Posts

Tips to Help You With House Maintenance

StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |House Maintenance|Tips to Help You With House MaintenanceA home maintenance program is essential for preserving any home, much like a regular health checkup. Preventing malfunctions and keeping your house in peak condition will be easier if you regularly inspect your exterior and exterior systems. In addition, it’s essential to keep track of your home’s upkeep so that you don’t end up causing unnecessary or preventable damages.

The following basic practices will effortlessly help in maintaining your house;

Get Rid of the Dust

Dust may be found everywhere, no matter where you reside. Dust accumulation generally occurs in areas that you don’t check daily, and it may significantly reduce the lifetime of essential equipment such as refrigerators, dryers, and other similar items. Maintaining a regular dust cleaning and filter spare schedule will keep you healthy and save unnecessary expenditure in the long run.

Shut Up Loud Drawer or Cabinet Hinges

When cabinet or drawer hinges begin to squeak, you may use a lubricant such as WD-40 to spray into the center of the hinge to calm it down and make it more silent. However, if it doesn’t work, try hammering the hinge pin up approximately halfway and applying some lubricant to the pin, such as 3-in-1 oil, to make it more flexible.

Lastly, tap it back down and then slide the hinges back and forth a few times, and the squeak should have gone away completely. However, suppose the sound persists and locking drawer slides, consider those with high-quality and heavy-duty durability.

Smooth Out Sticky Windows

It is highly frustrating to open a window only to find that it stutters, skips, and slams shut. So instead, spray a little silicone grease on the piece of cloth and then gently coat the guides if you notice any resistance while trying to open a stuck window. No matter what the material, this method will work.

Restore Faucet Flow

At some point, faucets’ flow may be lowered or even begin to disperse water unevenly. Because of the development of sand or additional mineral patches, a mesh screen at the tip of the faucet becomes jammed. Sticky tape the aerator and then rotate it off to prevent damage. For approximately an hour, immerse the debris in vinegar to remove it. Reassemble it after a thorough cleaning.

Vacuum Your Floor Regularly

Dust, hair dander, and grime may be removed from your home by vacuuming your floors on a weekly or biweekly basis. In addition, carpet, hardwood, or any other kind of flooring should be cleaned regularly to prolong its life and enhance the air quality in your house.

Schedule Services for Pest Control

Infested basements and walls might be a more outstanding issue than you would imagine. It’s important to keep bees, wasps, mosquitos, and even spiders out of your home since they pose a health concern. If raccoons are a problem in your community, you might face serious consequences. Make sure that rubbish is not within easy reach.

Conclusion

Maintaining your house through the posted tips means that you won’t have to deal with creaking drawers, doors, or the mess that comes with a leaking roof, hence making life a lot simpler.

How To Ensure Your Business Move Across States Goes As Smoothly As Possible

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Move|How To Ensure Your Business Move Across States Goes As Smoothly As PossibleIf moving house is one of the three most stressful events in your personal life, then relocating your business premises to another state must be one of the top three in your professional career.

With that being said, continue reading to discover how to ensure that your business moves from one state to another goes as smoothly as can be expected.

Start Planning Early!

Planning (when it pertains to relocating your business premises) is absolutely paramount and must always involve checking all the proverbial legal boxes as well as the practical ones.

Ensure you always keep both your employees and customers informed and updated, the former so you are unlikely to lose any valuable employees that have initially agreed to transfer to the new location and the latter to ensure that your customers feel important and valued.

Some of the best ways to maintain relationships with both customers and staff ahead of the move include, but are categorically in no way limited to:

  • Ordering and using stationery with your new contact details clearly displayed
  • Informing any relevant authorities or legal practices of your move in good time
  • Speaking personally to corporate companies and informing them of the change in location
  • Including a map to find your new location with every e-mail and mail correspondence
  • Consulting the relevant trade union representatives for your business and departments
  • Holding weekly employee briefings to update them on every step of the relocation process and progress

StrategyDriven's 45 Minute Business Accelerators eBook

Ensure There Are No Gaps In Operation

Before, during and naturally after the move, it is vital to ensure that your business is operating completely normally and the products or services you offer do not suffer in quantity, quality or speed at which they are provided. Additionally, your customer service standard should not be compromised during this time in any way.

