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At WORKPLACE we understand the importance of staying operational during the colder weather. The winter months, bring the risk of ice and potentially snow which can have a significant impact on businesses where there has been little or no planning. That’s why we set up our Winter Maintenance Program which allows us to monitor the weather systems on your behalf ensuring your workplace is safe for all its users. When the weather turns icy, you have a legal duty to ensure safe access to your building for both your employees and visitors. Our plan can help you prepare for extreme weather by implementing a professional, effective and financially viable winter maintenance program so that you can focus on your core business and reduce risk through a reliable service partner. What can our Winter Maintenance Program do for your workplace? Our gritting team are highly trained and committed to ensuring your car parks and access routes are clear and functional by the start of the working day. We operate by monitoring local weather systems We will visit your site if the Met Office reports show hazardous conditions approaching Your designated contact is notified in the afternoon of the necessity of gritting for either ice or snow Our gritters will visit overnight, so sites are ready for start of business Priority will always be to clear access routes We will only charge you per visit We will log our visits on your Client Portal, so you can track the delivery of our service Snow clearing also available Break the Ice For a free gritting and snow clearing consultation and quote call us on 0844 561 1760 or contact us online. #wintermaintenanceprogram #snow #gritting #buildingservices

Following on from our Case Study at the Roald Dahl Museum and Children’s Centre that we published last week we wanted to share some before and after photos of the periodic floor cleaning that was carried out recently. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre is an award-winning Museum, situated in Great Missenden, the Buckinghamshire village where Roald Dahl lived and wrote for 36 years. The museum welcomes over 60,000 visitors every year and is open 7 days a week. The footfall alone was enough to warrant more cleaning hours being introduced and a periodic cleaning schedule being created to compliment it which included the following: Deep cleaning and de-scaling of public access toilets Hard floor deep cleaning Wall cleaning, including lifts Extraction carpet cleaning As you can see from the photos our first clean yielded great results. If you would be interested in arranging an assessment at your workplace please contact us today! #periodiccleaning #floorcleaning

United Kingdom, 2017- Corporate Vision Magazine has announced the winners of the Business Woman Awards 2017. Across the globe, within a vast number of sectors, women continue to go above and beyond to establish themselves as being a significant part of the business world. From healthcare and pharmaceuticals to aerospace and defence, even banking to media, within these industries are the powerful women who are striving daily towards great success whom we aim to recognise through our Business Woman Awards 2017. WORKPLACE's very own Vicky Barcock has successfully secured 'Most Influential Woman in Corporate Cleaning - 2017'. We are extremely proud of the hard work and dedication that has been shown by Vicky to win this amazing award. “At WORKPLACE, my role is to source potential leads, set up client meetings, provide quotes and tenders to potential clients, prepare and deliver presentations and assist with contract mobilisations and start-ups.” Vicky says. “Within the role, I am continually learning new aspects of the industry especially since we have moved to multi service delivery. The role is challenging but interesting and I enjoy visiting different areas of London and meeting with new people every day to see how we can assist and improve their services.” Regarding what advice she would give to other women looking to succeed in the industry, Vicky believes that it is essential that people settle into a role that they are comfortable with, and be confident that they can deliver in all aspects of work. “My main piece of advice to women wishing to get into a Business Development role would be to spend some time in the operations division of a cleaning company before moving in to sales. I have seen in the past too many sales people who don’t get the respect of the operations team as they haven’t done the job themselves. “Potential clients will also see that you know all aspects of the business and understand their needs and how they can be addressed. Clients can pick up on someone who just wants the sale and they tend to go elsewhere. A positive for me is that I work for a company that believe in what they do and want to improve the provision of services.” Discussing the awards, Rachel Devonport Awards Coordinator, commented: “Women represent around half of the global workforce and are a key contributor to the corporate world: despite this, these contributions are often overlooked. As such it is my privilege to showcase the very best women in business across the corporate landscape, and I would like to offer them my congratulations as well as wish them the best of luck as they look to the future.” To learn more about these illustrious winners, and to find out the secrets behind their success, please visit www.cv-magazine.com.

