Get Rid of Absenteeism Once and For All

$ 1.3 billion is a lot of money! In fact, that is exactly how much money the New Zealand economy lost due to employee absenteeism.

The amount is tallied when you combine the costs of over 6 million days off that people had to take due to different causes.

These numbers are taken from the Wellness in the Workplace Survey Report results from 2013. Of course, there are several factors that influence employee absenteeism.

The same survey showed that manual workers take more days off than those who are non-manual.

It also shows that employees in the private sector have fewer days off on average, but the costs are quite similar to those of the public sector. Also, it seems that the number of sick days taken increase with the size of the business.

If you want to prevent your business from being affected as shown in these statistics, you need to read them through, understand the causes of employee absenteeism and prevent them.

Some of the issues are obvious, such as keeping your workplace washroom clean and hygenic to prevent the spread of bacteria and illnesses. Perhaps there is much less you can do about some other causes, but even a little bit helps.

All the causes of employee absenteeism can be classified into two groups:

• Those that have justified reasons that lie outside the working conditions.
• Those that originate from employee reluctance to come to the workplace.

However, let’s take a closer look at the main reasons for employee absence and suggest some ways you can prevent such occurrences and reduce the costs for your business.

Non-Work Related Sickness

This is the most common reason for workplace absence and over 60% of all sick days are taken for this reason. However, this doesn’t mean that this sickness hasn’t been contracted in the workplace. It simply means that it is not industry-related.

For example, it’s quite possible that a person has been infected with a flu virus in their workplace. This is still not a work-related sickness. This type of sickness is, for example, when a person gets sick by inhaling the fumes that occur in their workplace due to the fact that their job involves working with certain chemicals.

Therefore, you can help prevent these non-work related illnesses by creating a safe and healthy workplace for your employees. Your first step should be ensuring effective workplace hygiene.

Dirty hands cause a lot of germs to be spread and they are the cause of many illnesses. You cannot expect people to have clean hands if the washroom is not equipped with items such as hand sanitisers, dryers and similar devices.

The other reason why people don’t keep their hands and their workplace clean is much simpler – they forget! When totally immersed in their own work, forgetfulness can happen to anybody.

You can prevent this by hanging useful workplace washroom hygiene posters.

Caring for a Family Member in Need

This is the second most common reason for absenteeism. While you cannot prevent this from happening, you can make sure that you reduce the impact of it on your business in terms of productivity.

If you have one or several employees that have somebody at their home that need their full attention, figure out a way to give them the time they need at home with having a minimal effect on their work productivity.

Some of the options are reducing their daily work hours. It is quite possible that they can be just as productive in 6 hours as they would be in 8 hours of daily work when properly motivated.

Every time you can, offer those workers a chance to work from home or finish their work at home. In this way, they will stay productive and their absence will not hurt the overall productivity of your business.

Non-Work Related Injury

While you should do anything you can to prevent work-related injuries, those that happen outside your workplace are hardly yours to take care of. Therefore, there is not much you can do about them.

However, those employees will have to stay home and get better. If they have paid sick days, they should take them, but if they don’t – consider the work-from-home options with them.

Sick Days Taken Without Being Sick

This is a very tricky reason for using up sick days and it needs to be looked into thoroughly. A large portion of people who excuse their absenteeism in this way are actually avoiding their workplace.

Instead of going for some sort of punishment immediately, try and find the cause behind such behaviour.

For example, if your barista in a cafe doesn’t want to take up more shifts because their back hurts from all the standing, you can rent  anti-fatigue mats that can solve this issue.

If somebody is feeling bullied or disrespected at work, you need to address the issue to ensure that your workplace remains a friendly environment.

Introducing workplace uniforms can also bring people together. They boost the team spirit and the sense of belonging, so they may just be the thing that encourages the employees to become more responsible with their attendance.

Work-Related Injury or Sickness

A lot of workplace accidents can be prevented. In order to do your best and prevent work-related injuries or illnesses, you need to meticulously follow the Health and Safety at Work Act.

It contains extensive and detailed guidelines about what to do and how to act in order to prevent your employees from getting hurt or sick at work.

However, due to many factors, accidents still occur. As an employer, you need to be prepared for that situation as well. You need to ensure your First Aid kits are properly distributed, appropriately stocked and regularly inspected.

This doesn’t mean more work or more responsibilities for you. You just need to contact Alsco and look into our rental programs. We bring, stock, check and restock all the First Aid kits you may need.

You just call us and we’ll give you the best possible affordable quote for your business. In exchange, we bring all the equipment, regularly check it, clean it and deliver it on time – yes, uniforms as well!

Contact us today and find out how we can help you run your business and improve your workplace.

Aeromedical Rescue Services

Mission Number 21465/Primary Response

Pilot- Rob Anderson, Paramedic- Chris Deacon, E.D. Doctor – Cameron Rosie, Crewman- Ati Wynyard

BK117–ZK HLN responded to Whangapiro to a 16yr old male patient. Multi-System Trauma. Status 1.

As 16-year-old Nathan lay motionless in the middle of an endurance Motocross track 10 minutes after a highspeed collision with a tree, he was informed by the first responder & instantly relieved to know that the Westpac Rescue Helicopter had been dispatched to his aid!

After stabilization on-site by the E.D. Doctor and Advanced Paramedic, the crew performed a winch extraction from the forest and a quick 20-minute flight to Auckland Hospital ensured another successful mission.

ARHT’s ‘Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime,” philosophy, which has become a hallmark of the ARHT management, support staff, dedicated rescue pilots, paramedics and flight crew, is what appeals so much to NZTS ALSCO New Zealand.

