BÀI GIẢNG DẠNG VĂN BẢN (SCRIPT)

Môn học: Nghiệp vụ văn phòng

CHAPTER 1: A COMPREHENSIVE LOOK AT OFFICE SKILLS AND OFFICE

WORK
Topic 1: Office and office layout

Slide Description
Hello everyone. Today we will start chapter 1, the very first chapter of the whole course-
A comprehensive look at office skills and office work . This chapter will provide
you with some basic definitions regarding office, office work, related skills, office
layout, office organization, more importantly the roles of office work and activities in the
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business operation. You will see, at the glance, the way and common practices currently
applied in every business, big and small, from then on, understand what to do to adapt
yourself in ever-changing business environment, with the upcoming trends in all aspects
of office.
At the end of the chapter, you will be able to:
- understand thoroughly the coverage of office work, office organization, its significance
in daily office operation.
- distinguish types of office in modern business world. In terms of language use, you can
2 find some synonymous business terms or phrases, hence, become more professional in
presenting verbally your ideas in business settings.
- identify the related jobs with the exact business naming and required behaviors, skills,
characteristics. You can use these kinds of understanding to reflect yourself and have
clearer career orientation, better decision making in your work and life.
In order to reach the objectives stated previously, we will study further the 3 main topics:
- Topic 1: contemporary definition of office, its characteristics, and its importance in
business operation of a company, types of office and the future trend, and office
layout
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- Topic 2: office work and its characteristics, types of jobs related to office works,
required quality, skills, and characteristics
- Topic 3: office organization, organizational chart, job arrangement, business
manual, and work procedure
4 Now we go in to topic 1: Office and office layout
One basic and foremost thing is surely the definition. For the time being, modern office
 is regarded as a place where business transaction or operation is carried on and the
control mechanism of the organization is located.
From the definition, we can infer that office is the nerve center and brain of the business
enterprise, where all types of information are received and handled. People, employees
for exact, gather here, joining many kinds of business activities (transaction, service,
production, accounting…) with various information communicated around for the sake
of the company, to reach the strategic goals. Moreover, all business transactions or
professional services are available and systematic with given procedures and regulations.
5 It is clearly seen that office - the place to work, with the interference of advanced
technology, has become more sophisticated than ever before. Typically, there are 5
prominent features of modern office.
- Access to new technologies: office staff cannot work efficiently without the support of
WIFI connection, new apps, the latest software, the best hardware-many companies
always try to find initiatives with technological support to reduce costs, increase profits
and optimize their operational process. All employees, in general, have to learn and
involve themselves to be more skillful and have more expertise in order to be productive
and successful in their work.
- Sustainability: nowadays, companies do not only focus on production or sole trading
for explicit profits. They have to adapt quickly to new business approaches, including
commitment to reducing their environmental impact, engaging DOB in CSR and
conducting their business ethically (paperless office, green marketing, morale boosting,
charity and so on).
- The freedom of mobility: As mentioned earlier, office is the place where people can
gather and focus on their work. It does not mean that we have rigidly stay at the office
for a whole day. Many companies have given their employees the freedom to work, more
flexible time frame, when and where they want providing that deadlines are met. It has
been found that they will feel happier and more motivated and productive. Even with
meeting, today, video conferencing is more and more widespread across many countries
and used by many companies.
- A collaborative workspace: we all know that when we are a part of a company,
whatever it is, we have to work in team, big or small, more or less. So, it’s about
collaboration, creativity and agility to have things done in a timely manner.
Collaboration has become an important part in any manual, team work procedures,
contributing to the formation and reinforcement of corporate culture. Many companies
are designing office layout and organizing their work spaces to promote and exploit the
advantages of this feature. It is a fact that in a collaborative environment, workers have
more freedom and incentives to interact. For collectivism cultures, employees, as well as
the management board pay special attention to this feature in all processes of office
 operation.
- Healthy incentives: health and hygiene conditions are of vital importance that many
people concern most. If the work place is well organized and provides the employees
with healthy physical conditions, they will become healthier and thus, work more
effectively and efficiently. Giant Google used be ranked No 1 in offering its employees
many benefits such as healthy snack options to building an on-site gym, a number of
perks that encourage employees to make healthy choices throughout their workday.
Office is a place for all business transactions to take place. More specifically, office is
used to:
To preserve all the records of the business. All the data, information of all business
records should be saved, retained to track the progress or used as evidence for past
transactions.
To handle incoming and outgoing correspondences. Every day, there is bulk of emails,
letters, books, reports, quotations, capacity profiles, customer portfolio coming in and
out. There should be some employees mainly in charge to handle to avoid the risk of
missing or loss.
To plan the policies of the business and ensure their implementation. This is a place
where the management and stakeholder prepare, approve and launch policies of all kinds
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(HRM, production practices, pay scales, and communication protocol). in order to
monitor and evaluate the compliance, all the staff should be at the office and stick to the
given policies for proper action and attitudes.
To direct and co-ordinate the activities of various departments. A company includes
various departments (accounting, marketing, sales, production, services, R & D, admin,
procurement and so on). Their activities are not separated. They are in multi-direction
interaction. Managers of all levels can instruct, monitor, coordinate for better
performances.
To maintain accounts, statutory and non-statutory documentation of the business. All
formal ( following the laws, regulations) and informal (unofficial, contingent documents
or evidences) document, records should be retained and control properly at the office.
7 In the previous slide, we see that offices are used for many purposes. Besides, it plays a
very important role in all business operations today. The abovementioned purpose cannot
be reached if there is no physical existence of an office. Although the technology is more
advanced, many virtual offices come into existence, many people and companies still
prefer face-to-face meetings or interactions to get data directly and gain intangible
benefits that seem not to be derived from technological support. And if there is no brick
and mortar office, nowhere can people see and work together to reach the ultimate goals
of an enterprise.
Moreover, a well-organized office makes it possible for management to plan its operation
 intelligently to appraise the results and coordinate all the activities of the business to
reach their strategic goals.
And it can be seen that a business enterprise today cannot face challenges such as
competition and legal matters without the assistance of a well-organized office.
Therefore, a virtual office is always used in combination with a physically real one.
Modern offices are built up and maintain to fulfill 02 functions: basic and administrative
management one.
Basic function includes receiving, recording and archiving the files, information, data. As
in business, everything should be formalized in writing, to serve and facilitate all
8 business transactions. It also involves information arrangement and giving, handing over
documents of all types (invoices, payrolls, cost accounting statements, statistical
statements, and reports, orders, estimates, invoices, progress reports, statements of
accounts, statistical and financial statements, and instructions issued on behalf of the
management.
Regarding administrative management functions, people in the office, especially the
management, have to perform the following functions:
Management function
Public relations function
Institute office systems and routines
Retention of record
Safeguarding assets
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Form designing and control
Stationery and supplies control
Selection and purchase of office appliance
Personnel function
Controlling of office cost.
==> They are all about managerial activities. In the state-owned company, these are also
the functions of the administrative office manager.
10 All offices nowadays are supposed to cover both functions. There should be a consensus
and small training to ensure the uniformity of the following activities:
Processing incoming and outgoing correspondence.
Maintenance of records (Filing and Indexing).
Establishing standard at office work.
Designing and procuring at office forms, stationery etc.
Recruitment and training of office staff.
Maintenance of furniture, machines, appliances etc.
Preparation of statements, emails, reports, letters etc.
 Maintenance of accounts and other financial records.
Handling telephone calls and enquiry.
Preparing update information for the whole firm.
Arranging the data in a quickly and accessible form for use.
Safeguarding the assets.
Keeping a prompt and accurate handling of enquiry orders etc.
Maintaining efficient flow of work in the office
These activities are very popular in all businesses and there are respective procedures
embedded in corporate manuals, which will be studied further later.
All above activities take place in all kinds of offices, which can be classified in to
following groups based on the main functions of the department:
Front office: including either marketing, or sales, or service dept
Middle office: referring to financial/ accounting depts
E-office: with the use of individual computers, software application, LAN…
The virtual office: implies space utilization, but a full application includes professional
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live communication of tele conferencing
Back office: including production Dept, R & D, HR, procurement
Paperless office: work environment in which the use of paper is greatly reduced

