Office Operations and Administration Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Office Administrators, Office Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-OA-034

Before you join: Participants should have at least six months of experience supporting an office, department, project team or senior manager.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Office administration is the control point where people, information, facilities, schedules and routine decisions meet. When requests are handled through informal habits, offices experience missed deadlines, unclear approvals, duplicated records, poor meeting discipline and avoidable supplier or facilities disruption. Support staff need practical methods for organising work, protecting records, communicating clearly and keeping services reliable under pressure.

This course develops the operating skills expected of experienced administrators, office coordinators and executive support staff. Participants learn to map office processes, set service standards, manage calendars and meetings, apply document-control rules, coordinate suppliers, process routine financial records and handle stakeholder requests. The programme uses recognised tools including SIPOC, RACI, SMART, PDCA and ISO 15489 principles to turn recurring office work into controlled, visible and measurable processes.

Delivered over five instructor-led days in a classroom or live online, the course combines concise briefings with realistic cases, group problem-solving, workflow simulations and structured application planning. Cases reflect common situations such as conflicting executive priorities, incomplete purchase requests, visitor incidents, delayed vendor deliveries and sensitive records requests. Participants leave with a reusable Office Operations Improvement Pack containing process maps, checklists, trackers, service measures and a personal 90-day action plan. A certificate of completion is issued to participants who complete the course.

The course is particularly useful for staff who already support an office, department, project team or senior leaders and now need stronger control over processes, priorities and service quality. It also suits organisations seeking consistent administrative standards across multiple locations or functions.

What you will be able to do

  • Map office services and workflows using SIPOC process mapping
  • Assign process ownership and approval rights through RACI matrices
  • Prioritise administrative workloads using the Eisenhower Matrix and deadline controls
  • Produce clear business correspondence, escalation messages and stakeholder updates
  • Apply ISO 15489 recordkeeping principles to filing, retention and access controls
  • Coordinate meetings, visitors, facilities and suppliers using operational checklists
  • Track office service performance through defined service levels and KPI dashboards
  • Create a 90-day office operations improvement plan using the PDCA cycle

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Handle competing requests with visible priorities, owners and deadlines
  • Reduce rework through clearer checklists, handoffs and approval controls
  • Write concise messages that secure decisions and timely responses
  • Build confidence managing senior meetings, visitors and sensitive records
  • Present measurable office improvement proposals to managers

For your organisation

  • Fewer missed deadlines through controlled workflows and escalation routes
  • More consistent service across administrative teams and office locations
  • Reduced record loss through clearer filing, retention and access practices
  • Improved supplier and facilities coordination through documented service requirements
  • Better management visibility through office service measures and exception reporting

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define office services, map workflows and assign clear operating responsibilities.

  • Office operating model: services, customers, inputs, controls and service standards
  • Process maps using SIPOC to define handoffs, owners and outputs
  • RACI matrices for approval rights, escalation paths and decision accountability
  • Daily control boards tracking priorities, deadlines, dependencies and blocked work
  • Service-level agreements distinguishing response targets, completion targets and exceptions
  • Operating procedures written with triggers, steps, controls and record locations

Participants can select appropriate communication channels and produce clear, actionable administrative messages.

  • Communication channel rules for email, chat, calls and urgent escalations
  • BLUF email structure: bottom line, context, action and deadline
  • Writing concise requests with purpose, owner, due date and attachments
  • Stakeholder maps identifying influence, interest, preferred channel and response needs
  • Telephone message logs capturing caller, purpose, urgency, callback and outcome
  • Handling difficult requests through acknowledgement, clarification, options and documented agreements

Participants can prioritise competing work and maintain calendars that protect critical commitments.

  • Eisenhower Matrix separating urgent tasks from important planned work
  • Time blocking for recurring administration, focused work and contingency capacity
  • Calendar protocols covering meeting buffers, travel time and preparation windows
  • Priority registers recording deadlines, consequences, owners and next actions
  • MoSCoW analysis for negotiating scope when administrative capacity is limited
  • Escalation criteria for conflicting executive requests and immovable commitments

Participants can organise records and documents using consistent classification, version and access controls.

  • ISO 15489 principles for authentic, reliable, usable and accessible records
  • File plans structured by function, activity, record type and retention period
  • Version-control conventions using document owners, dates, statuses and approvals
  • Retention schedules distinguishing active, archival, confidential and disposable records
  • Access registers documenting authorised users, permissions and sensitive information requests
  • Document templates controlling titles, references, revision history and distribution lists

Participants can plan and control meetings, events and visitor arrangements from request to close-out.

  • Meeting request forms confirming objective, attendees, format, duration and sponsor
  • Agenda design allocating decisions, discussion topics, owners and timings
  • Action logs recording commitments, accountable owners, due dates and status
  • Room readiness checklists covering technology, seating, materials, access and refreshments
  • Visitor management procedures for invitations, identification, escorting and emergency contacts
  • Event run sheets sequencing suppliers, setup, contingencies, approvals and close-out

Participants can maintain office readiness and coordinate routine supplier services against agreed requirements.

