P&G decides to go paperless to save costs

Namrata Singh in Mumbai

DID you know that if you are a large corporate entity, you could be spending about Rs 15 lakh per annum to accommodate cartons and paper in your office? Here’s a clue on how this cost can be saved. Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Healthcare (P&G) is going “paperless” as part of its new culture.

This comes in tandem with the Vicks and Pantene maker’s shift to a new general office—the New GO—which will accommodate all its employees who are currently dispersed in three different offices in Mumbai. The new P&G culture has become the basis as it moves to this non-hierarchical and paperless office in September this year.

The New GO has the capacity to accommodate 350 people and has a total built up area of 90,000 sq ft, with a maximum capacity of 120,000 sq ft. It also has a double basement car park that can accomodate 150 cars.

“Over the last three years we have had two waves of GO clean up and found that each time we generated three tonnes of paper for shredding in the form of non-usable documents occupying huge amount of space. We shipped approximately 100 cartons for off-site storage,” says Mr Anthony Rose, senior manager (public affairs), P&G.

“Currently, P&G has approximately 2,000 cartons off-site, which is costing us Rs 50 per month per carton, i.e., 2,000 x Rs 50 = Rs 1,00,000 per month, said Mr Rose. “If we digitise all of that, it works out to an immediate saving of approximately Rs 12 lakh per year.

Hard copies and files occupy 115 cupboards (4.5 ft x 4 ft) in Tiecicon House (the current head office) and we spend $9,000 per year on stationery, i.e., paper!,” explains Mr Rose.

At present, employees store documents (hard copies) either in office or at off-site locations. Some of these documents are required to be stored for legal purposes, but most are accessed only once or twice a year. This leads to inefficient use of space, which is at a premium in a city like Mumbai.

Most corporate cultures are driven by documentation, of records, correspondence and reports. Paper, besides being environmentally unfriendly, takes up a lot of space. However, record keeping and corporate archives are important for future referrals.

To move closer to the vision of a “Paperless Office”, P&G launched the Document Imaging Solution project to provide a solution, by which employees can store documents in digital images and discard the hard copies. Feedback indicated that the digital cabinet is an efficient space saver and easily accessible. Employees prefer digitised images over physical copies because information is more easily accessible and in a sharing-friendly format. “We believe that through this project we will increase work efficiency. It will help maintain more organised work stations, reduce documentation, make better use of electronic archive and mail,” says Mr Sunil Durani, human resources director (India and Thailand), P&G.

The ‘Document Imaging Solution’ project or move to the paperless office has happened in three stages. Initiation, which included imbibing the concept, understanding the benefits and getting employee buy-in; removal of “all junk material” from the general office on a special ‘Clean Up’ day and document classification into what needs to be scanned, shredded and saved.

The execution stage includes digitising, i.e., scanning and cataloging of the documents. And the last phase is the control stage, where employees close all gaps and resolve any pending issues, get certified and move to the New GO.

“Employees benefit since they can search for data at the “click of a button” and are able to save on invaluable space which can be utilised for other activities. This project will also provide lessons, which will be re-applied to design and manage the space we have in our New GO,” adds Mr Durani.

The concept of a paperless office is purely an initiative of the Indian arm of P&G, which could also be replicated in other global P&G offices as a best practice.

Commenting on the New GO, Mr Rose says: “The New GO which will provide work environment that is of global standards, in keeping with the image of P&G; an environment that fosters the culture of open communication and collaboration, delivering stretching business results and leveraging speed of innovation. It is also located at a place (Andheri) that reduces the employee average travel time.”

In addition to meeting rooms, board rooms, training centres, conference rooms, video-conferencing team rooms, there are quick huddle rooms, banking, convenience shopping, a library—with CDs and Internet and intranet connections for more informed business decisions, innovation rooms, that will provide a good brainstorming ambience, a relaxation area, a medical room, plus there will be informal areas to meet and chat over coffee. The cafetaria will also be equipped to support team brainstorming sessions.

In addition, all employees will have hands-free cordless phones with limited mobility range within the New GO.

The paperless office concept is expected to create an environment where employees work productively due to easy handling and quick retrieval of documents. Document management will be handled in the most modern tech-savvy cost efficient way. All of which builds corporate image, feels P&G.