While many of us take stock of our personal lives at the beginning of each year and make resolutions to improve our live styles that will ultimately benefit our health and well being, the beginning of a new year is also the perfect time to assess the organizational health of our companies.  A rather simple exercise can provide a quick snapshot of how organized or disorganized our offices have become. 

In these rather trying economic times, it is more important than ever to address disorganization as it costs companies thousands of dollars per employee each year.  With the focus on consolidating into smaller space, having less staff do more and trying to patch up the disrupted workflow process, the challenge is to find effective ways to increase efficiency while keeping a tight lid on costs.

But the question is where to start?  By truthfully answering each of the following questions, your immediate needs will become apparent and priorities can be established.

1. How long does it take for you and your staff to locate a specific document? 
2. How often do you need to re-create the document because that will take less time than trying to locate the original?
3. How many desks in your office are completely covered with piles of papers?
4. Do you maintain a daily to-do list?
5. Do you update your to-do list at the end of each day?
6. Can you and your staff access files currently stored in the file cabinets or are the drawers too jam packed? 
7. How long does it take to access your client’s contact information?

Once you have indentified the area that will be the immediate priority, the process of addressing the specific issue can begin.  This process should include the following steps:

• Assess the situation
• Gather data points from the staff involved
• Identify your objective (short and long term if necessary)
• Create your plan of attack
• Implement the plan

Creating a resolution for these types of issues may be easily addressed by the in house team.  However, there will be cases in which it will be far more efficient to bring in professional assistance.  At the end of the day, regardless of the approach taken, addressing areas of disorganization is of paramount importance as the temporary disruption to do so will be more than offset by the savings to be gained.