Corporate Travel Agencies: Does it Make Sense to Use Them?

Some companies use a travel agency to set up business trips. Some don't. I happen to use a travel agency which (full disclosure) I also happen to love. My company's travel agent seriously rocks - she's so knowledgeable and helpful, and really gives me peace of mind that everything is in order for our company's travel needs.

However, I am a big believer in reviewing procedures and vendors periodically to make sure we are still using good strategies. I'm not into changing things willy nilly for no good reason, but sometimes change is good. Other times it's good to confirm that what you're doing is already awesome.

In the case off travel, some parties at my company (including my boss) were wondering if we could save time and/or money by skipping the travel agency and booking things internally. This is certainly a fair thing to wonder, since there is a fee we pay every time we book a trip through our travel agency, and since there is a delay of varying length between when I submit a request and when I receive the reply from the agent. There are other cons, and pros as well. Here are the factors I recommend weighing when determining if a travel agency is a good choice for a given company.

When determining if a travel agency is a good choice for the company, here are some things to consider:

Basic Factors to Consider:

• How many trips you'll have to set up. This is key to determining the time commitment that would be needed to set up the trip internally.
• What kind of travelers you are setting up trips for. Are your coworkers savvy travelers who need little support to get from here to there, comfortable with handling the occasional chaos that my come up when traveling themselves? Do they just send you the flights and hotel they want and have you book it? These types of travelers are good candidates to book yourself. It also may make sense to book travel yourself if you have just a few travelers and need to be keeping close track of their schedules anyway. If, however, there are travelers who have to change their reservations several times, request several rounds of multiple flight schedule and hotel options before booking, are likely to need help in-the-moment when things get off-track on their trips, or do a lot of international travel to cities you are not familiar with, or if there are just a lot of people who travel for the company, the support of a travel agency can be quite helpful.
• If you have time to set up the trips and manage any travel-related administrative work. It may seem quick and easy to go online and book airline tickets. However there are many other tasks involved in managing company travel such as managing rewards points, keeping track of travel expenses, and sorting out visa logistics if you have international travel to set up, not to mention cancelling and rebooking reservations as needed. Time yourself to see how long it would take you  to set up a basic trip, so you can use this data to calculate the approximate time you'd need to book travel internally.
• How likely are you and your coworkers to benefit from travel agency travel expertise and perks. The travel agency we use offers after-hours service, a monthly newsletter with useful travel industry updates and news, monthly travel and cost reports broken down by department, some special rates on hotels, and probably others I'm not thinking of at the moment! The travel agent also has a whole bag of tricks for booking travel, including using fake returns and vacation packages to save on costs. Of course the travel agent also spends his or her days steeped in booking travel, and has ready answers to many questions the rest of us (at least those of us who don't travel frequently) would probably have to research to come up with answers to.
• Do you have an excellent travel agent/agency available. Obviously this is key - if you can't rely on your travel agency, it is usually better to go without, or switch services!

Pros to Consider:

• When you can just submit requests to the travel agent and s/he will do all the leg work, it saves the company time. If you are very busy, this is awesome. 
• A travel agency can manage all of your business travel rewards points accounts for you, and recommend good times to use them.
• If you have any international travel, their time and expertise is valuable. Visas can be complicated to arrange for, not to mention the further complication of booking international flights and all of their seating and scheduling options. Plus, international trips often require more research, booking hotels in other countries whose language you may or may not know...again, this could take a lot of time to do internally.
• Agencies generally have after hours service for mid-trip mishaps/changes – this service quality will vary between agencies; the one I use happens to be excellent.
•  Expert opinions, recommendations, answers to questions.
•  They come up with Delta Vacations packages and other cost-saving options for us
•  Many travel agencies produce and provide monthly travel reports, and often travel industry newsletter with travel advisories and industry updates.
•  Many travel agencies get special hotel (and other) pricing.
•  Travel agency will often take responsibility for booking errors if applicable (this is an extremely rare eventuality in my experience).

