Here are some valuable tips to make your business summer-ready!

Maintain and Upgrade to Energy Efficient Appliances.

When preparing your business for summer, it is vital to check the well-being and suitability of your workplace appliances. 

Air Conditioning – Ensure the air conditioning is in the best shape by scheduling an inspection and getting an expert service. Keeping the filters and coils clean can improve efficiency, meaning it won’t take long to reach the required temperature.  Upgrading the system can be a long-term investment, too, as newer systems are more energy efficient, saving you money in the long run. 

Efficient Lighting – Upgrading to energy-efficient alternatives like Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) can convert more electricity into light, meaning they are more energy-efficient. They also emit less heat than traditional bulbs, keeping your workspace cooler and your bills lower.  

Thermostats – Upgrading to programmable thermostats allows you to set a temperature schedule, ensuring that the AC only runs during office hours and avoiding unnecessary usage. Implementing zoning systems allows different building areas to have separate settings and prevents excessive use of the cooling systems. 

When searching for better appliances, it’s important to check for ones with Energy Star Certification, as these models consume less energy, offering long-term savings. You can install timers and motion sensors to ensure they only operate when necessary. 

Energy Saving Alternatives

Businesses can also look for cheaper solutions to avoid spending money. These include: 

Optimising Insulation – Businesses can check for air leaks in cracks, gaps and openings around windows and doors. Sealing cracks by weather-stripping or caulking can prevent cooled air from escaping, thereby maximising efficiency. Although this may reduce visibility, window films can reduce heat without obstructing natural light, thus maintaining the indoor temperature. 

Checking and Investing in better roof insulation can reduce strain on your HVAC systems by keeping the indoor temperature stable.  

Sunshading solutions – Companies can install exterior sunshades or awnings. Not only do these stop unnecessary cooling, but they also add to the aesthetic of your offices. Using blinds or curtains to block out direct sunlight can reduce indoor temperatures. 

Ventilation fans – Strategically placing exhaust fans in busy areas can improve airflow and dissipate heat, cooling down spaces without needing to use air conditioning.

Natural Solutions

When making the change to a more energy-efficient, affordable summer, sometimes the simplest of tricks can make the difference, with no costs attached.

For example, companies can harness natural ventilation by taking advantage of early mornings and late evenings to let cool air in.  Businesses can open their windows at night and close them during the day to keep the heat out. 

Other solutions include maximising natural light throughout the company. Employees can arrange workstations near windows to make the most of natural sunlight to reduce the need for artificial lighting, keeping energy consumption and costs down. 

Consider Working From Home

With growing concern about intense heatwaves and the possibility of blackouts, businesses might consider encouraging employees to work from home either some days or every day. 

Here’s why this could be a wise move:

• Energy Conservation: By reducing the number of staff in the office, there’s less reliance on office cooling systems. This can significantly cut down on energy consumption.
• Reduced Blackout Risk: With fewer businesses drawing heavily on the power grid during peak times, the strain on the grid decreases, potentially reducing the likelihood of blackouts in your area.
• Employee Comfort: At home, employees often have more flexibility to create a comfortable working environment tailored to their preferences.
• Boosted Productivity: A comfortable environment, free from the stresses of commuting in the heat, can lead to increased focus and output.

The challenges posed by an exceptionally hot summer are not unavoidable and embracing remote work can not only help businesses manage energy costs but also ensure the well-being and productivity of their teams.

Shifting Hours to Beat the Heat

In addition to considering remote work options, businesses can adapt by adjusting their operational hours during the summer months. Here’s why shifting work hours can be a strategic move:

• Beat the Peak Heat: Adjust work schedules to start earlier and end before the hottest part of the day, reducing reliance on air conditioning during peak temperatures.
• Employee Comfort: Employees can avoid the hottest times for commuting, enhancing their overall comfort and productivity.
• Save on Energy Costs: Shifting to cooler hours can lower energy bills, as operating during peak heat is often more expensive.

