Industries
Why retail employees leave and how to understand why
Why store staff and managers leave retail jobs, and how to ask about rosters, weekends, targets and incentives in an exit conversation that leads to action.
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Coworking, Franchise & Multi-Location Businesses · Serviced office operators
HR for Serviced Office Operators: Reception Teams, Tenant Companies and Branch Managers
A serviced office operator leases floors to companies and supplies the reception, pantry, IT help and meeting rooms that come with them. Tenants judge the whole business by the receptionist and the building manager they meet daily.
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Share your requirementsA serviced office operator rents furnished, ready-to-use offices to companies on short or medium terms, often in business parks or towers across several cities. The tenant is a company with its own staff, so complaints come from a manager who expects office-grade service. Each branch has a building or branch manager, receptionists, an IT and AV support person, housekeeping, a pantry team and a facilities technician, with a sales lead in the larger ones. Staff handle visitors, courier, meeting rooms and tenant requests all day. See also HR for retail and multi-location businesses.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in serviced office operators, you may see
- Tenants expect a corporate standard
- Branch managers approve everything locally
- Reception cover breaks when one person is off
- Housekeeping and pantry are managed at arm's length
- Tenant move-ins pile up on few people
- Branch managers are former receptionists or sales staff
- Records sit in each branch
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
Who does the work in serviced office operators
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
- Branch managers
- Receptionists and front office executives
- Tenant relations executives
- IT and AV support technicians
- Housekeeping supervisors and attendants
- Pantry and hospitality staff
- Facilities and maintenance technicians
- Sales and leasing executives
- Central operations and billing staff
Where HR strains in serviced office operators
Tenants expect a corporate standard
A tenant company compares your receptionist with its own head office, and a casual greeting or a missed visitor pass becomes a complaint to the owner.
Branch managers approve everything locally
Leave, overtime and replacements are settled branch by branch, so the same request gets different answers across the portfolio.
Reception cover breaks when one person is off
A single visitor desk with a long open day leaves nobody for courier, calls and walk-in enquiries.
Housekeeping and pantry are managed at arm's length
Work is directed by a supervisor, but tenant feedback goes to the branch manager, so standards slip between them.
Tenant move-ins pile up on few people
A new tenant needs keys, access, IT set-up and a welcome, and the same small team also serves existing tenants.
Branch managers are former receptionists or sales staff
They are good with tenants but have never been taught to roster, give feedback or handle a disciplinary matter.
Records sit in each branch
Joining papers, role letters and transfer details are kept in local files, and head office cannot say quickly who works where.
HR topics for serviced office operators
Start with the topics that matter most here: Employee Administration; Learning and Development; Organisation Design. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for retail, not in general.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
HR Strategy and Workforce Planning
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Onboarding and Probation
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Career and Succession Management
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Employee Engagement and Experience
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Employee Relations
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Exit and Alumni Management
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
HR Technology and Automation
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
HR Analytics and Management Reporting
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
HR Operations and Governance
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
What a working HR set-up looks like
The pieces a serviced office operators business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Write a service standard for the front office
One page that sets greeting, visitor handling, courier, calls and escalation, used in every branch.
What this coversHide
Write a service standard for the front office
One page that sets greeting, visitor handling, courier, calls and escalation, used in every branch.
What this coversHideOne page that sets greeting, visitor handling, courier, calls and escalation, used in every branch. The customer-service skills training brings staff to it.
Set a single approval table
A short list stating what a branch manager can approve alone and what goes to head office, covering leave, overtime, replacements and exceptions.
What this coversHide
Set a single approval table
A short list stating what a branch manager can approve alone and what goes to head office, covering leave, overtime, replacements and exceptions.
What this coversHideA short list stating what a branch manager can approve alone and what goes to head office, covering leave, overtime, replacements and exceptions.
Plan reception cover by hour
Name the primary and backup for each time block and rotate fairly, so a sick call does not leave the desk empty.
What this coversHide
Plan reception cover by hour
Name the primary and backup for each time block and rotate fairly, so a sick call does not leave the desk empty.