Managing & Directing The Moving Day

The moving day itself needs to be planned and scheduled as much as feasibly possible and one of the most beneficial and cost-effective things to do is to contact a professional and established company such as Acertus automotive logistics who will help with ensuring your company’s vehicles arrive safely at your new destination.

With the threat of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic ever-present in today’s modern world right now, always remember to execute each phase of the re-location process as safely and securely as possible. Accessibility is of vital importance, for your employees and where applicable, your new premises needs to be up to date with both the moral and legal accessibility rules.

The other key considerations when changing the location of your business premises is local, professional and renowned IT solicitors and specialists and the new layout and any changes or additions you will be required to make that differ from the current floor plan.

It would also be prudent to point out that if you are renting your current business premises to thoroughly read through the terms and conditions of your lease.

Take These Vital Steps To Keep Your Business Data Secure

StrategyDriven Organisational Performance Measures Article |Keep your data secure|Take These Vital Steps To Keep Your Business Data SecureToday, consumers and business clients are paranoid about data security. They are constantly fearful that the data held by companies is leaving them vulnerable and open to cases of fraud or scams. That’s why it’s important for every business to take the right steps to secure all business data. Here are the possibilities that we recommend.

Research Standards To Remain Compliant

To help protect customers numerous new regulations have been brought in relating to data security. When you are running your business it is important that you remain compliant with these standards and regulations. For instance, you could be running an accounting firm. If that’s the case, you need to make sure that the software you are using is compliant. Accounting practice software that is compliant will be advertised as such so there should be no confusion here.

Hire An IT Support Team

One of the greatest risks for your business data security is the potential of a hack. It’s important to be able to recognize the key signs of a hack and address them accordingly without any delays. That’s why you should think about hiring an IT support team. An IT support team will monitor your network along with your different systems to check for any issues here and ensure that you are not leaving your business vulnerable. They can also guarantee that your business network and anything like your cloud solution is set up correctly from the first day that you decide to enter the market.

Invest In The Right Level Of Training

Next, you should think abou investing in the right level of training in your business model. The best training will ensure that you don’t have to worry about issues with security developing because your team members weren’t able to recognise the signs of a threat. Phishing scams are becoming more common in a range of different industries. The problem with phishing scams is that they will target team members at various different levels. Investing in training can help team members identify phishing scams so they don’t become victims of an attack like this, giving away sensitive data to the wrong source.

Use A Disaster Recovery Service

Finally, while your main goal should always be to prevent a hack, you do need to think about taking the right step after a hack occurs. More often than not, this is going to mean a full disaster recovery. Without the right plan in place this could take weeks or even months and cost your business thousands due to downtime. With a plan, you can get everything back up and running in minutes. You should speak to your IT support team about this possibility. They should be able to provide you with all the right options here that you need.

We hope this helps you understand some of the key steps that must be taken to ensure that your business data does remain secure. In doing so, you can avoid incidents that could obliterate your brand and cause you to lose the support of your clients.

Tips To Improve Safety And Good Health In The Workplace

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Improve Safety |Tips To Improve Safety And Good Health In The WorkplaceWhen it comes to maintaining a safe and healthy workplace, prevention is better than cure. A safe workplace contributes significantly to your business’ performance and, consequently, your reputation.

What’s more, the costs that your business will incur in case of any injury incidents resulting from inefficient measures are too much. The good news is that similar incidents can be minimized with a good plan and the damages controlled.
Follow the tips in this article to gain valuable insights on some preventive measures to implement in the workplace.

Regular Inspection

Is there any reason to check the workplace after knowing it’s safe?

The answer is yes. While one thorough examination of your business workplace will help you know of any existing and potential causes of risks, regular checks will prevent any unexpected risk surprises.

Seek professional help when conducting inspections. Some of the hazards to check for include;

Biological hazards

These are dangers caused by organisms such as bacteria and viruses.

Physical hazards

Physical dangers at the workplace vary from business to business. However, noise, weather, radiation, and electricity are the most common ones.

Ergonomic hazards

Disorganized workstations can increase the risks of accidents and poor health. For example, improperly adjusted chairs cause lousy posture.

