IAAP (International Association of Administrative Professionals) were in agreement… Too many fingers in the paper filing cabinet equals lost files, wasted time and an overwhelming, aggravating and stressful mess.
They say the same thing about cooks in the kitchen, but the only thing at risk there is a bad meal. In a business operations environment there is a lot more at stake.
After speaking with this inquisitive, well versed group of savvy professionals, who I might add were very willing to share, I found out the facts from the front line.
These professionals are in a position where organization is a must, and most agree the filing cabinet is out of control, laborious to keep in some sort of order.
Now this I can understand… When paper filing cabinets came to be, along with it came filing clerks. Those days are mostly gone leaving higher paid professionals wasting their time and resources fending for themselves and creating a filing cabinet hell. Lost files, misplaced files, and important pieces of information never being filed have a dollar value attached and can cost organizations big bucks in non productive time and the inability to provide proper information in a timely fashion.
Another issue our room of professionals were exasperated about was the “paper file grave yard”. The cost of keeping files for an allotted amount of years is very expensive in paper form. It was reported, the exercise of having to take the paper files from current use to archive is tedious, time consuming and often ends in the files being hard to access. A comment also came forward that the archived files' condition deteriorates over time making files fade, smudge, rip and less then readable. The last piece that needs to be considered is the cost of having to purge the files when their allotted time has gone by.
By this time I was adding it all up in my head…
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The cost of all the higher paid employees that are now dealing hands on with files.
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The cost of the space the cabinets are sitting on.
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The cost of archiving files and then purging files.
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The cost of lost and misplaced files when you can’t provide proper information to follow through with the business at hand.
KaCHING, KaCHING, KaCHING,…CEO’s take note, money is flying out the window!
The front line knows best.....Thanks IAAP for sharing
Isn't there a better way?
Joanna W
See how easy it could be to find your files...fast, easy and simple...
Joanna W is a Customer Support Associate at Leppert Business Systems.
Photo credit: Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen John Cherry vivavisibilityblog.com
