where end users must sift through countless pages of irrelevant information before finding what they need.

Problem Solving

Implementing Salesforce solutions to solve problems is essential to meet specific business needs. Searching for a simple solution to a business problem you face is not always easy, but your ability to effectively solve problems is directly tied to your success.  For this reason, we encourage all admins to develop their problem-solving skills. Problem-solver should have some of these Salesforce Admin capabilities for fast solution finding for complex issues; 
  1. Sales and marketing applications
  2. Data and analytics management
  3. Workflow/process automation
  4. Service and support applications
  5. Productivity and collaboration
  6. Configuration and Setup
  7. Object Manager (Custom Objects)
  8. Lightning App Builder

User Management

Employers should hire Salesforce Admins that have an overall understanding of administrative functions within Salesforce. There exist two types of user management; General management of user accounts; licensing and monitoring Salesforce Admin should manage the available licenses effectively. One part of this is deactivating users who aren’t using Salesforce (inactive users), thus making licenses available for new user accounts. Since licenses have different restrictions and price tags, you must also ensure the correct license type is allocated to a user. Some key metrics for monitoring include; the number of users used to compare against the number of licenses. This information is also available in Setup (under Company Information —> User Licenses section). Also, the users by profile metric offer an excellent way to understand how your profiles are utilized. You can also keep an eye on the number of users with System Administrator profiles. 

User experience

Ensure user profiles are assigned correctly based on your organization for a better experience. Profiles and permission sets determine which objects and fields a user can access, whereas roles determine what records a user can see relative to others in the organization’s hierarchy.

Data Analysis

You need Salesforce admins to provide data-driven recommendations to senior management using visually compelling dashboards. You can develop your Salesforce data analysis skills by doing the following; 

Be ready with questions when asked to create reports

  • What business decisions will you make with this analysis?
  • Are there issues you know of with the data set or supporting processes?
  • Who will be using this information?
  • Do you have a mockup of the kind of analysis you’re looking for?
  • How often will it be used?
  • Learn about data structure and sources
  • Keep an eye on data reliability 
  • Establish a glossary of terms
It’s an excellent tool for onboarding new staff and very valuable as one foundation for reporting.

Process Automation

Salesforce Admins should be able to use tools like Flow to automate Salesforce processes. Included in Salesforce Flow are two point-and-click automation tools: Flow Builder, which lets you build flows, and Process Builder, which enables you to edit existing processes. The two have the following differences;
  1. Salesforce Flow is the name of the product.
  2. Flow Builder and Process Builder are the names of the tools
  3. User Process Builder to refine existing processes, user Flow Builder to make flows. 

Conclusion

Salesforce Admin Skills Kit is designed to make employees and employers succeed in using Salesforce solutions.  With tools like Leaner’s Mindset, employers can assess if prospective employees can demonstrate a passion for learning and stay ahead of the curve with constant upskilling.