We all know how stressful it can be to run a very busy office, with a large team of industry professionals that have unique demands, or an aggressive team of telephone marketers with an insatiable appetite for fresh coffee. Managing such an arena demands your attention and if you would like to see a rise in productivity, here are a few hacks to do just that.
- Planning – There’s no need to remind you that planning in advance is a critical aspect of successful office management and there are online calendars that you can create and set up notifications to ensure nothing is overlooked. One good strategy is to plan one week in advance and you can have a couple of calendars running; one for supplies and one for meetings and other events.
- Prioritise – Your ‘to-do’ list should be in order of importance and when something affects an item, you move it up or down on the list. Don’t focus on things that are not yet going to happen, rather engage all of your attention to the matter in hand and move on to the next item on the list. Let’s not forget that some of the to-do items can be delegated to third parties, as they don’t really require your attention. Your PA could surely take up some of the strain, although she probably already does!
- Choose a single internal communication platform – From the office manager’s perspective, it is much better to have all internal communication through a single online platform, such as Zoom, Skype or indeed Line. Ask all relevant parties to use this platform and things will be much easier for you.
- Organise your workspace – As far as office furniture and equipment goes, check out some of the complete office solutions from The Success Academy, who service the Pretoria area and have the best deals in town. If you haven’t yet gone digital, now is the time to remove almost all paper from your place of work, with a cloud-based network or data storage center that stores all your business data on a remote secure server.
- The art of delegating – Only you know what your team are capable of and while it is good to do stuff yourself, employees only grow when given added responsibility. The work experience girl who doesn’t say much would probably jump at the chance to manage a meeting, ensuring that everything you need is at hand. If you have dependable people, try to stretch them in some way, providing new challenges. Click here for tips on redecorating your office, which might prove to be useful at some point in the future.
Being a good manager means leading from the front and let’s hope the above hacks help you to boost productivity, even if it’s only a little. Managing your time is the key to successful office management and you should make good use of technology, which can streamline processes and automate many. Click here for Australian government information about office management as a career.
It is also important to notice the general ambience of your team and when you feel they need a pick up, call a motivational meeting to boost morale.