Mail Handling

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Outcome 3
2

• Mail received in the organisation must be dealt
  with promptly so that others in the organisation
  are able to start their days work
• Mail room staff often begin work earlier that
  others
• If mail is not received early enough by using
  normal mail delivery by postman, the organisation
  may rent a post-office box
• This allows the organisation to uplift their mail
  at any time during the day

3
How do we deal with incoming mail?

• Open mail (not private, personal or confidential)
• Remove contents
• Date-stamp mail (do not cover anything important)
• Make copies of documents to be seen by more than
  one person or use a circulation slip
• Check and attach enclosures
• Sort mail into departments
• Mail is then collected by departments (at certain
  times)

or

• Delivered to individual departments

4
Main equipment in an incoming mail area

• Letter opener
• Date stamp
• Photocopier
• Mail trolley for delivering to departments
• Shredder
• Pigeon holes/trays for each person/department

5
How do we deal with Outgoing Mail?

• Collect mail from departments

or

• Staff deliver mail to mail room by a specified
  time
• Check that enclosures have been included, that
  the letter is signed and that the address on the
  envelope matches the inside address on the letter

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How do we deal with Outgoing Mail (2)?

• Fold and insert letters into their envelopes
• Seal envelopes
• Weigh letters or parcels
• Stamp or frank envelopes/parcels
• Record value of postage

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Special Category Mail

• Branch Direct
• Business Collection
• Business Reply
• Cash on Delivery
• Certificate of Posting
• Freepost

8
Special Category Mail (2)

• Post Office box
• Recorded Signed For
• Redirection Service
• Sameday
• Special Delivery

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Main equipment in an outgoing mail area

• Folding and inserting machine
• Letter and parcel Scales (manual or electric)
• Franking machine
• Sundries eg stapler, punch, string, tape and
  scissors

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FILING
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Information must be

• Kept Tidy
• Kept Safe
• Stored in an accessible place
• Able to be found easily and quickly when needed

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• Quick and simple to use
• Does not take up too much space
• Able to meet future needs
• Located in a convenient place
• Documents should be safe and tidy

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Methods of Filing

• The method of filing used will depend on the type
  of organisation and the type of document to be
  filed.
• Methods include
• Alphabetical most common method
• Numerical Banks file by customer account number
• Geographical British Gas/Scottish Power may
  file records by area
• Subject Libraries and Book Shops

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Filing Terms

• Release Symbol
• Cross-reference cards
• Out cards
• Miscellaneous File
• Pending Papers

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Filing Procedures

• Check staff out trays for documents bearing a
  release mark
• File regularly
• Pre-sort the documents for filing
• Take each section in turn, place the documents in
  the appropriate file
• File papers in chronological order

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Customer, supplier and employee details can be
held electronically on a database such as MS
Access

• Interrogation
• Space saving
• Saving paper
• Integration

• Improved presentation
• Easy to amend
• Sort order
• Improved accuracy

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• In offices many different types of documents have
  to be copied
• This is called REPROGRAPHICS

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Reprographic Tasks

• Making copies of letters, reports, catalogues,
  posters brochures and booklets
• Collating and binding pages together
• Laminating covering pages of booklets and
  posters to make them hard wearing

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REPROGRAPHICS EQUIPMENT

• Photocopier
• Collator
• Laminator
• Binder
• Scanner
• Printer

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Features of a Photocopier

• Provides exact copy of a document
• Copies are produced quickly
• Copies can be made onto card, paper,
  OHP transparencies
• Documents can be fed in quickly

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Features of a Photocopier cont.

• Copies can be made in various sizes A4, A3
• Copies can be made back-to-back
• Documents can be collated
• Original can be enlarged or reduced

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Features of a Photocopier cont.

• Some photocopiers can staple documents
• Can be adjusted for light/dark copies
• Can produce colour copies using a colour copier
• Some photocopiers require an ID code before use

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Collator

• Puts together pages of a multi-page document
• Often linked to a photocopier so that pages of a
  long document can be printed off, stacked, then
  collated into order ready for stapling or binding

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Laminator

• A machine used to heat seal documents inside
  a plastic coating
• Useful for producing posters, Staff IDs

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Binder

• A binder is a machine which holds the pages
  of a book together
• A Comb Binder puts a plastic spine on the book
• A Thermal Binder uses heat to fasten an adhesive
  spine to the book

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Scanner

• A scanner produces an exact copy of a document or
  graphic for storage on a computer
• 2 types - Hand-held and a flatbed scanner

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Printer

• Used to print off copies of documents held
  electronically
• Used to print one master copy which would then be
  photocopied to produce multiple copies
• Toner cartridges can be expensive

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• Keyboarding
• Answering the telephone
• Filing
• Handling Mail

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• Pleasant and polite
• Neat and well presented
• Knowledgeable about the organisation
• Patient, calm and able to cope under pressure
• Able to get on well with people at different
  levels
• Good communication skills

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• Check the appointments book
• Contact the member of staff the visitor wishes to
  see
• If available, direct to the appropriate member of
  staff/office
• If delayed, ask the visitor to take a
  seat/refreshment

In either case

• Ask visitor to sign the Visitors Book
• Issue visitor with a security pass

32
The Appointments Book is prepared in advance and
will contain the following details

• Names of expected callers (in chronological
  order)
• Time they are due to arrive
• With whom they have an appointment
• Reason for the visit eg interview
• Visitors pass number

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• Contact the member of staff the visitor wishes to
  see

Since this visitor is not in the Appointments
Book he/she must be recorded in the Register of
Callers/Visitors Book
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The Register of Callers/Visitors Book will
contain the following

• Date
• Name of caller, company address and telephone
  number
• Who they are visiting
• Time they arrived
• Time they left
• Visitors pass number
• Car registration number (if applicable)

35

• An organisation chart shows visitors and staff
  the relationships between individuals eg
• The chain of command
• The span of control
• Who is responsible to whom

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• Employee Names
• Job Titles
• Room Numbers

• Groupings within the organisation

• Photographs

• Telephone Numbers

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• Employees can see an overall picture of the
  organisation.

• The position of the employees within the
  organisation.

• Lines of communication flowing up and down the
  organisation.

• Lines of authority - managing director to
  departmental manager.

• Lines of responsibility - sales director in
  charge of the work of the sales manager.

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Line relationships in an organisation show those
employees who are in charge of the work of other
members of staff.
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This section of chart shows the following line
relationships

• Chief Executive -Finance Director
• Finance Director -Cost Accountant
• Cost Accountant -Senior Accounts Assistant
• Senior Accounts Assistant - Accounts Assistant

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• Lateral relationships exist in organisations
  where members of staff are directly responsible
  to the same immediate supervisor or manager.

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• The Chief Executive is directly responsible for 3
  members of staff.
• The lateral relationship exists between the
  Finance Director, Marketing Director and Human
  Resources Director.
• All have the same level of responsibility.

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Features

• Finds appropriate slots for appointments
  automatically
• Sets reminders for regularly occurring meetings
  or important appointments
• Can access several diaries at once to schedule a
  time for appointments
• Files can be directly linked to database files to
  provide more information quickly

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Advantages

• The receptionist is able to access others
  diaries to check for expected callers
• If appointments overrun or are changed,
  amendments can be easily made by any user,
  thereby keeping the receptionist informed of the
  changes automatically
• Maintaining the diary is much quicker than
  manually skimming through the pages of a
  paper-based diary to find an available
  appointment for an unexpected visitor