THE 15 MOST IMPORTANT OFFICE FUNCTIONS YOU MASTER - JOB - 2024

The office functions it dominates are the administrative activities carried out by the personnel of a company, organization or institution, and which are necessary for the operation of the same. If done efficiently, the results will usually be much better than if done poorly.

Office work normally has a regular Monday through Friday that starts at 8 or 9 am and lasts until 4 or 5 pm, although this varies by country or region.

Most office jobs require basic skills such as: fluent oral communication, the ability to write, file, and some experience with office equipment such as computers, photocopiers, etc.

Depending on the level of the position or responsibility assumed, it requires that the person have a technical, university or fourth level education.

The main office functions you master

1- Planning

This is the first and most important of the tasks since it consists of defining how organizational methods and structures can contribute to the business plan.

There are technological tools that help these methods to later be specified in tasks distributed among team members, but only good planning can guarantee that everything ends up adding to the business objective.

General planning requires a clear business vision and a certain hierarchical level within the company, but each team member must plan their work so that they can meet the established goals and deadlines.

2- Transcription and / or report writing

A task that daily occupies the time of those who work in an office is the writing, in any medium, of reports that support or detail their functions or that serve to explain to the rest of their colleagues the details (background, progress, results, pros and cons. cons, etc), of a particular project.

These documents also serve as a record of the activity of the organization to which that office belongs, for future audits or reviews.

3- Attend meetings

They are meetings between the members of a work team in which ideas are exchanged on ongoing projects, new proposals are presented, presentations, reports or reports are shared.

Normally they have the objective of aligning everyone present towards the achievement of a common goal, assigning roles, tasks and deadlines to each one. They also serve to solve problems that may have arisen in the performance of tasks.

They usually have a very defined frequency, duration and dynamics. Likewise, what is discussed in them is usually recorded in minutes or minutes for filing.

Some organizations hold meetings daily, others several days a week, others every two weeks, and still others monthly. The frequency of the meetings depends on each company and its needs.

4- Schedule meetings

It is about coordinating the agenda of all the people who must be in a meeting in such a way that they manage to coincide at a specific place and time.

It can be a daunting task, so relying on technology can be a good idea. There are applications, such as ScheduleOnce, that allow you to automatically schedule meetings, allowing invitees to see available dates and choose a time that is convenient for them.

5- Check corporate email

It is a task that can take a long time. An Adobe report published in 2016, resulting from a self-administered survey of more than 1,000 workers, reveals that we spend an average of 20.5 hours each week checking our work email.

Classifying, reading and answering emails is a very common form of communication and allows the exchange of files and impressions related to a project or organizational process.

Although companies are constantly searching for more efficient ways to manage emails, there are also applications such as Gmail's Smart Labels for this.

Another way to streamline this task is to incorporate standard email templates, or texts that can be sent with minimal modifications to different recipients and at different times.

6- Finance management

In this task, it must be guaranteed that the money fulfills its life cycle in the purchase and sale of products and services; have all invoices submitted, posted, paid, and dispatched. Of course there are offices that only do this.

This activity also includes keeping financial accounts and legal documents updated so that there are no problems with the legal framework that concerns the organization in question.

7- Logistics

This function ensures that all goods related to the work of the company are transported to and from warehouses and customers. It also includes liaising with suppliers to obtain raw materials for the manufacture of new products.

The goal of this function is to guarantee that the company has in its possession everything necessary to keep the production of the good or service that it commercializes going.

8- Call attention

In an office it is also required to answer the phone, since it is a means of communication with clients, suppliers and among co-workers themselves.

Although it seems a simple task, it requires a certain protocol since it can be the voice that someone outside the company associates with its image. Therefore, it is important that the rules of courtesy are respected, an institutional tone is maintained, the volume of voice and the vocabulary used are moderate.

Another important piece of information, which is sometimes overlooked when executing this function, is to write down as much data as possible about the person on the other side of the phone; This will feed the company's contact database and allow you to correctly follow up on the matter discussed during the telephone conversation.

9- File organization

Most of the tasks that are executed in an office, generate some document: invoices, notes, minutes, minutes, sales reports, etc.

In digital or on paper, it is a quantity of information that requires someone to be in charge of cataloging, archiving and safeguarding it according to its level of importance for the business.

Precisely this last point, that of the protection of information, is an issue that has become a headache for many organizations, which is why more and more tools, protocols and procedures are emerging that provide security in the file and transmission of data. sensitive data in an organization.

In some cases external hard drives are used, while in others there are special servers for these cases or storage platforms in the "cloud" such as Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive or Apple iCloud.

10- Distribution of the company's mail

A task that, despite not requiring a very high academic training, does require good organization, responsibility and a sense of urgency, is the distribution of correspondence within the office.

A sketch of a design, the credit card sent by the bank, the invoices from a supplier or the response letter from a government entity, are some of the documents that any employee may be waiting for and on which many other processes within of the company.

11- Customer service

This function consists of physically serving customers with questions or complaints about the products or services offered by the company.

12- Printing and copying documents

It consists of printing the documents that must be kept physically or making copies of those that must be kept in duplicate or delivered to the workers of the company.

13- Candidate interviews

This is one of the tasks of the personnel selection process. They can be carried out individually or in groups, that is, focusing on a single candidate or on several.

14- Purchase of supplies and office supplies

Office supplies are essential for its efficiency. Stationery supplies, printer ink, packaging or paper should always be available, so there should be someone in charge of their management.

15- Administrative functions

Administrative procedures are essential for a company to maintain stability and be able to achieve business success. Being aware of legal issues, paperwork and other bureaucratic schemes are some of these functions.

References

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