This year will mark 22 years of consecutive support for the service. Over the 2+ decades, the company’s sponsorship has funded numerous rescues for ARHT, including the mission detailed above. It was a direct result of NZTS ALSCO New Zealand’s support that a positive outcome for Nathan was achieved.

It was typical of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust, which has been providing timely assistance to those in need and often in challenging circumstances. For the past forty-seven years, Auckland’s Westpac Rescue Helicopters have served the people of the greater Auckland area, with an aeromedical rescue service that is second to none.

From its pioneering days as a beach-based rescue unit at Piha beach, on Auckland’s notorious, Wild West coast in 1970, to a fully-fledged service in 2017.

The past five years have seen a major overhaul of the operation with a second Helicopter added to the fleet, a second hanger in Coromandel that opened in 2012, the blood carried on all aeromedical rescue missions and most significantly, ED specialist trauma doctors from Auckland Hospital flying with us on all weekday missions!

This service covers an area stretching from Waihi in the south to as far north as Wellsford and has a catchment area of some 2 million people.

Over this period, the service has completed some 19,500 accident-free missions and it has evolved into New Zealand’s only full time, 24 hour a day, air rescue service.

The type of work that the helicopter carries out is as diverse as the geography and the people, with which it serves.

In short, this service is available to Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime.

ARHT relies very heavily on the Corporate & Community sectors to help fund these missions past, present and into the future. Our average operation cost is currently $7,500.00 per rescue, and for the 2017 season YTD 500+ rescues have been undertaken & successfully performed!

ARHT’s aim is to continue to maintain/improve the service so that we can continue to provide the lifesaving work that we have been performing for the last 47 years!

With the continued support and understanding of the Corporate and Community sectors within the region, we will be able to achieve the goal of providing an aeromedical rescue service that is second to none; available to Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime.

Shaan Hulena
Corporate Fundraising Manager
Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust
P: +64 9 950 7278 F: +64 9 950 7251
http://www.rescuehelicopter.org.nz

Photo courtesy from rescuehelicopter.org.nz

The Ultimate Guide to Identifying Risks in Your Workplace

Creating a completely risk-free workplace is challenging, but it’s commonly understood that working in a mine is riskier than working in a clean, air-conditioned office for example. While achieving absolute safety is not guaranteed, you can and should take steps to move in that direction, starting with ensuring your workplace follows first-aid guidelines.

To keep your employees safe and establish a secure environment, begin by assessing potential risks.

You can achieve this by asking yourself the following questions:

• What is the highest number of workers present in your workplace at any time?
• How potentially dangerous are their working tasks and should they have immediate access to first aid?
• Do you have remote, high-risk workplaces without easy access to emergency services?
• Do you have workers that are alone or without a First Aider’s supervision?
• Can you think of any other risk factors that are specific for your workplace? (shift work, crowded places, overtime, etc)

Answers to these questions will give you an overall idea as to what needs to be improved in your workplace to increase safety. Think about the first aid kits and additional equipment, First Aiders and easy access to emergency facilities.

In other words, you need to get closely acquainted with the legal framework for ensuring a safe and healthy workplace.

Obtain and Properly Position First Aid Kits

The placing and the contents of your First Aid kits are not left to your personal estimate.

There are rules, laws and regulations that outline the best course of action. Your go-to legal document for understanding these restrictions is the Health and Safety Work Act from 2015.

Besides being properly stocked and regularly replenished with compliant first aid supplies, your First Aid kits need to be positioned correctly in your workplace. They need to be easily accessed and all properly marked. You can use first aid posters and resources to draw attention to first aid kits and wall cabinets.

Keeping Your Workplace First Aid Kits Compliant

Do you know the current state of each and every one of your First Aid Kits at this very moment? Do you know what’s in them, what’s missing and what should be replenished?

If you don’t know, somebody else must! Assign this duty to one of your First Aiders. Their primary duties when it comes to first aid kit maintenance should involve:

• Making sure that First Aid kits are always easily accessible and that there is always a clear and unblocked path to each and every one of them.
• Checking the contents of First Aid kits if they are used, or at least once a year if they are not used.

Additional First Aid Equipment

There is so much more you can add to your workplace first aid besides the regular kits. There is eye washing equipment, automatic defibrillators or even showers that you can get for your company.

Eye washing equipment is an excellent addition to your basic First Aid kits if your work involves working with dangerous chemicals or there is fine dust involved. Of course, it is useful in all other workplaces where there is a high chance of foreign objects hurting the eyes of the employees.

Workplace showers can be of enormous help in situations that involve burns or exposure to chemicals that are absorbed by the skin. Showers have to have easily hand operated hoses and in the workplaces with lower risks of chemical exposure, you can obtain rubber hoses that are easily attached to the taps.

Automatic defibrillators are absolutely irreplaceable devices when it comes to first aid efforts to save patients that are having a heart attack. Educate your employees on how to use a portable defibrillator and increases the chances of survival in case of heart failure at the workplace.

First Aid Rooms and Facilities

When there is a need to administer first aid, you need an appropriate place for that to happen.

Depending on the size of your workplace, a number of employees and the risk levels that are the consequence of the nature of your business, you need to decide among the First Aid centre, First Aid room or just a quiet, secluded place where basic first aid can be administered.

Obviously, a simple secluded place is enough for low-risk offices with a small number of employees. However, there still needs to be a proper First Aid kit.

The next level is the First Aid room. This is recommendable for low-risk workplaces with workforce counting 200 people and high-risk workplaces with under 100 employees. Make sure that it can be accessed by wheelchairs and that it is always kept in order. You should assign a First Aider to maintain the room in good condition.

A high-risk workplace where hundreds of people work needs its own health centre. It means a stand-alone facility in which medical workers are hired. If this centre is in the same building, it is best if it is on the ground floor.

