Message #58914

[linzfoody]

As far as covering for people who aren't in the office, I think it's helpful to have agreements in place about who's covering for who, when and what the extent of their cover will be.  And to share the load in a fair and consistent way.

As for answering questions, etc, I think it's really important to help out - you never know what you might learn in the process!

Here at Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire, we've just completed a knowledge sharing project called "good admin practice" which has pulled together good practice across a range of admin duties, such as providing reception services, diary management, email management (of both your own and your boss's accounts), purchasing, producing documents, using office equipment, providing project support, handling mail, etc.

There is loads of info available both corporately and within individual Service areas, and this project has drawn it together from an administrator's point of view.  One of the ways we captured good practice was by creating an Admin User Group which has reps from all the different Service areas in the Council.  The Group has met quarterly since September 2004 and at the meetings we share good practice, discuss admin related issues, review the guidance we have put together as part of the project.  Now the project has ended, we have moved in the maintenance phase; each of the 11 guides produced will be review annually - the Admin User Group will be central to that.

We are now applying the tools and techniques used in the Good Admin Practice Project within other knowledge sharing projects in the Council.

If anyone's interested in knowing more, please get in touch with me at lindsay.foody@kirklees.gov.uk