What is a back office?
As you know, an office is a large number of diversified workers working in different vacancies. And each vacancy is very important, and the company cannot do without the majority of all employees. Nevertheless, the entire office is divided among themselves not only in areas of activity.
Each office has a conditional division, which is not exactly official, but is popular among all office workers and their managers. Each office, or rather the people working in it, is divided into three conventional “offices” – the front office (which deals with clients, is responsible for receiving clients) the middle office (those who process all client data, and are responsible for the affairs of the company’s clients without at the same time with the clients themselves) and back office. The people who work in this division are directly involved in the affairs of the company, in rare cases they are in contact with people from the front and middle office. The back office includes all administrative and support staff. Interestingly, not always all three divisions of the company’s conditional office are located in the same building. Often this is really a separate office, which may be located in a different city altogether. This is done because of the rental price.
Who works in the back office?
All employees of the company who have no direct relation to working with clients and their data work in such offices. These are people who are exclusively engaged in the affairs of the company. The functions of the back office workers are economic calculations and bookkeeping, security of everything related to IT, checking compliance with all regulations, maintaining and storing company records. That is, all important information, work and data processing of a directly conditional company takes place just in the back office, when all other employees are engaged in clients and their affairs. The back office is extremely important and must be in every company.
Can young professionals work in the back office?
Most often, university graduates start their career path just from the back office. In order to get a job in the middle or even in the front office, you need to have good and extensive experience working not only with documents, but also with people and their data. And young workers get this experience just in the back office, since even the knowledge that people get at the university is enough to perform the main work that falls on the back office. This gives a great chance for college and university graduates to get a job in some insignificant position in the back office, and over time, moving up the career ladder to get a good position with a high salary. If you are studying economics, then most likely you will start your career in the back office.
Is the salary of those who work in the front office different from those who work in the back office?
Yes, it can vary due to the fact that you are doing work of a very different level and in different quantities. Also, the salary depends on the qualifications of the employee, and as we have already mentioned, back offices often take graduates who do not yet have enough experience to work in the middle or front office. But even in the back office there are highly paid employees with high salaries, and in the middle and front offices there are people with a fairly small salary. For example, a receptionist, who is classified as a front office employee, receives a much lower salary than a chief accountant, who is classified as a back office employee. In general, the salary of an employee depends on the specific case and vacancy. So do not set yourself up in advance for a particular salary, but rather study the market for such work. If you are satisfied with the terms of back office work, then you can visit layboard in to check all such vacancies in Kuwait, or any other place in which you want to find such job.
Can I work on a back office job from home?
If the company you work for provides such an opportunity, then it’s fine. Since back office workers do not work with clients, but simply manage the company’s business, they can do this from home as well. Due to the pandemic, so many people have been transferred to work from home, and today many people have remained working at home. By the way, for the employer, employees working from home are even more profitable, since renting an office costs a fairly large amount of money. Some employers even pay extra to workers who work from home to cover their rent for an apartment or house. But some employers believe that workers who work from home are less efficient and are therefore paid less. But fortunately, there are fewer such employers than adequate and understanding ones.
What is more profitable – to work for the front, middle or back office?
It depends on you personally, your skills, knowledge, work experience, education and preferences. Simply put, if you don’t get along well with people, a job in the middle or back office is more suitable for you. But if you’re good at persuading people, and you get along well with everyone, you might be able to add more value just by working in the front office.
How are the back, front and middle office connected and how do they interact?
Despite the fact that the back office and front office are essentially connected by only one company that hires employees working there, sometimes all three – back, middle and front offices solve problems together. For example, if a client has some big problems with the company, and the company is ordered to pay compensation to the affected client, this will be handled by the back office that deals with the company’s finances. Or a company representative working in the front office and selling any equipment contacts the back office employees to clarify information about the availability of goods and their price. IT specialists who also belong to the back office deal with the computers of the entire company, and marketers recommend to sales agents how to properly present the product and get it bought. And in general, any company is essentially a huge office, which can be located in different places, and is divided into several parts due to different purposes. All this helps to better organize the work of the entire company.