Make sure it is big enough to store all of the necessary equipment and that the materials used for its interior are easily cleaned and sanitised.

As you can see, there are many factors to take into consideration when you want to run a safe and healthy, fully first aid compliant workplace. Moreover, even if you have it under control, it is fairly easy to miss out some important legal updates.

Luckily for you, there is a way to delegate some of that ‘worry’ over to the professionals.

We at Alsco Uniforms make it our job to make you 100% first aid compliant at all times. Make your workplace safe by looking into our First Aid program.

Alsco Uniforms representatives will check and replenish the kits regularly and take it upon us to make all the necessary changes and updates. Call us today to arrange a consultation.

5 Great Heart-Healthy Snacks for Workplaces

As years pass by people realise that being healthy has to be one’s top priority. Nowadays, you can see more and more famous people, TV shows and newspaper articles that talk about a healthy lifestyle.

Sleeping well, doing some kind of exercise and eating healthy are things you have to do in order to be healthy and have good life quality.

However, people find that it is very challenging to have a healthy lifestyle while at work. The biggest problem is said to be the food and snacks they eat while at work.

When you spend almost all day in the office it can be very tiring and very often people find the easiest thing is to eat fast food. Many of them do not even want to walk to the nearest restaurant but they order in.

Considering the fact that lack of physical movement and eating fast food are two main causes of heart attack, you should really think about your lunch break more seriously. Go for a walk, eat well prepared healthy snacks at home and enjoy your lunch break.

Not only that you will do something good for your body, but you will also have more energy and be more productive at work. By following these simple rules, you can improve your life’s quality significantly.

There is an increasing number of businesses that want to ensure a healthy, green and safe workplace for their employees. They go to lengths to make improvements and some of them even offer healthy lunch options.

If you don’t have those options at work and you think that preparing healthy snacks at home is time-consuming and something complicated, here is the list of great healthy snacks which can be made at home very quickly and easily.

1. Oatmeal

Starting a day with oatmeal is the best thing to do to prevent a heart attack. Eating one bowl of oatmeal every day can reduce the level of cholesterol which is significant since cholesterol level increase is one of the causes of heart attack and stroke. The best thing is that it takes very little time to prepare a healthy oatmeal snack.

Oats, via their fibre content, remove the cholesterol from the digestive system and prevent it from building up in the bloodstream and ending up as plaque in the arteries.

They are full of antioxidants too, which slows down the time it takes for the LDL (low-density lipoprotein, or “bad cholesterol”) to become oxidised. In that way building up plaque in the arteries is prevented.

2. Nuts

Eating nuts during your work breaks is the best thing to do for your heart. Apart from containing unsaturated fatty acids and other nutrients, they are a really great, tasty snack too. Also, they are very easy to store and pack.

However, 80% of a nut is fat, so although it is healthy it is still full of calories. That is why you have to be very careful with the size and number of nut portions you eat during the working week. You should also always choose raw and dry-roasted nuts over those prepared in oil.

3. Berries

Strawberries, blueberries and other berries are pure health. They are full of anthocyanins and flavonoids (antioxidants), which help in decreasing blood pressure and dilate blood vessels.

Health Benefits of Berries#weightloss #beauty #skincare #healthy #thefitglobal pic.twitter.com/RZDovNLqCD

— thefitglobal (@thefitglobal) June 7, 2017

They are tasty and easy to pack. This is something you can always carry with you in case you need a good snack which will give you lots of energy.

4. Smoothies

Kale, spinach and other green vegetables are valuable for your health in general and especially for your heart. However, when preparing snacks for work, somehow people rarely think of the green gold they can carry with them.

So, the easiest way to consume all these nutritious veggies is to mix them with some other healthy ingredients into a nice smoothie. Put it in an appropriate container which you can easily carry around and you are good to go.

There are millions of recipes for tasty, healthy smoothies, so decide what is the best combination for you. However, you should not forget to add some yoghurt in your smoothie. It contains the probiotic bacteria which reduces the plaque build-up on the walls of arteries. The thicker the plaque build-up, the lesser space there is for blood to move through.

5. Dark chocolate

Believe it or not, you are allowed to have something sweet as a snack and not harm your overall health. Dark chocolate ( the one made up from 60-70% cocoa) contains flavonoids called polyphenols, which help in reducing clotting, blood pressure and inflammation.

However, you have to be careful since this does not apply to milk chocolate and other candy bars. So, when you crave for something sweet, freely go for a square of good, dark chocolate – satisfy your sweet tooth and protect your heart at the same time.

You will now definitely enjoy much more in your lunch breaks since you will have tasty and healthy snacks which are quick and easy to prepare.

However, in cases of emergency, it is good to have a portable defibrillator at your workplace. The easiest way to always have one of these and not to worry about it is to rent them. Alsco can help you with this!

Contact Alsco’s friendly representatives and find out the best offer and conditions.

Photo courtesy from Freepik Image by Nensuria

Efficient Protection from Hazardous Automotive Chemicals in 5 Simple Steps

The automotive industry is very specific for many reasons. The production process is a complex one and you have to be very careful and cautious especially because of the constant use of hazardous chemicals.

Every step of the production process has to be dealt with thoroughly. Even the usual activities such as cleaning automotive parts need to be done perfectly.

During the processing operation employees work with extremely hazardous chemicals which can be health risks if you are exposed.

There are many different forms of these chemicals, such as various liquids, powders, solids, gases, etc. How bad they can be for your health depends on their form and the way they get in contact with your body.

Employees can have some serious health problems when being exposed to these hazardous chemicals, even if they are not manifested right away.

