Advantia Business Solutions Blog

Saying thank you sounds simple enough, but it’s surprising how often we make a cursory job of it, or even forget to do it altogether. The benefits of acknowledging other people, whether they go above and beyond, do something unexpected or just keep ploughing on, day-in, day-out, are multiple. In business, a genuine ‘thank you’ can make the recipient feel appreciated, encourage colleagues to step up again the next time or ensure a customer comes back. So, here are four ways that a ‘thank you’ can work wonders: Following a purchase Customers buying from your business for the first time, as well as loyal regulars, should be acknowledged. In an age of electronic transactions, your business could soon stand out and develop better and more unique client relationships if you adopt a habit of sending personal messages to show how much the custom is valued. After a meeting Whether people have visited you for the first time, devoted hours explaining a new proje...

Did you know a typical office of 100 people produces on average 20 bags of waste a week? This fills one 1,100L waste bin a week, equivalent to filling fifty 1,100L waste bins a year! Over 90% of this office waste can be recycled, but the idea of recycling is often overlooked by many people. Recycling is relatively easy to deal with, and shouldn’t be too difficult to introduce to your office! Here are 7 top tips for reducing your waste and implementing an effective recycling system that will obliterate your waste and put you on the path to sending nothing to landfill. 1. Focus on paper consumption It’s hardly surprising to hear that most office waste consists of paper. We all use it and we are all most likely guilty of wasting more than we should. The first action you can take to reduce paper is to set up your printer to print double sided, as this simple action can halve paper consumption. The second step is to ask yourself if what you are printing really ne...

It’s often that we’re looking to turn the heating up in English offices, as sunny days are a rare accompaniment to our usual week in the office. But with the weather being surprisingly hot lately, we decided to put a few top tips together to help you cope with oppressive office heatwaves and, hopefully, keep you going until the beer garden calls at the end of the day. 1. Ditch the coffee Did you know that during these hot summer days you need to rehydrate with at least 2-3 litres of water a day because we tend to sweat more? This brings us to rule number 1 - Hydration. Get this wrong, you might as well bang your head on the desk a few times to match the headache (and potential heatstroke) that you will be suffering with. You know that water cooler you have in the office? Use it. Our advice would be to bring in a bottle and fill that up, as those tiny little plastic cups can easily fool you into thinking that you’ve drunk enough for the day. (Don’t ...

When it comes to recommending the right fire extinguisher, knowing which type is best for which kind of fire is potentially life-saving. Although the number of fires in the UK has decreased significantly since smoke alarms became commonplace from the 1990s onwards, Fire and rescue services (FRSs) attended around 162,000 fires in England during 2015/16. This is 5% more than the 155,000 attended in 2014/15 (Department for Communities and Local Government’s Fire Statistics report.) From a workplace perspective, retail units, cafes, bars, restaurants and manufacturing sites accounted for many of the 22,000 out of home fires attended by the fire services in 2013-14. These non-residential fires resulted in over 1,000 non-fatal casualties and 17 fatal casualties in 2013-14, making advice on fire safety equipment particularly critical to these end-user groups. The type of extinguisher to use depends on what materials are involved in a fire. With the chief causes of fire includi...

Let’s face it, we all love stationery. Being handed a new and fancy-looking stapler can lift my mood as much as the next person, but there are a few things we did not know about the beloved items we have on our desks (unless you’re a stationery geek). So, let’s lay out the facts (with the assistance of some lovely imagery): There you go, you learn something new every day. Happy World Stationery Day! 

You might’ve heard that it’s National Stationery Week this week (24 th April – 30 th April 2017). And yes, it’s a big deal. In such a technology-dominant era, using pens and pencils might seem pointless ( I’ll save my broken pencil joke for later ) But I can assure you, hand-writing is just as important as that mobile device you have sitting next to you. Why, you ask? Let me explain: 1.        There’s a feeling of joy writing by hand What do you do when you get given a new pen from a colleague or supplier? Well, some of you might just place it in your drawer for when it is needed. However, if you’re anything like me you’ll drop everything you’re doing and write anything you can to give the pen a ‘test run’. For some reason this gives us joy, especially seeing your text so perfectly written on the fresh piece of notebook paper. Don’t get me wrong, writing text messages and note-taking on your mobile device can be quick and easy, but choosi...

If more bystanders performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) quickly and used defibrillators where available, thousands more people could survive cardiac arrests each year. In its new 2015 guidelines, the Resuscitation Council says that as well as calling the emergency services straight away, people could improve a victim’s chances of survival if they gave CPR immediately on recognising the signs of a cardiac arrest. Defibrillators are portable electronic devices that automatically diagnose and treat life threatening cardiac arrhythmias through the application of electrical therapy, allowing the heart to re-establish an effective rhythm. The use of a defibrillator within three to five minutes of collapse can make survival rates as high as 50 to 70%. Fewer than 2% of victims in the UK have a defibrillator deployed before an ambulance arrives and of the 60,000 cases of suspected cardiac arrest each year, less than half of these have resuscitation attempted by ambulan...