Implementing the change will require you to:

• Communicate the new hours clearly.
• Offer flexibility within a range of start and end times.
• Regularly review and adjust based on feedback and energy savings.
• This strategy not only aids in energy conservation but also demonstrates a commitment to employee well-being and environmental responsibility.

Engage with Your Employees

Employers can promote awareness by educating their workforce about energy-saving practices like turning off lights and deactivating appliances when not in use. This may include switching off fans and air conditioning when no longer working in the room.  Companies can establish “Green Teams” that are dedicated to implementing and maintaining energy-efficient practices. These teams can create a sustainability culture in the workplace. 

Energy Saving for the Summer

By incorporating these strategies, businesses can stay cool during the summer while reducing energy consumption and costs. It’s important to remember that using multiple steps, regardless of how big or small, may equate to substantial benefits. Through teamwork, employers and employees can create a workspace that prioritises efficiency and sustainability during summer. 

At Next Business Energy, we champion the move towards a more sustainable and cost-effective future. Embrace energy efficiency, and watch your business thrive both financially and ethically.

Visit our website for more information on how you can make your business summer-ready.  

The post Is Your Business Summer Ready? Energy Saving Tips for Summer appeared first on Next Business Energy.

The need for remote teams came from the effort to minimise the spread of COVID-19, but it is something that many businesses are likely to continue going into 2021. 

Working from home provides numerous benefits to both businesses and employees. 

Save on energy & costs

For businesses, a remote team can result in potential cost savings across office real estate, commercial energy bills, office equipment, furniture and appliances, and building maintenance and cleaning costs. 

Office spaces generally use a significant amount of energy, from lighting to heating and cooling and various office equipment that continually runs. 

Having a remote team may be a very cost-effective solution for many businesses. Savings can be reinvested back into the business to improve business software and communication tools. 

Wider talent pool

Having a remote team means you no longer need to be limited by location when it comes to hiring new employees.

Hiring only people who live within your geographical area may limit your options when it comes to finding the best person for the job. With your team working remotely, it doesn’t matter where they live, allowing you to widen the net when looking for new talent. 

You also won’t need to worry about new employees relocating, or having valued team members give up their job if they decide to move away. 

Another benefit is that you will not be required to move to a bigger workspace when you hire new employees, allowing you to expand your team when necessary. 

Increased productivity

Technology has made it easier for remote workers to remain productive while working from home. 

There are numerous tools available to enable teams to remain connected, even when working remotely. Communications programs such as Slack and Mattermost allow teams to communicate regularly, and video conferencing tools such as Zoom and Google Meet have made it easy to conduct team and client meetings. 

There are several project management tools to ensure that your team are keeping up to date with projects and meeting essential deadlines. 

With fewer distractions from working in a busy office, you may find that some of your employees can be much more productive. This may also be due to your employees having increased flexibility to work in a way that suits them. 

Flexible working options

While there are many benefits for business owners when managing a remote team, your employees also have numerous benefits. 

Working from home allows employees to save time on daily commuting and perhaps have a more flexible routine to take advantage of their most productive time of the day. For some people, this may involve starting work earlier or later in the day. This may be especially beneficial for those with families and young children. 

Working from home provides a better work-life balance, which may help your employees be more satisfied with their job. This, in turn, may improve productivity. 

Offering flexible working arrangements may also make your business more appealing to future employees and help you recruit the best talent for your team. 

To ensure a remote team’s success and happiness, check out our blog on how employers can look after their teams’ mental health when working from home. 

The post Advantages of a remote team in 2021 appeared first on Next Business Energy.

If you are considering this for your business, some key tools and practices can help manage this adjustment.

Communication

Keeping in constant communication with your remote team is crucial to ensuring everyone still feels connected. 

Meetings and catch-ups will help update your team on current projects, company updates and allow them to catch-up on a personal level. 

