A commonality that most successful employers have is that they place high on their priority list the development of an organized, efficient staff, and they provide their staff the tools to be organized and efficient.  It is known by organizational experts that a highly productive, efficiently ran office has an impressive positive affect on the financial profit and loss statements

Successful employers commonly do not have a strict regimental management style.  The best ran offices provide an environment that not only encourages proficiency; it provides the foundation to assist in the attainment of a high degree of productivity.  Employees working in this kind of office atmosphere have greater self esteem, less complaints and are generally happier employees. 

Are organizing products the ultimate solution to attaining a proficient, organized office?  Some say absolutely!  While others say it certainly can be the ultimate solution, if the employer does an in-depth perusal of each employees work space, work responsibilities, and devises a plan to organize their flow of work efficiently, and then follows the plan. 

The evaluation process should begin by a visit with the employees; make them a part of planning the solution. Many employees have a great insight into how to improve the efficiency of the work load that they process each day, oftentimes more so than the employer. The evaluation plan should include a prioritized questionnaire check list; providing space for detailing what improvements are needed and a recommended solution column.  There are many elements of a thorough evaluation and only a few will be covered here.  The questionnaire evaluation list should include:

1.  Is the desktop and work area disorganized?

This is probably the number one question on the questionnaire evaluation list: if the answer is yes, the next thought should be why is it disorganized?  A highly disorganized work space may not be intentional, it may have just evolved, but nevertheless, this type of work habit is insidious.  It is costly and should be corrected.  Management has a shared responsibility to turn the disorganized employee's work area into an organized productive work space. The employee should be convinced that a desk that is in disarray, stacked with files, and loose papers is a work space that is owned by the clutter and the mess, and it's time that the employee takes it back, "Reclaims Ownership!"  Taking back ownership of their work area instills a feeling of greater self-esteem, accomplishment, confidence, control, and yes, even power.

Solution:

The entire questionnaire evaluation should be completed to determine the best solutions, fit it into the budget, and implement the plan to completion.  The immediate action needed is to get the stacks and clutter off the work area."  Label the files and place them in a file holder; a step-up-file may be the immediate best solution; the file can be placed close by and the subject matter can be visible and easily reached. Fingertip files are essential to desktop organizing.  No more sorting through the stacks looking for a file.  If the need is to create even more free work area, measure the space, study your questionnaire evaluation result and search for the space-saving products that are available that fits your needs, space and budget.  An area often ignored is the "out of sight, out of mind" under the desk storage; storing items behind or piled on top of a cabinet, or taking up space in a drawer. Usually the "out of sight, out of mind" clutter should be taken back where it belongs; should be returned to another department, taken home or it may need to be thrown away. The single most important solution to a messy desk is for the occupant of that disorganized space to take five, ten, or even 20 minutes at the end of each day and organize their desk, and if possible organize the priorities of the next day. 

2. Is the desk work area adequate?

At first glance, or an "after work hours" preview, you might think it is sufficient, but study the space during the work period. Observing the work flow usually reveals the more correct answer to this question.

Solution:

Firstly, no item should sit on a desk unless it is a necessity for it to be there. Freeing up space is a necessity to function efficiently.  There is a long list of office organizers that can free the desk of clutter, utilizing the space available more efficiently, but still keeps.....in easy reach the items that you use daily,  such as binders, files, pens, staplers and other office accessories. Desktop organizers are available in various components that can be stacked building an organizer to fit the specific space and need. A space can be further utilized by placing equipment on top of the organizer combo, creating an attractive and space saving answer to eliminating clutter.

3. How can the paper flow be managed more efficiently?

Uncontrolled paper flow is generally the lack of organizational skills or lack of organizational products to manage the flow, and it certainly is a time-waster, which is costly in any office.

