Core Responsibilities of a Salesforce Admin: Your Blueprint for Success

As admins, you hold the keys to success for your users and companies to get the most out of Salesforce. You have the unique opportunity to build and manage trusted solutions that drive productivity and innovation through five core admin responsibilities: security, user management, data management, analytics, and a new core responsibility: product management. 

The admin core responsibilities are built on all of the skills you develop through your work as a Salesforce Admin. From project management to data analysis and attention to detail, you use these skills daily to deliver success in your organization. 

When you put those skills into action by developing strong admin habits, everything clicks. A solid understanding of your core responsibilities, coupled with repeatable habits, equips you to succeed in your role.

Let’s review the core responsibilities and the ways you can build a firm foundation in each of them.

Understand the core responsibilities of a Salesforce Administrator

Security: Set up processes to manage and protect customer and business data

Establishing consistent security practices helps build trust with your customers and internal users. You can spearhead this effort by collaborating with your company’s IT and security teams to ensure your Salesforce solution aligns with your organization’s compliance needs and policies. At a basic level, being a security champion also includes configuring your Salesforce Platform so users only see what they need to see.

User management: Ensure your users have the capability to do their jobs in Salesforce

User management is all about ensuring your users can do their jobs in Salesforce. This might look like managing profiles, permissions, roles, and groups, and communicating with users and stakeholders alike. By giving users the right access across profiles and roles, you help them use the platform more efficiently. 

Data management: Ensure Salesforce data is a trusted source of truth for your organization

As admins know, ensuring you have clean, high-quality data can do a lot to boost adoption, ensure business continuity, and maintain a single source of truth for your organization. Habits that support your data management core responsibility include inspecting your backup solution, reviewing and cleansing your data, and running Optimizer monthly. 

Product management (new in 2024!): Proactively implement and expand Salesforce functionality across the business

After undergoing extensive research, looking at the responsibilities of system administrators across the tech industry and talking to MVPs and employers, we identified a crucial additional responsibility of Salesforce Admins: product management. 

This responsibility centers on managing Salesforce like a product, continuing to build on the platform, deliver new features to users, and drive a healthy environment. A big part of this is preparing users for seasonal Salesforce Releases and proactively looking for ways to expand Salesforce functionality across your organization.

Mastering product management is crucial for making your users more productive and helping them get the most out of new tools and features.

With each Salesforce Release–Winter, Spring, and Summer–it’s your job to stay up to date with new features and bring that innovation to your stakeholders. This ensures your organization can immediately adopt updates designed to improve user experiences, with you at the helm.

Our Be Release Ready page is your go-to resource for staying updated on the essential dates and features of each new release. Bookmark it to remain at the forefront of helping your company get the most out of Salesforce!

In addition to releases, Salesforce periodically has critical updates to improve performance and usability, which you can track under Release Updates in Setup. 

Another key aspect of product management is the ability to innovate and build new apps and automation to address other business challenges or needs. Get a jumpstart on those apps by visiting AppExchange, where you can view apps by business need, industry, or collections.

Analytics: Drive decision-making with Salesforce data

The true value of data lies in how it can be transformed into actionable insights. Salesforce Admins play a pivotal role in this process by not only ensuring that reports and dashboards are easy to read but also providing prebuilt report and dashboard templates tailored to their organization’s specific needs. 

Your analytics core responsibility also includes habits like engaging with stakeholders to ensure that the data you’re presenting helps them make informed decisions. By thinking ahead about how data will be used, you build solutions that are not only functional but also aligned to your company’s strategic goals.  

Explore the admin core responsibilities at Dreamforce ’24

Grow your skills in the Admin Meadow

This year’s Admin Meadow is designed to supercharge your skills and understanding of the core responsibilities. One of our demo booths will offer a broad overview of the five core responsibilities; the other will provide a closer look at the related habits and skills that help you succeed in your role.

Get hands-on with the core responsibilities at the Salesforce Admin Success Station. Participate in a colorful, interactive survey to share what brings you success in your role, and get inspired by your fellow admins’ answers.

Tailor your Dreamforce agenda to the core responsibilities

Is there a specific core responsibility you want to explore in greater detail? Every session in the Admin Track at Dreamforce corresponds with one or more core responsibilities so you can expand your knowledge, whether you’re joining us in person or watching from home.

We’ve created a resource for you to filter the admin sessions by the core responsibility you’re interested in. From there, you can view the Dreamforce Sessions Catalog and favorite your top admin sessions. (Hint: Download the PDF so the links are clickable.) 

Make sure to register to attend Dreamforce if you haven’t already, or sign up for the Salesforce+ experience. 

Build healthy habits that support your growth

Here are a few ways to keep building healthy habits that support your growth as a Salesforce Admin. 

Take the Trailhead badge

Essential Habits is a hands-on Trailhead module designed to ground you in creating habits around the core responsibilities. The videos in this module go deeper into each core responsibility and help you turn your most essential tasks into repeatable habits for continued success.

Connect with the Awesome Admin community

Helping each other learn and succeed is just one of the many things the Salesforce community does best. See how other admins build habits around their core responsibilities in the Admin Trailblazer Community.   

We love when you share your own habits or tips that you consider essential to your role. Post your best tips on LinkedIn or X with the hashtag #AwesomeAdmins. 

Stay engaged with additional admin resources

• Sign up for the monthly Admin Digest newsletter.
• Explore the Salesforce Admin Skills Kit.