It hit 70 degrees in Boston this week at the end of what has been an unusually warm winter. With the official start of spring next week, now is the time to move those sweaters to the bottom drawer, hose down the side porch, and bring the fireplace set to the basement. An annual ritual, spring cleaning is a time to organize, a time to refresh, a time to revisit and reflect upon the year-to-date, and a time to firm up those plans for the rest of the year. A time to literally “get your house in order.”

Is spring cleaning an annual ritual in your department? Shouldn’t it be? What needs to be refreshed or reviewed and what needs to be packed away?

As Led Zeppelin subtly suggests,   it’s probably better to begin your “spring clean” in early April rather than in May (before the May Queen or just after the first quarter, if you operate on a fiscal calendar). Whenever you decide to do it, it should be at a point where there is a enough time to fairly evaluate year-to-date performance but also at a point where you can still course correct and when there’s still time to change the road you’re on.

Some things that may need to be refreshed, reviewed, or packed away during your department’s spring cleaning – a starter’s checklist:

Strategic sourcing pipeline: If your department is a well-oiled machine, it has been running at or near full capacity against a plan that was set in place late last year and set in motion on January 1. As projects fell out or were postponed for any number of legitimate or illegitimate reasons, the team moved immediately to the plan B and plan C categories. If that sounds familiar, a hearty congratulations is due, your department is a rarity. Many sourcing and procurement teams fall behind early only to face a back-loaded Q3 & Q4 where they must source furiously to try to close the savings gap. Remember, for personal savings and for sourcing savings, accruals are a powerful phenomenon. Like saving early and saving often, sourcing early and sourcing often can help everything still turn to gold. Use the spring cleaning to refresh your sourcing pipeline. Build it to a level that is between 2 and 3 times what your staffing capacity can support and work aggressively to pull projects forward into Q2.

Annual reviews: Annual reviews delayed, are annual reviews denied. Annual reviews that occur more than three months after completion of the year, lose their meaning since many delayed reviews end up weighing what the person has done most recently (in the current year) over anything done in the actual period being reviewed. Also with staff turnover and advancements, the greater lag between close of period and period review, the greater likelihood that the most appropriate reviewer does not actually complete the review (Sidebar: True story – I was once given an annual review in October for the preceding year by a manager that was hired in September. Great review, pointless exercise. My head is humming and it won’t go: in case you don’t know, I am getting annoyed just thinking about it). Even if HR is asking you to delay the reviews because it delays the compensation clamor (i.e. annual raise discussions), use your spring cleaning to close out all annual reviews. Staffers that are doing well should be praised in a timely fashion, staffers that are struggling need to coached/managed/addressed in a timely fashion. Be timely. Be fashionable.

Audits and compliance (Does anyone remember laughter audits?): Are there areas/processes/etc. that your department said it would measure and track on some given timeline that it is not measuring and tracking on that given timeline? Time to renew the focus on these areas. The threat of a comprehensive audit can often trump an actual audit. When you fail to follow through, people begin to take chances. Start measuring and tracking as you’d committed. If it is overkill, get the programs current, announce the very high compliance rates and announce that b/c of the program’s success, the scope/timing of the measuring and tracking will be reduced. Stick to the new commitment.

Stalled projects: In the annual planning sessions, were the department’s eyes bigger than its stomach? Spring cleaning is the perfect time to load-balance the department and rationalize its projects. Do some projects show greater promise and therefore warrant additional resources? Are some projects in need of a Chief Procurement Officer kick start? Do some need to be put out to pasture or postponed?

And now, some final words from a spring cleaning guru (a lady we all know):

“There are few rites of spring more satisfying than the annual clean. For many people, however, the pleasure comes only after the work is finished. Your spring cleaning may never become effortless, but you can make the project more manageable — and even enjoyable.”- Martha Stewart.

To do this, Martha suggests that you (1) tailor the list [to your enterprise and department] (2) create a realistic schedule (3) focus on one task at a time and (4) be sure to enlist [the] help [of the staff].

Thanks Martha and, of course, Led Zeppelin.

Happy Cleaning!

originally published 05/03/10 – modified for 03/16/12