Whom do your co-workers look up to more, you or your boss? According to a recent Randstad survey, employees said that besides their parents, their co-workers were the most influential people in their lives.

Benefits consultant Ken Stahlmann spells out three keys to creating crowd-pleasing employee-recognition awards:

You can't do much in Excel if you store dates and times as text. When you store them as numbers, though, endless possibilities exist.

Size matters when it comes to planning events. For smaller events, you can go solo. But for larger ones, it takes a committee, a nod from management and a zinger of a spreadsheet for keeping tasks and timelines on track. To help you track the details, try this sample checklist adapted from Midwest Meetings:

“Write this down in the minutes,” demands a board meeting attendee, implying that his clout alone should be reason enough for you to do what he says, right or wrong. In such a situation, you could use minute-taking standards.

When a VIP comes to your office, how do you dole out extra-special treatment? Being friendly and responsive is the key to treating VIPs, says Peter Post, Emily Post's great-grandson and author of The Etiquette Advantage in Business. Here's Post's advice on how to practice guest etiquette:

Here’s some help on setting priorities when more than one person is clamoring for your attention “yesterday”:

Reduce the odds that a conversation will bog down when people take things too personally by avoiding statements that begin with “you.” ... Learn how you can add more value at the office by conducting your own “listening tour.”... Stay current on technology by signing up for free e-newsletters. ...

A growing number of Americans are going back to the land, growing vegetable gardens in backyards, schoolyards and even traffic circles. So it shouldn’t surprise you to hear that employees are spending their lunch hours and breaks digging in employee gardens.

At Progress Energy’s quarterly “compliments and concerns” meeting, senior administrative assistant Amy Finelli uses a template for minute taking. As a result, she can quickly send out notes after the meeting “because I don’t have to figure out how to organize the topics,” she says. Here are a few more of Finelli’s power tools for meetings:

Company size isn’t important when it comes to saving money in little ways. Here are five practical ways to watch those workplace pennies: 1. Reduce delivery fees. 2. Cut overnight shipping. 3. Look for group discounts. 4. Turn off the lights. 5. Consolidate your suppliers ...

With more than 200 other administrative assistants in her building, Ilja Kraag sees admins working away in their “own little boxes,” independently figuring out how to tackle tasks that an admin at the next desk may have mastered long ago. So she decided to share some of her “best practices,” especially for common tasks, such as scheduling meetings.

Transform your next big event into an opportunity to give back to people in need. Here’s how to touch the lives of others after the party’s over:

Consumers are hanging on tightly to every penny. One main cost they’re skimping on: their own health care—a move that experts say will lead to sicker Americans and higher health care costs down the road for U.S. employers. Here are three ways your organization can keep workers focused on their health even as they skimp on other expenses.

What exactly is a tickler file, and what’s the best way to use one? We liked the answer one administrative assistant, Bonnie, gave on our online forum, Admin Pro Forum.

You’ve tried sending out memos, putting up posters and issuing gentle reminders, but nothing keeps employees from leaving their extra papers behind at the copier. You feel like a den mother, constantly cleaning up after everyone. What’s the best way to get people to change their habits? Change their environment.

Chip away at a paper pile by first flipping the stack upside down, so the oldest material is on top. It’s easier to toss out old things. Break down a large pile into one-inch piles. Attack the first one-inch pile by reviewing each piece and asking these four questions:

Make Adobe Reader remember where you left off, as well as your selected zoom and pan settings ... Improve daily planning by being specific on your to-do list ... Expect a VIP visitor at the office? Use this tactic from Darienne Page, receptionist for President Obama’s Oval Office ...

If you develop a reasonable retention policy and follow through by regularly deleting information you don’t need, chances are an employee later won’t be able to say you intentionally interfered with the ability to present a legal case ...

Two online tools to help you manage schedules when everyone isn’t on the same calendar system: Meeting Agent and Shiftboard.

Meetings can be brutally boring. They can be too frequent, too long and too unproductive. You may think you can’t do anything to make a meeting more efficient and results-oriented—you aren’t the person leading it, right? But Amy Henderson, Henderson Training Inc., believes you can do a lot to influence a meeting.

In this troubled economy, it’s especially important to ensure your team remains competitive. An audit can help you determine if you are operating at peak productivity. Begin by asking your employees two questions:

How many times have you come up with a more efficient way to accomplish something and wished you could quickly share it with co-workers? You can with collaborative tech tools, says Richard Laermer, media consultant and author of Punk Marketing.

Since employees began using checklists in Michigan hospitals, the infection rate has gone down by two-thirds. Could a checklist help you reduce errors or streamline a recurring task?

Give those URLs a trim ... Show your e-mail skills by avoiding supersize attachments ... Use the subject line to identify different categories of e-mail ... Feel more rejuvenated after a summer vacation by coming home on a Saturday ...