Office

Five Ways to Make your Job Easier as a Manager

Posted on July 16, 2015

Every company ultimately wants to make their employees happy, and that’s because managers and leaders are aware that happy employees are more productive. Shawn Achor- a Harvard psychology researcher finds that happiness makes your brain work better. Making Your Work Days Easier The best way to make your work easier and your employees happier is to make their work-days better. A better work-day gives them room for creativity and for opportunities to challenge themselves to grow. A better work day doesn’t mean zero stress, but instead, having the right mind-set and be...

Rejuvenating Your Workforce in 2015!

Posted on January 09, 2015

It’s easy for us to say we are going to do things differently in the New Year, whether that’s in our personal lives or at work – if we actually make these changes or not is a whole other story however! Having said this, we thought we would try our best to offer you some valuable advice, from one business to another, about how to revamp your organisation for 2015 with some steps that we are currently trying out ourselves. There are a number of things you can take into consideration when searching for innovation in the workplace, such as motivating and encouraging employees to have more of a say in their departments; make sure your staff are aware that they are actually paid to think! We are going to cover a few things from ensuring you have a motivated workforce, to having a fresh and friendly working environment for your staff this year. Encouraging Employees Inspiring ideas from your employees through implementing systems that make it easier to com...

Office Christmas Party Games

Posted on December 10, 2014

It’s getting in to the last few working weeks of the year and workplaces might be mellowing out for Christmas, so what better way to introduce some fun in to the office to get your staff in to the festive spirit. A couple of examples we have gathered should get everyone involved in some games, even using some of The Workplace Depot products! Two Spoons (Egg and Spoon Race with a Twist) Staff are separated in to two different teams, whilst a finish line is created at the opposite end of the room by hanging up some tape. Give the first player on each team a spoon with a Christmas bauble balanced on it, then on the word ‘go’ both players must run to the finish line and back again without the bauble dropping off. The race acts as a relay so the spoon/bauble is then p...

Unspoken Rules for Working in an Office

Posted on November 01, 2014

For those of us who work in an office, there can be times when sitting at a desk all day is actually not as peaceful as you might think. For the majority of us, we go to work, sit at our desks, complete our daily tasks and converse with our colleagues. Unfortunately, sometimes, some of our fellow employees/employers have other ideas. We have picked out the top 10 unspoken rules for working in an office, please read on to see if you agree! Don’t do any of the following: Leave all your dirty dishes in the sink – it’s not a pleasant sight, and who else are you expecting to clean up after you? Just a quick scrub won’t consume too much of your day; it will also benefit the general hygiene of the office kitchen! Another amongst kitchen etiquette includes heating up fish in the microwave, or the general consumption of smelly foods at your desk. Although eggs and onions might add extra flavour to your meal, they are unpleasant smells that could m...

Everything Indoors!

Posted on October 27, 2014

As you must be aware by now, The Workplace Depot sells everything you could possibly need for your workplace. However, as we have more recently been discussing how to prepare for the winter weather and which products you will need to stock up on if you are working outdoors, don’t forget that we also supply for: offices, factories, warehouses, schools, leisure centres and many more indoor areas that we have just as many products for! For those of us lucky enough to escape the cold weather for the majority of the day, it’s equally as important that we avoid any injuries from the indoors. In order to do this, ensure you have the following products in place: Indoor Cable Protectors - stopping any staff from taking an unwanted trip over loose cables and wires. Entrance Matting ...

Personal Touches to Your Workspace

Posted on October 04, 2014

Last year, we published a blog post titled: ‘How to choose the best art for your office’. With this in mind, considering the new canvases we have just had delivered to the office, I thought it would be amusing to compare the factors of what makes the best office art along with what we now have hanging on our walls! The above article states that first impressions and company considerations are important for office decoration, however it also suggests that you should select bold colours and original pieces. This is what we have tried to achieve with our new images; what do you think? ...

