How Our Office's Red Tag Box Policy Helps Cut Costs and Reduce Waste – Would It Work for You?

Hi Team!

Recently, we have been following the Red Tag box policy in our office.

The Red tag is a red-colored box kept in the main office area, viewable and accessible by all employees. We request all employees to place any excess, extra, or doubtful items currently in their drawers or cabinets, such as pens, pencils, any stationery items, blank pages, unused envelopes, notepads, etc., into that box every Saturday.

All the Red tag items will be displayed by the Front Officer every Monday on the notice board. These items will be recycled within the branch to reduce the cost of ordering new items.

We hope that all of you will like and implement the same policy to reduce costs in your office.

22 readers... no message and no poll.

But in fact, I am proud to know that the Red Tag policy is liked by many employees. Guess what? One of my colleagues from Chennai sent me the same policy to implement in my branch.

Thanks to all of you for appreciating my idea and spreading it to everyone, including your friends and colleagues in the south.

It is like surrendering stationery and all other office items back to admin so that every month admin can order less material for new stock.

Let me know if you need more details on the same.

Dear Jayasree,

Don't get disheartened by members not joining your thread. It's a common behavior of humans to avoid anything that is embarrassing to them. Giving back something that is drawn for use is thought to be overestimation work, which one may think will not be returned or revealed. So, shoot for your target and tell me how successful you have been in reducing the recurring expenses on items such as stationery.

Dear Balaji,

Let me clear your doubts one by one. First of all, we are here as members on Cite HR to share and write views. There is no point of embarrassment.

1st: All posts are informative and appreciated by all. I always make sure to share good information with all my HR/admin team members.

2nd: The red tag box policy works. Before asking for justification and cost, why don't you consider it from an admin point of view? The Red Tag policy is actually common and used by many corporations as it is a method of Japanese-style 5S. However, I think you may not be aware of it, which is why you are asking such questions.

When we started working on the Red Tag policy, we found stationery items in the box such as a stapler, push pins, pencils, pens, punch machine, eraser, rubbers, plastic folders, brochures, forms, etc. These items helped me reduce my monthly costs, and that particular month, I did not need to order stationery, saving on my stationery bill for new items.

I hope the above clarifies all your doubts related to the Red Tag policy. For more information, please feel free to contact me at jayshreerv@gmail.com.

I kindly request you not to upload demotivating statements in an open forum that highlight the writer's behavior and nature.

Regards,

Jayshree

Hi Jayashree,

Thank you for your useful information. I have a plan to implement this red tag at my office, but I don't know how it will work because no one will come voluntarily to hand over stationary items. Anyhow, I will try.

Keep posting new things like your red tag.

17 readers... no message and no poll. But in fact, I am proud to know that the Red Tag Policy is liked by many employees... Guess what? One of my colleagues from Chennai sent me the same policy to implement in my branch. Thanks to all of you for appreciating my idea and spreading it to everyone, including your friends and colleagues in the South.

Hi Jayshree,

Definitely, this policy would work to reduce costs, but what is the percentage level of savings compared to mental satisfaction and the end results? Will any action be taken regarding any useful matters? Please make it clear. I found your method useful but incomplete.

Regards,
Sweet Ric.

No, this method is not incomplete. It will be complete once you start implementing it in your office. It is part of the Japanese 5S system. Initially, you have to start with stationery. Normally, stationery refers to items that many people have more than one of in their cabinets and drawers. In such cases, an employee can retain one and give back the extra or another to the admin to recycle it for a new user or another user. At the same time, we can reduce the cost of ordering new materials.

I am from the insurance industry. This method helps me because we have lots of forms, brochures, and various other office materials lying in employees' drawers. The Red Tag Box policy helps me recycle the materials in the Red Tag Box to another user and reduce my cost of ordering new materials.

Let me know if you need more clarification on the same.