Any type of business that’s tendering for new contracts, working towards an accreditation or explaining its progressive approach to customers, employees or suppliers can find itself answering questions on its eco behaviour. So what part can technology play? Quite a big one when it comes to improving environmental performance and cutting costs. When it comes to devices and systems at work, measures that can be taken to improve environmental outcomes can include how products are chosen and how, when and where people work with and recycle technology. Being a better environmental player can include small steps to begin with. Even if a business isn’t kitted out with movement detected motion sensors to turn off un-needed lights, or smart technology to adjust air temperature, there are a few steps any organisation can take to be that bit more environmentally friendly with its tech: Choose wisely Checking existing equipment to see if its life can be extended or performan...

Some may say an untidy office is the sign of a creative mind, but if your workplace unruliness goes beyond a piled up inbox, virtual or physical, you might want to think again. At its worst, office mess causes accidents, the majority of which are falls, frequently caused by equipment, files and cables left lying around. Slips, trips and manual handling, often resulting in broken bones, are the most frequent causes of injury are in the workplace. Here are 5 ideas for taking an office environment from chaos to calm: 1. Get into the zone Divide your workspace into zones, with the closest zone on your desk and only for those items you need within arms’ reach, such as computers, keyboard, telephone, pen holder and notepad. Zones outside of this should include your inbox, reference materials, office supplies and personal items, each in their own area of the office. Classify items as daily, weekly or seldom used and keep those seldom used items well away from your offic...

Workplace kitchens are no longer places to just make a brew or store sandwiches. The growth in flexible working, bring your own device (BYOD) and collaborative working means company break rooms are becoming much more than ‘worktop, fridge and kettle’. For informal team meetings, a chat over lunch or a change of scenery, office kitchens nowadays are often designed as multi-purpose spaces. Open plan offices mean people need different rooms to retreat to for quiet working or informal meetings – and employers are responding with a variety of comfortable, easy to use spaces in the kitchen. For an office kitchen that ticks the right boxes, here are six elements for making this space a runaway success: 1. Lounge area Providing somewhere for people to relax, have one to one chats or give informal presentations can help drive collaboration, creativity and engagement. An alternative to the more formal setting of some meeting rooms, comfortable seating can help peopl...

Work trends have evolved dramatically over the past few decades and it is likely to never stop changing over the coming years. To prepare businesses for some of the possible changes, here are five ways the office will change in the next five years and how business owners can adapt to keep up with the ever changing pace at work: 1) Openness and transparency will be key The population of the workforce are beginning to be filled with the Millennials who are a generation of ‘caring and sharing’ – having shared most of their time on social media, blogs and vlogs. In a recent study it was found that both Generations Z and Y believed honesty is the most important quality for being a good leader. With them being used to open and transparent environments outside of work, it is becoming a common demand within their working lives too. There will be no management offices dividing the workers, and teams will sit according to projects. Small businesses will benefit greatly from this as ...

As National Stationery Week continues on for the last couple of days, we thought it would be nice to know some interesting facts about the subject of celebration. From breadcrumbs being used as erasers to the world’s most expensive pen – these stationery facts are worth the read: 1. The average office worker handles around 10,000 sheets of paper every year It has been calculated that the average tree is capable of producing around 80,000 sheets of paper, which is enough to sustain around 8 office workers every year. 2. The post-it note wasn’t invented, it was created by accident In 1968, Spencer Silver, who was an employee of 3M at the time, was trying to create a super-strong adhesive. Yet despite his best efforts, all he could come up with was a very weak adhesive that could be removed without leaving behind any residue. This accidental discovery was then used to create the world’s first post-it note. 3. The ballpoint pen first gained popularity becau...

National Stationery Week has arrived (25 April – 1 May 2016) and it is a good reminder that we all love having a good selection of stationery in our house or on our desk at work. In this digital age, some people might opt to use their laptops for writing notes or letters, leaving handwriting to seem invaluable. However, the benefits of picking up a pen go much further, with gains for our brainpower and wellbeing when writing by hand. So whilst the nation are celebrating their love for stationery, we’ve taken a look at why handwriting is the best tool for capturing information and inspiring creativity on paper: The public agree! It appears the British public would agree that writing matters. In a YouGov poll for National Stationery Week, 92% of people agreed that handwriting is very or fairly important, while 97% agreed that it’s important to teach handwriting to school children. Calming Increased calmness has been proved to be among the advantages of writin...

With winter finally over, it’s a great time to start thinking about whether you can carry out some spring cleaning in your business to get you set for the rest of 2016. Here are some top tips: Update your website and social media Go through and take stock of what your online presence is like. Is there some copy on your site that could be rewritten to sound better or more accurately reflect slight shifts in your target market, or what kinds of services you are focusing on now? Is your brand being represented as effectively as possible? Now is a good time to tighten things up and fix up all the little details that, although they don’t take a lot of effort, make a big impact. Consider long-term goals While dusting off your business plan from the beginning of the first quarter, think about your long-term goals, both for the company and for your own working life. You might find that your expectations, needs, and ambitions are different than they once were. Maybe your ...