The most common risks for employees’ health include poisoning, chemical burns, irritation and even cancer. Also, lungs, skin and nervous system can be affected by the unprotected exposure to hazardous chemicals.

Protecting your employees is extremely important. In order to do this properly and to keep your workplace safe here is a list of steps to follow to reduce risks and limit the chances of accidents happening.

1. Categorise and Label the Chemicals

If you want to reduce potential risks from chemical accidents the first step is to make a good inventory of all the chemicals used in the workplace.

By reading the labels of the chemicals you can find out way more about them and then you can classify them in the best possible way. When you know the exact chemical composition you know how to prevent potential hazards.

Furthermore, all the employees have to understand what type of dangerous substance they are dealing with in order to work safely. You achieve this by teaching them what label components, hazard statements and other useful programs are. It is always good to use some illustrations since it is easier for them to learn in that way.

Labels are extremely important since they give info about the container contents. Employees can immediately realise whether they are hazardous chemicals or not. Make sure that all the containers are labelled properly.

However, if the content of the container cannot be identified then it should be properly disposed of in accordance with the professional chemical waste disposal statues for hazardous waste.

One of the methods you can use for labelling dangerous hazardous substances is to make a label with bold caution sign since it can be seen by every employee in the workplace.

2. Assess Risk

Risk assessment might be the best way to get the idea of what should be implemented to control potential risks in the workplace.

A thorough risk assessment includes:

• The potential risks employees face
• The lapses in the safety measures
• What to do to prevent accidents from happening

However, don’t forget to assess the working condition of equipment used in the workplace in order to prevent any accidents. With all this info you can then thoroughly plan in advance, reduce potential risks and improve the safety measures for employees.

3. Put Away Hazardous Chemicals

This is a great idea to reduce people’s exposure to dangerous chemicals. Also, chemicals should be kept away from other chemicals since some of them can cause an explosion when mixed together.

So, the best thing to do is to keep them in different locations and separate containers.
Hazardous chemicals can be kept away safely in the following ways:

• Using sealed and safe containers
• Put potentially hazardous chemicals in an isolated place far away from people
• Allow only trained employees to enter the areas with hazardous chemicals

Also, hazardous chemicals have to be kept away from food, drinks, clothes, toilets, medication and sources of drinking water.

4. Find Alternatives

Although the automotive industry is a specific one when it comes to using chemicals, there must be some alternatives which are less hazardous. For example, you can use less flammable substances instead of highly flammable ones. In that way, you can reduce a great number of possible accidents.

Another example refers to the use of pastes instead of chemicals in powdered form since the powdered ones can be extremely dangerous when inhaled.

5. Keep the Workplace Clean

All the machines that come in contact with hazardous chemicals have to be properly cleaned for everyone’s safety. Chemical residues can cause harm to workers so they have to be removed completely.

Here, we can help you. Alsco’s Ecosafe Washer is both safe and economical solution for cleaning all types of dirt – oils, greases and hazardous chemicals. And it can be done without the need for harmful solvents.

To make sure your workplace is safe, call Alsco today and we will help you find perfect green and healthy solutions.

Photo courtesy from Freepik Image by Peoplecreations
Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Images by CGP Grey
Photo Courtesy of Flickr Images by Eric Shea

5 Steps to Make Your Workplace Colds and Flu Free

The flu and colds season is every employer’s nightmare. Sometimes they might not know what is the worse option for their business.

Employees who do not come to work because of seasonal illnesses or employees who come to work ill and then spread viruses to other employees.

Both options lead to lower productivity and efficiency.

Viruses are normal phenomena, especially during the fall and winter months.

You cannot protect your employees completely from them, but there is something you can do.

By following the next steps you will make your workplace environment as healthy and as productive as possible.

1. Never Forget Hygiene

Hands need to be washed using soap and hand sanitisers right before and after eating. Talk to your staff and encourage them to wash their hands as often as possible. You can even put up some posters or get creative about reminding them about regular hand washing in some other way.

Moreover, proper hand drying is also highly important since improper hand drying can lead to spreading bacteria. You should consider having some high-quality cloth or paper towel dispensers or maybe an air towel.

Also, provide tissues and gel sanitisers for all your employees. It is more than helpful to have them around in case of sneezing or coughing, don’t you think? Make sure that there is each of these at every corner of the workplace.

2. Improve Your Workplace Conditions

Fresh and clean air is something every workplace needs. Viruses and bacteria are not huge fans of it, but your staff should be. There are plenty of ways to improve the quality of the air.

The simplest ways to do this is getting some green plants in your office and ensuring the ventilation systems are clean. Moreover, cleaning and disinfecting the surfaces in your workplace will prevent the spread of germs enormously.

3. Encourage the Employees to Take Care of Themselves

Eating healthy, sleeping well, doing some exercises and relaxing improve and strengthen your immune system. Learn how to deal with stress and the best way to relax and calm your mind.

Encourage your employees to try with doing some office exercises. Doing any type of exercise would provide your immune system with a boost. After implementing these tips you will see that fighting off viruses has never been easier.

4. Educate Your Employees

It is extremely important that your employees know how to recognise the symptoms of a cold or the flu. Remind them how to protect themselves. The best way to do this is to have reminder posters in your workplace.

Putting up hygiene posters all over the place is not done because you don’t think that your employees are not able to take care of themselves. Busy environment often means that they have a lot on their minds and if not reminded, their attention to hygienic details may slip.

5. Keep Sick Employees Away From the Workplace

Lastly, there are numerous reasons why sick people shouldn’t come to work. Firstly, for purely human reasons – no one who does not feel good enough to work should be at work. Show your employees that it is all right if they need a day or two off in order to feel better.

