What do Albert Einstein, Al Gore and Roald Dahl have in common?
They all worked on untidy desks!
Research has shown that cluttered workspaces can help improve productivity and efficiency, but even though one of histories most famous scientists, a prominent American politician, and one of the most beloved children’s authors worked with an untidy desks, does it mean that it is OK for everyone to work this way?
Who is the Untidiest?
Take a moment and have a look around you at your colleagues’ desks to see just how untidy they are.
Does your office follow the results of a survey conducted by Viking on who had the untidiest desks? The lucky winners (well probably not from their point of view) were accountants with 64%, closely followed by solicitors with 61%.
One of the world’s most famous E-Commerce sites, Amazon, stores card details and addresses for millions of customers; UK Protected Persons Service holds the information of around 3000 people in witness protection; hospitals store all their patient files, and law firms store all the details of their current and past cases, plus many more examples. Obviously all this information is highly confidential and you wouldn’t want it simply left stacked up on, beside or under a desk in the office.
Even though you might be thinking “I could be the next Einstein if I work at an untidy desk”, secure storage of confidential material, otherwise known as “filing” has its place, whilst you could potentially work in an untidy pile of chaos an entire business could not.
Filing cabinets are like Rubik’s cubes they are becoming more and more retro as increasing amounts of data are being stored on computers or online.
But just as data storage has developed from being physical to virtual, the untidy desk could turn into the messy hard drive. Just because a piece of confidential information is no longer atop someone’s desk or in a filing cabinet, doesn’t mean it is less accessible to people who want to misuse it which is why protecting unwanted or unused data is so important.
Despite the fact that a series of studies found that people who were surrounded by mess tended to think more clearly which improved productivity and efficiency; this shouldn’t excuse the failure to maintain confidentiality of data whether held on paper or electronically.
If you agree that this shouldn’t reflect how you “file” your client records, then get in touch to find out how our scanning, microfiche and secure storage solutions could help to de-clutter your office and increase staff efficiency by saving time spent filing.