  • Office readiness inspections covering safety, equipment, consumables, access and cleanliness
  • Reorder points calculated from usage rates, lead times and safety stock
  • Purchase requisitions specifying business need, quantity, budget code and approvals
  • Supplier service specifications defining scope, frequency, standards, reporting and remedies
  • Vendor contact registers recording responsibilities, contract dates, escalation routes and performance
  • Issue logs tracking facilities faults, assigned actions, completion evidence and recurrence

Participants can support routine financial administration with accurate records, approvals and reconciliations.

  • Three-way matching between purchase order, goods receipt and supplier invoice
  • Expense claim checks against policy, receipts, approvals, coding and limits
  • Petty cash logs recording float, withdrawals, receipts, balances and reconciliations
  • Budget trackers comparing committed spend, actual spend, forecast and remaining balance
  • Segregation of duties separating request, approval, payment and reconciliation responsibilities
  • Exception reports highlighting missing documentation, duplicate invoices and overdue approvals

Participants can manage office requests consistently and monitor service quality through practical measures.

  • Service catalogues defining available support, request channels, targets and exclusions
  • Request triage based on urgency, impact, effort, authority and due date
  • Ticket registers recording request details, ownership, status, updates and closure
  • Service KPIs measuring response time, resolution time, backlog and satisfaction
  • Root-cause analysis using five whys for recurring administrative failures
  • Complaint handling steps covering acknowledgement, investigation, resolution and follow-up

Participants can identify office risks, respond to service disruptions and prevent recurrence.

  • Risk registers documenting threats, likelihood, impact, controls, owners and review dates
  • Risk matrices scoring operational disruptions by probability and consequence
  • Business continuity checklists for power loss, access failure and staff absence
  • Incident logs capturing facts, immediate actions, notifications and recovery status
  • Fishbone diagrams examining people, process, technology, materials and environment causes
  • Corrective action plans assigning actions, deadlines, evidence and effectiveness reviews

Participants can measure office performance and produce a focused improvement plan for their workplace.

  • PDCA cycle applied to recurring office service and process problems
  • Baseline measures established from volumes, cycle times, errors and backlog
  • SMART improvement objectives linked to service outcomes and accountable owners
  • Process improvement charters defining problem, scope, measures, risks and sponsors
  • Visual dashboards reporting workload, service levels, exceptions and improvement actions
  • Ninety-day action plans sequencing quick wins, reviews, resources and communications

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. SIPOC office workflow template
  2. RACI responsibility matrix
  3. Office service catalogue template
  4. Records classification and retention checklist
  5. Supplier and facilities issue log
  6. 90-day office improvement plan

Who should attend

  • Office Administrators — need consistent methods for controlling daily office services
  • Office Managers — need measurable processes, clear roles and reliable service standards
  • Executive Assistants — need stronger systems for priorities, meetings and senior stakeholder support
  • Administrative Coordinators — need tools for coordinating requests across teams and suppliers
  • Facilities and Workplace Coordinators — need tighter control of vendors, visitors and office readiness
  • Team Assistants — need practical structure for records, correspondence and shared workloads

Skills and tools covered

Office workflow controlStakeholder communicationRecords managementMeeting coordinationSupplier coordinationService performance tracking

Tools and standards

SIPOC, RACI matrix, ISO 15489, PDCA cycle

How the course runs

Training methodology

The programme uses short instructor briefings to introduce each method, followed by case work based on office requests, schedules, records, meetings, suppliers and service failures. Participants analyse workflows, build practical documents and compare decisions in small groups. Simulations address competing priorities, unclear approvals and difficult stakeholder communication. Trainers provide feedback against defined criteria and adapt examples to the participants' sectors. Each participant completes structured application planning for an office process they can improve after the course.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least six months of experience supporting an office, department, project team or senior manager. They should be familiar with routine email, calendars, document filing and basic spreadsheet use. The course assumes that participants have encountered competing requests, meetings, records or supplier coordination, even if processes are currently informal. Prior management experience, a formal administration qualification, finance expertise or specialist software knowledge is not required. Participants should be prepared to discuss a real office process they want to improve.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

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

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have basic experience supporting office, team or executive activities, plus confidence using email, calendars and simple spreadsheets. No formal administration qualification or management experience is required.

Bring a laptop if possible and details of one recurring office process you want to improve. Examples include meeting coordination, records filing, purchase requests, visitor management or supplier follow-up.

It is designed for office administrators, executive assistants, office managers, team assistants and coordinators with established administrative responsibilities. It is most useful for people moving from task completion to process ownership.

This course concentrates on running office services reliably: workflow controls, priorities, records, meetings, suppliers, facilities and service measures. It does not focus on broad business theory, people management or advanced project management.

You will leave with templates and a 90-day action plan built around a real office issue. These materials can be used to standardise requests, clarify responsibilities, improve reporting and reduce recurring service problems.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with about 6.5 contact hours daily. The five days cover ten connected modules through briefings, cases, group work, simulations, feedback and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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