Secondly, by staying at home, sick employees cannot spread the germs around the workplace and chances of other employees catching a cold or the flu are very low.Health Should Always ComHaving a healthy and clean workspace is crucial. Healthy employees and clients should be your top priority. If you are not sure what is the most efficient way to boost hygienic levels in your workplace, Alsco can help you do that without capital investments.

For instance, if a school is your business environment, this School Washroom Guide contains all you need to know about the New Zealand legal requirements and health and safety standards school washrooms must meet to keep germs at bay.

We provide plenty of useful and essential products and services, including hand sanitisers, different soaps, washroom essentials, as well as first aid supplies.

To get the best both for your workplace and your employees’ health, call Alsco and ask for their excellent services and tailored fees.

4 Ways to Improve The Air Quality of Your Workplace

The air quality of the indoor space is extremely important for the health and productivity of your employees.

Not many people will notice the good quality of air in their workplace, but they will notice if it’s bad.

The indoor air can be very polluted, matching even the pollution levels of the outdoor air.

In cases where you have more people working in one room together, dirt and dust can really build up quickly.

If your employees complain about headaches, respiratory problems and coughing while they are working, the air quality can easily be the cause for those issues.

In order to prevent these problems, read about these 4 ways to improve the air quality in your workspace.

1. Keep Your Workspace Clean

Regular dusting and floor mopping do miracles! It is impossible to make your surfaces 100% clean all the time, of course, but dust can be reduced. So, what you have to do is to make sure that all the surfaces in your workplace are being dusted at least twice a day.

You can even use some dust control mats as well. That will prevent the dust from piling up on the surfaces in your workplace since the mats will contain it and keep the dust levels in the air to a minimum.

That can further help with any respiratory issues your employees might suffer from, like reducing the number of asthma triggers and such.

2. Make Your Workspace Greener

Bring in plants to your workspace! Besides the decorative effect, plants have a huge role in improving the quality of indoor air.

It is not really a secret that plants produce oxygen, right? And not only that, but they also absorb a lot of “bad air” and freshen up the air we breathe.

Photos courtesy of Freepik Image by Freepik Vectors

Everyone will enjoy the final result of this action – clean air and well-decorated workplace. And remember – as greener the office, fresher the air. Just make sure that you get air-purifying office plants that don’t require too much maintenance.

3. Clean the Fans and Vents Regularly

The ventilation system is always extremely important when it comes to maintaining air quality. Especially if there are many people who work together in one room. No matter how big the room is, it is always a bit stuffy when there is a crowd.

So, the things that have to be done are regular cleaning and servicing of the ventilation system. Moreover, talk with your employees and ask them not to keep any boxes or furniture in front of the vents, since the airflow will be blocked in that case.

When talking about vents, you should not fail to mention fans as well. They are used mostly during the summer, and if not maintained properly, they will end up just throwing dust and dirt all over the workplace.

In that way, the employees breathe in all the dust, germs and bacteria which can jeopardise the overall health of both the employees and office visitors.

4. Dispose of the Rubbish Properly

There is nothing worse than working in an office while the bad smell is coming out of the bin. Especially when the source is decomposed food scraps. It can be very unpleasant to work in such an atmosphere and it can cause nausea and headaches for some people.

Photo courtesy of Flickr Image by Steve

In order to provide your employees and office visitors with the freshest air possible, make sure that all the bins are emptied regularly.

If you really want to improve not only the air quality in your workplace but also the health of your employees during working hours, you should implement at least some of the above-mentioned suggestions.

However, if you are still not sure how to do it, Alsco could be the right choice for you. It offers a wide range of products that can help keep your workplace clean and fresh. You don’t have to invest too much in this all at once.

Moreover, you don’t have to buy anything at all if you don’t want to – Alsco rents all the necessary equipment at a fair annual price that you can agree on with our friendly representatives.

Choose among different cleaning products, air fresheners and air sanitisers and even deep cleaning service if necessary. They will drastically improve the air quality of your workplace and make it a healthier and more professional venue. All you need to do is contact Alsco now and find the best products for you.

Turn Your Restaurant Kitchen into a Perfect Workplace

When a customer takes a look into a fancy and renown restaurant, they see perfectly set tables with crisp clean linen, smiling waiters, subtle music and wonderful menus with mouth-watering specialities – as they should!

But what they don’t see is the huge amount of work that any manager needs to put in so that the restaurant looks and operate that way. Getting a restaurant kitchen into good shape takes, experience, hard work and nerves made of steel.

Those who manage and/or own restaurants know very well how challenging it can be to turn the restaurant
kitchen into a superb workplace that people love.

You have to deal with workplace hygiene, many laws and regulations that deal with food serving, different customer-related issues, menu updates and also any issues that arise between employees.

Sounds like too much? It might sound that way, but a career in the food and beverage industry is also very rewarding and quite exciting.

Let’s break down these challenges and see how you can work on them to make your restaurant more efficient and a more pleasant workplace for your employees.

Challenges People Working in the Kitchen Face

There is much more to working in the kitchen than simply cooking and making sure you have your flawless chef apron on. Managing a kitchen requires strong people skills if you want it to work well. Here are some of the things that you might have noticed yourself, but haven’t really looked into that much.

You may notice that the majority of issues that occur in restaurant kitchens are actually caused by employee frustration of some kind. These further causes work-related stress that you have to fight off with any means necessary.

If you diligently work on eliminating these causes, you have a much better chance at organising a smoothly functioning restaurant.

Imperfectly Assigned Workload

It is a common occurrence that people who are hired to do the same job do it at a different level. New employees in the kitchen may cause more damage than good until they figure out how things are done. They need appropriate on the job training.

