While a lot of attention might be spent on dealing with digital threats, we should be mindful of the physical ones, too. After all, there’s no need for a cybercriminal to hack into your servers if they can simply walk onto your premises and achieve the same end.

Modern business owners have access to many different ways of keeping their premises secure. You’ll want to choose the options that suit your business, and your premises.

Use access control

Access control has historically been a simple thing. If you have the keys, you can get into the building. This approach has been superseded by digital forms of access control, which are cheaper, easy to monitor, and less difficult to manipulate. With the right access control system in place, you’ll be able to see which employees have entered a given part of the premises at which time.

Install CCTV

Similarly, closed-circuit television has gotten very sophisticated and very affordable. You can install cameras at select locations, and see what’s being recorded from a remote location. Where cameras are visible, they might also deter intruders from trying to enter your premises in the first place.

Install a burglar alarm system

A good burglar alarm will sound when someone gets into the premises when they don’t belong there. Modern burglar alarms work mostly with the help of radar sensors. An emitter will send out high-frequency microwave radiation, while a receiver listens to the reflection. When the reflection changes, it means the environment has changed: therefore, something is moving. 

This technology is mature and affordable and should be installed wherever you want to stop burglars from entering. 

Use effective lighting

Criminals are looking for low-hanging fruit. They will tend to avoid places where they’re going to be in plain sight, and they’re easily spooked by sudden bright lights. A good system of security lights can often be enough to give intruders second thoughts.

You might install these lights in locations which seem vulnerable, like the parking lot at the rear of the building. 

Keep important paper documents locked away 

If your premises contain sensitive paper documents, then these documents should be securely stored, in much the same way as other valuables. This might be a particular concern for businesses which still rely heavily on paper documents, like legal firms and public-sector buildings. 

Invest in resilient, wall-mounted cabinets, and keep them in a secure room in the centre of the building that can’t be easily accessed. While it’s impossible to completely eliminate the risk of this kind of theft, you can take reasonable steps to do so, and thereby guard yourself against a potentially damaging lawsuit.

Have you ever stood up from your desk after a hard day’s work and had your joints creak and click, as well as have to stretch out tight muscles that have suffered from being in the same position for hours? It’s a sign that you need to spend a bit of time thinking about your health and posture by improving the ergonomics of your desk, chair, and general working environment. Here are a few things to examine and improve when it comes to ergonomics and how you can improve how you feel during and after your working day, particularly in your home office.

A Lesson on Sitting Down

Your chair does a lot of the heavy lifting, so to speak, when it comes to ergonomics when you’re working in your home office. You want to choose something that is very adjustable and promotes good ergonomics through science-backed design, like those available from Branch Furniture. Ergonomic chair height is important and Branch’s ergonomic chair height guide has some great tips and information about how to set up your office chair to the correct height, along with other points of adjustment that should be properly set up and considered.

Don’t Forget Your Desk

The last thing you want to do is buy a generic desk that doesn’t work for your needs. Together with careful adjustment of your chair height, you want your desk to be at the right height so that you don’t need to dangle your feet or bend your knees past 90 degrees – and that your elbows can be flush with the desk height. There has been a movement recently in abandoning sitting altogether and opting instead for a standing desk, which has ergonomic considerations of its own. You could also opt for an adjustable height desk so you can switch between these two working modes for the best of both worlds.

Setting Up Your Computer

Your computer is responsible for a lot of bad habits and posture issues when it comes to just sitting at your desk and working. If you’re working on a laptop positioned flat on the desk, for example, you’re likely hunching over for the best view of the screen and comfort on the keyboard. You’re not doing your body any favors though, so it’s time to adjust your computer’s position and setup.

The first thing to do is to make sure you lift your laptop or computer screen off the desk so that your eyes are level with the top bezel of the screen. There are some great products available to help you do this, many of which can be adjusted to be perfect for your setup. This will improve your spine alignment, particularly in your neck. It’s also an opportunity to get an external keyboard and mouse with better wrist support to prevent injuries to your wrists like RSI and carpal tunnel syndrome.

