New Project - Less Paper

[Tabby L]

My manager has been given a few new projects.  One is how to eliminate paper by 40% in the office.  He has asked me to research as many  options and some information on them as possible.  I thought I would see what the smart   admins at DeskDemon have to suggest while I create my list.  This is actually a fun project.  Thanks for your suggestions in advance.

[JessW]

Tabby

My first thought was 'does Tabby's boss not like her?', but then I thought perhaps he is trying to give you something you can really make a difference.  I hope the latter.

The first place I would look would be research "Paperless Office" on this site and any big internet search engine!

This will give you jthousands of ideas of what you could put on your list, however remember to NOT PRINT IT OUT.

Also, like here, put a little note on the bottom of emails saying if they don't NEED to print something out, don't!

Hope that gives you a head start.

Do let us know how you get on with this - and if you come up with a new system/method, don't forget to copyright it!  You could be very wealthy one day because of it!

[jennika]

I agree,  do a google search on paperless office.  One idea that does come to my mind is seeing if you have any forms that can be made digital and put on an intranet. 

[gee4]

Paperless....my idea of heaven!

I used to work in a paperless environment...everything was done on line, but then I did work for an IT company where we were driven by online applications, online projects and online monitoring of systems.

Forms are one of the main things I found that work online and help to save paper.  Many companies have implemented workflow systems which enable requests to be made online for things like document approval or even requests to attend training courses.  We have online systems to log calls for IT issues and a separate system for maintenance requests.  Both work very well and there is no paper involved.

Good luck with your new project and don't forget to keep us informed of your progress.

[msmarieh]

Definitely review current paperwork to see what could be made electronic.

Encourage the cancellation of junk mail and magazines that are no longer read or that could be routed to individuals instead of each person subscribing.

Set your copy machine to default to double sided printing.

Change your default font to be slightly smaller to reduce the number of pages in your overall documents.

Reuse the back of single sided documents (obviously not confidential documents or for printing important documents).

Encourage people to send emails rather than memos and to post important notices in one special place for employees to check, rather than issuing individual paper memos to all employees.

Set up a corporate intranet and make it easy to find things like policies, forms, upcoming holiday schedules, etc.

What kinds of paper floats around the office now? Giving specific examples of the types of documents may help us suggest substitutes.

[Tabby L]

I was also thinking of routing slips for those memo's that people don't want to send by email.  I like the ideas so far, keep them coming if anyone can think of new ideas.

[gee4]

I wish companies would make more use of their Intranet.  Too many times the email system crashes because an individual has sent an email with a huge attachment. 

- House documents or information on a shared drive where employees can view it when they want
- Encourage employees to set their internet home page as their company Intranet page where they can read important info

Our Communications Department are the worst.  There should be a news board or bulletin board on our Intranet for them to post company info as well as non-company info.  At the moment we have links to various documents and other online tools but in my opinion it's not used enough.  In a previous job I managed my company intranet and loved it.  I encouraged people to search for information online, including forms and other documents.  We used it to house all internal documentation including specs and each department had their own page.

Sometimes I think individuals need a lesson on how to be more efficient.  Not enough use is made of the tools with which we are provided.  People think it's quick to send an email but before you know it, that email has turned into one long essay.

I'm all for going paper-less but you have to consider what affects that may have on electronic systems and how you are going to handle it as well as encourage others to go down the same route.

[JessW]

Just a thought, incoming post (where possible/practical) should be scanned into the network and emailed to the person who needs it.  The hard copy can then go straight into filing, unless there are huge objections to working electronically and/or the worker is 'old school' and cannot work electronically.  This also has the added advantage that the files and filing can be kept up to date and easily traceable.

I used this system at one job with all the scanning done at one central point and scanned out to the worker involved.  We could then trace whether said worker had looked at the piece of work/letter/etc or whether they were 'otherwise engaged'.