Green office: sustainability office, all operation policies and layout arrangement is
0B

headed to the benefit of the employees and social, natural environment.

Whatever types of office it may be, office activities have undergone a tremendous
change due to industrialization and advancement in science and technology.
Today offices are more organized and are managed by qualified and expert managers.
Job requirements for office work is higher and higher to enable the company to cope with
the following challenges:
- Reduction in paper work, to become paperless and eventually, green office
- Complying with requirements of the government rules as the law stipulating terms and
regulations relating this field is more sophisticated and demanding
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- Office operation cost is kind of fixed, overhead. Many companies today are attempting
to find the way to reduce this cost and in return, increase profits.
- Meeting the needs and requirements to mechanize the office. In many firms in
developed countries, robots and high tech machine are employed radically to replace
some positions like receptionists to reduce the pay incurred by the company.
- Employment of well qualified personnel in office for future, as it is a big challenge due
to the shortage. It is ironic that the companies cannot offer high salary for well qualified
personnel.
13 As mentioned earlier, office classification can be based on either departmental functions
 or layouts. In this slide, we will mention basically the layout definition and types of
office.
Office layout is defined as the environment in which employees work.
Office layout help determine the 02 following aspects:
- The way in which resources are placed in the office, for example: employees, desks,
equipment, design, ventilation, location
- The amount of space provided ( wide or narrow or acceptable)
Therefore, there are three types of office layout:
1. Cellular – also known as enclosed layout.
2. Open-plan – also known as flexible layout
3. Acoustic Screens or virtual Layout: kind of Combination of the advantages of both
open-plan offices and cellular offices. This kind of office layout can offer the following
advantages
• Allow natural light and ventilation
• Offer privacy where needed
• Easy to rearrange
• Allow for supervision
• Cost efficient
In terms of features:
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Cellular Office Layout: very traditional style of layout, consisting of small individual
rooms occupied by one or two people.
Open Plan Layout: consists of a large open room with no dividing walls or partitions.
• Employees from different departments work together in the same area
• Nowadays people prefer to use privacy screen/ dividers to create cubicles
- Acoustic layout (Enclosed layout flexible layout) consists of a large open room with no
dividing walls or partitions. The employees from different departments work together in
the same area. In order to give some privacy, screens/dividers are used to create cubicles
for separation. By this way, this layout can combine the advantages of both open-plan
offices and cellular offices to mitigate their disadvantages.
Each type exposes certain advantages and disadvantages, the company will decide one
out of the three types based on a certain context and financial capabilities.