Optimizing Office Admin: 3 Changes Successful Firms are Adopting

With many companies now requiring employees to work from the office full-time, efficient administration has again become essential. 

The long months of working remotely or from co-working locations have left many employees feeling uncomfortable about returning to a standard workstation. This has increased the responsibilities that office administrators must fulfill to keep the workforce satisfied and daily operations running smoothly. 

A recent UK-based survey by Global Payroll Alliance found that 49 percent of office workers find their productivity hampered by maintenance issues. These could be malfunctioning HVAC systems or ill-kept break rooms. Over 20 percent of the workers actively avoid the office due to continuing maintenance problems.

Undoubtedly, something needs to change to get people ready to (and even excited to) work from the office again. Here are three changes we can find in successful firms, all of which are worth emulating.

1. Balancing Privacy and Collaboration

Call it the COVID effect or a general need to find peace in this increasingly stressful world, but more employees are expressing a desire for seclusion and privacy. This means that ancient office setups with long tables and workstations on either side are no longer suitable.

Many successful organizations are shifting to redesigned spaces, where people can enjoy more privacy. They are doing this by converting open space into conference rooms. Even half partitions are better than nothing.

A good way to develop a balance is to understand which activities your employees engage in for most of their day. For example, if they engage in more solo than collaborative work, your need for building secluded areas is higher. Likewise, workplaces where employees must take phone calls or attend video meetings also need a strategic rethink. 

It has become urgent to respect individual employee needs—not everyone appreciates others listening in on conversations or getting disturbed when they’re trying to do quiet brainstorming. 

The best approach is to draw up multiple use cases for your office and redesign accordingly. Additionally, it also means prioritizing the availability of meeting rooms for those who require them, without needing to wait for hours.

Consider what Logitech is trying to achieve with its new offering, the ‘Logitech Spot.’ This environmental sensor can detect micro-movements in office space, such as someone typing on their laptop. It can let people know from a distance if rooms are available and when they are likely to be. The result is much better utilization of office space and a far less disgruntled workforce.

2. Regularizing Maintenance for Office Equipment

Equipment problems often lead to unpredictable expenses for businesses. Not only are they vexing and time-consuming to resolve, but they also waste the most precious resource ever: time.

For example, heating and air-conditioning problems have always irritated office workers, creating the stereotype of the chilly conference room. A 2025 research study published in Building and Environment found that temperature can impact work performance. In fact, raised temperatures start to degrade work performance after an hour, particularly for skilled tasks.

Many organizations also struggle to maintain equipment like printers and scanners. Either they run out of toner or a jarring, continuous noise agitates people throughout the day. This can be particularly troublesome for businesses that involve substantial paperwork, such as finance and creative solutions.

Seemingly mundane problems like these can easily become insurmountable in cities undergoing sudden and substantial business growth. 

For example, Fortune reports that Miami has become a hotspot for many large corporations, with giants like JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Oracle planning offices in Florida’s balmy city. To match this pace of growth, the entire ecosystem must evolve in step, from printers and copiers Miami businesses can depend on to service providers for HVAC maintenance.

Accelerated Business Solutions recommends drafting a maintenance plan for core equipment, so that unexpected bills don’t catch you unaware. Opting for full-service partners who sell, service, and repair equipment can be both convenient and sustainable as a business grows.

3. Integrating AI to Automate Office Admin Tasks

The office upkeep arena has also joined the AI bandwagon, unearthing new avenues to leverage artificial intelligence for productivity and efficiency gains. The possibilities are rich, from automating administrative tasks like restocking the pantry to predicting future demand for logistical services. More businesses are now realizing these possibilities greedily.

Employee assistance is one area benefiting immensely from AI interventions. A McKinsey report notes that GenAI is increasing the performance of less experienced staff through virtual agents and automated troubleshooting. For example, new employees can have their onboarding queries addressed instantly and find support for upskilling and training. No need to run around hassled office administrators to get the keys for your drawers.

AI is also proving useful in supporting employees with policy-related questions. These tools can quickly summarise complex documents and highlight the key takeaways. That way, you will know precisely how to approach a grievance of incorrectly marked attendance. Or a coworker stealing your lunch sandwich, for that matter.

As more businesses adapt these use cases to enrich their offices, one can hope to see an improvement in employee motivation and performance. In many cases, the admin and HR teams have started working more closely together to implement necessary changes.

Office administration can easily be sidelined in a bid to outdo competitors, focusing only on growth opportunities at the cost of everyday workers’ convenience. In a post-COVID world, where professionals well understand the bonuses of remote work, businesses must work harder to build a lucrative value proposition for working from the office.