Accredited Living Wage Recognised Service Provider WORKPLACE welcomes the increase in UK and London rates announced by the Living Wage Foundation as part of Living Wage Week (November 5th-11th 2017). WORKPLACE is proud to be part of a movement of over 100 Recognised Service Providers who offer Living Wage options for contracted staff, ensuring a real Living Wage is always possible when outsourcing services. The Living Wage is an hourly rate set independently and updated annually. The Living Wage is calculated according to the basic cost of living in the UK. Employers choose to pay the Living Wage on a voluntary basis. The Living Wage enjoys cross party support. The London Living Wage is now £10.20 per hour, an increase of 45p per hour. This figure covers all boroughs in Greater London. The UK Living Wage for outside of London is now £8.75 per hour, an increase of 30p per hour. These figures are set annually by the Resolution Foundation. The Living Wage rates are independently calculated, based on the real cost of living in the UK and London. The 2017 increases have been largely driven by higher inflation feeding through to the basket of goods and services that underpin the rates, with rising private rents and transport costs also having an impact. The announcements come after new research published by KPMG yesterday showed that 5.5 million people across the UK are still paid less than the real Living Wage, that’s 1 in 5 workers, 21% of the UK workforce. Katherine Chapman, Director of the Living Wage Foundation said: “Year-on-year, we see organisations and businesses across the UK embracing the real Living Wage as they recognise that a fair day’s pay is not only the right thing so to but can improve the quality of staff’s work, reduce absenteeism and increase motivation and retention.” “Today’s increase acknowledges that the cost of living continues to rise for workers everywhere and the leadership shown by businesses who welcome this is a cause for celebration during Living Wage Week, sending a positive message to the business community to show what others can achieve.” For more information about Living Wage Week go to http://www.livingwage.org.uk/living-wage-week

Throughout the month of November WORKPLACE are taking part in the British Heart Foundation’s Pedometer Challenge. The Challenge is a fun way to encourage employees to be more active. Walking can easily be incorporated into your daily routines; Walk all or part of your journey to and/or from work Get off the bus a stop early. Take the stairs whenever possible. Walk up the escalator. Go for a lunchtime walk. Workplace wellbeing is becoming a bit of a buzzword at the moment but a short walk goes a long way. Statistically, active people live longer and healthier lives. According to Path’s for All, a physically active workforce takes 27% fewer sick days. That works out at 2 days improved attendance annually per employee! So How Many Steps Should You Walk Per Day? A goal of 10,000 steps is often banded around as the magic number, but is nothing more than a nice rounded figure that was dreamt up by a pedometer manufacturer in japan in the 1960’s. The average British office worker takes just 6,322 steps a day according to data gathered by Nokia’s own fitness app beating both France and the United States in the same study. This figure falls into the Low Active category as drawn up by Catrine Tudor-Locke of the University of Massachusetts who has been studying pedometer walking for many years. Her research can be broken down into the following: Sedentary Lifestyle Index: Under 5,000 steps per day is an indicator of being inactive and sitting too much, which raises health risks. Low Active: 5,000 to 7,499 steps per day is typical of daily activity excluding sports and exercise and might be considered low active. Somewhat Active: 7,500 to 9,999 steps per day likely includes some exercise or walking (and/or a job that requires more walking) and might be considered somewhat active. Active: 10,000 steps per day indicates the point that should be used to classify individuals as active. This makes it a good daily goal for healthy people who want a quick indicator they are getting in their daily exercise. Highly Active: Individuals who take more than 12,500 steps/day are likely to be classified as highly active. Walking is simple, free, and one of the easiest ways to get more active, lose weight and become healthier. Sometimes overlooked as a form of exercise, walking briskly can help you build stamina, burn excess calories and make your heart healthier. "Walking is the nearest activity to the perfect exercise" according to Professors Jerry Morris and Adrienne Hardman in the Walking for Health’s Walking Works report. So, over the next four weeks our three teams will count their steps and record their totals each day, competing to see who can do the most. We will post regular updates from our teams including photos, walking tips and motivational advice so you can see how they are getting on! Wish us luck!

