A clean desk policy offers many benefits for business owners and employees. When it comes to implementing one, you need to go about this carefully to get everyone in your office on board with the idea. To help you implement this policy, we’re here to share the best ways to encourage your employees to keep their desks clean and tidy. You’ll find your team quickly becomes more efficient and organized with their work, making it well worth the effort of putting this policy into place.
essentialism
by Greg Mckeown
⏱ 14 minutes reading time
🎧 Audio version available
Put Your Clean Desk Policy in Writing
The best way to introduce a clean desk policy in your workplace is to put it into writing for your team. You need to clearly communicate this policy, so that everyone starts to comply with it straight away. Make sure you are clear about the consequences of not following the policy, or you may find that people don’t take it seriously. From there, you can focus on getting everyone to start planning how they will work with this policy to ensure they can still effectively carry out their job each day.
Lead by Example
If you are a business owner or leader, you need to lead by example when it comes to your clean desk policy. The senior management within the organization need to showcase the benefits of this policy to everyone else. When they don’t care about following the rules, why will anyone else in your company bother? You’ll want to sit with the senior managers to ensure they are all willing to follow the policy and show everyone else how a clean desk policy can benefit your working lives.
Offer Storage to Your Employees
After communicating that you will be creating a clean desk policy, you need to ensure you have everything in place to store paperwork or valuables. Sensitive documents need to be placed somewhere that no one else can access. Many companies add small storage boxes for their employees, which can easily fit under their desks without getting in the way. You need to ensure any type of storage can be secured, so that sensitive data is protected from prying eyes.
Focus on Electronic Communication
With so many companies striving to reduce their paper consumption, it’s easier than ever to implement a clean desk policy in your business. We know that many businesses still go through a lot of unnecessary paper every day, and if that’s the case for your business, it’s time to encourage everyone to go electronic with their documents. This works hand in hand with a clean desk policy, making it much easier for everyone to avoid piles of paper. Make sure you keep a backup of any important documents though, as this is a risk of using electronic copies.
Tidy Up at the End of Each Day
The easiest way to keep your desk clean is to tidy up a little bit each day. At the end of the day, remind your employees of the policy and ensure they are tidy their space before going home. Tidying up can help to keep any space clean and organized, offering everyone the benefits of a clean desk policy when they arrive at a stress-free desk the next morning.
Create Signs to Remind Employees of the Clean Desk Policy
Employees will need to be reminded often about the clean desk policy when you first implement it. Put up signs in the main areas of your office, or even add a small sign to each desk to remind everyone of the policy. This visual reminder will help ensure that they stay on top of their desk and its cleanliness at all times.
Use Office Monitors
Depending on how seriously your business takes its clean desk policy, you may want to think about appointing office monitors. Unfortunately, without any type of monitoring in your workplace, it may be almost impossible for you to maintain this policy. We recommend having an office manager walk around the space each day, noting who is and isn’t following the policy. While you may think that this could cause issues in the office, it is the easiest way to ensure you keep on track of who isn’t following the new rules. You can create little cards to leave on the desks that need some work, and reward the employees who are following the policy properly.
Host a Clean Desk Contest
By making your clean desk policy a competition, you’ll be more likely to get your team members invested. When you first introduce the clean desk policy into your workplace, host a competition between employees or teams to see who has the cleanest and tidiest desk. This will give everyone incentive to start organizing their desks. You’ll find that a clean desk policy only works when everyone is on the same page, so make sure you explicitly explain the advantages of this policy regularly, so that people realize it will help them be more organized going forward.
There are so many benefits of adding a clean desk policy to your workplace. While this may seem like an ambitious project, in the long run, you’ll find that everyone is less stressed and more organized. We recommend following the advice we shared above to help get everyone on board, so that you can all experience the benefits of the clean desk policy. Lead by example and it will be easier than you expect to get everyone in compliance with your new company policy.
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