Definition
One of the most effective ways to reduce a company’s costs and increase efficiency of employees is to invest in the development of integrated workplace management strategies which essentially eliminate multi-tasking and help organize working space in the company. Such strategies let you balance the needs and expectations of your employees. That’s why, it is critical to the employees’ success to understand what workplace management is and how to implement workplace management approaches.
Here is a “broad” definition of workplace management:
Workplace management is a series of activities for planning, designing, using and disposing items surrounding the workplace for the purpose of helping employees organize their daily tasks and optimize the use of resources and facilities. Managing the workplace means following specific management approaches and having a plan to understand the potential needs of employees and address the challenges they could face at their workplace, while ensuring that employees have everything they need to do their tasks and duties.
For example, you can invest in an all-in-one machine (a scanner, printer, copy, and fax machine) rather than purchasing each individual tool separately. Or another example: your company employs one IT service provider that meets all IT-related needs, such as Internet, office network, phone lines, web conferencing tools, and communications tools, through installing a mix of telephony and data management systems. In this example your company saves time and money because only one phone call to the service provider can solve any IT–related issues at the workplace.
Workplace Management Steps: The Checklist
You read about the workplace management definition. Now it is time to find out how to manage the workplace or what the basic workplace management steps are. Let’s review the steps shown below (a small checklist).
1. Label Items by “Needed” and “Unneeded”
The right way to separate your items is to use labels and tags. By labelling the items you can always find necessary information in a few seconds. Following this step means labelling your items by “Needed” and “Unneeded” and putting the needed items in front of you at arm’s length. The things labelled by “Unneeded” should not hinder you from your work but be quickly found any time you need.
2. Use Workplace Management Software
Such software is used to organize things surrounding your workplace in the way that helps you do your daily tasks without any interruptions. It might be a software solution that could help you plan your tasks, manage documents, and make records. Also workplace management solutions allow you to create an electronic list of all the items and organizing them into the “Needed” and “Unneeded” categories.
3. Clean and Maintain Workplace
You should use your workplace management software to schedule daily maintenance tasks and schedule regular cleaning checkpoints. You can design a maintenance schedule and put there cleaning checkpoints to be passed every day. Your workplace requires daily cleaning inspection so be ready to spend a few minutes each day to clean it.
4. Be Disciplined and Self-Organized
This workplace management step involves you in falling into the habit of maintaining and following the specified procedures and rules of the efficient workplace management checklist. You have to learn of being a self-organized and disciplined person who can do things efficiently by planning tasks and using to-do lists and schedules at the workplace. An system will help you play this role and achieve efficiency in the workplace.