When moving from paper-heavy ways of working to a paper-lite solution, a business must understand the nature of the transformation project ahead.
Published in Facility Management Magazine.
Innovative businesses are far less reliant on paper and more about collaboration and flow of information. A roadblock to moving forward on paper transformation is often the common following concern: ‘How do you reduce paper in the business when everyone works differently?’
This is where a storage consultant steps in, as they will find out how far your business is prepared to go, how far you can go, then work out the best program for paper transformation.
The storage consultant will work with others in your business to explore the span of influence to support a paper-lite transition. They will need to understand how the business will be delivering on stable technology and strategies to increase uplift in electronic behaviours.
They understand that staff don’t want their time wasted talking about something as unimportant as paper reduction, and that once staff can be shown a better way to spend their time, paper production will decrease and the paper transformation program will gain traction.
Reactions from staff on paper transformation will vary, so don’t be surprised if there a number of people particularly troubled about changing things so radically.
Before hitting the floor and talking to the wider business, your storage consultant will meet with the project sponsor to understand the storage and paper habits now in place, and the potential roadblocks to change. The following questions may be explored:
Sometimes the look and feel of the office is the motivating factor for paper transformation in businesses rather than the desire for improvements, corporate sustainability or cyber security. It is the job of the storage consultant to find out the motivating factors for the transformation programme and develop a paper and storage reduction program to meet these objectives.
The storage consultant will question the project sponsor on motivations and what leadership teams think about physical collaboration, physically open office spaces and advantages of sustainability, cyber security or space optimisation.
With this information in hand, and with the staff audit data and observations to come next, the storage consultant will be on track to recommend the best way to spearhead the transformation based on the size of the programme, and whether it is a localised or national paper transformation.
It is possible that there are some roles in the business that won’t change processes and then there are others that will want to change everything to move towards paper-lite working.
The storage consultant will seek input and thoughts from staff on how they can see things improving with their current paper habits. It is the storage consultant’s job to pinpoint the functions, teams and individuals who can pilot or champion a paper-lite solution.
The storage consultant will collect audit data on how staff are working now and why they are doing it this way. They will also ask how far the function, team or individual thinks they can go in transforming to paper- lite by understanding the perceived risks and advantages of changing paper-heavy and current storage behaviours.
Some of the questions may also revolve around the following points:
Completing the staff engagement stage can take anywhere from one week to one month – from audit to interviews. The storage consultant will then provide a report to the project sponsor with recommendations of how the business and staff should take responsibility for this paper transformation and how to deliver on reductions and new electronic behaviours. The information gleaned from data captured on file volumes, file types, sponsor and staff discussions or observations will be demonstrated in the various analytics in the report.
The report will consider any compression of space, synthesis of work environments, and the capabilities of the business to deliver on one or many initiatives at once. It will address the strategies around staff concerns and will outline the known problems such as the legacy of paper, how staff anchor themselves around storage, lighting, chairs, and a whole raft of other ergonomic issues.
There will be a manifold step-by-step process presented to move staff to paper-lite solutions and how to pick the low-hanging fruit as opposed to the big ticket items that will take a bit longer to deliver.
The paper transformation experience is different for everyone and staff need aspirational stories and links that show why things should change.
The storage consultant will provide these aspirational stories and links and work with your business until the targets agreed are met. They will use the right messaging aligning with the business to unlock the opportunities for functions, teams and individuals to transform.
There is more to a paper reduction program than you know and your storage consultant will enable the team and articulate the important matters for your business.
Lean on your storage consultant to keep the paper transformation conversation alive and help your business see transformation from paper evolution to digital revolution.
