Compared

Hobfolk or an office manager?

You are a small firm that makes or builds things. The paperwork has outgrown the evenings you spend on it. You are choosing between hiring someone and using Hobfolk. Here is how they compare, including the cases where hiring is the better choice.

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The short answer

Hire an office manager if you need one person in the building who handles people, post, phones and a bit of everything. Use Hobfolk if the pain is a specific pile of repeated paperwork, such as enquiries, chasing replies or RAMS and O&M documents, and you want it done at night and at weekends without recruiting. Some firms do both.

Plain terms

What each one is

An office manager is a person you employ. They sit in your building, know your customers, and deal with whatever lands on the day.

Hobfolk is an overnight back-office service. A desk is one office job, such as answering enquiries or keeping the job list, done by a computer system that Hobfolk builds and runs for you. It does that one job and nothing else. A team at Hobfolk sets each desk up around how your firm works and stays on the account afterwards. Anything that commits you, such as a price or a contract, is signed by a person on your side.

Side by side

Where an office manager is stronger

These are real advantages, and a desk does not have them.

They are in the building. They can take a delivery in, greet a visitor and answer the door.
They use judgement across everything. A phone call, an awkward customer and a late delivery from a supplier can all land on the same afternoon, and one person can weigh them against each other.
They build relationships. Customers and suppliers learn their name and trust them.
They can be asked anything. A desk does one job. A person can be handed a job nobody planned for.
They can manage people. If you want somebody to look after a small team, that is a person's job.

Side by side

Where a desk is stronger

These are the cases where a desk fits better than a hire.

It works when the office is closed. An enquiry that arrives at ten at night or on a Sunday is read and answered, not left until Monday.
It does not take holiday, and it does not leave. The work goes on through summer and through a resignation.
It is built for volume. A pile of repeated paperwork, such as a RAMS for every job or an O&M manual for every handover, is the kind of work it does without tiring of it.
You do not recruit. There is no advert, no interview round and no notice period to wait out before the work starts.
You pay for a department, not a salary. The monthly price is on the pricing page, starting from £1,450 a month for one desk, with thirty days' notice either way.

When to hire

Hire an office manager if

You need someone physically in the building most days.
The work is varied and small, with no single task big enough to hand to a desk.
You want one person who knows the whole firm and can be asked anything.
Much of the job is dealing with people, on the phone or in the room.
You have the volume of work to keep a full-time person properly busy.

When a desk fits

Use Hobfolk if

The pain is one or two named jobs that keep slipping, such as enquiries waiting for a reply, suppliers not chased, or the job list out of date.
The paperwork is repeated and sits in a fixed format, such as RAMS, method statements or O&M manuals.
Enquiries arrive in the evening or at weekends, when nobody is at a desk.
You cannot justify a full-time hire, or you have hired before and the role did not hold.
You want to see the result of a month before committing further.

Both

Using a desk beside an office manager

This is not an either-or. If you already have an office manager who is buried under one repeated job, a desk can take that one job off their plate and leave them the building, the people and the judgement calls. You can start with one desk. The pricing page describes the shape.

Questions

Asked before, answered here

Is Hobfolk cheaper than hiring an office manager?

That depends on what you need done. A salary buys a person across all of the office's work, with employment costs and cover for holidays on top. A desk costs a monthly retainer and covers one job. If you need one job done well, a desk is likely to cost less. If you need someone for everything, a hire is likely to cost less than many desks.

Can Hobfolk replace the office manager I already have?

Not as a whole role. A desk does one job and does not answer the door or look after people. It can take specific repeated jobs off an office manager, such as chasing replies or writing RAMS, so that they spend their time on the work that needs a person.

What if I only need help in the evenings and at weekends?

That is where a desk fits best. Hobfolk is an overnight back office, so enquiries and paperwork are dealt with when the office is shut. A new hire for those hours would be an unusual job to fill.

Where to look next

Desk

Which job is piling up in your office?

Tell us what falls through. If a hire is the better answer, we will say so.

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