A business leader’s guide to managing stress in the workplace
Did you know that 2 in 5 employees say stress has affected their health? With the growing demands of a 21st century workforce and the pressure of having to stay ‘switched-on’ at all times, stress in the workplace is becoming a serious business issue.
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4 ways to keep your team productive over the festive season
If you tend to have fewer business enquiries around Christmas, then it’s easy to let things slip. But even in some of the busier industries employees tend to slow down for the festive break, losing productivity and creativity. But it’s this time of year that can really make or break your business. If you’re smart about it, you can get your business off to a flying start in 2018.
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7 time-saving tools for business leaders
As a business leader, you’ll often find that time can be your worst enemy. With the pressure of the day-to-day management of an organisation, retaining clients and winning new business, as well as trying to find time to see family and friends, it can be a very demanding job. As a result, many business leaders struggle to achieve a good work-life balance.
Top 12 productivity-boosting office snacks
There’s a growing awareness of how important it is to promote wellbeing in the office. Business owners and employees alike are beginning to realise the importance of an office environment that encourages a healthy lifestyle and a good work-life balance.
This isn’t just a new fad. Countless academic studies have reported the productivity benefits of happy, healthy employees. Healthier workers take less time off sick, which can result in significant savings over time. Taking active steps to promote a healthy workforce can also help to attract and retain talent. Research suggests that millennials are particularly keen to work for companies that value their well-being.
Why does healthy food matter?
Food is the fuel our bodies run on. The better our diet, the better we’re likely to feel afterwards. And the better we feel, the higher our concentration levels will be.
Fresh, healthy food provides us with energy, improves our mental health, helps our bodies to fight sickness and boosts our focus. Ultimately, if you eat well throughout the working day, you’re more likely to consistently produce great results.
Unfortunately, offices can often be high-risk environments for unhealthy food. It’s not unusual for workers to eat junk food at their desks because they haven’t had time to go out to get anything else. Vending machines, biscuit platters in the boardroom and boxes of chocolate for the team can also be difficult to avoid.
Why not make a commitment to make healthier food choices at work? Resist the temptation to eat one of the cupcakes that your colleague bought for everyone, and instead indulge in some fresh fruit!
Business owners can help with this, too. Changing up the refreshments you offer during meetings and work events can have a big impact here, as can ensuring your team members have enough time at lunch to eat a well-balanced meal. And instead of placing chocolate and sweets around your office across the festive season, why not offer mixed nuts and dried fruit instead?
Having access to food preparation facilities can often be overlooked, too. Instead of buying a ready meal from the shop, this means you can prepare something fresh, providing you with more nutrients. This is a real priority for us at WorkWell, and we offer high-quality shared kitchen spaces for users of our serviced offices and co-working spaces.
12 productivity-boosting office snacks
Looking to boost your productivity at work? Why not replace your office sweet cupboard with some of these healthy snacks?
- Raw nuts
Nuts are packed with vitamins, minerals and essential fats like omega-3s, which provide healthy fats for energy, mitigate stiffness and joint problems and help to regulate mood.
- Carrot sticks and hummus
Carrots can be a great low-calorie snack, containing lots of vitamins and minerals, and not many carbohydrates. Combine this with hummus and you’ll get a nice balance of minerals, protein and fibre – and an extra-delicious snack!
- Fibre-rich fruits
High fibre fruits, like berries and apples, are ideal for a mid-morning snack as they can make you feel ‘full’ sooner. Studies also suggest that fibre plays a part in improving your immune system, meaning you’re less likely to fall victim to the dreaded cold that’s going around the office.
- Coconut chips
Packed with healthy fats, coconut chips can serve as a sweet replacement for your normal packet of crisps or popcorn.
- Roasted chickpeas
Like nuts, chickpeas have a low GI (glycemic index), which means they release energy slowly so are great for maintaining productivity. Delicious served straight from a can or as the key ingredient in hummus, this versatile food can also be served roasted as an alternative to nuts.
- Green smoothies
Have you noticed more people drinking green juices recently? There’s a good reason for that! By blending leafy greens and vegetables into a smoothie, you can easily hit your five-a-day. Blending from fresh means you retain vitamins often lost in cooking processes, and the liquid format means your body can more readily absorb the goodness. Counteract bitterness by adding some ripe fruit like mango or pineapple. Here’s how to blend the perfect green smoothie…
- Greek yoghurt and honey
Honey has been used medicinally for centuries, for everything from a cold to lowering your blood sugar. Mix this with greek yoghurt, known for its digestion-aiding probiotics, and you’ll do a load of good for your stomach.
- Bananas
Slow release carbs, such as bananas and walnuts, can help you avoid the ‘3pm sugar crash’ – something that you may be familiar with if you tend to snack on doughnuts and sweets.
- Unsweetened dried fruit
Dried fruit is a great source of energy and fibre. It’s also a lot more office-friendly than fresh fruit as it is non-perishable, which means you can store it at work without worrying about it going off. If you often eat porridge or granola at work, why not add some dried apricots and raisins to it?
- Celery sticks with peanut butter
Research suggests that celery and peanut butter can reduce your chance of heart disease and diabetes. It’s also a lot more filling than some of the other snacks on this list. Although if you’re watching your weight, try not to go overboard on the peanut butter…
- Granola bars
Low in sodium and high in potassium, granola bars can increase blood and oxygen flow in your body. This means you’ll have higher concentration levels, and for longer!
- Vegetable crisps
Like coconut chips, these can be a healthy, low-saturated fat alternative to your average packet of crisps. For added health benefits, why not try making your own vegetable crisps at home?
What are your favourite productivity-boosting office snacks? Have we missed any out? We’d love you to share them with us on Twitter.
