Is office clutter harming the productivity of your business?
Imagine demand for your product is down, due to a new competitor entering the market, and sales have taken a dive.
Faced with the competitive business environment, you have decided you need to cut costs down. After wages are paid out, office overhead is generally the next highest cost for most office based companies.
You can start looking at what you are paying for, and identify the highest costs:
- Office rent
- Business rates
- Service charges
- Utilities
- Insurance
- Document storage
There may be a few savings to be made, but you’re keen to avoid additional exposure to inflexible property commitments.
So where do you turn next? Staff?
In a survey conducted by Management Today magazine, they found that a high percentage (97%) of respondents regarded their place of work as a symbol of whether or not they were valued by their employer.
So, when the chips are down, wouldn’t it be best placed to organise your existing working environment, and try to improve performance and productivity, rather than start cutting costs.
What should be done in an attempt to declutter?
Here are our thoughts:
- Think overall comfort, noise, lighting and clean space. Stand back and ask yourself if you’re in a pleasant working space.
- Promote collaboration – get the whole team involved to create a collective workplace rather than individual work stations. It’s time to rethink layout and store offsite any surplus office furniture.
- Promoting creative thinking and a sense of belonging? Could you free up valuable office space by taking clutter into storage and create break out areas?
- Invest in the right equipment and technology for your area of expertise. If it’s not effective or redundant, donate it, destroy it or store offsite.
So when your business environment gets tough, a simple cost cutting exercise may not be your best solution? There’s a chance to improve performance with what you have.
A clear space promotes clear and effective thinking. Go and action a comprehensive rethink of your office layout and a general decluttering of your working space. Could this be your answer to improving business performance.
