Office Organisation – Its Importance and How to Achieve It

An office environment needs to be a productive and efficient place whilst applying ergonomic principles and providing comfortable locations in which employees can work. Alongside these factors, the design and look of an office needs to stimulate and energise the staff working within it and promote the brand of the company. People who are working in an uncared for premises will lose their motivation and any visiting clients will pick up on an office which is of poor quality or disorganised and consequently judge it.

Organisation within the workplace is absolutely key to everyone involved. Not only will everything run more efficiently but everyone will know where to find things when they need them. I believe that an uncluttered environment creates uncluttered minds and whilst having a ‘clean desk policy’ is a matter of personal taste there still needs to be an element of organisation and planning involved in every office. By not doing so you are almost giving your staff an excuse as to why things don’t get done on time or efficiently as they were not able to locate certain necessary items. So how can you go about producing a more organised office? These simple tips will help to maintain increased organisation and with it increased productivity and efficiency.

File Properly

Filing cabinets should be used in the way you set up or paperwork properly stored in the relevant folders etc. Many hours can be lost by poor storage of data or files as staff try to root out that one piece of information which they cannot locate. It’s always the one thing which you need at a given time which is the exact thing which cannot be found there and then. Make sure that all employees adhere to the methods you have set up and ensure that there is sufficient storage space for all employees.

Daily Tidy

As stated a ‘clean desk policy’ is not necessarily compulsory and there are arguments for and against instilling one in the workplace. However, I would suggest that you ask every colleague in the workplace to tidy up their personal area at the end of every day. Not everyone works best in an overly uncluttered environment and if you choose to allow people to work as they see fit then, by all means do so, but make sure that they unclutter their office before going home.

Provide Enough Space

There used to be a slight myth that unused space in an office is wasted space. Whilst there is an element of truth within this it really should not be taken to the extreme. Every member of staff needs to have an adequate amount of room for all of the things they need to do. As long as you buy quality office furniture there should be plenty of storage in the form of drawers etc. as well as enough desk space to fit the key elements needed throughout a working day. Carefully plan out the ideal amount of space for your employees as stacking them next to each other so as they are almost rubbing shoulders with one another will doubtless create tension and hamper productivity.