Other workplace hazards to look out for are chemical and safety hazards.

Remember to have reports from all the inspections conducted as they will come in handy when planning for risks and during employee training.

Conduct Routine Safety Trainings All Employees

In a business setup, learning should never stop. So conduct safety training for your employees, even for what you think they know.

Avoid working with assumptions and make sure every person in your business has some safety tips at their fingertips. For example, assuming that all your employees are skilled to handle the different equipment at work is very risky.

Carry out orientations for new employees and interns even if they claim to know. You can also take advantage of this opportunity to organize internal workshops following identifying a new risk or introducing a piece of new equipment. Remind them of self-care tips and the importance of wearing protective gears made of closed cell foam.

Implement and Prioritize a Risk Management Program

Even with the best risk management skills, it is all nothing with no good plan in place for the future. Therefore, the ultimate strategy after identifying risk is to create a program that works towards its management and, eventually, its elimination.

After identifying and contextualizing risks at the workplace, the next step is to analyze and evaluate them critically. This step will help you come up with an effective strategic plan. Then, in the program, note all the measures systematically to reduce distractions and put your business in a better control position.

Conclusion

Times change, and new risks emerge. But If you are flexible and committed to a few readjustments from time to time, this will not be a problem and you will not have your staff organizing workers comp if they are injured and unable to work.  

Additionally, your customers and employees are important human resources for your business. Strive to create a work environment that prioritizes their safety and health at all times.

Flexibility Like No Other: Why the Hybrid Work Model Is the Future

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Hybrid work model|Flexibility Like No Other: Why the Hybrid Work Model Is the FutureDuring the recent pandemic, quarantining meant working remotely to keep businesses productive as the world shut down. As a result, many companies scrambled to support remote workers and keep their company doors open. As a result, management and workers soon discovered remote work offers many benefits. Offering both flexibility and functionality, the hybrid work model is ideal today and in scenarios for the future.

Heads in the Cloud

Supporting remote workers during COVID-19 meant investing in cloud Hybrid Workplace Software to ensure real-time collaboration and updates from any location. Working in the cloud is secure and collaborative with the proper software solutions. As a result, workers appreciate the opportunity to choose their work hours based on their schedules and energy levels. Plus, employees on the go can access work updates from any device, including tablets and smartphones.

Increased Employee Satisfaction

Satisfied employees tend to be more loyal and productive, benefiting businesses by putting in their best efforts each day. A hybrid work model is desirable because workers plan their schedules rather than staying in an office for most of their week. The opportunity to work at home and collaborate at the office is the ideal mix to inspire employees and give them the flexibility to achieve the best possible work-life balance.

Effortlessly Increase Productivity

After generations of management attempting to improve productivity, the hybrid work model is the answer. When employees have greater control over their schedules, they become more productive. In addition, the ability to handle personal responsibilities and work when they have the highest energy levels ensures employees always bring their best when working. Plus, the cloud software helps management and employees stay connected to provide the necessary transparency and ensure projects are completed on schedule.

Improve Mental Health

Supporting optimum mental health is crucial for modern employers in a world filled with unexpected stress, ranging from natural disasters to a pandemic. Offering a hybrid work model gives employees essential time to process stressors without bringing anxiety to the workplace. As a result, employees’ time in the office is more meaningful and collaborative. Additionally, workers away from the office have an equal opportunity to collaborate remotely through cloud software.

Support Continuous Learning

Finally, a hybrid work model supports continuous learning. Consider the time it takes for workers to get dressed and commute to and from work every day. Some employees gain hours in their day when they work remotely. The extra time in a worker’s schedule can be used for continuing education classes, training sessions, and personal enrichment.
Additionally, companies offering educational incentives show they support their team members and want them to succeed. When employees feel valued, they do their best work at all times, which is a competitive advantage for progressive companies that realize the value of adopting a hybrid work model. Team members who continue educational opportunities bring their talents to benefit the business.

Beyond supporting employees’ success, a hybrid work model helps companies maximize resources and save money. Fewer workers in the office mean less space is required and the need for utilities is reduced. Plus, happier workers are more productive, helping companies gain a competitive advantage. Invest in software today to support the inevitable hybrid work model that top talent will demand in the years to come.