• Be overcharged for the services (over market rates).
• Have onerous administrative burden to receive the service (complex forms to fill out, approvals, complicated phone menus).
• Get substandard quality (must be equal or better).
Additionally the administrative staff will need to design a streamlined efficient process. Make sure you have developed a system to efficiently do the following:
• Handle service requests quickly and efficiently. Determine how requests will be prioritized—by title, by client, by urgency, and so on.
• Schedule the work. Can reservations be made? How early can requests be submitted (a week or a month in advance)? Labor must be scheduled to address peaks and valleys in demand.
• Deliver the finished product in the format needed. How will graphics be delivered (i.e., Adobe Acrobat or Powerpoint format?).
• Ensure that service is high quality. The office manager must periodically solicit feedback from professional staff on the quality of the services provided. Annual surveys, staff feedback, random sampling,
and service level reporting are all tools that can be used to measure quality.
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Managing Facilities
Facilities management is the other major function of office management.
These activities comprise the following:
• Space planning: Managing physical office space including the reception area and ergonomics of workspaces. This topic is covered in depth in Chapter 18, Real Estate and Facilities.
• Space maintenance and repairs: The office manager should be the primary liaison with the office building management and maintenance.
The goal is to ensure that maintenance is routinely provided by the
building for all plant items that are in need of repair (e.g., HVAC, lighting, restrooms, electric power, elevators and building security).
• Meeting space and scheduling: The office manager will manage or assign an administrative assistant to manage central scheduling for meeting spaces and the policies governing such. The goal is to promote easy accessibility and fairness. Additionally the responsible party should ensure that the meeting spaces are stocked with all required items such as dry-erase markers, erasers, easels, conference phones, food service
items, and so on.
• Storage: Items that only need to be accessed in the event of an emergency, less than once a year, or confidential stored records may be stored off-site in less expensive real estate. The office manager is responsible to procure the storage space, ensure its security, and coordinate the storage and retrieval of items.
• Furniture: The office manager is responsible for the maintenance and procurement of office furniture.
• New hires, office moves, and employee departures: The office manager support human resource policies and procedures regarding the onboarding and off-boarding of employees. The office managers responsibilities typically include preparing office space and equipment for new hires, managing office moves, and ensuring equipment and security access is returned when an employee leaves.
Other Duties
In many cases, the office manager is dubbed the firm’s culture keeper and firm historian. There are other support personnel who might assume some of these responsibilities, but generally the office manager has the tenure and visibility into cross-firm activities that make them the ideal choice.
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Culture
Culture is a critical component of any professional service firm. Staff morale is an important driver of overall effectiveness, and a positive, strong firm culture is an enormous contributor to staff morale, as well as work ethic, quality focus and client service attitude. On the other hand, a demoralized staff can lead to a death spiral in which lower and lower productivity reduces client satisfaction which reduces revenue and profits which causes cutbacks in staff which leads to negative culture and the repetition of a vicious cycle. Building and maintaining a good culture is important and must be proactively managed whether it is the responsibility of the office manager or another individual. In fact, culture is clearly a shared responsibility. Many activities can lead to a positive culture. There are four types of events commonly found in a professional service firm:
1. Reward events: The firm acknowledges individuals for outstanding service.
2. Social events: The firm promotes activities outside the office so that team members can bond outside the office.
3. Team-building events: The firm sponsors activities that promote team building.
4. Information sharing: These events allow specific units in the company to find out the latest information on the firm.
The most important aspect of this role is for the office manager to
work with the firm’s principals to determine a schedule of events on an annual basis.
These typically include business update meetings, annual meetings, semiannual “state of the firm” meetings. Whatever the appropriate slate of meetings, the office manager must develop a schedule of the monthly, quarterly and annual activities that will help define firm culture and execute them on a routine basis. Additionally there are quarterly and annual activities that are important both for the business and for the history/culture. Many companies also have annual retreats or company meetings that typically have the following agenda:
• Introduction of key people
• Update on business performance
• Recognition of top clients and team performance
• Discussion on one to two year strategic plan
• Breakout sessions for practice areas
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Finally, the a host of less significant, but equally important activities such as birthday celebrations, office decorations, holiday parties, charitable support activities, and pro bono work all contribute to the culture of the company.
These activities are typically managed or coordinated by the same person.
Historian
The responsibility of maintaining the history of the firm is most often assigned to the office manager as well. This role is very important as it defines and promotes culture and draws employees to the legend of the firm. Critical components include assigning responsibility and agreeing to proper storage, retrieval, and use of firm history. Additionally, a written background of the company should be maintained and approved periodically for inclusion in proposals, recruiting materials and so on. The background should include information on key events in firm history, founders, and firm values statements. The administrative team should take pictures at company events and save these in albums, online storage, and frames for the reception area.
Hiring an Office Manager
Not all firms can afford to hire an office manager. However, at some point during the growth of the business, having a full-time dedicated office manager may actually increase the profitability of the business by reducing the burden of billable staff of these functions, and by coordinating all the activities mentioned in this chapter. Additionally, a good office manager can improve overall productivity by streamlining and efficiently running the office.
A typical job description follows:
Office Manager Job Description: The role of an office manager is to organize and supervise all of the administrative activities that facilitate smooth running of an office. The office manager may report to the CFO, managing partner, director of human resources, or Chief Administrative Officer, depending on the organization. If the organization has multiple offices with enough scale, the office manager in each location will have similar job functions and report to the same person. Exhibit 20.1 demonstrates the typical firm-size to office-manager requirements.
The office manager is expected to carry out a wide range of administrative and facility-related tasks. The office manager is ultimately responsible for ensuring the office runs smoothly:
Typical Responsibilities
• Manage and organize administrative staff (include hiring and firing).
• Manage meeting space and scheduling.
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1 per 1,000
hereafter
4
3
2
gement FTEs
1
Office mana
1/2
0
0
20
50
100
200
300
400
500
Number of employees
Exhibit 20.1
When to Hire an Office Manager
• Manage copy services.
• Manage travel.
• Managing “office” budget.
• Conduct administrative appraisals.
• Manage building maintenance.
• Meet with senior professionals on office projects and prioritization.
• Manage work space.
• Others (mentioned previously in chapter).
Characteristics
• Salary: office managers. Depending on firm size salary will range from $40,000 to $90,000 per year. For most firms hiring their first office manager, the salary will be in the $40,000 to $55,000 per year range.
• Work hours are typically 50 to 55 hours per week.
• Dress is appropriate to professional staff.
• Career path can include promotion to full-time position, promotion to management of entire function for firm, and graduation in Human Resources or Finance.
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The Back Office: Efficient Firm Operations
• Candidates will have at least a bachelors degree in business ad-
ministration.
Personality
• Candidate will show evidence of loyalty, reliability, initiative, problem solving skills, and organizational capabilities.
There are a variety of higher-learning institutions with a curriculum focused on office-management. Candidates graduating from these programs are ideal for hiring in to such a position.
Summary
Managing the office efficiently and effectively will give the firm the best opportunity to be as productive as possible thereby leading to increased profits, as well as professional staff morale and a culture which inculcates the values important to the firm. Whether the firm begins with a part-time office manager or a full-time person, creating the position, monitoring performance, and putting structure into place will enable efficiency and is critical to promoting culture and impressing clients.