We believe in celebrating and recognising best practice and the achievements of our team throughout the whole workforce giving us the chance to say thank you. Each month we celebrate an employee and/or team who have been nominated by clients, managers or colleagues at WORKPLACE for the work they have done that has been over and above the norm. We really love it when our customers take the time to nominate a member of staff who has gone the extra mile for them. This month we are acknowledging the hard work and dedication of Rebecca Wise. Rebecca has worked with us at Whitley Park School since November 2012. Rebecca's nominator; Operations Manager Mark Knight was keen to recognise her hard work saying, “Rebecca showcased great team player abilities by stepping up and covering the Supervisors role this month." Rebecca's Account Manager, Israel Edwards's added that "the site was extremely well managed. Rebecca really went the extra mile! She is very capable of taking on additional responsibilities should the opportunity become available." "Thank you Rebecca – congratulations on a well-earned award.” #Awards #EmployeeExcellenceAward

WORKPLACE is encouraging clients to ‘clean up their act’ as part of Global Handwashing Day on the 15th October. Workplaces should encourage their staff, whatever their profession, to keep their hands clean, especially after using the toilet and before consuming food. Just a few simple steps such as having soap in staff washrooms and hand sanitiser available can make a big difference to staff sickness rates. Having a business with healthy staff is key in the ever-changing economic environment. According to the Global Handwashing Day website although people around the world wash their hands with water, many do not wash their hands with soap at critical moments, including after going to the toilet and before handling or eating food. The challenge is to transform hand-washing with soap from an abstract good idea into an automatic behaviour carried out in homes, schools, workplaces and communities. Global Handwashing Day aim is to encourage millions of people to wash their hands with soap. This simple activity could save more lives than any vaccine or medical intervention, preventing the spread of infection and keeping children in school and employees in their place of work. Global Handwashing Day aims to motivate people to embrace and share proper hand-washing practices learned at the workplace back into their homes and communities. How will your place of work be celebrating Global Handwashing Day this year?

United Kingdom, 2017- Corporate Vision Magazine has announced the winners of the 2017 Marketing, PR & Communications Awards. Marketing, advertising and PR exist in most business and across all sectors. Public relations (PR) is the way organisations, companies and individuals communicate with the public and the media. They are dynamic and sociable teams within a fast moving and creative industry that can become highly stressful and pressurised. To recognise this, we are excited to introduce the third year of the Marketing, PR & Communications Awards 2017 at Corporate Vision. These awards are not concerned with the size of the business, rather with the drive and dedication to their work and their clients. WORKPLACE successfully secured 'Most Successful Company Rebrand 2017'. We are extremely proud of the hard work and dedication that has been shown to win this amazing award. Heather Ryan, Awards Co-ordinator, commented on the success of the winners: “Every one of my deserving winners has demonstrated dedication, diligence and overall excellence in their work. I would like to congratulate them and wish them the best of luck going forward.” To learn more about these illustrious winners, and to find out the secrets behind their success, please visit www.cv-magazine.com. About Corporate Vision Magazine Created by a highly experienced and passionate team of business experts, advisors and insiders, Corporate Vision provides discerning readers worldwide with a wealth of news, features and comment on the corporate issues of the day.