The 20-Minute Rule

It’s not all about furniture and how you set up your desk, chair, and computer. It’s also about moving around and taking breaks while you’re working. Making time to take these breaks is important, and some clever and free software can help you manage when to take them.

To prevent eye strain and related headaches, a simple app like EyeLeo can help you remember to take mini breaks and longer breaks to get up and move around. The 20/20/20 rule is a great one to follow.  For your body, a good rule of thumb is to spend about 10 minutes out of every hour away from your desk, even if you’re just ambling around the house or taking a walk around the garden for some fresh air. It has the added benefit of giving you a few minutes to let go of some stress if you’re having a particularly busy day.

Lunch and Hydration

It’s easy to forget about the time and skip lunch or forget to drink enough water during your day. Even worse, you might find yourself opening the pantry or refrigerator and choosing snacks over proper meals out of pure convenience. Avoid this by planning or preparing your lunch in advance, and keeping a flask or bottle of water at your desk. It might be a good idea to integrate your lunch or water breaks to ensure proper diet and hydration with your eye strain or movement breaks to remember to properly hydrate during your workday.

You won’t regret the cost and time investment you’ll put into creating a proper working space that is customized to meet your needs. If there is more than one of you working from the same home, try not to share workspaces. Instead, create your own so that your setup and configuration of chair and desk is always to your exact needs and preferences.

Every environment needs to be safe and hygienic for its employees and visitors. This should apply to every place of your work, not just those areas handling personal and food products.

To maintain your workplace hygiene, you should ensure that your workplace has a good hygiene policy. Below are six ways that you can make your workplace more hygienic.

Let’s begin!

●     Practice employee hygiene

You should ensure your employees practice good hygiene. Dust and clutter can gather in your workplace, and when they do, they provide an avenue for viruses, germs, and infections to spread.

Ensure that your employees cultivate the habit of maintaining cleanliness. Every employee’s personal hygiene can significantly impact the overall atmosphere of the workplace.

●     Ensure the workplace has clean air

Workers usually bring drinks or food to their workplace. Such acts often leave odors that linger around. It would be best to use air conditioning and other air condition equipment that would be of great help. Additionally, you can use fragrances to ensure the air in your workplace is clean while maintaining hygiene standards.

●     Provide sanitizers and wipes

Most workplaces usually only provide sanitizers in their washrooms. To ensure that your workplace is hygienic, you can give industrial paper towels, tissues, and hand sanitizers to your employees. This should be provided to every employee anytime the need arises to wash their hands, irrespective of making a trip to the washroom.

For example, when a staff intends to clean their hands after taking out the garbage, hand sanitizers should be strategically placed at the entrance and exit points of the office. This can serve as a reminder for them to wash their hands regularly.

●     Create smoking and eating sections

Food remnants usually carry germs. Therefore, it is vital that you set aside a location for food to be eaten and where not. This should also be applied to smoking areas, though in some places, smoking is illegal.

Additionally, you should ensure that the air in smoking designations is kept clean while also removing nicotine smells from walls and furniture. Also, it would be best if you punished violators of the company’s hygiene policy for not adhering to the company’s policies.

●     Address hygiene problems as they arise

To make your workplace more hygienic, you should regularly ensure that unclean environments are maintained and not ignored. When unhygienic locations are noticed, you should report them up the chain of command to draw attention.

Also, as a company owner, you can set up a reward system where employees are rewarded for reporting hygiene problems.

●     Ensure garbage is disposed properly

Every company should have a well-arranged system that ensures every unwanted substance or garbage is removed most efficiently. A simple way is to place waste disposals close to employees’ desks. This not only prevents contamination but also reduces garbage accumulation and foul odors.

Wrap Up

With the pandemic ravaging the world, every workplace must practice proper hygiene. It would be best if you enforced regular cleaning habits to help maintain the cleanliness of your workplace. Workplace hygiene improves employees’ productivity.