Common Office Management Mistakes

After spending almost two decades (yes, it’s true!) in the office management world, I have seen and learnt a thing or two about how to effectively run an office. And, after being in the thick of some oversights or mistakes, I’ve understood where common office management mistakes lie, or at least areas in which offices and the running of them typically fall short.

Here, I share my top common mistakes or things people simply don’t realise they could or should be doing within their workplaces to support not only an effective and proactive approach to running their office, but also a safe one.

1.      Pro-active housekeeping checks

What I often see in offices is re-active running, where no weekly or even better, daily checks are done first thing to ensure the office is in the best condition it can be and indeed to tackle issues before they are raised to you by your fellow employees. 

By implementing something as simple as this it means that a) you’ll have more complaints throughout a day than you need to b) you’re not managing life safety potentially as well as you could be (by for example checking all exit routes are clear, fire doors are closed and so on) c) you will learn and see so much for about your office and your staff by getting out there each morning or on a frequent basis.

2.      Gas suppression systems

If you have a large communications / data room (comms room) within your property that is your responsibility as the Tenant, you will likely have an inert Gas Suppression System connected to the fire alarm, meaning that in the event of a fire the oxygen will be starved in the room. Don’t do what a former employee of mine did and not check the canister containing the gas frequently, risking it until the can was almost empty – meaning that in the event of it being empty it would have likely exploded and bounced rather dangerously around the room! Ensure this is checked on your housekeeping list regularly.

Additionally, many people don’t know to turn the key to manual when entering the room to ensure that the gas system will not activate in the event of a fire whilst they are in the room allowing them time to escape and manually activate the system, if it does activate the oxygen will be starved in a matter of seconds meaning they are putting themselves at risk.  If you have one, my advice is to check it out and ask your contractor how it works and what you should be doing.

3.      Portable Appliance Testing

Whilst working as an Office Manager at a very large organisation years back, I was witness to a screen quite literally setting itself on fire.  The screens were very old, and I doubt PAT had been done effectively.  Luckily, it quickly went out of its own accord after several members of staff fled the area, before I could grab a Co2 extinguisher and gently smoked until we left the floor.  I recommend using a risk (RAG) rating to allow for how many times the screens would move compared to something such as a TV monitor in a meeting room which would move much less frequently.  I would recommend testing screens once a year, especially if they are frequently moved and are of age to prevent this sort of thing happening.  Regular visual inspections are also encouraged to minimise these sorts of risks and in between your annual or bi-annual PAT.

4.      Have a plan in place even if you don’t need a full BCP

A number of organisations who have regulatory, financial and customer responsibilities (e.g. who depend on live markets to operate and make money) will no doubt have a Business Continuity Plan in pace which, in the event of a significant incident, can invoke and try to mitigate against financial loss, ensure their customers are looked after and can access their money should they need to and that the regulator is informed.  However, I feel that all businesses should have a plan (over and above a fire evacuation plan) to ensure that in any emergency they can get out safely and know what next steps to take.

For example, I was at a large investment bank and the most spectacular freakish accident occurred, I believe at the time from the HVAC chilled water system.  The ceiling quite literally burst, like a glorious waterfall over a bank of 8 trading desks (typically of all those in the vicinity they had the most IT Kit / screens etc.) initially started with a number of large drops, raising a concern by which point my name was beginning to be echoed down the floor (I sat the other end of the floor to this), by the time I’d stood to make my way to the leak the ceiling tiles had swollen and just burst all over the desks.  Luckily, this company did have a superb BCP in place and invoked to their DR site within an hour of us raising the alarm. 

The Building Manager came up in his Wellington Boots (to my surprise!) so he was obviously very ready for it… lesson is you are in a building full of electricity, running water and a number of other hazards and although generally very safe freakish things do happen!  Plan for it!

5.      Tender properly to at least 2 suppliers

It still surprises me to see the amount of contracts signed for print, coffee and vending, cleaning and engineering support (all the big bucks ones) that are NOT tendered, ever.  I urge all Office Managers / COOs, whoever has the responsibility, to effectively tender your contracts when you have the opportunity.  Even if you are happy with your supplier, let them know you are going to the market, ask them to put their best foot forward as part of the process and check what other, new providers offer. 

Even if you take one element of their tender e.g. a service that they will update you monthly with and ask that your current supplier does this as part of the new contract, you’ll have gained something valuable that you didn’t know you could have before.  Learn by how others present to you and what they offer and ensure you use that to the advantage of your company to make sure that you really do get the best service at the fairest price.  I’ve seen literally £100,000s wasted by poorly or not at all tendered contracts. 

6.      Benchmark your suppliers frequently

In addition to the above, it may be more suitable or in your favour to simply benchmark suppliers on a regular basis, perhaps once a year or bi-annually again to ensure they are in the same area as the rest of the market, that there are no new technologies or offerings to have and to keep your supplier on their toes.  If you don’t ask you don’t get, so why not ask that increases are capped to once a year or that if you renew and fix a new term, they freeze prices for the term of the contract? Benchmarking is healthy and again, you may learn something!

7.      Risk assess and compliance check suppliers and contractors

It’s also an HSE (Health & Safety Executive) requirement, however I fully recommend that as part of your procurement / supplier onboarding process and regularly there after, e.g. at contract renewal or more frequently, you vet your contractors.  Risk assess them, ask for their RAMS (risk assessment and method statement), particularly if they are on site, carrying out work; ensure you have copies of their insurance and check it is in date, when it expires request the new certificates. 

