Office management is about maximizing office efficiency and ensuring effective office work. It involves coordinating office activities and helping to maintain employee satisfaction. The keywords here are efficiency and effectiveness. When a business is managed correctly, there is control over office activities, a reduction of company costs, happy employees, and coordination of all enterprise activities.
To stifle confusion, many types of managers work in offices (IT managers or sales managers, for example). However, office management specifically refers to the administrative positions of companies. Of course, other management positions are naturally departmental, but office managers are far more general. Simply put, an office manager is concerned with the daily details and workings of the overall workplace environment.
Office management definition
Office management encompasses planning, designing, and implementing office work within an organization. This includes fostering a productive work environment and coordinating staff activities to achieve business goals. Performance is regularly evaluated and adjusted to maintain and improve efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity.
While efficient workplaces rely on effective personnel, office managers play a crucial role. Their responsibilities often include managing resources such as desk space, supplies, budgets, staff training, travel, and facility staff. Effective office managers understand employee needs and behavior, enabling them to provide appropriate motivation and incentives.
Types of office management jobs
Office management is used within various fields, although there are many similarities. Each office management job has specific aspects that set them apart.
While there are a variety of office management jobs, the essential duties of these managers are pretty similar. Besides supervising the smooth running of a company’s administration and ensuring that needed supplies are provided and that office equipment is in working order, office managers can sometimes hire, fire, train, and promote employees.
Corporate Office Management
Corporate office management jobs include a manager at each branch of a given company. The district manager (typically located at the head office) oversees all other branch managers, therefore, traveling between company branch locations is often a main aspect of the job. Additionally, corporate office managers plan new organizational approaches for human resources and marketing campaigns.
Medical Office Management
Medical office management requires detailed knowledge of anatomy and lab procedures, as well as health care laws. Medical office managers typically work in doctor’s offices, where they supervise all medical assistants. Additional crucial responsibilities include patient confidentiality and the proper disposal of medical waste.
Legal Office Management
Legal office management jobs require practical law experience and an extensive understanding of law procedures. Law office managers oversee a practice’s legal administrative assistants, payroll management, and the firm’s human resources department.
Virtual Office Management
Rather than work for one business at a time as a full-time employee, virtual office managers often work for several smaller companies part-time. This is due to the tendency of small businesses to contract out virtual office management jobs. It’s no surprise that remote jobs of all caliber are on the rise, therefore, virtual office managers are an attractive option for steadily growing small businesses that don’t yet require an on-site office manager.
6 Key office management functions
1. Planning
Office management is all about setting up the responsibilities needed to meet your company’s goals. When you understand your business’s short-term and long-term objectives, you can then plan how to achieve them. Careful planning and organized meetings are the first steps to efficient operations and good control.
2. Organizing Resources
Getting resources organized goes right along with planning to reach company goals. These resources include stuff like materials, people, and money. After planning, office managers need to delegate tasks, which means figuring out what materials are needed and giving them to the right people. The best office managers are always coordinating tasks to keep those resources moving toward the planned goals.
3. Staffing
Another big part of an office manager’s job is staffing. Executive office managers either handle staffing themselves or work with HR on everything from hiring and pay to promotions and retirements for their team.
4. Communication
Good communication is key to any well-run office, and it’s essential for office management. If the office manager can’t clearly explain what the company needs from its employees, things just won’t run smoothly. For example, does a team need a specific size meeting room for their weekly get-togethers? Do they have the right tech in there? And remember, communication is a two-way street. If the office manager can’t understand your company’s needs, then they might not be the right person for the job.
5. Working with IT
Modern office managers rely heavily on technology. They often use software for their tasks and help manage software and tech for other employees. For example, your company might use digital facilities management software.
Office managers also work with IT to ensure meeting rooms are running smoothly and should be familiar with all video conferencing technology – especially smart tech that can be adapted to any type of space – and Wi-Fi access for employees and guests.
6. Motivation
Motivation is a tricky part of office management, and it comes in two types: self-motivation and external motivation. When your employees are self-motivated, the office manager’s job is a breeze. But when they aren’t, that’s when the office manager has to step in and provide external motivation. This motivation should meet employees’ needs while also being competitive, productive, and well-rounded. When external motivation does all that, your office workers will be happier and more likely to do better work.
Office managers are some of the few people who interact with every employee level, virtually or face-to-face, daily. As office cultures worldwide continue to expand and shift, the significance of the office manager role will increase.
