Efficient Office Systems

What is in this guide

1. Why should organisations use office systems
2. Important things to know about efficient offices
3. How to deal with visitors
4. How to set up information systems
5. How to manage volunteers and keep track of workers
6. How to control use of phones, copier, computer and other resources

1. Why should organisations use office systems

Many community organisations and NGOs have small offices that are the centre for running the organisation. The offices are usually used by leaders, members and the public and are staffed by employees and or volunteers. It is very important to set up simple systems that help the office and the administration to work smoothly.

Information, people and resources are the lifeblood of any organisation. If you do not have systems for managing and controlling all these things, your organisation can become inefficient and waste a lot of money and time.

You do not have to be a professional administrator to set up an efficient office. You simply need efficient systems that everyone understands and follows. This guide contains simple office administration systems.

2. Important things to know about efficient offices

To run an efficient office you need systems to manage the following;

Visitors to your office

Members of your organisation or the public may visit your office to get information or assistance from you. It is important to receive them properly, find out how you can help them, assist them and capture any information they give you.

Information that comes in to or goes out from your office

People will phone, fax, eMail or write to your organisation. You may receive correspondence and other documents relevant to your work. You may also write reports, speeches and articles or develop programmes and materials for your work. You need a system for storing and passing on all this information in a way that everyone who needs it can use it easily.

Deployment of workers and volunteers

The work of your organisation is usually done by leaders, members, staff or volunteers. It is very important to know what work has to be done and who will do it. You should also have systems for managing volunteers to make the best use of their skills and time. When staff leave the office you should know where they are and when they will be back. You should also have a system to keep track of the days and hours that staff work or take off for holidays and sick leave.

Resources

All organisations have some resources that cost money - for example phones, fax, computer, printer, copier and overhead projector or sound system. If many people use your resources, you should have systems to make sure there is no wastage and that people use them for good reasons. You also have to keep track of any resources that people borrow and make sure they get returned.

Money

Money is your most important resource and must be very carefully controlled. See the guide on Accounting for much more detail on how to do this.

3. How to deal with visitors to your office

All visitors to your office should be properly received and assisted. Most organisations do not see only visitors with appointments and this means that people can come at any time. Someone should immediately greet a visitor and find out how they can be helped. Visitors should feel welcome and should be treated with respect. For much more detail on how to run an office that treats the public properly see the Guide on Public Relations and Your Office.

Here are some simple things you should do:

• Have a space where visitors can wait - a small room or just seats in the front office.
• Make sure the reception area is always clean and tidy.
• All volunteers or workers who work in the reception area should be friendly and polite, even if they are busy.
• Put reading material on current affairs, brochures from government departments and from community organisations in the reception area.
• Provide water and cups for visitors.
• If it will take a long time before someone can be attended to, tell them how long they will have to wait.
• If they cannot wait, take a message for the person they wanted to see.

If you provide a service like advice or counselling, you should make sure you set up a proper case file system for visitors. It would also be useful to record each visit in a diary so that you can count how many cases you see each day. See the Guide on Giving Advice for more details.

4. How to set up information systems

There are many parts to a good information system. Here are some of the most important ones:

Messages

A duplicate book can be used to take messages for people. You can also just use scrap paper. The important thing is to get the right information on the message and then to make sure that the message gets to the right person as soon as possible. If you can afford a duplicate message book, staff and volunteers should check it for messages and take out the top copy of their messages. At the end of each day you will easily see who has not received their messages and can then make a plan to get it to them. If you use scrap paper, put the messages on spikes or in pigeonholes with different people's names on them.

At the end of each day someone should check which messages have not been passed on. If the message seems important, make sure the message gets to the right person or phone the one who left the message back and try to help them.

Here is an example of a message slip that will capture all the information you need.

Diary of important events and dates

Everyone in your organisation should know what important events you have planned in the near future. Keep a calendar of important dates on the wall for everyone to see. You should also have diary that records all the dates for work of the organisation, days off for staff, meetings, deadlines and important things like AGMs and annual audits. The diary should stay in one place in the office so that anyone who wants to book an event can look in the diary to check that the date does not clash with other work.

Correspondence

One person should take responsibility for collecting and sorting mail. This is usually the secretary or administrator of an organisation.

Correspondence should be referred to the correct person for a response and then filed. See the Guide on Filing for more details. You should have a "correspondence received" and a "correspondence sent" file. Write on the correspondence received when you got the letter and who responded to it on what date.

Important correspondence should be summarised for meetings of your executive.

Filing system

Your office should have a filing system that separates all information into logical and easy to find categories. All documents that are important should be filed . This includes things like: letters, reports, minutes, funding proposals, accounts, invoices, budgets, work plans, service contracts and job descriptions.