Cons to Consider

• Agency fees. The agency I use charges a flat rate per trip. This includes all of the reservations, including any rebooking that may be needed.
• There may be a delay between the submission of the request and getting something booked, resulting in a price jump or in flights or hotel rooms no longer being available.This delay will vary with different agencies, and depending on how many requests they are responding to. The delay will have more impact for travelers who are wont to book at the last minute.
• In my experience, backup agents aren’t always as awesome as our main agent, which sometimes results in confusion or delays (in the case of my company, I suspect the issues would be similar or worse when an internal resource responsible for booking travel had time off).
• May not get best pricing for flights. This has been suggested by some of our employees, however in my research for the review we did not encounter the problem. When I did have time to check, often the travel agent had better pricing. This is worth checking out on your own and comparing what you find vs. what your travel agent finds (if you have an agent currently).

Now that you've considered all of that...

• Make an estimate of how many trips are booked, on average, per week or month.
• Time yourself to see how long it would take you to book a trip with no complications. Consider how much extra time may be required for rebooking and other additional time commitments, based on the types of travelers you would be supporting.
• Calculate the amount of time it would take to book internally, and determine if you have that much time available.
• Calculate the cost of booking internally based on the time you'd spend and your wage and compare it to the cost of the agency fees.

 Now that you have all this data and information, hopefully it will be relatively clear to you which approach will work better for you and your company. If your findings suggest a change in procedure, it's time to plan that transition!

One other thing to keep in mind is that if, in theory, it seems like a travel agency would be helpful for your business situation but using an agent hasn't worked out for you in the past, it is worth getting recommendations for other agencies and trying them out. There is good service out there, waiting to be found!


Good luck and enjoy sending your coworkers (and potentially yourself!) around the country and/or world!

Sticky Notes Experiment Update!

I am pleased to be able to post this update on the experiment on sticky note quality that I have been conducting since November 15, 2011. The good news is that all of the notes that were in still the running in my earlier post are still sticking stalwartly to my whiteboard! The other good news is that I have now added two new brands of sticky notes to the experiment! One of them, Sparco, already surpassed the performance of the lowest-performing note, which only stayed up for 23 days (lame). The second new addition, Corporate Express, also looks promising after 20 days in the race - no up-curled corners yet!

I found these sticky notes around the office, and I don't know their ages, so I was planning to be somewhat forgiving if they fell down quickly. For all I know they are years and years old! However, so far they are performing admirably. Here is an updated photo of the sticky note experiment area of my whiteboard:

Sticky notes in it for the long haul - the last note still hanging wins!

To read about my methodology for this experiment, check out my first post on the topic here.

And now, without further ado, here are the updated results:

Updated Sticky Note Experiment Results
3M Post-It - 11/15/11-Present - 16 Months, 10 Days (and counting)
Staples - 8/20/12-Present - 7 Months, 5 Days (and counting)
Sparco - 2/15/13-Present - 1 Months, 10 Days (and counting)
Corporate Express - 3/5/13-Present - 20 Days (and counting) 
Business Source - 11/15/11-12/8/11 - 23 Days
 
Based on my results so far, I may eventually have to let go of my original hypothesis that only Post-Its can get the job done to my satisfaction. That sticky note also has a major head start over the others still in the running, though, due to the staggered posting dates of the contenders, so we will see how this plays out over the long run.

May the best sticky note win!

Thanks for visiting, and please post your thoughts on sticky notes in the comments. Happy Monday everyone!   

How to Set Up an Awesome Lactation Room

In this day and age, every office needs a place for nursing moms to pump for their babies!

I need milk!

 
As a former working/nursing mom, I can personally attest to the value of having a good area I knew I could use for this purpose. Nursing moms work for different reasons and have different feelings about it, but they all have one thing in common: They need and appreciate a comfortable and safe place to pump! This will make it much easier for them to balance work and family.

A space for nursing moms to pump needs these features:

• Privacy.
• Cleanliness. 
• Electrical Outlet.
• Table/Cabinet and Chair.
• Ease of Scheduling.
• Bonus: Space Heater, Sink and/or Fridge.