Advantages of Customer Service in the Workplace

Posted on September 13, 2014

Most, if not all, businesses have some sort of customer service in place – whether they really know it or not! However those that do know it, are sure to benefit from it. Speaking on behalf of a company who specialises in customer service, I have recognised the importance of, as well as treating the customer well throughout the initial process of using your product or service, it is extremely beneficial when following up on customers to ensure after care. Whether that’s a simple phone call to guarantee all is well with the product or if they enjoyed the service, or even an email just to let them know that you are appreciative of their individual custom and would like to welcome them again, these are nice things to hear as a customer and you become remembered. Three Advantages of Customer Service Customer/Client Loyalty; as previously touched on, treating the customer with care can result in repeat custom and customer loyalty. Han...

Small Steps to Improving Your Office Appearance

Posted on September 08, 2014

Unless you are a lucky employee at one of the Top 5 Seriously Cool Places to Work discussed in one of our previous blog posts, you might find that your surroundings are that of an average looking office. Of course, not all establishments have the funds or space available to set up nap pods and tree-houses in their work environments, or dish out unlimited free food in the company canteen, but there is certainly other equipment available for more simple steps to making your office feel friendlier for both staff and visitors. Here at The Workplace Depot, we meet with clients in our boardroom, which contains a fridge filled with refreshments and a large TV focused in the centre of the table in order to project presentations easily and effectively. Although these are small features, we like to think they add a bit of a personal touch to this part of our office...

Boardroom Etiquette

Posted on September 05, 2014

There are those of us who enjoy our monthly, weekly or maybe even daily meetings at work, and then there are those of us who do not. Unfortunately there’s not a lot that can be done about meetings, we have to have them to increase communication and understand what is expected of us. Tips for the Table With this in mind, for the things we can’t avoid in life, we can simply make the best of. Therefore we are going to provide you with some guidelines for the appropriate boardroom etiquette and how you can get through a meeting as easy as possible. Firstly, ensure you arrive early, or at least on time. There are a number of reasons for this; you want to set a good example, you don’t want to be the last person who turns up and you don’t want to miss anything. Even though we are quickly progressing in to a paperless world, the continual tapping of keyboards in quieter surroundings such as meetings may pose as a distraction to those w...

Listening to the Radio at Work – Increasing Productivity

Posted on September 02, 2014

Like most people, I like to have music on whilst working; one of the few facts I like to throw around is that listening to music, particularly in the workplace, increases productivity. But one of the first, troubling choices we have to make of the day includes which radio station to listen to. Admittedly, if you work in an office for 8 hours a day, it’s hard to avoid hearing songs getting repeated (which is one of our pet peeves here at The Workplace Depot!) Consequently we like to mix up our playlists every now and again (if you are intrigued give Top 50 Workplace Songs and Top 20 Motivational Workplace Songs a read/listen). However, on the days when no one really wants to put a lot of effort in to choosing some songs to form a playlist, we...

National Friendship Month 2014

Posted on September 01, 2014

As its Monday, we thought we would start the week off with a bit of a cheery one. You may have noticed that we like raising knowledge of National Awareness days and today is no different. In fact we are stretching to a whole month of awareness and it’s one that can be applied to everybody. September marks National Friendship Month and it is believed that recognising having a supportive circle of friends not only makes you feel happier, but healthier too. This being said, as we spend a large percentage of our time at work, it is important that we maintain friendly relationships with our colleagues as well as our friends outside of the workplace for a happily balanced lifestyle. Making Friends at Work There are a number of ways in which this can be achieved, for example through team building exercises that we have touched on before in a previous blog post: Creativity in the Workplace – Team Building, however types of activities such as ice...

Boardroom Essentials

Posted on August 26, 2014

It doesn't matter if you are a new business or an existing one; you need to make sure you have a nice boardroom to make sure everybody is comfortable and obviously to impress all of your clients – first impressions and all that! So before organising any meetings, make sure your boardroom is well equipped with the essentials. If you are a company like Google and have plenty of money and thousands of staff; you could go with the option of kitting out your boardroom with unique designs and expensive equipment, such as: smartboards, mini bars, lazy boy chairs, mood lights, etc. However if this isn't you, you could go for the more traditional board room layout with all of the essentials, yet still look good! Starting with the main focus of the room, where everybody will be looking; the whiteboard. You need to have a main focus point of your room, when you...