A filing system is only useful if you can easily find what you need. You have to set up an index of the files you have and where to find them. The index is sometimes called a filing key, and it should be pasted on the side of your filing cupboard. Filing should be done every few days and one person should take responsibility for it. See the Guide on filing for more details.

Important information at a glance

Everyone in your office should have easy access to certain important information. The best way to do this is to put charts on the walls. Examples of information you should put on walls are:

• A list of exec members and their contact details.
• A map of your area.
• A list of contact people and numbers for all useful organisations and services in your area.
• A chart that shows your main plans and the dates for big events.
• A chart that maps progress of things like projects or fundraising.

Other important information can be stored in ring-binder files that are left in an accessible place and never put in the filing cupboard. Examples of things that should be stored like this are:

• List of members
• Mailing list
• Blank forms that people need like:
  • Volunteer forms
  • Case forms
  • Report forms
  • Financial claim forms

5. How to manage volunteers and keep track of workers

The work of your organisation has to be done by people. Develop a proper system for deploying people to events and activities. Workers and volunteers can be deployed using a deployment diary like this one:

DEPLOYMENT DIARY - DATE

Time	Name	Deployed to do what?	Venue and address	Expected Return time	Contact number

Volunteers

Volunteers are the most valuable resource your organisation has. They cost nothing and, if properly managed, can do most of the work needed. Volunteers usually join because they want to do something meaningful. Do not waste their time and energy by just making them attend long meetings. Find out what they want to do and what skills they have and then use them properly. Try to empower volunteers through training and letting them work with more experienced people. Get volunteers to fill in a volunteer form to understand what they would like to do, their skills and availability. Keep the forms alphabetically in a file and also process the information in a volunteer book. The book should have one page for each category of work, like typing, driving, etc. On that page write the names of all the volunteers who have those skills and want to do that kind of work.

Here is an example of a volunteer form:

Keep a roster of work for volunteers and make sure you deploy them properly. Also send volunteers with more experienced people to do work that is challenging and new to them.

Make sure you create a nice work environment where people feel like they are valued and part of a team. Create a work environment where volunteers can enjoy working and learn. If people feel that they are achieving something and making a contribution that is appreciated, they will stay and work hard.

Workers

If you employ staff, you will also need basic systems to control time off, leave and sick leave. The easiest is to keep a log of time worked, off or sick. Also record extra hours, for example: when someone works 3 hours extra write +3hours and when someone takes off 2 hours in a day write -2 hours. Simply make a tick if someone has worked a normal day. Use a sheet like this and make someone in the office responsible for recording the information every day:

6. How to control use of phones, copier, computer and other resources

Telephone, fax, internet

Many small offices only have one phone line and there it is difficult to coordinate the use of that line for fax, modem and phone. When phones are used by many different people it is also difficult to control the phone bill. Here are some suggestions:

• Get a call waiting service on the phone. This allows you to receive or make a call whilst you are on another call. This prevents the phone from being engaged for a very long time.
• Get a record book to record all outgoing calls and together with the itemised bill received from Telkom use it to check that the phones are not being abused. Check long distance calls, long calls to cellphones and very long local calls. Point out the costs to the people responsible and try to reduce talking time.
• You may need to develop a policy about personal calls and whether they are allowed or not. It may be difficult to enforce and it is often better to develop an awareness about cost and discipline among phone users.
• Get a voicemail answering service from Telkom. It is very cheap and will take messages when you are out of the office or busy on another call.
• If your fax is on the same line, turn it on only when you get a fax call or when you leave the office.
• If your modem for email and internet is on the same line, try to only use it when the office is quiet since call waiting does not work when the modem is on. It is best to check your eMial first thing in the morning before calls start and to use the internet late in the afternoon for research.

Computer, printer, copier

• If your computer is in great demand, try to work out a roster system for when it can be used by who. Here is an example: Prioritise creative work like writing reports and training materials in the morning. Admin can be done in the afternoon and members should only use the computer after hours.
• If your computer is used by many people, it is very important to get an anti-virus programme and to update it often. You can get a virus from someone else's disk or from an eMail.
• Keep an adequate supply of toner and paper for the printer, fax and photocopier and make sure it is carefully controlled. Toner can cost R500 and paper is easy to waste.
• Keep a logbook for photocopier usage. This helps prevent abuse and if you charge people for copies it will help you to monitor expenses and income. If you have different funding sources for different projects it also helps you with accounting and allocating the copier costs to the right funder.

PHOTOCOPIER LOGBOOK

Name/ Organisation	Date	Number of copies made	Purpose of copies	Signature

Other resources

If you have any other equipment or resources that people use, you need a system for controlling it. Examples are overhead projector, video machine and sound system. Here is a simple sheet you can use to keep control of resources that may be borrowed and used outside the office:

Item	Used for what purpose	Name, address and signature of user	Date out	Date returned