What this coversHideName the primary and backup for each time block and rotate fairly, so a sick call does not leave the desk empty.
Give housekeeping and pantry one line of authority
Decide who the supervisor answers to and how tenant feedback reaches them within the same day.
What this coversHide
Give housekeeping and pantry one line of authority
Decide who the supervisor answers to and how tenant feedback reaches them within the same day.
What this coversHideDecide who the supervisor answers to and how tenant feedback reaches them within the same day.
Prepare a move-in checklist with named owners
Key, access, IT, signage and welcome each have a person and a time, so move-ins do not drain the whole branch.
What this coversHide
Prepare a move-in checklist with named owners
Key, access, IT, signage and welcome each have a person and a time, so move-ins do not drain the whole branch.
What this coversHideKey, access, IT, signage and welcome each have a person and a time, so move-ins do not drain the whole branch.
Keep a central record of every person and posting
Role, branch, reporting line and transfer history in one place.
What this coversHide
Keep a central record of every person and posting
Role, branch, reporting line and transfer history in one place.
What this coversHideRole, branch, reporting line and transfer history in one place. The employee information work sets this up.
Start by checking where you stand
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirements- Visit two branches as a tenant and note the greeting, the wait and who deals with you.
- List which decisions branch managers make without asking head office.
- Check whether any reception desk had no backup last month.
- Ask a branch manager how they learnt to give feedback to staff.
- Compare the personnel files held at two branches with the head office record.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the shop and establishment, working hours and employment rules that apply to the branches you run in each state.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
How GullyHR helps
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
- Customer-service skills
A practical service standard for reception and tenant staff, practised on real tenant situations.
- Employee information management
One clear record of who works where, with role, reporting line and transfer history across branches.
- Manager development programme
Branch managers taught to roster, coach and handle a difficult conversation fairly.
- Recruitment process consulting
A common way to hire receptionists and branch staff, so each branch does not invent its own.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Our HR transformation approach
- 1
Assess
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
- 2
Identify gaps
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
- 3
Design
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
- 4
Implement
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
- 5
Automate
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
- 6
Measure
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
- 7
Improve
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
Blogs worth reading first
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in retail, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
HR Process
One employee, three versions of the record: fixing employee information management
Payroll says one joining date, the personal file says another and the manager remembers a third. How to establish a single trustworthy employee record and keep it that way.
7 min readRead article
Industries
Skill-building in plastic moulding and extrusion units: a training plan that survives a busy production schedule
Plastics training dies when it waits for a free Saturday. Tie it to mould changes, purges and cold starts, use one-point lessons and a visible skill ladder, and protect it in peak months.
7 min readRead article
HR Management
Everyone reports to the founder: when and how to redesign the structure
A flat structure works until the founder becomes the only route to a decision. How to tell when you have passed that point, and how to redesign without a reorganisation.
8 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Questions owners ask
Tenants are companies, not individuals, so service is judged like a corporate office. Fewer events, steadier hours and a higher standard of front office behaviour shape the roles and the training.
To the branch manager for daily work, with head office setting the standard, the pay band and the training. A dotted line to a central service lead helps consistency without taking authority away from the branch.
Enough to handle visitors, calls, couriers and tenant requests alone, which is usually the first fortnight with a buddy. Add short refreshers when you change a process or add a service.
Trace each complaint to a person, a time and a cause, such as a missed visitor or a late fix. Then fix the pattern, usually cover, a missing step or training, rather than blaming individuals.
When they can run the roster, deal with an upset tenant, see a cost problem early and coach others. Test this with a short stint as acting manager before the promotion.
We would visit a branch, ask who covers the desk when someone is off and see which approvals sit with the branch manager. A good first project is a service standard for the front office plus an approval table. Scope is agreed in writing after that talk.
More on HR for retail
All 7 business types in coworking, franchise & Multi-Location businesses · Find another business type
Coworking providersRetail chainsHealthcare Franchise NetworksEducation franchisesRestaurant franchisesSalon franchisesEmployee Administration in retailLearning and Development in retailOrganisation Design in retail
See all HR topics for retail, or another industry.