 Got it? Good! Go ahead and set it up. No? Here are some more details:

Privacy

Good options for a private space include anyplace a woman can be alone and shut and lock the door. If she has her own office (without windows to the general office, or with windows she can cover up) she is set. However, even if your current resident nursing mom is in this situation, chances are in the future someone else will need to pump who doesn't have an individual office there. Viable choices for a lactation room include: A dedicated room for nursing moms (especially if you are at a larger company), a conference room, somebody else's office (in a pinch), a storage area with sufficient space and comfort, even an IT closet if it is big enough. Not viable: the bathroom (even if it is a single stall, no nursing mom should have to pump in the room where people do their bathroom business. That's gross). Also not viable: anywhere garbage is stored or anywhere with traffic that can't be cut off as needed. Hopefully that is obvious!

Cleanliness

Hopefully this is obvious too! This is baby food being made, so anyplace full of dust, grime, bad smells or contamination of any kind is a bad choice. Once you have a decent space, clean it up nicely and leave some Clorox wipes (or similar) in there so the mom(s) can sanitize as needed.

Electrical Outlet

Most women who pump milk regularly will be using an electrical pump. This is not only easiest, in general, it is also most efficient. In addition, the mom may be able to pump while using her laptop, which makes pumping time productive time for work too. Bonus!

Table/Cabinet and Chair

The nursing mom will need a comfortable seat and a table or counter to put her equipment and reading material/laptop/other projects on. If there is a cabinet or similar where she can leave her pump and accessories, that is good, but if not, it's not the end of the world.

Ease of Scheduling

Plan on a space that will available 1-3 times per day, per mom, for 15-30 minutes each session, depending on the needs of the mom. Keep in mind that timing needs vary from woman to woman and even day to day. If the milk is coming slowly she may need more time that day - and trust me, she is not doing it on purpose! She just needs to be able to take the time needed to get enough food to feed her baby. This is a strong argument for having a dedicated space, or a space that doesn't need to be scheduled for anybody else's work or meetings. Usually the pumping schedule will become quite regular, so several nursing moms can work out a schedule for the room among themselves. Some are even comfortable pumping together. Negotiating with coworkers for use of a meeting space at regular times throughout the day can be a lot more difficult, depending on how flexible the coworkers and meeting requirements are.

Bonus Features: Space Heater, Sink and/or Fridge

Space Heater - This is really nice, especially in a cold office. Pumping is easiest when you're comfortable and relaxed, and it's hard to be comfortable or relaxed when freezing cold! Easy pumping = fast pumping (for most), and that is good for the moms and the employer.

Sink - Pump pieces have to be washed thoroughly and often. Most moms will do whatever they have to do to make sure this happens (use the sink in the break area or kitchen, for example), but a sink in the lactation lounge is the easiest, most discreet way to take care of the cleaning, and therefore awesome.

Fridge - It's possible to keep milk in a personal cooler stocked with ice packs, but it is best to keep it refrigerated if possible. This ensures the longest shelf life and lowest risk of going bad. Some moms are comfortable stashing the expressed milk in a break room fridge, but a small separate fridge in a secluded area is great for the peace of mind that comes with knowing your baby's food won't be contaminated, spilled or messed with in any way. Just make sure people know nothing else should be stored there!

Now you're ready!

Get ready for nursing moms to love working at your office. Pumping worries can weigh heavily on new moms returning to work, and a fabulous lactation room will go a long way in helping them with the transition. On behalf of working nursing moms, thanks for the support!


Additional info can be found at these links:

http://www.corporatevoices.org/lactation
http://www.kathryntyler.com/got_milk.htm
http://www.breastpumpsdirect.com/establishing_a_corporate_lactation_program_a/149.htm

Six Useful Things to do on a Slow Day at the Office

We all have those days that show up, sometimes out of nowhere, when all of a sudden we're all caught up on everything [or maybe just everything important] and we're wondering what to do with the time on our hands. Let me tell you, January has not had a single day like that for me, but it sure has gotten me fantasizing about what I could do if I did have some time on my hands! And if I ever get through the big and urgent projects that seem to be cropping up every day, I will!