Check with companies such as Companies House, CreditSafe etc. that they are certified, they don’t have any bad debt (especially if you are paying in advance for services) and they are good payers to their suppliers (it says a lot about a company).  Also ensure for anti-bribery that there are no connections to employees undeclared and if there are, look into it.  I have worked in countless places where the recruitment team use someone’s husband who owns a recruitment firm, or the Office Manager gets taken on holiday with suppliers.  It still happens and you need to ensure that you are doing everything you can to bring it to light. 

8.      Health & safety – where do I start…?

Many people really don’t know their obligations and it is quite simply the law there is no room for error here as prison sentences and heavy fines can apply. It’s not expensive or too time consuming to have a review and get things in place to ensure you are compliant.  Once in place, it’s a case of managing it at regular intervals, e.g. annually or reacting as and when things arise that need to be taken care of and being smart and sensible.  Firstly, so many people do not have a competent person responsible for H&S or know that they should have one; if you have 5 or more employees it applies to you! 

Ensure you employ a competent person or assign a consultant to act on your behalf.  There is so much training available for managers and responsible persons it can be a minefield – I know I’ve been there!  We can of course help here and provide cost effective resources such as in our Office Management Portal to support every aspect.

9.      Do your DSE Assessments

Display Screen Equipment assessments, often known as Workstation or Desk Assessments are also the law under HSAW 1974 under the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 as amended in 2002 if you have 5 or more employees.  So many people do not carry these out as part of employee induction training, reactive or proactive work or frequently (as per the legislation at least once per annum).  Again, there are really simple solutions you can put in place to ensure compliance, there is a lot of training available to manage this in-house or you can employ external firms to handle it for you. 

It doesn’t need to be expensive, however!  I once had a pregnant lady in a lot of pain, as her bump got bigger, she got further away from the desk edge and more and more uncomfortable; firstly, she didn’t know she had rights for flexible working requests, nor that she needed a risk assessment, nor that within reason it was her employee’s responsibility to provide a desk assessment and equipment deemed appropriate to make her more comfortable.  Her thank you email read “you have literally saved me, thank you so much I can sit and work comfortably now.” These are also important for home and remote workers if they are using visual display units regularly for their work.

10.   Moving?  Think ahead…

I strongly recommend you plan and manage it well ahead of time, complications will no doubt occur and the more you know about the building you are going to (to include rates, service charges, broadband and telephony availability, services, access hours, security, what is your responsibility as a tenant vs. the landlord and their service provider) the better for you and your firm. 

Find out about the air conditioning, if the building is already tenanted try and speak with the existing Office / Facilities managers and learn more about the goods, bads and potentially ugly’s to be sure that you can adequately plan and set expectations for your management and employees. Again, the Portal has tones of resources for office moves and advice too.

11.  Simple and effective processes, HR to Office Management to IT, Compliance, Building Management etc.

It’s like an occurring nightmare… you start at a firm and it takes hours, or more like days if not in some cases weeks to fully on-board you.  Are you still waiting for the BlackBerry, laptop, desk phone… desk?!  I hope not, however it is extremely common in companies to join with that feeling like you’re being a burden on IT, HR and Office Management because they’re all seemingly running around like headless chickens to get you fully up and running.  Then you feel like you’re hated because you chase hourly, daily and actually it’s not your fault. 

That firm do this every time a joiner starts and it really shouldn’t happen.  Get a solid process in place, use spreadsheets that are shared or SharePoint or another online platform to share the information with all back-office start up teams and make sure you have regular meetings with HR and even line managers to stay ahead of hiring pipelines.  As an Office Manager I’ve always seen my team as the glue to all other functions and if you keep them all stuck together things / information will flow through and fire-fighting to simply get someone, who is already being paid that wonderful new salary, actually working instead of sitting at an empty, kit-less desk twiddling their thumbs reading that glorious induction pack over and over, and over…

12.  If you have a leak detection system installed, ensure you can access it! 

I’ve seen several fit-outs in my time where a wonderfully technical and working leak detection system has been put in place (in locations such as kitchenettes or shower rooms) and foolishly, the contractors did not put an access hatch in the floor, meaning that in the event of a leak alarm occurring engineers could not access it to dry the tape (meaning the alarm goes on and on and on….!)

I’ve also seen systems where they will call your mobile phone (great idea) but if you or your engineers do not know how to operate them be warned – the IT Head and I once had calls all weekend, every hour on the hour because they couldn’t dry the tape, nor stop the calls to us.  Very, very painful – yet because I was on 24/7 call out I couldn’t turn my phone off! 

13.  Make it fun

I have made this mistake in some places but like to think I’ve learnt my lesson; involve your staff in as many decisions that will affect them as you possibly can!  If you are going to buy new coffee machines on a lovely long lease, get your staff out tasting it, or better yet bring the machines to them with treats to boot!

They’ll feel like part of the decision-making process and when push comes to shove and the equipment arrives and the machines are brewing on that first morning, you’ll have people on side who were grateful for their opinions counting.  Once I even did a soap survey in a fairly male-dominated office to the ladies before changing the soap flavour / scent; it went down a treat and was the topic of conversation for many days after it finished.  Simple and effective.

I’d love to know which, if any of these you’ll be taking away as points to look into and perhaps plug the gaps on!

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