Strategic Office Operations and Governance Advanced Training Course

Course overview

Office administration teams increasingly manage more than calendars, meeting rooms and correspondence. They control information flows, coordinate high-stakes executive decisions, maintain policy evidence, oversee service providers and protect sensitive records. When ownership, approval routes, document controls and performance measures are unclear, routine office work creates avoidable compliance exposure, delayed decisions, duplicate effort and inconsistent service across sites.

This advanced course equips experienced office professionals to design and govern reliable office operations. Participants learn to map end-to-end administrative processes, define decision rights with RACI matrices, establish records retention controls, build service-level agreements, manage office risks and create performance dashboards. The programme covers governance charters, delegation-of-authority controls, policy implementation, vendor oversight, executive meeting governance, issue escalation and continuous improvement using Lean process analysis.

Teaching combines instructor-led analysis with realistic office governance cases, Microsoft 365-based workflow exercises and peer review of operating documents. Participants produce an Office Operations Governance Playbook tailored to a selected workplace scenario, including a process map, RACI matrix, risk register, records schedule, service catalogue, KPI dashboard specification and 90-day implementation plan. This gives both the participant and their manager a practical package that can be adapted for immediate use.

The course is best suited to office managers, executive support leaders and administrative professionals who already coordinate complex operations and now need the authority, methods and evidence to improve how those operations are controlled and measured.

Course objectives

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

• Map end-to-end office processes using SIPOC and swimlane process maps
• Define operational decision rights through a RACI matrix and delegation-of-authority schedule
• Draft an office governance charter with roles, meeting cadence and escalation routes
• Build a records retention and access-control matrix aligned to ISO 15489-1 principles
• Create an operational risk register with control owners, ratings and treatment actions
• Specify service-level agreements and a service catalogue for office support functions
• Design a KPI dashboard specification for workload, service quality, cost and compliance measures
• Produce a 90-day office operations governance implementation plan

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Office Managers — who need to standardise multi-service office operations and demonstrate control
• Executive Assistants — who coordinate executive decisions, confidential information and governance meetings
• Administrative Managers — who lead administrative teams and must improve accountability across processes
• Facilities and Workplace Coordinators — who manage workplace service providers, requests and escalation routes
• Business Support Managers — who need measurable service standards across dispersed support teams
• Operations Coordinators — who are moving from task coordination into formal process and risk ownership

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least two years of experience in office administration, executive support, workplace coordination or business support operations. They should be familiar with common administrative workflows such as meeting coordination, purchasing requests, document filing, supplier liaison and action tracking. Basic confidence using Microsoft Excel and Microsoft 365 applications, especially Teams, Outlook and SharePoint, is assumed. Participants should also understand their organisation’s approval hierarchy and key office policies where possible. No prior qualification in governance, audit, Lean improvement, Power BI or formal project management is required; the course teaches these applications from an office-operations perspective.

Training methodology

The five-day programme uses short instructor-led briefings followed by structured work on an office operations case. Participants map request-to-delivery processes, test approval failures, classify records, score operational risks and construct governance documents in facilitated workshops. Small groups review competing RACI assignments and service-level proposals, then defend their recommendations against executive and audit scenarios. Microsoft 365 examples show how controls can be embedded in daily work. Each participant closes the course by refining an Office Operations Governance Playbook and presenting a 90-day application plan for manager feedback.

Course outline

Day 1: Office operations as a governed service

• Office operating model and governance layers
• Service catalogue design for administrative functions
• SIPOC analysis for office support processes
• Swimlane mapping of request-to-delivery workflows
• Control points, handoffs and exception paths
• RACI matrices for process accountability
• Governance charter components and meeting cadence

Workshop: Participants map a high-volume office service, identify control failures and produce a draft RACI matrix and governance charter outline.

Day 2: Decision rights, records and policy control

• Delegation-of-authority schedules and approval thresholds
• Executive meeting governance and decision logs
• Policy lifecycle from drafting to attestation
• ISO 15489-1 records management principles
• Records retention schedules and disposition triggers
• SharePoint Online permissions, version history and metadata
• Confidential information classification and access controls

Workshop: Participants build a decision log, retention matrix and SharePoint document-control design for a confidential executive committee process.

Day 3: Risk, compliance and supplier governance

• Office operations risk taxonomy
• Risk register scoring using likelihood and impact scales
• Control design and control-owner assignment
• Issue escalation thresholds and corrective actions
• Supplier segmentation for office services
• Service-level agreement metrics and remedies
• Vendor review packs and performance evidence

Workshop: Using a workplace services case, participants create a risk register, control plan and supplier scorecard for an underperforming provider.

Day 4: Performance management and operational improvement

• KPI hierarchy for office operations
• Leading and lagging service indicators
• Workload, turnaround-time and backlog measures
• Microsoft Power BI dashboard requirements
• Root-cause analysis using the five whys
• Lean waste identification in administrative workflows
• Continuous-improvement registers and benefits tracking

Workshop: Participants diagnose a declining office-service performance dataset and produce a KPI dashboard specification with prioritised improvement actions.

Day 5: Implementation and executive communication

• Governance maturity assessment criteria
• Stakeholder mapping and influence planning
• Change impact analysis for office procedures
• Implementation sequencing and dependency mapping
• Ninety-day governance roadmap design
• Executive briefing papers and decision requests
• Playbook review against audit and service criteria

Workshop: Participants assemble and present their Office Operations Governance Playbook, including a 90-day roadmap, to a simulated leadership review panel.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft 365, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Power BI, ISO 15489-1

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