The temptation to dine ‘al desko’ is becoming more and more common place. The lines between workplace and social space blur due to the ever more popular coworking environments appearing all over the country. Besides the horror of crumbs that gather between keyboard cracks, there are several reasons why you shouldn’t be eating lunch at your desk. Here are our top three which should be enough to convince you to take full advantage of your lunch break: 1. Physical Health Benefits Casually grazing in front of your screen leads to increased calorie consumption and staying seated for long periods of time can lead to tension in your muscles and soreness in your joints. If you absolutely must stay at your desk, don’t forget to do a few stretches and exercises to help counteract the effects of sitting all day. If you can get away, try walking to a designated breakout space, local park or nearby café even if it’s just for 20 mins. How about some office yoga, or just taking a few trips up and down the stairs instead of taking the lift? Your body will thank you in the long term! 2. Improved Mental Health A change of scene is as good as a rest. Rather than responding to email or taking calls while you refuel, try stepping away from your work, it will make it easier to recharge your batteries and should help your productivity. Why not dine with your coworkers? Researchers have found that employees who interact during lunch breaks improve each other’s mental well-being. The benefits of socialising are similar to those of exercise: Your stress and blood pressure levels tend to decrease and in turn you should begin to feel happier. 3. A More Hygienic Workplace Eating at your desk not only can create a mess, but also your keyboard can become a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. “Desks have 400 times more bacteria than toilet seats,” says WORKPLACE's Operations Director, Martin Wells, “You wouldn't accept poor hygiene in your own home, so why has it become acceptable in the workplace?” At WORKPLACE we offer professional decontamination and technical cleaning of individual PCs which helps safeguard your business, reducing the risk of outage or downtime and the high cost of business interruption. But this alone shouldn’t be relied on to keep your staff safe and healthy. It should merely be starting point on which to build from by encouraging your workforce to know what is acceptable and what is not. Companies can make it easier Recently, Canadian-based company CBRE Ltd. introduced a new company policy that banned eating at your desk. The result? Employees felt more productive throughout their work day. The policy was also combined with a "clean desk" mandate, that meant employees had to clear extra papers and clutter from their desk at the end of each day. As a part of the company's efforts to be International WELL Building Institute certified, they banned eating at desks in an attempt to create a healthier environment for its workers. The certification requires employers to encourage staff to socialise at seating in break or lunch rooms that accommodate at least 25% of staff. The certification also includes adjustable standing desks, plenty of natural light, noise cancellation systems, and fresh filtered water systems. Whatever motivates you and your colleagues to get up out of that chair come lunchtime, it's important to make it a part of your daily routine. Start today and let us know in the comments section how you’re getting on! #Hygienicworkplace

Whether you need a simply decorated small tree for the corner of your office, or you are after a prominent centrepiece to welcome your staff and visitors into your business, WORKPLACE is here to help guide you through the festive season. Our technicians can provide you with stunning Christmas decor to meet any budget. WORKPLACE have supplied plants and Christmas trees for offices, shopping centres, schools & universities for many years. Our Clients request their Christmas decorations from us year after year commending the quality of our service. Our real Christmas trees are sourced from a local grower and we supply Nordmann Firs which is known for its needle retention properties. WORKPLACE can supply real Christmas trees up to 16ft (4.8mtrs) from the first week in December. All our festive trees are decorated with beautiful white lights and a large selection of coordinating decorations which can be tailored to your company or school colours! Talk to us about your corporate branding, the available space and your current budget and we will then create a customised quotation for you to review. Download our brochure for more details. #Christmas #interiorlandscaping

We believe in celebrating and recognising best practice and the achievements of our team throughout the whole workforce giving us the chance to say thank you. Each month we celebrate an employee and/or team who have been nominated by clients, managers or colleagues at WORKPLACE for the work they have done that has been over and above the norm. We really love it when our customers take the time to nominate a member of staff who has gone the extra mile for them. This month we are acknowledging the hard work and dedication of Kimberley Peacock. Kimberley has worked with us at St. Luke's School since November 2015. Kimberley's nominator; Operations Manager Mark Knight was keen to recognise her hard work saying, “Kimberley recently covered for the school's in-house cleaner. Our client was very impressed with the standards of cleanliness." Kimberley's Account Manager, Brenda Pither's added that "Kimberley is helpful in dealing with customer concerns and able to recognise the needs of the business.” “She is keen to lend a helping hand, thank you Kimberley – congratulations on a well-earned award.” #Awards #EmployeeExcellenceAward

United Kingdom, 2017- BUILD Magazine has announced winners of the 2017 Construction Awards. The 2017 Construction Awards have been designed to pay homage to the exceptionally talented firms and individuals whose tireless efforts has seen them achieve remarkable goals. These awards celebrate those from all corners of the construction industry, from the biggest companies to those just starting out. WORKPLACE successfully secured 'Best Construction Cleaning Company'. We are extremely proud of the hard work and dedication that has been shown to win this amazing award. Jordan Japal, Awards Coordinator commented: “It has been a genuine pleasure to showcase the talent and skill of these excellent firms and the individuals driving them who are shaping the construction industry and driving it to excellence. I would just like to congratulate each of my deserving winners all on their success and wish them the best of fortunes for the future.” To find out more about these prestigious awards, and the dedicated professionals selected for them, please visit http://www.build-review.com/ where you can view our winners supplement and full winners list. #Awards #construction