When Should You Hire An Office Manager?
When a business starts showing certain signs, it might be time to consider hiring an office manager. We've gathered insights from office professionals, including VPs and CEOs, to pinpoint these indicators. From the warning of unrelated tasks piling up to the affordability of bringing an expert on board, explore the six critical signs that suggest your business could benefit from an office manager.
- Unrelated Tasks Signal Need
- Three-Strike Rule for Administrative Tasks
- Disruptions Indicate Office Manager Need
- Office Manager Eases Task Overload
- Inefficiency Calls for Expert Management
- Affordability Suggests Office Manager Hire
Unrelated Tasks Signal Need
Take a look at the job descriptions of your office employees, and don't just use the job description you hired them with. Look at what they're actually doing on a daily basis. If you've farmed out a bunch of unrelated administrative tasks to your sales team, marketing team, design team, etc., there's a good chance you could benefit from an office manager. Even in remote settings, these professionals are great at making sure everything gets done so that the rest of your team can focus on what you hired them for.
Three-Strike Rule for Administrative Tasks
When your team starts drowning in administrative tasks and can't focus on their core responsibilities, it's a clear sign your business might need an office manager. Imagine constant interruptions from scheduling conflicts, supply shortages, or disorganized files. These issues create stress and inefficiency among your staff. An office manager can streamline these tasks, freeing up your team to concentrate on what they do best.
A helpful framework to determine this need is the "Three-Strike Rule." Track how often employees are distracted or have to stop their work to handle administrative duties. If these interruptions occur more than three times a day, it's time to consider hiring an office manager. This person can centralize and optimize all those small but crucial tasks, improving overall productivity and morale in the office.
Disruptions Indicate Office Manager Need
One clear sign that a business might need an office manager is if employees are frequently struggling with organizational issues or experiencing disruptions in their workflow due to disorganized office operations. For instance, if you notice frequent miscommunication, missed deadlines, or a lack of coordination in handling office supplies and administrative tasks, it could indicate that the office needs a dedicated person to streamline these processes and ensure smooth day-to-day operations. An office manager can bring order, manage resources effectively, and provide the structure needed for a more productive and efficient work environment.
Office Manager Eases Task Overload
At first, I resisted hiring an office manager for my mid-sized recruiting firm. After all, I can keep records, schedule meetings, and supervise personnel, right?
Boy, was I underselling their expertise. All those little tasks wound up requiring more finagling than I thought, and dealing with them was stretching me thin.
Take, for example, office supplies. As your company grows, so do your physical requirements, and keeping track of paper supplies and ink cartridges suddenly feels like a chore you're never on top of.
Another thing I didn't consider was maintenance. Whether you own or lease your location, it will require timely fix-ups and upgrades. This takes time away from your actual role. (I swear, plumbers only seem to show up at the same moment an important client calls.)
Hiring an office manager allowed me to focus on the business at hand, without worrying that the office was about to implode.
Inefficiency Calls for Expert Management
Hiring an office manager should be considered when your business operations start to feel overwhelming or inefficient. If administrative tasks are pulling you away from core business functions, or if your team is struggling to stay organized, it's time to bring in an expert to streamline processes. An office manager not only ensures that day-to-day operations run smoothly but also creates a more productive work environment by allowing your team to focus on their primary responsibilities. Investing in this role early can significantly impact the growth and efficiency of your business.
Affordability Suggests Office Manager Hire
For a growing business, I recommend hiring an office manager as soon as you realize you can afford to hire one. By that point, your business has evolved into a "going concern," and you will soon find that the less exciting aspects of the operation (ordering coffee and supplies, keeping equipment in good shape, cleaning out the staff refrigerator, coordination of meetings, training, safety monitoring, etc.) are too much for the existing staff to take care of with good grace. This is when things begin to unravel and everyone becomes frustrated. When an office manager is doing a great job, your workplace will be welcoming to staff and clients, retention rates increase, better systems are implemented, and your business is powered for success.