Top tips to be a good office manager January 12, 2018

Office management is the use of different techniques of planning, organising and controlling office activities to achieve business objectives. Office managers are usually concerned with efficiency and effective performance of the office work.

A successful business depends upon how efficient the office is, the volume of paper work in offices has increased due to industrialisation, a bigger population, government control and various laws. Efficiency and effectiveness are keywords in management and can only be achieved through vigorous planning and implementation.

The office manager is also required to complete management training programs to ensure that they have the best tools to communicate with staff and higher management. There are many top tips to be a good office manager and here are some:

If you would like your office to run smoothly, you will need to keep things organised. Ensure that there are routines for handling paperwork and the different office procedures. It can be easy to let paper work get away, why not make a rule that one you receive some paperwork that it is acted upon and filled timely. This will ensure that you are not piling a lot of paper on your desk. This should be the same for emails, once you receive one flag it for later or act on it immediately.

A good office manager knows how to depend on people, knowing which person is responsible for what. You will need to put people in charge of small responsibilities such as one colleague may have the responsibility to order all the office equipment and they will take requests from other members of the team. You can have another colleague responsible for the security of the database that can add and remove users.

To stay ahead of the game, the office manager needs to make sure that they have office manager training under their belt. This training will help you stay ahead of all the new policy changes and refresh all your different office management skills. These courses usually take place every half a year so attend them and ensure that you are up to date on all the information.

It is a slippery slope when you put things off that you don’t like as they can fall off your list. Most people dislike tasks such as filing, bookkeeping or keeping the office in tip top shape. An office is like a kitchen, if you leave the dirty dishes, they will only pile up until it’s unmanageable. To beat this why not take a morning or afternoon completing the tasks you dislike and check them off your list.

Business planning is a very big priority for small businesses, this needs to be part of the regular office management routine. Successful owners spend time every week business planning and setting goals for the future. This will help you and the owners to portray the vision of the company and give staff job security.

It is important to make it a habit to walk through the office every now and again to see where the hazards are and whether your office is properly planned. This will ensure you to give advice to different colleagues on how they can manage their desks.

Want to become an effective office manager? We offer office management training programs at London TFE.