Solution:

The evaluation will give a more accurate answer to management of paper flow, but some basics are to have a place for everything.... and be consistent in utilizing the designated space allocated for each.. In/Out trays are a must; a permanent home should be established for the incoming mail and where each piece goes when it's sorted, whether it be paper flow pertaining to accounts payables, accounts receivable, correspondence, purchase orders, client information, etc.  The organization plan should strive to lessen the number of times each piece of paper is handled and lessen the number of people handling each paper as well. The filing of documents should be close at hand so the staff member is not inclined to toss it in a basket to be filed later.  The basket will soon be overflowing....and needed data not easily found.  Many offices use SwingFile Trays to manage their paper flow more efficiently, however one office's paper flow may be entirely different from another and the evaluation questionnaire results and the study of products available will ensure a wise decision. 

4. How can the filing system be improved?

It is incredible how much time is lost in many offices with employees searching for a document or a file. Office personnel filing documents or searching for files should not subjected to sorting through or maneuvering around outdated files; the end result is a huge loss of time, plus, it certainly is not a good conservation of space.

Solution: 

There is a variety of filing solutions that can facilitate a large volume of filing within an office, and there is a variety of organizing products that will keep the regularly accessed files close at hand and off the desk. However, to reach the epitome of an improved filing system a planned purging of the files needs to occur as often as possible, within the respective office regulations. It is a dirty job; no one wants to do it, but it is necessity.  It may be necessary to move the files to storage.  After a five year period, only special files, like personnel files, need to be easily accessible. Five years is far too long between the purging of files. There are many reasons for purging files, storage space is only one.  Once the purging is complete the next step is to equip the office with adequate filing solutions.

There are numerous filing cabinets available from desktop cabinets to large tambour cabinets.  Binders have become a great solution for many offices and the Binder Carousels provide storage for a large number of binders and take up less space than bookcases, and are a handsome addition to an office. There are multiple filing solutions to aid in expediency of filing and retrieving files and data.  One strategy is color-coding. Color-coding can be used in several ways; some professional organizers assign each letter of the alphabet a color, which separates your drawer into the number of colors available, and some further color-code by using different colored file folders for different subjects, department, or clients, etc....  There is actually free software available on-line to help organize office color-coding.  Never sell short the visual aid of color, as people do recognize color much more quickly than reading the text on a file folder.  Almost immediately they associate the color with the subject as intended.  MagniFiles and Best Built Binders, which come in various colors, can be the foundation to build on and expand a systematic color-coded office. A word of caution; when color-coding an office, don't go off the deep end and use every hue in the color wheel. Color-coding is a valuable organization tool, if its use is well thought out and has purpose.  Only then will it be time saving, enhancing the productivity in the workplace.

5. How to more quickly access informational data?

It is stressful for an employee whose responsibility is answering the telephones and regularly has an immediate need to reference data that cannot be easily accessed and stressful for an employee when the supervisor needs information quickly and the information has gotten misplaced among the clutter.  Much time is lost when an employee is working on projects and the reference data needed is in a file across the room or can't be found; data regularly referenced should be close at hand for immediate use. 

Solution:

One, or a combination of Reference Systems could be the solution.  The Reference Organizers can sit on the desktop, be clamped on the lip of the desk, wall mounted, attached to StationMate shelving, mounted on SteelWorx or WoodWorx Desktop Organizers, or attached to a Rail or Grid System.  Some reference organizers have extendable arms with rotating files, so you can view data either vertical or horizontal, and push the file out of the way until the data is needed again.  These organizers can put 20 to 350 (high capacity) sheets of data in quick view by flipping the polypropylene pockets. The employee can proficiently access the data; and the data material housed in the polypropylene pockets stay clean and unruffled.  It's important to find the right product that fits the needs of the office space. There is a broad spectrum of reference systems; there are Information Organizers, Kwik-View Organizers, Flex Executive Organizers, Memo Organizers, Flip-A-File Organizers, ReachFile Organizers, SpaceFile Organizers, SpinFile Organizers and the Bulletin Board Organizer; plus, StationMate, SteeWorx, and the WoodWorx Organizers. This list should include the combination reference organizer/phone arm and the Reference Organizers with swing files. It may seem that there are so many available that it is confusing, but remember, the work/paper flow evaluation study results will be the guide to the correct solution.