Communication tools will be essential when managing a remote team. These include instant messaging tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams, and video conferencing tools such as Zoom and Google Hangouts. 

You may have to work harder to cultivate the company culture with everyone working from home, but having communication tools enables you to interact and collaborate with your remote team.

Project management

Remote teams need to ensure there is clear understanding around project details. This includes:

– Who’s involved in the project, 

– What their tasks involve,

– How to access necessary files, 

– Understanding deadlines. 

Project management tools allow everyone to keep track of progress and ensure everyone is on the same page. These tools allow you to share files and documents, organise and track projects, assign due dates, provide comments and feedback. 

Project management tools enable you to organise projects in one place and allow everyone to access the necessary information and collaborate to complete tasks more efficiently.

Performance management

Some companies may feel apprehensive about the productivity of remote teams, but using performance management tools can provide greater visibility over what your team is doing, even when working remotely. This also ensures that projects are getting completed in the appropriate amount of time. 

Performance management tools may also provide you with an overview of workloads and working hours to ensure productivity goals are met. 

As well as tools for managing projects, you may also want to set up a program where employees can see their set and upcoming tasks for the week. 

It can be tempting to keep working longer hours than you generally would, with the lack of a commute and resulting easy access to your workspace. You want to make sure your team isn’t working more than they should be. If they are, you may wish to discuss managing their workload to ensure they are having a break and switching off at the end of the workday. 

Scheduling

Without everyone working in the same office, it can be harder to know when people are available, whether for formal meetings or to discuss a current project’s status. 

If you need to have a quick chat with someone, you can’t just pop around to their desk as you would when working in the same office. 

Scheduling tools, such as shared calendars, allow everyone to overview the team’s availability. This might include annual leave, client meetings, and team meetings. 

Coordinating with your team, for meetings and progress updates, is essential for ensuring productivity and completing projects.  

Document management

When working from home, you need to ensure your team has easy access to any necessary documents and that the documents are also securely stored. 

Cloud storage platforms such as Dropbox and Google Drive allow you to store documents that various team members can access and update. 

It allows multiple people to work on the same document, with the latest update always being saved, so you don’t need to worry about anyone accessing an out of date document. 

It’s important to provide your team with the right support level to ensure they can work productively from home. 

For more information on the benefits of having a remote team, check out our blog on 7 energy saving tips when working from home.

The post Effective managerial practices for a remote team appeared first on Next Business Energy.

There are several issues businesses are currently dealing with, from looking after their employees’ mental wellbeing to operational changes and keeping their businesses operating successfully. 

Keeping up-to-date on information regarding the coronavirus is vital for all businesses to assist them in making decisions for the future and providing employees with the support they need. 

Support for employees

This is a time of uncertainty, and while some businesses have seamlessly shifted to managing remote teams, it has been a difficult adjustment for many. 

Ensuring you continue to support your team is important, but it may require more effort with everyone working from home. Stay connected with your employees by maintaining regular team meetings and catch-ups throughout the week using video conferencing. In addition to sharing work updates, this also allows your team to see and talk to each other. 

Having regular communication with your employees also allows you to provide them with any information regarding COVID-19 updates, operational changes to the business, and what might happen moving forward when workplaces can resume regular operations. 

There can be no doubt that the current global pandemic has a significant impact on the mental health and wellbeing of many Australians. 

Employers and managers need to offer support to employees who may be struggling with their mental health during this time. Whether during team meetings or one-on-ones, encourage your team to share how they’re feeling. Also, understand that many people may not feel comfortable speaking up, so providing your employees with access to helpful resources is another way to support them. 

As well as resources around mental health, there are also resources around health and safety and general updates that you can share with your team, so they have access to new and important information around COVID-19. 

Resources for employees: 

• Mental health and wellbeing support for employees during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Mental health and COVID-19
• Should I wear a face mask?
• Beyond Blue – 1800 512 348 
• Lifeline – 13 11 14
• Coping with job stress during COVID-19

Support for businesses

Businesses are facing numerous challenges amid COVID-19 and having the right information is crucial to ensure you make the best decisions for your business. 