1. Make the world a prettier place. Or at least, the office.
Today may be a good day to take a stroll around the office and just check out the way things look. Is there a counter that the cleaners aren't dusting for some reason? Maybe there's an odd-looking corner that you'll notice would look awesome with a plant (or something) in it. There could be a random stack of empty boxes that can be put away or recycled. Perhaps the paint is faded across from the window, or some clown has been putting his footprint on the wall, and it's time to call in the contractor to touch up the paint. I work in an old building, with a lot of creative people, so there is always something interesting to find! I imagine it is similar most places there are people.

2. Cut back on work you'll have to do in the future. Specifically, mail you have to sort.
If mail is one of the things you manage, updating mailing lists is a great use of time (though not always exciting, unfortunately). Put a box in the mail area, and whenever someone gets mail from a mailing list they don't need to be on, have them toss it in the box. Then, when you're bored, contact the companies and get everybody off of the mailing lists and address sharing lists. In a few months, there will be a lot less mail! That means less work for everybody, sifting through it all. Plus, it's good for trees. Awesome!

3. Improve filing systems.
Sometimes this is just useful, especially if you've inherited a few different filing systems like I did. My predecessor used a system that seemed pretty normal and intuitive to me (I love the illustrations she made on file folder tabs), with vendor agreements and other key documents filed in chronological order. However the folders were grouped illogically, according to me (not to her, I'm sure!), so I had to move those puppies around so I could find things quicker. My predecessor's predecessor meticulously printed off everything she'd ever need to know and put it in binders in plastic page protectors. It was an amazing, informative system, which was too much information for me to look through most of the time, especially considering it was getting pretty outdated by the time it reached my custody. Plus, I wanted the relevant info combined with my predecessor's files so I all the details I may need to reference would be together. I've made progress on this, but files may be one of those ongoing things that pretty much always go on. Getting them in better order can be a great use of time. (This includes computer files!)


4. Update your job instructions.
Things can change a lot over a few months! It might be a good time to make sure you don't have outdated information in your job instructions, and that anything new you've taken on is duly outlined. Speaking of which...

5. Ask for more responsibility!
Particularly if you consistently have free time, letting people know you have time available and would love to work on ____ and/or ____ can be great for them and for you - now, and potentially down the road as well! win-win.

6. Learn something new.
Hopefully you're already totally appreciated! You have been working so hard you got everything done and have some time to spare - nice! However, in this world there is always room for improvement, which - bonus! - can translate to a better work future. If time allows, you can watch videos on YouTube teaching v-lookup (this is at the top of my list of things to learn) and other handy tricks in Excel, PowerPoint, etc. Or, research a field you'd like to learn more about and possibly grow into down the road. Or, for those of us working with businesses in complicated, technical fields, learn about the industry, its trends, what all the words tossed around at company meetings mean, etc. Probably you can think of other work-related things to study up on or practice.


These are just some ideas! There are pretty much always things to do I've found. If you have any "slow day" administrative initiatives to add, feel free to leave them in the comments!

"Office Manager" and Other Admin Job Titles

Job titles for administrative positions are always interesting, because there is so much of "doing what is needed" in any administrative position. For that reason, people with the same job title at different companies may have only a small percentage of their job duties in common - even if their job descriptions are similar! Or they may have job duties normally associated with another job title. Often, one company's "Receptionist" is another company's "Office Manager", "HR Assistant", "Administrative Assistant", even "Executive Assistant"...or possibly a different title! Of course there are levels of experience and expertise implied, as well as tasks and responsibilities that are generally categorized into each position, but the overlap can still be quite striking.

Confession time: "Office Manager" isn't my official job title. But wait! Before you accuse me of fraud, allow me to point out that much of my job covers duties traditionally taken care of by the office manager. When people at my company introduce me, they often say, "Basically, she's the office manager." My company gave me the title "Operations Administrator" (a title I definitely like) because, my supervisor and the VP of HR explained, I don't technically manage any people, and because the duties encompassed in my roll include so many things that don't fit in the basic list of office manager duties.

Fair enough.

But for my blog, I wanted to use a blog title that would be easily recognizable as covering the types of things I address: running the office and the life of an admin. "Office Manager" seemed to capture it best. I'm not claiming it's my official job title, but it's my function more often than not!

(Thank goodness I got that off my chest!)

