Do you find yourself in the midst of working on paper & fail to achieve concrete results by concentrating on the most important jobs in your department due to paucity of time. Mr. Iyer Subramanian shares his tips on minimizing the paper work in your Departments.
Identify certain papers, mails & correspondence which do not need to be seen or opened. This will save a lot of time & simultaneously preserve your energy to undertake & carry out work important functions.
Use technology. We are into the era of modern & high-tech technology. Always use telephones, faxes, mails, computers, copying machine while dealing with your subordinates, colleagues, and bosses. Repetitive & routine jobs can be purposefully used by the technology at our disposal. The Manager at work need to determine the effective combination of the man, machine, the working environment and productivity. This will teach you to economize on paper, manpower & time.
Plan, Plan & Plan. Systematically plan to eliminate/ reduce paper work from time to time in your department. Might look obvious. Nothing will happen on its own, make it happen consistently & on regular basis. You will see amazing results as you go ahead.
Operational departments which are considered to be the lifeline of the Hotel need to engage runners who can consider passing on the messages, notes to the other. Use of white boards can also be used by the Sectional Head / Departmental Head to allocate urgent & important jobs to their colleagues / subordinates & duration of its completion. This will reduce the use of paper work to a considerable extent.
Call for a daily briefing & allot work to each & every employee of your department. Clarifications, difficulties if any, need to cleared & resolved verbally before he begins with his work. While the employee departs make him accountable in all respects for the entire day’s work. This will result in competent employees taking charge in the affairs of their department.
Set realistic targets for your department & make it known to all its members. Commitment from oneself, fixing responsibility, delegation, authority, completion of job, giving clear cut instructions to the supervisors/ staff shall make the work interesting & build a strong committed workforce. The health of the department improves & if the health of the department improves the overall performance of the company improves manifold.
Interact personally, dilute differences and arrive at solutions. Each & every employee is valuable to the extent to which he contributes for his department & organization in terms of productivity & not in terms of writing & completing paper work. This will not only make your employees efficient & effective but will completely turnaround the image of the department.
Utilize paper when required most & only in exceptional circumstances. Serious thought has to be given to reduce paper work in the non operational departments like HR, Training, and Finance keeping in view of the Human Resource Information System. Interdepartmental memos, letters, notes be minimized as far as possible. The employees while coming to work need to solution oriented & not paper oriented.
Trim & reduce the stationery expenses by 50% & experiment the exercise right from the CEO to the Utility worker for a period of 6 months & see the progress. It would really be astounding. It is a myth that the Managers / Supervisors, who write well, dictate well, dispose & clear papers well are people who discharge their duties well.
Clear the cobweb of the department which indulges in excessive paper work. Send the employees for training & development programs regularly so that they understand the limitations of paper work. Different kinds of paper, shades of paper, color of paper, print of paper on disposal can harm the ecology of the environment.
Complement & reward the employees who voluntarily minimize paper in the operational department as the shift in thinking is not easy. By appreciating positive habit patterns, the same gets reinforced.
Above all: Respect people, their ideas & time. Utilize the technology to the optimum to achieve precise, clear, accurate & fast results. Human Beings are bundle of emotions. Their energy, enthusiasm, drive, creativity has to be used for the betterment of the organization & department & not in writing lengthy letters, marking letters, tracking letters, connecting letters, storing letters, retrieving letters which ultimately is a futile exercise.
Finally, we need to be environment friendly in whatever we do. Reduce paper work drastically. Believe and trust people in whatever they so instead of something, which is written in the paper.
(The article is written by Iyer Subramanian, presently attached with Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the position of Joint Director HR. He can be contacted through his E-Mail: iyerpdkgnm@yahoo.com)
