A serviced office operator leases furnished floors in business parks to companies that want a ready desk, a meeting room and a receptionist. The tenant is a company with its own staff and its own managers. When a courier is mishandled, the tenant's office manager writes to the owner, not to the receptionist. For this reason, HR in a serviced office is closer to hotel front office than to a coworking community.
This article suggests five things to set up first, in order. It is written for owners, operations heads and branch managers of serviced office operators with two or more buildings.
First: a front office standard
Write one page that every receptionist and tenant relations executive follows. It sets how a visitor is greeted, how a pass is issued, how a courier or parcel is logged, how a call is transferred, and how a complaint is escalated. It includes the tone: formal, brief, never casual with a tenant's guest. Use the customer service skills training to bring the whole team to the same standard.
GREETING: within 10 seconds of a visitor arriving, use the visitor's name if known.
VISITOR PASS: verify with the tenant, log name and company, issue pass, return at exit.
COURIER AND PARCEL: log on arrival, notify the tenant, hold in the parcel shelf, hand over against signature.
CALL HANDLING: answer within three rings, name of the centre, offer to transfer or take a message.
MEETING ROOM: confirm booking, check set-up 15 minutes before, refreshment order, reset after.
COMPLAINT: listen, note, give a time for reply, escalate to the branch manager the same day.
AFTER-HOURS: who is on call, how a tenant reaches them, what is logged.Second: one table of approvals
Branch managers settle leave, overtime and replacement requests on their own, so the same request gets different answers across buildings. Write one table. List the decision, who may approve at the branch, and when head office must be asked. Keep it to one page.
- Leave: manager approves up to a set number of days; beyond that, area head.
- Overtime: pre-approved list of reasons, such as a tenant event, a move-in, a late meeting; anything else needs approval.
- Replacement hire: branch manager may start a search; offer needs sign-off.
- Warnings and disciplinary steps: branch manager issues the first written note; later steps go to head office.
- Transfers between buildings: head office decides with notice and reasons.
Third: cover for the single desk
A single visitor desk with a long open day leaves nobody for the courier, the call and the walk-in enquiry. Pair the receptionist with a tenant relations executive for the busy hours. Agree a cover person for lunch and breaks. Keep a list of two trained people from the nearest building who can step in. Write the opening and closing duties on a card at the desk.
Fourth: develop the branch managers
Most branch managers were good receptionists or sales staff, and are now responsible for a floor of tenants and a team of eight. They have never been taught to make a roster, give feedback or handle a disciplinary matter. The manager development programme covers these in short sessions. Two half-days on rostering, feedback and escalation change how a floor runs.
- 1
Run a roster session
Cover opening and closing, breaks, tenant events and move-ins. Practice with a real week.
- 2
Run a feedback session
How to tell a receptionist what went wrong without humiliating her in front of a tenant.
- 3
Run an escalation session
What goes to the area head, what stays at the branch, and how to write a short incident note.
- 4
Follow up in the field
The area head visits each branch manager once in the first quarter after the training and reviews the roster together.
Fifth: one staff record
Joining papers, role letters and transfer notes are kept in local files, and head office cannot say quickly who works where. A single shared record, with one row per person, solves this. Fields: name, role, branch, joining date, manager, role letter date, transfer history, probation end, training done. The employee information management approach keeps it light.
Next steps
Start with the standard and the table; both take a week. The HR page for serviced office operators lists the other strains, and the multi-location sector overview shows how serviced offices compare with coworking and franchises. If you are hiring for a new building, the recruitment process work for serviced office operators offers a ready routine.
