Time Management and Value Adding for Office Support Staff – Motivation and Training for Office Juniors

Office support roles are consistently overlooked as an area for training and growth in many organisations. I hope to address some of these areas and pass on some pointers that I have learnt in my 15 year career in office administration.

Being part of an office support team is a stimulating and highly rewarding occupation but it can also be can be a test of your time management, diplomacy and organisation skills. It can also try your patience as others demand more and more of your time but in many cases overlook or underestimate your true potential.

One of the pitfalls I have found is people assuming you don’t want challenges or to progress your career because you are “Just the receptionist” or “Only a secretary” but this is rarely the case. Office support staff have an abundance of skills and potential to grow and develop in many ways.

As a support staffer your role is to assist and support your colleagues who go out and face clients and who produce documents, reports and products. .

It is the same in all office support roles. People want things done. Now! It can be a high stress role with little acknowledgement for your work. This can be discouraging and it is easy to think that you are not appreciated but without support staff offices don’t run smoothly or productively. Receptionists, secretaries, personal assistants and office managers are constantly under pressure to perform and fulfil multiple roles effectively.I have outlined some tips that I have learnt for supporting busy professionals and not ending up frustrated, overworked and burnt out.

Get a Brief

Treat each task as a project you have been asked to take on. Don’t think “oh it is only typing a document”. These tasks are very important and should be approached as such. There is no “little job” each job and task works toward the goal of fulfilling a clients’ requirement.

Ask Questions

This may seem very obvious but you can save yourself a lot of time and anguish if you ask questions at the beginning of a task. Many managers are time poor and as a result they may issue vague instructions. If you are confused about their requirements and you carry on with the task there is a good chance that you will not fulfil the brief correctly.

Don’t be scared of looking silly by asking questions. Asking for clarification is better than spending hours doing the wrong task. Questions will assist you in knowing where to start and how much time to spend on a given assignment. Questions can also earn you points with managers for intuition and initiative.

Get a Deadline

Once you have established a project brief by asking detailed questions. The final question should always be “When do you need to have this completed?”

Once you have a timeframe, shorten it so you have time to review that the task has been completed successfully eg If they ask for a document to be typed by 5pm finish typing by 3.30pm and review to ensure there are no typo’s and that the document has been formatted appropriately.

Knowing your deadline will help you to manage your workload and give some flexibility if another colleague asks for assistance during this time.

Conflicting requests

If someone else asks for assistance while you are already working on a task, again ask questions. What needs to be done? When does it need to be completed?

Asking these questions allows you to then consult with both colleagues about who needs their task done more urgently and who can wait. It should never be a first come first serve situation. The more urgent task should be completed first.

I have always made it a point to never turn down a request for assistance. Discuss everyone’s needs and discover a solution that ensures you can give as much support to colleagues as possible. You will find that everyone is happy to be flexible when open discussions and negotiations make sure that their needs are being met.

Clean Work Space and Prioritising

A clear work space will let you concentrate on the current task and you will not become distracted by other matters that are not urgent.

Using a priority colour coded tray or folder systems can help:

Red : Needs to be completed today

Blue: Needs to be completed within two days

Clear : Ongoing

Black : For information and review

Filing Emails

Filing emails as soon as they have been read and actioned also helps keep your mind on the tasks at hand.

Emails are constantly arriving and demanding attention so by clearing out old and irrelevant emails you can easily identify what you still need to action or issues that are outstanding and need to be closed out.

Archive

By archiving completed projects clutter around the office is reduced and clear shelving space is available for new projects and files. Regular archiving schedules can make what can be a horrible and time consuming task easy and even therapeutic. Out with the old and in with the new so to speak.

Lists

Write yourself a “To Do List” at the start of each day. This helps get clear in your mind what you need to accomplish that day. This will also help manage your time when colleagues request your assistance.

Write your Monday “To Do List” last thing before you leave the office on Friday. This will ensure you don’t forget anything over the weekend and you can relax on your days off knowing that you are prepared for the coming week.

Plan

Start the task on the right foot by setting up your document or systems correctly and then building on them. Taking time to plan your task will help the project run smoothly and be completed on time and to a high standard.

Formatting and correcting typo’s can be done last but set your templates and documents up correctly with margins, headers and footers, page number etc from the beginning to avoid frustration as deadlines loom.

I hope that the above points give you something to think about and you start implementing and expanding the ideas I have outlined.

Until next time…..keep planning and keep smiling.

See you soon.