What else can you do to promote health and productivity in the office?
There are a wide range of techniques and initiatives that companies can explore in order to encourage better health and productivity among their employees. At WorkWell, we offer a range of perks to promote health and wellbeing, as well as attracting and retaining talent.
These include:
- Plants in the office
- An eco-friendly working environment
- Plenty of windows to boost natural light
- Sparkling facilities, cleaned daily
- Over 4,500 sq. ft. of breakout areas and third space
Do you want to benefit from a working environment designed with employee productivity and wellbeing in mind? Why not arrange a viewing at our luxury serviced offices in Leeds or Harrogate?
Employee engagement: the dark horse of business success
We often hear about self-proclaimed business growth experts offering ‘secrets’ into their tactics. These tactics can be anything and everything from a basic marketing strategy to gaining financial investments.
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Why we’re proud to be an eco-friendly business
Did you know that global temperatures are rising at an alarming rate, with 16 of the 17 warmest years on record coming after 2001? Or that Arctic sea ice has shrunk by 3.5-4.1% every decade since 1979? With one of the strongest recorded hurricanes in history recently hitting the Atlantic, it’s unsurprising that climate change is one of the most important topics this century.
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WorkWell’s Meeting Room Guide
Why opt for a hired meeting room in Leeds?
Leeds is home to over 536,000 individuals, making it the UK’s second largest city. The business-oriented city attracts many organisations to its trendy cosmopolitan streets, creating appeal around hiring quality, well-facilitated and flexible spaces to hold meetings, events and seminars.
Leeds is a practical city to run meetings out of, with fantastic transportation links for the whole of the North and even to the south, it makes it simpler for anybody across the UK to attend a meeting.
Whilst the transport links offer convenience, Leeds offers more practicalities, with a plethora of shops, cafes, restaurants and bars for food and drink to be gotten from. Being surrounded by so many options can reduce the time spent navigating to the nearest local shop.
Leeds is a developing city, with money being put into improving the city’s infrastructure and green spaces. This means that whilst you may want the convenience of a meeting room in an urban environment, you can still find green spaces to enjoy your lunch or a long walk.
Potential issues to consider with hiring a meeting room?
Hiring a meeting room comes with a lot of considerations to be made, whether it is the budget, the capacity of a space, or the technological capabilities. Considering each aspect of your ideal meeting room will set you up for success.
- Ensure the space has the technical capabilities and IT support for those days where it may be causing some issues.
- Will you have access to other facilities? I.e. printer access or a kitchenette
- Location is king, make sure everyone attending can get there without it costing too much money or time!
- Consider taking a tour, there’s nothing worse than feeling like you’re trapped in an arrangement that doesn’t meet your business needs. Try before you buy will help protect from any issues.
- Make sure to book with plenty of time to prepare. Don’t try booking the day before, make sure you and your meeting room provider are prepared for your attendance, more so, making sure they’re not booked up!
Stretching your meeting room budget
Looking for ways to make the most of your meeting room budget? Accessing a high-quality environment for meetings helps increase your business’s credibility and can contribute towards the general success of your organisation. However, stretching your budget isn’t always a practical solution for just the one meeting, so we’ve come up with some ways you can stretch your budget:
- Connect with another business – Do you know anyone that would be interested in sponsoring your meetings? This could be in the form of anything from providing the catering for your meeting to handing out branded goodie bags to your attendees. If you do the relevant research and get a bit creative with your approach, this tactic can really pay off.
- Look for hidden costs – Some of the seemingly-cheaper meeting rooms often come with a variety of hidden costs. This could be for anything from the catering to using the wi-fi! We can’t stress enough how important it is to ask exactly what is included in the price before you make your booking.
- Opt for all-inclusive packages – It could be a lot more cost-effective to book an all-inclusive meeting room package. Take time to look for a package to suit your business and you could end up saving a lot of money on things you usually pay extra for!
- Host out of the city – People often assume that a city centre location is perfect for your meetings, but that’s really not the case! More rural locations don’t just tend to be more cost-effective compared to city-centre meeting room facilities, but they may also provide a more convenient location for your attendees.
- Have a fixed budget for all meetings –Sometimes it can really help to visualise things by writing them down on paper. Take some time to work out exactly how much you can afford to spend on each meeting, down to the penny. From here, you can keep this figure in mind when booking your meetings to make sure you don’t go over your budget.
- Create an opportunity for funds to be raised – This is no short-term solution, but creating additional means to fund your meetings can be a great way to subsidise any excess costs from your budget.
- Booking in bulk – Some meeting room providers offer discounted rates for bulk bookings. Simply ask around and find the perfect place for you.
- Electing to use a smaller space – Consider the size of the space needed to comfortably conduct a meeting. Instead of picking one, you can roam around in, look for one that comfortably sits attendees and provides you with the necessary amenities to conduct.
For more tips on finding meeting space and overcoming the challenges involved in planning and running meetings, the WorkWell blog is a mine of useful information and advice – subscribe today for regular updates.
What’s going on at this year’s Buy Yorkshire Conference
With 200 stands and attracting around 4,000 delegates, Buy Yorkshire is the North’s biggest B2B conference and exhibition.
This highly-anticipated annual business event is nearly here.
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Ergonomic office innovations we can’t afford to ignore
The benefits of ergonomic office furniture have long been realised and documented. ‘Sitting comfortably’ can improve productiveness by as much as 11%. By contrast, an uncomfortable office can be damaging to our health and wellbeing. Though ergonomic workspace is becoming increasingly innovative.
From standing up to work, to have a ‘third place’ to relax, take a look at the following ergonomic office innovations we can’t afford to ignore.
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