What does an Office Manager do?
The position of Office Manager varies greatly from company to company, depending upon type of business, size of the organisation etc., but you can be sure that this role has one of the widest varieties of tasks and associated responsibilities.
In the main, the Office Manager works closely with the Management or Board of the business and is there to oversee the day to day running of the office, which could include managing and supervising other members of staff and their work, overseeing and implementing admin processes, reviewing, implementing and maintenance of company office policy and procedures and much, much more.
Typically, if you work as an Office Manager in a smaller company you will be more directly involved in the Secretarial and PA support side. If you are looking to take on more of the management side of this role, an Office Manager position in larger organisations will be more suitable as you will probably have a team around you for you to be able to delegate the admin/secretarial tasks to.
The specifics
Heres a list of some of the tasks an Office Manager may be asked to undertake.
- HR – collating job descriptions, advertising roles, interviewing, hiring etc.
- Facilities management – managing and maintaining the property the business is located in;
- Dealing with correspondence and phone calls for Directors or Senior Managers;
- Diary management for Directors or Senior Managers;
- Accounting duties/budget control – many office Managers have to manage and monitor specific budgets or process the staff payroll;
- Arranging travel, meetings and appointments for Directors or Senior Management;
- Event management and organisation of any company events;
- Supervising other members of staff, typically secretaries and receptionists;
- Reviewing, implementing and control of company and office policies such as the Health and Safety policy;
- Providing Management/board members with appropriate reports and reviews;
- Ordering of all office supplies;
- If you worked in a large organisation with multiple offices/sites, you may be expected to travel between locations overseeing their facilities management.
This list isn’t an exhaustive one, just some of the more common ones.
What skills should an Office Manager have?
This role is extremely comprehensive and requires you to be able to liaise with everyone from Customers, Company Directors through to electricians and the gas man! Therefore, unquestionably you need to possess excellent interpersonal skills.
Organisational skills are also up there as one of the top traits a good Office Manager will possess, along with:
- Ability to multi-task;
- Excellent secretarial skills – must be able to produce business documentation to the highest professional standards;
- Problem solving skills;
- Project Management skills;
- Understanding of business accounts;
- Confident with common IT software packages used in the office environment;
- Flexible;
- Good initiative;
- Motivated;
- Reliable.
Do you need formal training to become an Office Manager?
Quite often, those working as an Office Manager have worked their way up to the position, starting as an administrator or secretary and building on their experience and skills along the way.
One of the main areas it is recommended that you have either experience or appropriate training in, is supervision/management skills. You’ll need to be able to confidently manage other team/staff members and appropriately delegate certain tasks to them.
If you are looking to immediately increase your prospects there are Courses and Diplomas you can take to speed up your progression to this position, for example, our own Office Manager Diploma combines a number of core courses designed to give you a solid foundation across the many areas an Office Manager must be familiar with.
If you’ve already got some of the skills but just need to brush up on certain areas, look into single courses focussing on a specific subject. We’ve got everything from Advanced Word and Excel courses, courses to help you understand business accounts right through to courses to help you learn leadership skills.
What kind of salary can an Office Manager position command?
The Office Manager position has good potential salary progression.
Obviously salaries are very much subject to regional variations, but if you are newly trained or qualified it may be that you start somewhere around the £32,000 – £51,000 mark. As you progress and gain experience, you could earn upwards of £27,000+.
