May 10th, 2018 by Chris Chapman

If you run your own business, that old cliché rings true: time is money. We all need a bit of downtime at work, but if it’s a busy and stressful day at the office, the last thing you want yourself and the rest of your staff to be doing is standing in the tea room waiting for the kettle to boil. Luckily, there are plenty of ways you can improve productivity and morale around the office! You probably knew about some of the products you can invest in, but there are also some ways you can improve efficiency in your business for free! If you want your business to operate at 100% efficiency every single day, all you need to do is read our helpful guide to these outstanding office timesavers!

Catering Urns

This Swan catering urn has a 10L capacity Everyone likes a hot drink to help get them through a day at work. Trust us, we know; in our office we get through a lot of them! Catering urns are a great way of providing you with perfect hot drinks and soups all day long, without needing to waste time boiling a kettle! Catering urns are pretty simple; they heat up large amounts of water and keep it hot all day long. If the temperature of the water drops below a certain point, they’ll reheat it up again, meaning you can always rely on them to provide near-boiling water for hot drinks and soups instantly, without waiting around! You will need to fill the urn and leave it for some time to boil the water, which can take over an hour depending on the capacity of the urn. However, there’s no reason this can’t be done first thing in the morning before most staff arrive. Once this is done, just pull the lever and you’ll get a piping hot brew instantly! If your tea room is constantly full of staff queuing for the kettle, a catering urn is an absolute must for your business. They’re relatively inexpensive, but they’ll give your business hours of extra productivity over the course of a year.

In-Trays

In-trays help keep your desk and your schedule orderly A lot of businesses these days have a lot of paperwork. Even as we move into the digital age, there still seems to be reams of paper that we need to keep around! Whether you’re an accountancy firm or a garage, you need an effective system of dealing with paperwork and other tasks. Get an in-tray for the desks in your building and encourage your staff to put important paperwork or tasks in there. This will help your staff stay organised and will encourage them to stay on-task wherever possible, without getting distracted every time something new comes up.

Start Early, Finish Early

An early start leads to a more productive day If you’re not a morning person this might sound like blasphemy, but early starts are actually better for you and your business! We’re naturally more productive between the hours of 8-9am, so grab yourself a coffee and, if you have a 9-5 office, consider looking at 8-4 work hours instead! Not only will this give you a little more productivity during those crucial morning hours, but you’ll beat the rush hour commutes and have a little more time to yourself in the evenings. Better still, this proven method of improving productivity at work won’t cost you a penny!

Get a Goldilocks Office

Ceiling fans are a great way to regulate the temperature in an office Your office needs to be like Goldilocks; not too hot, and not too cold! Getting proper air cooling and heating is absolutely vital all year round, and it can really hurt productivity and morale if it isn’t right. Luckily, there are plenty of options for you to look at! If you’re feeling the heat, there are a bunch of ways you can cool off on a hot day. Generally, you’ll have three options; air coolers, air conditioners or electric fans. We have a more detailed guide to the three air cooling options here, but the short version is that which one is right for you depends on the size of your office. Most of the time, air conditioners are the best for actually cooling air down, fans are the best for circulating air, and air coolers are an eco-friendly balance between the two, providing a more natural flow of cool air. If you’ve got a really big open-plan office, you could consider an installation like a few ceiling fans to give you a subtly stylish approach to cooling down. In fact, most ceiling fans can also be used to keep you warmer in the winter. Reversing the direction of your ceiling fan will push warm air (which naturally rises) back down to ground level, making it easier to keep warm. Couple this with some decent insulation and a quality modern electric heater for every office and you’ll be able to stay cosy on even the coldest winter day! Modern electric heaters must by law feature a certain number of energy-saving features, which is good news for business owners as it means your electricity bills will be much lower! Heaters like the Mylek Lumi have multiple smart features like a 7-day timer and an open door and window sensor to ensure you’re never wasting a single watt of energy when heating a room.

Fast Hand Dryers

Wet hands can be a breeding ground for bacteria No matter what your business does, making sure it’s hygienic is of the utmost importance for the safety of your staff, but also for you as a business owner. The last thing you want is for several members of your staff to be struck down by the same bug! Making sure your staff wash their hands is an obvious step to take, but you also need to make sure they dry their hands properly, as wet hands are themselves a breeding ground for bacteria. This is what can take a lot of time. If you’ve got a battered old paper towel dispenser that your staff need to dig around inside to get a scrap of tissue out of or an electric hand dryer that feels like being coughed on, you’re risking poor hygiene and wasting precious time which will add up over the year. Whether you plump for a paper towel dispenser or an electric hand dryer, make sure it’s modern, efficient, and quick. If you want to know which option is best for your business, just read our guide to the age-old debate between paper towel dispensers and electric hand dryers. You’ll cut down on those bathroom queues in no time and will have a cleaner, happier, and more efficient workplace!