How to Keep Your Office Looking Presentable at All Times
When you're busy trying to run an enterprise, it's very easy to ignore the condition of your office. You may find yourself oblivious to the thick layers of dust on your employee's desks, the overflowing rubbish bins and the reams of paperwork piling up everywhere.
However, a disorganised, messy office can have a detrimental effect not only on your employees' productivity levels (as it's much harder to work efficiently in an untidy, dirty environment) but also on the reputation of your enterprise; visiting business associates and clients who see your office in this state may conclude that you and your staff aren't coping very well with your current workload. As such, it really is crucial to keep your office looking presentable at all times. Here are three ways to do this.
Manage your paperwork
Unorganised piles of paperwork will not only make your office look chaotic and messy, but also will hinder your employees' ability to do their jobs. They may end up spending their time searching amongst heaps of documents for a specific contract or client file, rather than actually performing the tasks that they have been assigned.
As such, it's vital to keep on top of your business's paperwork. One way to do this is to invest in several scanners and shredders; these will reduce the number of documents left lying around the workplace, whilst still enabling your staff to access the information they need quickly and easily. When your office receives a document which you do not need a physical copy of, it should immediately be scanned and saved on your business's computer system, before being shredded. Getting into the habit of doing this consistently, as soon as this type of paperwork is delivered, will go a long way towards keeping the paperwork piles around the office to a minimum.
If your office handles a large amount of paperwork on a daily basis, it's sensible to invest in multiple scanners and shredders, as this will ensure that your employees don't waste their time queuing up to use the only available device.
It's also important to make sure that your staff can quickly access things like rubbish bins, filing cabinets as well as the aforementioned scanners and shredders; if they have to get up from their desks and walk for more than a few seconds each time they need to dispose of or obtain some documents, they may end up simply allowing files to pile up on their desks instead. Make it as easy as possible for them to manage their paperwork; this may involve rearranging the office layout to allow for faster access to your document storage systems, shredders and scanners, or investing in additional filing cabinets which you can place at various, easy-to-reach locations around the office space.
Hire a professional cleaning team
Whilst you can, of course, encourage your employees to keep their own individual work areas neat and tidy (for example, you may want to ask them not to leave food wrappers and disposable coffee cups on their desks, and make sure that they clean up after themselves when they use the staff kitchen), this won't be enough to keep your office looking presentable. To achieve this, the workplace needs to be thoroughly cleaned on a daily basis. As such, if you want your office to remain in good condition at all times, you need the help of a professional company that specialises in office cleaning.
They will have equipment (such as heavy-duty floor polishes and hoovers, as well as commercial-grade steam cleaners) that will allow them to deep-clean even the grimiest of workplaces. Additionally, their daily dusting and polishing of desks, window sills, as well as canteen tables and countertops will also minimise the amount of dirt, food stains and grubby fingerprints that accumulate on these surfaces. They'll also handle things like emptying employees' rubbish bins and cleaning both the staff and client bathrooms, which will help to keep your office hygienic.
