Office Administration Skills for Modern Workplaces Training Course

Course overview

Office administrators are often responsible for keeping work moving across calendars, meetings, correspondence, records, suppliers and internal requests—while handling frequent interruptions and incomplete information. When processes are informal, deadlines are missed, documents are hard to retrieve, actions disappear after meetings and senior staff spend unnecessary time chasing updates. This course equips administrators to build reliable operating routines that make an office easier to coordinate, audit and support.

Participants learn practical methods for prioritising requests, managing executive calendars, preparing professional correspondence, coordinating meetings, controlling documents and maintaining accurate records. They use Microsoft Outlook rules, categories and calendar features; Excel trackers and formulas; Microsoft Teams meeting functions; and SharePoint document libraries. The programme also covers service standards, stakeholder communication, confidentiality, travel and event logistics, purchase-request administration, action tracking and escalation.

Teaching combines instructor-led demonstrations with realistic administration scenarios, timed exercises and peer review. Participants create an Office Administration Operations Pack: a prioritisation matrix, communications templates, meeting agenda and action log, document-control structure, records-retention checklist, service-level workflow and a 30-day improvement plan. This gives both the participant and their manager a usable set of materials for improving daily administrative control immediately after the course.

The course is designed for administrators who already perform office-support duties and need a consistent, modern way to manage competing priorities. It is equally relevant to organisations seeking stronger information control, more dependable internal service and clearer accountability for routine operational work.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Apply a request-prioritisation matrix to triage competing administrative tasks by urgency, impact and authority level
• Configure Microsoft Outlook categories, rules, shared calendars and task lists to control appointments and follow-up work
• Produce meeting agendas, decision records and action logs that assign owners, due dates and escalation points
• Build an Excel administration tracker using tables, data validation, filters, conditional formatting and status formulas
• Establish a SharePoint document-library structure with naming conventions, version control and access permissions
• Draft professional email, memo and stakeholder-update templates using clear purpose, action and deadline language
• Implement a records-retention and confidentiality checklist for physical and digital office information
• Create a 30-day office administration improvement plan with service measures, process owners and review dates

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Office Administrators — who coordinate daily office requests, records, meetings and internal services
• Executive Assistants — who manage senior leaders’ time, communications and high-stakes meeting follow-up
• Administrative Assistants — who need reliable systems for prioritising work across multiple stakeholders
• Team Coordinators — who organise operational activity, action tracking and shared team information
• Reception and Front-of-House Supervisors — who oversee visitor handling, enquiries and office service standards
• Facilities or Operations Support Officers — who administer suppliers, workspace requests and routine operational records

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience of routine office work, such as managing email, booking meetings, preparing documents or maintaining simple records. They should be comfortable using a Windows or web-based workplace environment and have basic familiarity with Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel, including creating emails, documents and simple spreadsheets. Access to Microsoft 365 during or after the course is useful for applying the templates. Advanced Excel, project-management certification, finance expertise and prior SharePoint administration are not required. Complete beginners can attend, but should expect a practical intermediate pace rather than basic computer-skills instruction.

Training methodology

The instructor demonstrates administrative tools and methods using a realistic multi-department office scenario, then participants practise each technique on supplied templates. Sessions include inbox triage drills, calendar-conflict resolution, meeting simulations, Excel tracker builds, document-control reviews and small-group service-failure case studies. Facilitated feedback focuses on accuracy, tone, confidentiality and practical usability. On the final day, participants assemble their Office Administration Operations Pack and test their 30-day implementation plan against a workplace challenge they expect to face.

Course outline

Day 1: Controlling the administrative workload

• The office administrator’s role in operational flow and service reliability
• Request triage using urgency, impact, deadline and authority criteria
• Daily, weekly and monthly administration planning cycles
• Microsoft Outlook categories, flags, rules and Quick Steps
• Task-list design and follow-up control in Outlook
• Email inbox protocols for acknowledgement, action, delegation and escalation
• Service standards for internal customers and senior stakeholders

Workshop: Participants triage a simulated inbox and build a prioritised daily work plan, escalation log and stakeholder response schedule.

Day 2: Calendar, meeting and communication management

• Calendar-blocking methods for focused work, appointments and contingency time
• Shared calendar permissions, scheduling assistant and conflict resolution
• Executive diary management and meeting-preparation checklists
• Agenda design linked to decisions, inputs and accountable attendees
• Microsoft Teams meeting options, attendance reports and recording controls
• Decision records, action logs and post-meeting follow-up routines
• Professional email and memo structures for requests, updates and escalation

Workshop: Participants coordinate a conflicting executive calendar, prepare a meeting pack and issue a completed action log from a simulated leadership meeting.

Day 3: Information, records and document control

• Document lifecycle from creation and review to retention and disposal
• File naming conventions, metadata fields and folder-taxonomy design
• Microsoft SharePoint document libraries, version history and check-in controls
• Permission principles for confidential and restricted information
• Records-retention schedules and disposal-authorisation checks
• Physical records handling, secure storage and clean-desk practices
• Audit-ready document retrieval and evidence trails

Workshop: Participants design a SharePoint-based document-control structure and complete a records-handling checklist for a sensitive office file set.

Day 4: Tracking office operations and coordinating services

• Excel tables for request registers, supplier logs and office inventories
• Data validation lists for consistent request categories and status codes
• Conditional formatting for overdue actions and service exceptions
• COUNTIF, IF and TODAY formulas for administration status reporting
• Travel, visitor, event and facilities coordination checklists
• Purchase-request documentation and supplier-contact records
• Issue logging, root-cause questions and escalation pathways

Workshop: Participants build an Excel office-services tracker with validated status fields, overdue alerts and a concise management update.

Day 5: Improving administrative systems and service performance

• Mapping an administrative workflow from request intake to closure
• Identifying bottlenecks, hand-off failures and duplicate data entry
• RACI roles for recurring office administration processes
• Service measures for response time, completion rate and outstanding actions
• Template standardisation for correspondence, meetings and requests
• Change communication for introducing new administration routines
• Thirty-day implementation planning and manager review conversations

Workshop: Participants assemble and present their Office Administration Operations Pack, including a workflow map, templates, measures and 30-day improvement plan.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft SharePoint

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions