Some experiences in the working world are universal. Businesses vary in size, and each has a facility designed to accommodate the needs of the company. However, no matter how big or small the operation is, the pain points are still the same: meetings to schedule, supplies to stock, coffee to make, and water cooler gossip to avoid. With all of the many functions happening in an office setting, it is crucial to have a team member dedicated to aiding and maintaining vigilance over everything going on; for many businesses, the office manager is that person.

Office managers are the invisible force keeping their offices together. They work behind the scenes to ensure everyone in the office has the supplies and tools needed to do their best work. While most office managers do an incredible job maintaining operations, there are still constant issues that remain a thorn in their side. Here are some typical problems that office managers face, along with a few helpful tips to resolve them:

Problem #1: Supply Room Woes

Picture this: you have finally gotten your massive haul of a supply order into your building, painstakingly checked over every received item, and stocked your shelves with a copious amount of materials, only for them to be gone in a week. For many Office Managers, this is a common scenario; Either the items are quickly used with little regard for cost control or consistently misplaced. There is also the potential for overspending on supplies that never leave the shelves. A helpful solution to this dilemma is for office managers to institute a supply closet inventory workflow. Using a web-based platform, managers can identify the supplies above or below par levels and run daily reports to view which materials need ordering. Thus, helping anyone avoid overspending on unnecessary supplies while also identifying other hot-ticket items’ consumption levels.

Problem #2: Visitors, Unidentified, and Everywhere

In a pre-COVID world, having a gaggle of unidentified visitors in your office would be merely an annoyance for an office manager. Today, those visitors would be nothing less than a safety hazard for every occupant of your workspace. There is no room for error when it comes to visitor management. At this point, a simple sign-in and sign-out sheet won’t provide the insight an office manager needs to track each visitor, and each visit should contact tracing be required. Enter the visitor management workflow. Within this workflow, businesses can maintain oversight for a visitor’s duration of stay, control access to every room that a visitor can enter, and track the foot patterns in real-time, keeping a log that remains after the visitor has left the facility. Visitor Tracking is a necessary tool in uncertain times such as these.

Problem #3: Conference Room Raiders

Have you ever walked past a conference room and wondered who’s in there? Or how they booked the space for their meeting if they did at all? Yes? Great. Now imagine that same question asked of the person who controls all registrations in your facility – your office manager. You would expect them to be able to quickly and easily answer such a question. Unfortunately, it is common for employees to use spaces as needed without thinking about making a reservation or notifying anyone to use a room. To have a fair shot at all of the meeting spaces for everyone, you must establish reservation guidelines and protocols. Situations such as these are the perfect opportunity to institute a room reservation protocol. Using virtual meeting tools, office managers can initiate an online reservation process that they or building occupants exclusively use to reserve spaces. Anything outside of that process can be strictly prohibited. Once the rule is in place, it must be strictly enforced, with no exceptions. It may be harsh at first, but it will keep things equitable and accessible for all of your fellow staff members.

Are you an office manager? How are you navigating problems at your company? Let us know! Email us at [email protected]