Surely, somebody who is a trained chef will know how to cut onions, but will they always know where to leave the knife they used after cutting them? Probably not.

Every kitchen is unique when it comes to simple everyday tasks and procedures. If you assign crucial roles in your kitchen to people who have just been hired, you will cause them to be frustrated, senior workers to feel as if they have been passed by and the overall kitchen operation to be slowed down.

On the other hand, if you overburden the experienced workers with all the tasks just because they are good at it, they may become frustrated to be paid the same amount of money as people who are not able to do that same job equally well. This is just contrary to your efforts to eliminate workplace stressors.

Faulty Information Flow

One of the surest ways to get somebody to feel frustrated and irritated at their workplace is to never give them timely information about what needs to be done and when. This can easily happen in the kitchen because the information flow is tremendous!

There are always new orders coming in, you always have to be working, thinking about the next thing to do and do it without getting in anybody’s way, but still do it in time. The meal can never go cold! Kitchen employees need to know what’s coming in and what needs to be thrown out, who is coming to work and who called in sick.

Trying to multitask all the time and keep so much information in your head can cause stress and frustration. Take a look at this quote from Workplace Wellness Systems:

MULTITASKING KILLS! It’s estimated that multitasking causes a 40% productivity drop, with 50% more mistake’s made! pic.twitter.com/JItHXbSuCc

— BrainWorkshops (@BrainWorkshops) March 11, 2017

Forget Multi-Tasking – It’s All About Mono-tasking, Say Stanford Researchers https://t.co/mdMplyoWRT by @bigthink pic.twitter.com/qaswJNkILC

— Big Think (@bigthink) January 4, 2017

Therefore, if you don’t have a good communication system in your kitchen, people will start making more and more mistakes even when doing things they normally do very well. Therefore, without a proper information flow, you have a real recipe for disaster.

No Positive Feedback

This abundant information load leaves little time for redundant talk. Unfortunately, we are keen to leave out praise from our communication, perceiving it is the least necessary part of the message we want to send. Moreover, we are more likely to criticise wrong moves to prevent them from happening again, as a form of “damage control” than to praise good work.

An article from Harvard Review analyses the results of research in which different team members were asked to give positive and negative feedback to other team members in different rations. Here is an interesting quote:

Bad Workplace Conditions

Nobody is motivated to do their best if their workplace is not clean and sanitary. Moreover, if your kitchen is unsanitary and badly equipped, you will not only have to deal with low employee productivity, but you will also potentially need to risk fines.

Kitchens need to be spotless, uniforms and linen need to be crisp clean and presentable. Before anything else, a kitchen that is not designed to allow proper workflow in a kitchen in which your chefs and other staff bumps into each other, spill food and get incredibly frustrated. Here are some basics of commercial kitchen design:

Steps that Take You to Improvement

Once you have identified these issues, your job is halfway done! It is much easier to solve a problem when you know what needs solving. Here are some steps that you can take today and improve your restaurant business by creating a better working environment and improving your employee well-being.

Assign Tasks Based on Employee Skills and Experience

If you don’t want your employees to do a bad job, don’t ask them to do things they don’t know how to do. That’s easy to say, but how to put this into practice? There’s still work to be done and who’s going to do it?

Your employees will but in time. First, you need to do your best at Performance Management.

You need to assign tasks based on the employee skills, abilities and performance. However, you also need to set up Personal Improvement Plans for those that are in your kitchen to stay.

Organise training, practice, shadowing and other techniques that will give your new employees a chance to hone their skills and your seasoned employees a chance to get some help and take some workload off their shoulders.

Create Uninterrupted Information Flow

Avoid the misunderstandings and make sure that your employees always have relevant information in a timely manner. Pick one place in your restaurant kitchen where all the relevant information will be displayed at all times, for everybody to see.

In that way, your employees will not be forced to keep all that data in their heads. That will result in:

• Less stress and frustration
• More focus and productivity
• Fewer misunderstandings
• Better overall information and workflow

Promote Good Work Ethic and Workplace Culture

Good work ethic and workplace culture are definitely key points to employee satisfaction and good restaurant business. In order to improve on these, you need to set some workplace rules and ask everybody to stick to them.

Restaurant Association of New Zealand published an article with the following tips about establishing workplace rules:

Make the Kitchen Clean and Comfortable to Work in

By making kitchen amazing, clean, efficient and well-designed, you’ll improve employee satisfaction. This directly translates to more productivity and overall more efficient restaurant and deals with the employee dissatisfaction about the work conditions. The following is a scheme of a kitchen from a chef’s point of view which may help you make the kitchen more efficient.

However, you can make your job a lot easier if you hire professionals to deal with the part of work that you should not be wasting your time on – uniforms, linen, workplace washrooms and similar details. Alsco can take care of those!

We are a managed rental service and we can have all your uniforms and linen cleaned, washed and delivered for your workers anytime you need them. You’ll only be paying an annual fee that we’ll agree on. To get the best deal tailored for your restaurant, call Alsco now and ask for your best quote.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Image by Ralph Daily

Benefits of Having Worm Farms in Your Workplace

You are probably wondering now – How are worm farms related to your business?

You don’t have to be involved in agriculture or some similar line of work to be able to benefit from the worm farms.

Do you make organic waste in your workplace? Do you have a dark place for a couple of bins?

Good. Your office is eligible for starting its own, little worm farms.

That’s a start. But why would you do it?

Well, would you like to improve your ‘Green’ office image?

This is one of the easiest ways to do so! And that’s only a start. Vermiculture, or worm farming, is an ultimate recycling approach where waste is decomposed safely and quickly. In that way, it feeds the soil itself.

Although it sounds a bit off having actual worms at your workplace, when you think about the benefits, it doesn’t sound like a terrible idea.