As restrictions in some states and territories have already started to ease, businesses will need to plan for employees returning to the workplace and reopenings. 

Having a plan in place for safely reopening your business is important to your employees and the public’s health and safety. It will be crucial to ensuring states and territories do not suffer a further wave of coronavirus, which could prolong closures and cause even further damage to Australian businesses and the economy. 

Businesses will need to follow specific guidelines depending on their industry and location. This may involve operational changes for many businesses, with new safety measures to maintain social distancing. 

Where possible, businesses will be encouraged to continue allowing employees to work remotely to limit the number of people moving around. 

Many businesses are likely to be struggling financially due to COVID-19.

There are several grants and financial assistance options currently available. Do your research to see which your business may be eligible for, as this could provide you with some much-needed relief and help secure your business’s future. 

Resources for businesses: 

• State and territory information, grants and assistance 
• Support for Australian businesses
• The latest official coronavirus news, updates and advice from the Australian Government.
• Safe Work Australia COVID-19 resource kit
• Creating a COVIDSafe workplace
• COVID-19 resources for businesses
• Businesses and workplaces: plan, prepare and respond
• Have a COVID-19 plan
• Information for small business owners

Finding and sharing the right resources to support your business and employees during this challenging time is important to ensure your business’s future success. For more information on working remotely, read our blog on how to successfully manage a remote team.

The post Resources to help support your business and employees during COVID appeared first on Next Business Energy.

Working in isolation can have a negative impact on people’s mental health, especially when they are used to seeing and engaging with people face to face every day, and are now spending more time without those social interactions. 

Employers should be prioritising their teams’ mental health and wellbeing during this stressful time. Here are some of our tips on how employers can ensure their staff feel supported and connected while working from home. 

Keep communication open

It’s important that your team still feels connected even when working remotely. Continuing to have regular contact will help your staff feel less isolated, and can help them remain productive.

Establish regular team catch ups, including operational and work focused meetings, but also social catch ups just so everyone can chat. Getting the whole team together at least a few times a week through virtual meetings can help everyone stay informed on what each other are working on and what’s going on for the company. 

As well as whole team meetings, schedule regular one-on-one phone calls or virtual meetings, using programs such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams, with your team members to allow you to catch up and for them to bring up anything. 

It is worth letting your staff know they can contact you outside of scheduled catch ups, if they are having any issues, whether that be with work tasks or work related stress, or even just want to chat. 

Making yourself readily available to your team and making sure they feel comfortable coming to you anytime will help them feel less isolated. 

Encourage breaks

Maintaining a good work/life balance is something most people strive towards, but it can be tricky when working from home, as the lines can get blurred. It can be too easy to keep working through lunch or past 5pm, with your laptop always within reach, but this can result in your staff becoming overworked and lead to burnout.  

It’s important to encourage your employees to take breaks when they need them, whether it’s going for a walk to get some fresh air at lunchtime, or just making sure they aren’t working too late in the evenings. 

This is a stressful time for many people, some of your employees may be dealing with children being homeschooled, caring for unwell or elderly family members, anxiety around financial stability, and just anxiety in general about COVID. Encourage your staff to set boundaries around their work schedule and look after themselves by switching off from work at the end of the day and taking time to recharge. 

Create workflow structure

Working from home will require many of your staff to change the way they work, and potentially even the processes of how they perform certain tasks. 

This may require many employers to establish new ways of working, which could include things like the use of new collaborative platforms and communication tools, as well as offering support to each other. 

Being clear around the structure of how new processes will work, and ensuring team members feel supported to reach out if they need help with any of their tasks, will help your staff keep a routine that is as productive as possible. 

Also make sure to allow for any feedback on things that work and things that don’t, so work processes can remain as effective as possible. 

