The Global Office Manager

We all generally know that office and facilities management roles vary an awful lot, and that within these roles there are tonnes of responsibilities and remits you are often in charge of. But what happens when that responsibility is given at a global level? How do you even begin to manage offices as a Global Office Manager when you’re not actually based in the office, and how can you make sure things are running smoothly, staff are engaged and are in the environment they need to be in, in order to be productive?  Here’s my tips for dealing with a Global Office Manager role, or indeed multiple-office roles. 

Make sure you’re consistent 

One of the key aspects of being a Global Office Manager is to ensure consistency. If you implement a process in your headquarters (HQ) office, or whichever one you are based in (and it works…), you should endeavour to implement it in the international offices wherever applicable (although with this, I appreciate for some it may just not work due to cultural and legal or regulatory differences).  

For example, if you have a process in which you effectively on-board joiners and make their first impression and welcome the best it can be, roll this out globally. Global Office Managers may do this by perhaps getting the communications about their arrival in good time from HR and/or the line managers and using a central tracking template or tool; by making sure their desks are ready and IT is all set; by getting that welcome nailed with the reception or security team who are aware of their arrival in advance; and, by doing the all important induction to include Health & Safety and fire awareness training. In rolling out the very same, effective process using the same or similar tools and resources at your disposal there will be this wonderful flow throughout your business meaning all new joiners go through the same starting-journey. That’s great for employee morale, brand identity, ease of process management and much more.  

Further to this, and more or less in reverse, if you have an awesome off-boarding process for leavers, roll this out elsewhere too! You’ll have assurance then that in each office things are undone for employees who depart in a timely manner and no holes are left exposed.  

Stay in contact 

In addition to this process consistency, making sure as the Global Office Manager to keep in touch with the people on the ground in each location is a must! If you have teams that you manage, supervise or work closely with overseas, having regular catch-ups will be vital to your roles and the running of the office.  

Let’s take IT as an example; if there is an IT support team or just a single member of staff in the international office and your lines of work overlap frequently (which no doubt they will do!) have a short agenda for a bi-weekly or monthly catch up to go over upcoming projects, joiners and leavers in the pipeline, day-to-day issues, requirements and so on. If you manage any teams, ask them fairly frequently what is working well, and what perhaps isn’t. They are your eyes and ears to that office – getting their feedback and asking them to actively seek feedback from the employees based within that office will be invaluable to you and what you focus on or leave well-alone if you can help it!  

And, if budget allows get over to the office once or twice (or more) a year. Getting some face to face time in with colleagues and co-workers makes a significant difference to how things can run; continuous over email communications can become lost and we tend to build up pictures in our minds of who is sitting behind that email rather than who actually is and they can become negative because of this made-up perception. If you can’t get out to the offices, try the next best thing with a video conference, Skype or other virtual meeting. It will have a similar impact to the true face to face effect, in being pretty key to the team.  

Put everything at the tip of your fingers 

Finally, if you are responsible for the budget management, leases and/or rental agreements, insurance, business rates or office tax and so on – create your ‘global office bible’ – and to be honest, this doesn’t even need to be for offices overseas but for anyone with multiple spaces to manage. This ‘bible’ will help you every step of the way in your global office management journey. Start with the lease tab, enter in start and end dates, break clauses, rent per square foot or metre, monthly service charge payments, rates and other regular costs in relation to the occupation of the office, rental free periods, rent payment dates or frequencies etc.  

Create another tab and do the same for insurance, contents – the limits, the dates of the policies, the broker and insurer and their contact details, policy excesses etc. and do this for each location. All of this information will then be at your fingertips for the inevitable occurrences when items are lost or damaged and need to be claimed for, or for when the CFO asks for office costs or wants to relocate an office and up-or-downsize it and needs the details in a heartbeat; or, because you need to stay ahead of your expiry dates and make sure you renew or tender in good time. 

Easy-peasy, meaning that you’re a super organised Global Office Manager! 

And… don’t forget if you want some of the templates I mention, ready-made for your use, you can sign up to The Office Management Portal.