Don’t worry, it doesn’t mean that you’ll have the worms crawling around your office. It is all very clean, safe and environmentally friendly. You just need a bit of space for your new worm farm.

Moreover, it leaves a great impression on your clients as you are showing a high level of care for your surroundings and your waste disposal. And the benefits don’t stop there.

Why Are Worm Farms Such a Good Idea?

Worms produce an amazing fertiliser from organic waste. In simple words: you get rid of the waste and you get powerful fertiliser in a greenway.

In more details: the advantages are numerous:

1. The waste that is decomposed in this way feeds the soil. It influences better seed germination which means more plants!

You can use that fertiliser for the office plants, a little office rooftop garden with spice plants and any other, useful, green, idea.

Don’t be surprised if your employees start asking you for some of your fertiliser for their home gardens.

2. In this way, you are reducing your food leftovers and saving some money too, since you will not buy as many rubbish bags and you are reducing the amount of waste.

We all know that sandwich in the office fridge that has been there for ages. Now, it finally has it’s purpose.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Images by Cheryl

3. If there is enough of it, you can trade it with the local farmers for some fresh produce for your workplace. It would be a nice, healthy addition to the office lunches and it would promote healthier choices and the local economy, at the same time.

4. You will definitely impress the customers and clients as green initiatives have been proven to boost the company image and to bring some customers your way.

5. It is odour and toxin-free. Did you know that organic waste which is processed in landfills produces methane? Methane is one of the most harmful gases for the environment.

What is more, it needs more than 10 years to dissipate. Using worm farms helps in reducing the production of methane.

6. You are following the natural cycle. Think about it!

• people grow food
• eat it
• organic waste is produced
• worms eat that waste and produce fertiliser
• fertiliser is used to grow food again!

Nature is great, isn’t it?

How to Make a Worm Farm?

It is really simple. You don’t need any fancy equipment, and you don’t have to worry if you don’t like the sight of worms, because you won’t be seeing them. They live deep in the ground.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Images by Doug Beckers

The entire system behind the worm farm is the following: you make containers and put the soil in and a colony of worms. You feed them your food scraps which they eat and they produce their droppings in the form of a liquid.

This liquid sometimes referred to as “worm tea” is collected and used to enrich the soil. It fertilises the soil amazingly and it even repels some of the pests, especially aphids, that attack the plants.

In addition, it can fit almost everywhere! It is not important where you place it, a basement, garage or a simple, small storage room. The worms are not fans of sunlight, so anywhere dark would be perfect.

You need to make sure that you maintain the correct temperature of your worm farm and that you don’t overfeed the worms. There are some tips and tricks about worm farming that will make it easier for you to do this well.

Still Worried about Space?

If you really don’t have a place for a worm farm you can always contribute to the environment by contacting worm farming companies.

Such companies will pick up your waste in order to feed their own worms. They gather their raw materials from restaurants, pubs, hotels as well as from schools and universities. Even more and more schools are starting with worm farming.

All in all, the benefits of having worm farms are numerous. The biggest one is increasing awareness of environmental issues amongst business people. Since it takes less than ten minutes per week to maintain a worm farm, it is something that could be done in every office.

It is a very effective green initiative that will help reduce your waste. You are probably aware that your waste has significant ecological impact and worm farming is one way to reduce it.

If you really want to put more effort into your green initiatives, the next thing you should try and tackle is the way you clean your stubborn, heavy and extremely dirty machinery.

Just like worms use their natural processes to reduce methane emission, certain microorganisms are very effective in cleaning greasy and dirty machinery.

That is the technology Alsco harnessed and now we offer the amazing Ecosafe Washer. It is environmentally and people-friendly.

A water-based product which completely eliminates grime, grunge and dirt within seconds!

What is more important, it is 100% safe both for the environment and your staff and clients.

If a safe and green environment is what you want as much as safe and healthy staff, contact Alsco for more info. Your satisfaction is guaranteed!

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Images by USDA

8 Ways Working Night Shifts is Putting Your Health at Risk

Did you know that lack of enough sleep, as well as lack of exposure to natural light, can seriously affect your productivity and even health?

Those are the reasons why a lot of businesses advise their employees to have good sleeping habits. They also try to introduce as much natural light into their offices as possible.

Sleep is responsible for the repair and healing of a person’s heart and blood vessels. That is why a

That is why a severe and ongoing lack of sleep is linked to increased health risks including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, workplace injuries, and depression.

While these hazards are no longer a secret for people whose jobs require shift work, many still can’t completely give up working at night. Some jobs often require employees to work at night – these include:

• the staff at medical facilities
• police officers
• customer support representatives
• truck drivers

Because it is part of their jobs, these employees have to fight their bodies’ natural need for a rest at night and instead, stay awake, focused, and working.

This can be very difficult because working at night runs against the body’s natural circadian rhythm. This fight is not without its casualties, and unfortunately, the greatest casualty is one’s health.

What is The Circadian Clock?

The circadian clock is basically a timer that lets glands in your system know when it’s time to release certain hormones. It helps control your mood, your alertness level, your body temperature, and other aspects of your body’s daily cycle.

Every human’s vital signs are regulated by the circadian rhythm. This includes our sleeping and waking cycles.

These regular periods of change are important to ensure correct bodily functioning. This rhythm depends on external cues such as natural light and darkness to determine whether to start or end different functions.

Humans have evolved to be naturally active during the day when we perform all our daily activities, and inactive at night time when we head home and get a good night’s rest to recharge for the next day.

This circadian rhythm in our bodies matches the daily natural light/dark cycle of every day. This rhythm can be disrupted or thrown off when a person is continuously exposed to bright lights during nighttime and darkness during the daytime.

