Along with warm weather, picnic lunches and outdoor activities, the spring season brings along the perfect time to tidy up around the office. Businesses should take advantage of the new season by cleaning not only their physical spaces, but their digital operations as well.
Organizing company operations can help improve productivity among employees, as it can provide a cleaner workspace, easier access to documents and more space for workers to conduct their operations.
Break out the window cleaner and start pumping your favorite tunes because it’s time to follow these tips and get to streamlining your business.
It’s time to clean house
From the windows to the walls, businesses should start wiping down their physical space to help make the area more spick-and-span. Spring cleaning starts with the structure, and employers have many ways they can get to tidying up the workspace. Bosses could dedicate a portion of the work day to a full-office cleaning, asking employees to bring in their own supplies and start organizing their desks. Managers could make this into an exciting game, allowing workers to compete against each other and work toward a prize. Offering an incentive, such as employee recognition gifts or personalized desk items, is a great way to encourage employees to get in the game and start organizing their spaces.
Small Business Trends recommended purging the office of a number of items in order to reduce both clutter and stress. Start with large items, such as electronics and appliances, and examine how necessary they are for the company. This includes broken items and old products. The source reported that businesses should toss any appliances that have not been used within the past year, as they do nothing but take up space and serve as eye sores.
Transition to the digital
If your company does not already store important documents online, now is the time to start. Use this time to go through old company documents, including file folders, cabinets and drawers. Get the shredder out and start clearing space for new documents or different items. If the papers are too important to shred, employees should still go through and organize them to promote efficiency and make searching much easier. The National Association of Professional Organizers reported that employees spend 400 hours per year searching for paper documents – transitioning to the digital is one of the fastest ways for businesses to ensure that these files are much easier to access.
Companies who do not already take advantage of the Cloud should highly consider storing their information in this digital forum, Small Business Trends recommended. There are a number of digital storage applications available for free, including Google Drive, Dropbox and Box, all of which can easily organize and store information on the Web.
Revamp your online presence
In addition to cleaning the office and streamlining operations, companies should consider revamping their social networks and websites. While most businesses understand the importance of maintaining a page on sites like Twitter and Facebook, they can frequently lose steam and forget to post updates regularly. Use this time to bring your social media sites back and start posting again. If your sites are well-maintained, use this time to change your pictures, clear old clutter and make your pages more crisp.
While updating your social media presence is essential, Business 2 Community recommended changing your company website, as well. Since the online landscape is constantly changing, businesses should examine how to make their sites more efficient, increasing traffic and improving search engine optimization content. The source recommended researching current digital trends and incorporating them in the site. One great way for companies to boost site numbers is by linking to a promotional giveaway, especially one that can provide promotional products to consumers.