Share helpful resources

Something else employers can do to look after the mental health and wellbeing of their staff during COVID is by providing access to helpful resources for mental health and wellbeing support services. 

It’s important to understand that not all of your team members might feel comfortable coming to you for issues to do with mental health, so sharing resources is a way you can offer your support. 

While carrying on with business operations as best you can is important, so too is looking after the mental health and wellbeing of your employees, so make sure you provide them with support during this challenging period.

For more tips on working from home, check out our blog on how to successfully manage a remote team.

The post How employers can look after their teams’ mental health when working from home appeared first on Next Business Energy.

While some businesses may have already had systems in place to enable employees to work from home, for many it has been a huge adjustment. 

In order for you and your team to stay as productive as possible and keep your business running smoothly, it’s important to get your home office set up just right and adopt a few new practises to help mobilise your remote team. 

Here are a few of our tips for how business leaders can ensure operations still run smoothly when working from home.

Have a dedicated space

Just as you would at your workplace, when working from home you need a designated work area. You will still be having important calls with clients and employees, so you need somewhere quiet and with minimal distractions so you can focus. 

You should also think about your background when setting up your home office. Zoom meetings will be the norm for many people going forward, and for business leaders wanting to ensure they are still providing a professional front when hosting virtual meetings, having a clutter free, simple background during your video meetings will offer better presentation to your clients. 

It’s also important to define your workspace and set boundaries for anyone else you live with and let them know that when you’re working, not to disturb you. 

A comfortable set up

To ensure you’re able to stay productive and not end up with a sore neck or back or strained eyes at the end of the day, your home office set up should be functional and comfortable. 

A comfortable chair that provides you with the necessary back support is a necessity. If you’re uncomfortable it will be harder to stay focused on your work tasks. 

Your work area set up should also include a desk or hard surface that allows you to have your computer at the right height for your eye line, to minimise eye strain. 

Get equipment sorted

In order to get the most out of your remote team and ensure they can complete tasks to the same high standard, it is important that you make sure they are equipped with the necessary resources. 

While for some employees a computer may be the only thing they need to get work done, for others, there might be some additional pieces of equipment needed. Don’t assume that they already have what they need at home. 

Printers, scanners, additional monitors and headsets, are just some pieces of equipment that might be necessary for your team to successfully work from home, so make sure they have these things available to them, this could involve making arrangements for them to take their work equipment home. 

WiFi is a must

Just like having the right equipment, access to good, reliable internet at home is crucial to ensuring the success of working from home. Poor internet access, as well as being frustrating, can significantly hinder productivity. 

As well as impacting your ability to get your daily tasks done, with many work meetings currently taking place over zoom, a good internet connection is a must-have. You don’t want the internet dropping out during client meetings. 

If your, or any of your teams’, current internet connection is not strong enough to deal with the kind of work you need to perform, this will need to be addressed. 

Communication

While everyone is working from home, it can be harder for your team to feel connected. 

Make sure you keep the lines of communication open and have regular contact with your team. 

Whether that involves you catching up with your team one on one for a quick weekly call, or a regular team zoom meeting, it’s important that your team still feel connected. 

Challenges of working from home

When working from home it can be tempting to keep working longer than you would if you were in your actual workplace, as you don’t need to worry about the daily commute and your computer is within easy reach. 

However, it’s important to encourage your team to try to keep regular working hours, and make sure they are switching off at the end of the working day. 

Also be aware that some of your staff will be dealing with a lot of issues outside of work, whether that’s having children being homeschooled, family members to care for, as well as coping with the current stressful situation. It might be challenging for some team members to stick to regular working hours, and so offering flexibility for them to set their own schedules when necessary can help ensure you are getting the best productivity from them. 

While there’s no doubt that working from home can present a few challenges, by ensuring that employees are well equipped with the right technology and are trusted to continue producing quality work, business leaders will be able to successfully operate remotely.

The post How to successfully manage a remote team appeared first on Next Business Energy.