Supply Care Packages for all Federal Employees to Save Money
Every government office worker should receive a six month care package of supplies twice a year that would accommodate the work that was being done. This would include discretionary supplies such as pens, pencils, highlighters, binder clips, paperclips, post its, post it flags, manila folders and notebooks, etc. We did a cost analysis in our office of how much money we spent on discretionary supplies and how much was ...more »
Every government office worker should receive a six month care package of supplies twice a year that would accommodate the work that was being done. This would include discretionary supplies such as pens, pencils, highlighters, binder clips, paperclips, post its, post it flags, manila folders and notebooks, etc. We did a cost analysis in our office of how much money we spent on discretionary supplies and how much was being used on a per person basis. By looking at the numbers and deciding, based on usage, how much supplies should be ordered, we were able to come up with how much of each category should be given to each employee to last them throughout the year. This enabled us to make sure that certain employees weren’t hoarding the supplies, which in the past forced us to order more for others that did not get their share. Monitoring the discretionary supplies and limiting each person’s usage will help us save money. Although we have projected savings for our office, we do not know the exact year end outcome because this is the first year we are trying care packages for the staff.
A goal across the federal government is to become less paper oriented. However, until the culture is changed to become paperless, people will still have a need for these supplies. When we do become paperless we will show savings in paper of course, but it will also trickle down to the rest of the supply budget as well. In the meantime, creating care packages takes less staff time, as opposed to ordering a few small orders each month, and is more efficient in the long run because it limits supply orders to twice a year. This idea can be easily duplicated in each office throughout the government. It also enables us to create more specific administrative budget requests. Reducing over consumption of supplies also promotes an environmentally sustainable environment. Finally, based off of last year’s numbers and our current year projections, we will save money.
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