Aside from this disruption to your body clock, there are still a lot of health risks involved in working at night. So, how does working the night shift hurt your health?

1. It robs you of good quality sleep

Photo Courtesy of Freepik Images by @boryanam

Humans recharge through rest and sleep and the night time is the perfect time to do it because it’s dark and quiet.

For people working at night, their serotonin or “feel-good hormone” can drop to drastically low levels. These people may also suffer from the effects of circadian disruptions as they are trying to stay awake while working.

This leads to lower sleep quality of these employees even when they finally get the chance to rest. Anyone would struggle to function properly after just one poor night’s sleep, let alone days, weeks, months, or even years of continuous insufficient sleep.

This problem builds up to what we call ‘sleep debt’ – the snowballing effect of not getting the right amount and quality of sleep over a long period of time. And obviously, the only way to pay up all your sleep debt is to establish a proper sleeping habit and get sufficient amounts of sleep.

2. It Increases the Risk of Diabetes

The lack of sleep affects the hormone levels in a person’s body as well as his body’s ability to regulate and metabolise glucose. If a person is excessively sleepy all the time, it is more likely that they will gain weight and has a higher risk of having type 2 diabetes.

According to a study published in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine, it is men who work at irregular hours that are more likely to develop diabetes because of the impact of this nature of work to a person’s insulin activity.

This explains the reasons behind the relationship between insufficient sleep and the risk of diabetes.

3. It Ups Your Risk of Obesity

Photo Courtesy of Max Pixel Images

Not getting enough sleep or sleeping “against” the body’s biological clock could increase a person’s risk of becoming obese.

This is because the lack of sleep can slow the metabolism down drastically and change the way your cells respond to insulin. This makes the body use less energy in performing simple tasks like eating and breathing.

Not enough sleep encourages weight gain by slowing the rate at which calories are burned, as well as by boosting hunger. People who get insufficient sleep tend to eat more than they actually need.

4. It Puts Women at Risk of Breast Cancer

According to a study published in the International Journal of Cancer, severe lack of sleep caused by working the night shift raises the risk of breast cancer in women by 30%.

Women who have worked the night shift for least four years, including those who worked night shift three times (or fewer) per week, are at the highest risk because their daily rhythms are often disturbed.

Basically, anyone with a disrupted biological body clock due to shift work, also known as circadian rhythm disorder, is probably at risk.

Researchers suspect that the reason behind this link is the fact that the body’s internal clock controls so many important biological functions.

Cancers grow faster when a person’s wake/sleep cycle is manipulated and the production of melatonin by the pineal gland is suppressed due to light exposure during the night.

5. It Results in Negative Metabolic Changes

Photo Courtesy of Freepik Images by @katemangostar

Massive lack of proper sleep can throw a person’s metabolism into disarray. When a person works the night shift, the levels of leptin hormone in their body drop. Leptin plays an important role in weight regulation. It also affects blood sugar and insulin.

Night shift workers will have their bodies become resistant to insulin. This is a condition that usually kicks off serious health problems including ones we’ve mentioned above: weight gain, diabetes, and even cancer.

When a person who gets normal sleep and has a healthy body takes in sugar, insulin is released by the pancreas which then travels throughout the body. It signals cells to absorb some of that new glucose.

However, when a person’s body becomes resistant to insulin, the cells will become less responsive to those signals. This result in rising glucose levels in the bloodstream, leading to diabetes, damaging other organs like the eyes, nerves, and kidneys.

6. It Increases the Risk of a Heart Attack

Did you know that a healthy heart starts with a good night’s sleep? Now that we have linked lack of slep to a number of scary health problems, it should no longer be surprising to find out that it also has negative effects on the heart.

This raised risk seems to be independent of lack of exercise, a healthy diet, and other obvious causes. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) has already warned that sleep deprivation increases the risk of heart attack and that it is just as dangerous as smoking and prolonged sitting.

7. It Leads to Workplace Injury

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Images by Land Between the Lakes KY/TN

Employees working night or graveyard shifts that haven’t been getting sufficient amount of sleep are more prone to work-related injuries than those who work during the day.

This is due to the disruption of a person’s normal sleep patterns that can cause fatigue or drowsiness which will get.

8. It Can Lead to Depression

Night shift work also has an impact on mental health. A study in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health discovered that, in comparison to the day shift workers, depression occurred at a much higher rate among those who worked at night.

In a study in the International Journal on Disability and Human Development in 2008, researchers discovered that shift work tends to increase a person’s risk of developing mood disorders.

In fact, there is a form of depression that is related to insufficient to a complete lack of natural light stimulus in the daytime. It is called Seasonal Affective Disorder and is common in places that have extremely short days during some seasons, like the winter.

This disorder is linked to circadian rhythms being interrupted by light periods that are too short and is treated using bright light therapy.

Photo Courtesy of Freepik Image by @pressfoto

In a study conducted at John Hopkins University, researchers tested how disruptive light/dark cycles affects mice. The study revealed that the mice showed depression-like symptoms after they were exposed to darkness and light in alternating, 3.5 hour duration cycles.

This result suggests that when shift workers sleep in dark rooms during the day and work under bright lights at night, their internal and external circadian rhythm factors are being pitted against each other. This results in a depressive state that can be compared to seasonal affective disorders.

While it may be unfortunate that night shifts cannot be completely avoided in some industries, it is important that companies provide quality care for the health and safety of their night shift workers.

Alsco offers health and safety solutions for the workplace with its first aid packages. We also offer managed rental services to give you complete peace-of-mind that your workers are going to be safe at work at all times. Call us today!

Photo Courtesy of Freepik Images by @pressfoto