Workplace Blog

Online Retail Award Winners for the Second Year Running!

Posted on September 18, 2014

The Workplace Depot have done it again, for the second year running, we have won the Online Retail Award in the ‘Office and Workplace Supplies’ category! Over 50 companies including the likes of: Halfords, Littlewoods, RAC, Vodafone and Very.co.uk turned up to this event, in the hope to take home an award, some of them not being as lucky as The Workplace Depot, we were nominated for: ‘Office and Workplace Supplies’ and ‘Small Size Online Retailer Site of the Year’. Unfortunately we only took home the one award, however we can’t be greedy and there’s always next year! Four members of our web team had the honour of attending the event and collecting the award on the night, Richard Bloomfield Website Editor for The Workplace Depot, who attended both the 2014 and 2013 awards added: “It is an amazing achievement to win the award for the Office and Workplace Supplies category in two consecutive years. The judges seemed particularly impressed with the giant steps...

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...

Top 10 Cool Office Gadgets

Posted on September 06, 2014

After crawling the internet I wanted to write something that all office workers would enjoy reading – something the majority of us envy every time we see something similar. In this case I have picked out 10 of my favourite office gadgets that would make life at your desk a little bit better and would never fail to put a smile on your face. USB Cup Warmer / Cooler This is one of my favourite gadgets I have ever seen. The ability to keep your drinks cold or warm, depending on what it is, whilst you’re sat at your desk – Brilliant! Image Credited - Designyourway ...

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...

Whiteboards' History, Materials and Buying Tips

Posted on August 20, 2014

We won’t hide our love for the good old blackboard—that sweet smell of chalk, that hissing sound as you write on the board... You could write in bold by applying pressure and shade different areas of a diagram by flipping the chalk sideways and wiping it across the blackboard surface. There used to be "chalk-fights” between groups of students and I remember more than one of our teachers target-practicing on my rowdy peers with pieces of chalk; but thanks to whiteboards, we don’t see any blackboards around anymore. Invention and History of Whiteboards Why did the whiteboard become such a huge success when we already had blackboards? The answer is "convenience". Blackboards were hard to wipe clean and turned whitish after a little use. You had to wet-clean them frequently to keep the writing clear. In fact, the earlier versions of whiteboards also needed to be wiped with a wet cloth. It was for this reason that despite being invented as far back as the late 1950s, whitebo...

Top 10 Locker Room Movie Scenes

Posted on August 19, 2014

We are all accustomed to the inspirational locker room scene towards the end of a movie that is keeping us on the edge of our seats regarding who will win the basketball/hockey/football (I could go on) game – but just to remind you all of some of those heart-warming, motivational speeches, I thought I would list the top 10 locker room movie scenes that we at The Workplace Depot agree are the most memorable: Miracle – Kurt Russell Moneyball – Brad Pitt Coach Carter – Samuel L. Jackson Friday Night Lights –...

The Future of Technology – What Does it Mean for Businesses?

Posted on August 18, 2014

Last year, we published an article referring to the Top 5 inventions that changed the workplace, today I wanted to talk about the future of technology in the workplace and what this might mean for us. It would appear with institutions such as Google HQ, Apple and internet sites such as Kickstarter, a website designed for people to display their innovations and have them funded by the general public, people are wondering what will be thought of next and how, as a business, can you keep up? The Importance of Social Media Not only is it important for businesses to maintain social networking sites and blog posts for fresh content and possibly a click through, more and more employers are ...

The Wonderful World of Footballers’ Locker Rooms…

Posted on August 15, 2014

That time of year is approaching again… the start of the Premier League football season. Admittedly this year’s break hasn’t been as torturous as usual, mainly because we had the World Cup to keep us entertained, all for about a week. Nevertheless, twenty more clubs are back in action this weekend, joining the rest of those in the lower leagues for another, what I’m sure will be eventful, season! Changing Room Traits As a life-long Liverpool supporter, I have been lucky enough to experience the landmark that is Anfield and as many Reds fans will agree, we might not be where we are today without the legend that was Bill Shankly; the man who revolutionised the stadium. It was Bill Shankly who kept the changing rooms within the ground somewhat basic in terms of the wooden benches and clothes hooks compared to other teams in the premier league, such as Manchester City, who admittedly have a bit of a larger budget to expand on their changing room! ...