6. How can a printed manual or catalog be easily referenced?

When the data you need to reference daily is printed in a large volume, accessing the material quickly and efficiently is far more challenging than the norm. Some staff members can grab a catalog; flip through it quite efficiently, as they very much acquainted with the information and products.  Most staff members, using this method, make notes in, on, and throughout the catalog, while they are on the phone because it is handy  to do so, and similar markings end up on the manuals as well. Oftentimes the manual or catalog ends up misplaced under the clutter and workload of the day.

Solution:

A manual or catalog is usually best referenced on the computer using a "search" box.  However, there are ways to have the information at your fingertips expeditiously. Four words may be the answer: "High Capacity Reference Organizer."  The high capacity reference organizers will hold 100 to 350 sheets of paper visible through polypropylene pockets.  The reference organizers give new meaning to the phraseology "At Your Fingertips." The rigid frames that are normally found on desktop organizers are gone.....taking away the bulkiness.  The display pages bend for easy reference and functionality, while protecting important papers and documents that are needed to be accessed often.  A catalog or manual can be easily trimmed with a paper cutter to generate individual sheets, but, if the high Capacity Reference Organizer is not possible for your office another recommendation would be the use of a binder to protect the material and will less likely be lost in among the clutter. 

7. How can projects be better organized?

A project, according to Webster, is a plan or proposal; a scheme; an undertaking requiring concerted effort; an extensive task undertaken.  That is a very broad definition, so it is important to understand the projects you want to better organize.  A project may be as simple as preparing a proposal for presentation requiring a presentation folder of text and graphs, or it may necessitate tools such as presentation boards, video equipment and sound system, or the preparation and perusal of end of the year statements. 

Solution:

It is important not to label office projects as something similar to scrap booking where you can keep most all of your material and tools in one container. Unlike a home project an office project box is usually utilized until the project is completed, and then made ready for another project.

A place to begin is to separate and organize each facet of the project. Separate the project into four categories; Tools, Equipment; Financial, and Paper flow.  A project can have many facets, descriptions and needs, but with all office related projects it is paramount that the money and pertinent paper flow be documented, organized, contained and easily accessed. 

Some professions prefer Project Boxes, while others utilize 3-ring binders.  However, the majority of professionals utilize both and, they too, incorporate a color-coding system, especially when working on several projects at the same time.

SteelWorx, WoodWorx and StationMate each have project organizer boxes, sometimes referred to as file racks that will be a valuable aid in organizing projects. (The hanging files are included with the StationMate Project Box.)  Best Built Binders bring another element to organizing a project; the binders provide containment for the data and for files that for those that  must be in transit with the organizer. and just an overall great way to store the paper flow and keep it in place and it makes the material quick and easy to easy to reference.

Needless to say whether it is a lone project or there are several personnel working on the project it is essential that a management strategy and organizing skills be applied.  All the best of organizing products are of little use without a project management plan and implementation of the plan. 

8. How is the best way to store media?

Media storage space is a challenge for many companies, and inasmuch as media file stores an abundance of information that would be extremely difficult to recreate.             

Solution:

The products available are keeping pace with the demand for media storage. The media storage availability ranges from 3-ring binders and PortaFiles, to large media cabinets and carousels; it all depends on the needs of your office. The media carousels, up to seven tiers, store CDs, VHS tapes and DVDs in one concise space, occupies much less space than bookshelves, and the tiers adjust in 1.5 inch increments to meet specific needs!

The media cabinets made of steel holds CDs, VHS tapes and audio tapes...as well as procedure manuals and storage binders!  The tambour cabinets have doors that close in front of the drawers and when open slide back and away.  Media cabinets, carousels, binders, PortaFiles all provide organized media storage solutions. 

In Summary:

There are many facets to achieving organization within an office and only a few have been mentioned here. It is certain that organizing products are available that will lend a huge advantage in the process achieving the highest degree of organizational structure in all departments within an office, however, the human element prevails as the governing factor in accomplishing this goal.