Here are the Office Manager and Senior Office Manager job descriptions from OfficeTeam's Salary Guide (which I highly recommend checking out - it drills down average salaries by job description and geographic location. How well are you being paid? Knowledge is power!):

 

Here's the take on office manager job titles on officemanagerblog.com.

I do a lot of the things listed, and many others besides!

How about you? What's your job title? Are you "Office Manager", officially or functionally?


That's it for now. Happy Monday, have a great week!

The Best Sticky Notes: Experiment

Let's get right down to business here and address a very important item in the office: sticky notes. They are so small, and yet so critical; often subtle nearly to the point of invisibility if they are doing their work, while being a source of exasperation if they don't do their work and begin to fall down before you were ready to be through with the note! And at other times they are the star of the show, depending on what use they're being put to. So it is clearly important to have quality sticky notes! Bad sticky notes that fall down too soon make me crazy. We should not have to reinforce sticky notes with tape y'all! (Sticky notes in weird colors is a whole 'nother issue, which I will sidestep for the sake of brevity.)

I don't know about you, but I am always getting office supplies sales reps contacting me who think they can save my company money. One of the ways they think they can save money for us is by selling us their off-brand sticky notes. By the time I was an office manager and responsible for making sticky note decisions for dozens of people, I'd already noticed that some of them just suck, so I was skeptical. 3M's Post-Its always stood out to me in terms of quality, but I decided to get scientific about it. If I'm going to make a far-reaching decision like this (ha!) I like to do it with evidence on my side! Some of the other brands are cheaper, so I wanted to be sure that, if I spent extra for top-of-the-line sticky notes it would be worth it!

So when one office supplies rep gave me a free sample of some non-3M sticky notes, I decided to test them to see just how long they would stick. I did the test with two notes initially: 3M Post-Its and the Business Source sticky notes the rep was trying to tell me were a "good alternative". I used the 3x3 inch size of each. I stuck one of each on my cube wall, which is fabricy, and one of each on a clean area of my white board. For my methodology, I was allowed to press the notes back down if the corners started to peel up, but otherwise I didn't interfere at all (no moving the notes, water tests, etc.).

The notes stuck on the fabric both fell down pretty quickly, so I didn't get any good data there. The good data came from the sticky notes on my whiteboard. After a few months I got another free sample and decided to add it to the mix. It's not totally scientific, but I figured it would still give me good information!

Sticky Notes Test

Results
Business Source - 11/15/11-12/8/11 - 23 Days
3M Post-It - 11/15/11-Present - 13 Months, 24 Days (and counting)
Staples - 8/20/12-Present - 4 Months, 18 Days (and counting)

As I suspected, 3M and their Post-Its are a clear winner. I was somewhat surprised, though, that the Staples branded notes are also doing well! The Business Source notes stuck for a paltry three weeks and two days, definitely unimpressive. I'll grant that there is a possibility I just got a bad batch (this was a small-scale study, obviously), but still. I call shenanigans on the claim that these would be a quality alternative to 3M's Post-Its!

How about you, have you done any sticky-note testing, scientifically or unscientifically? I'd love to hear about it!

I'll be sure to keep you posted (haha!) if one of these sticky notes falls down or if I get any other samples to add into the race.

Update: I posted an update on this ongoing experiment here!

Slightly Wise

I've been an office manager for a little over two years now, and I worked in admin for a handful of years before that. I find that as an office manager (and to an extent, an admin in general), I am called upon to be competent in an incredibly wide range of tasks. Some of them I totally know all about, and some of them are a surprise on the day I hear/figure out that I need to address them! While there is definitely some drudgery involved in any job, admin work is full of nuance and odd expertise and can be really fun and interesting. Some of the work is incredibly specific to the company and/or office, while some is transferable wisdom and expertise, not only to other jobs, but also to personal endeavors. I have learned a lot from my predecessors, research and straight up trial-and-error experience, so I thought it would be fun to share some of what I figure out on the internet. I am also well aware that there is plenty left in front of me to figure out! Hopefully my perspectives will help some other admins to navigate new interesting questions that come up in their jobs, or else amuse folks who are way more savvy than I am on some of these topics. I hope you'll weigh in in the comments section when you have something relevant to add!
-A Slightly Wise Office Manager