It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted almost everyone’s lives in some way. That includes businesses across the world. Unfortunately, many of them have had to shutter completely. Others, however, are trying to figure out how to reopen and restructure safely and effectively. 

As of August, the United States had only regained 22% of the millions of jobs lost due to the virus. UK job losses hit a record high. 

If your company has been fortunate enough to remain standing through this pandemic, and you’re wondering what to do next, now is the perfect time to consider your overall workplace culture. 

Whether you want to attract new employees or you realize it’s time for a change, upgrading your company culture can make a big difference in the success of your business as you move forward into a “new normal”. 

With that in mind, let’s look at a few ways you can upgrade the culture of your company from within, in order to make positive changes that employees and customers/clients alike can appreciate. 

1. Upgrade the Look of Your Business

It might not seem extremely important, but giving your company an external makeover can make a big difference in the environment you’re trying to create. First, start by decluttering your office space. Creating an environment that encourages working together in open spaces can make everyone feel more welcome and invited. 

Next, let in more natural light. If you have large windows in your building, put them to good use instead of covering them. Invest in a Glass Polishing company to make them sparkle for you. Natural light can boost energy and productivity. 

Even the colors you choose for your office can make a big difference. Color psychology is a real thing, so do your research on the best colors that will promote creativity and encourage productivity. 

2. Arrange Weekly Meetings – With Everyone

We’re living in uncertain times. Just because employees are heading back to work doesn’t mean those uncertainties simply go away. It’s important to keep employees in the know as much as possible. So, why not just make it a rule within your company? 

One of the best ways to do that is by holding weekly meetings with everyone. You can choose different ways to do that. You might benefit from having everyone in one room to talk about the state of your business and where you want to go. Or, you could branch off into different groups and meet with a different section of your business each day. 

Whatever the case, make communication and transparency a priority in your workplace environment. It will help everyone to feel more comfortable, more equal, and more valued. It will also boost your employees’ spirits by giving them a voice and making them aware that their ideas and opinions truly matter within your business. 

3. Encourage Positivity

Remember, no matter what the state of your business may be, you’re in charge. As a result, the things you say and do will set the tone for your company. So, it’s important to be as positive as possible, as often as possible. 

Even if things aren’t going well, or you’re worried about the state of your company, keeping a positive attitude will carry over to your employees and help them to feel better about the work they are doing. 

That doesn’t mean you need to hide things from them. If the business is struggling, it’s okay to talk about it. But, put a realistically positive spin on it. Most of the time, things can be fixed. You can recover. Use that mindset and attitude to motivate your employees and encourage fresh, new ideas. No one wants to work in an environment that is constantly negative or induces stress. You can change the entire culture of how people feel about coming to work by showcasing positivity every single day. 

Not only can it help to boost the work your employees are able to produce, but it will improve everyone’s attitudes toward each other. Now, more than ever, kindness and patience are important. A positive environment can foster more of those things, and create a more welcoming workplace for everyone. 

As you can see, it doesn’t have to be difficult to upgrade your company culture. Whether you want to make adjustments to some of your business practices or actually change the look and feel of your company, now is the time to pull the trigger on changing your workplace culture. Not only will your business benefit but your employees will feel more empowered than ever.

The high street is being forced to change. Whereas in yesteryear, high street chains held the fort and commanded attention from the shopping masses, it has now all changed. Today, the high street is struggling. Unfortunately, due to concerns over Covid-19 and the number of customers allowed inside at any given time, sales have been less than a stirring success.

People are worried about going out to even pick up the items that they’ve purchased. This has led to a surge in online orders and deliveries to the consumer’s door.

Has Shopping Changed Forever?

Will customers return the shops or stick to online shopping? While the worries surrounding the virus have kept many off the high street, since non-essentials shops have reopened, some people have bravely ventured out.

Nonetheless, for the most part, people are taking to the internet in droves, pushing online e-commerce sales rocketing up. Amazon.com, for instance, has seen a significant increase YoY while eBay has also confirmed their sales were up over a third in 2020 compared to the previous year.

The Shift to Deliveries to the Door

Deliveries to the door have become extremely popular. People can drop an item off safely and keep a distance away from the homeowner or renter when they complete the delivery. People feel comfortable with that approach and prefer the convenience versus venturing into a shop, where many people queue up at the entrance or mill about in the interior.

The trouble with deliveries is that many companies aren’t properly equipped for it. They cannot cover the cities and towns that they’d like to. There isn’t a team of delivery drivers available for them either. Even if they try to create something internally or use a commercial delivery system, the results are less than ideal.

Flexible Time Slots Are Needed by Consumers

One limitation with delivery bookings is a complete inflexibility about the available date and the time of the booking. Quite often, the date is many days or several weeks ahead due to limited delivery capacity and a recent surge in online orders due to Covid-19. Given the lack of flexibility, people are often stuck with a single date availability to book even if it’s inconvenient to them. Or, it has no time specified, so they need to stay in all day which is a real bummer.

Fortunately, consumers can now use Shift.Online. This is an independent delivery service that provides reasonably dated bookings that don’t start in October when your order was in August… They also have one-hour timeslots to pinpoint when the vetted delivery driver will arrive. This makes it far more agreeable to the shopper who cannot wait around all day for a package.

“A Man with a Van”

Shift also has a “Man with a Van” service to transport goods from one location to another. This is useful when moving personal items out, transporting goods into a storage location, or for other purposes. So, they do more than just assist shoppers.

At a time when deliveries to the last mile are the key component that’s often either missing or poorly done in the UK, it’s good to know that new operators are filling the gap. It will help smaller online shops, traditional retailers and consumers to solve this sticking point together.

To grow your profits and help your company to succeed, it’s useful to make savings where you can. There are a range of grants for start-ups and small businesses, so ensure that you apply for any schemes which you are eligible for. Besides this, try these five simple ideas to save money and improve your business finances.

1 . Make use of free tools

When you’re looking to save money, you should certainly make use of free software. There are plenty of free tools that are perfect for small businesses. Here are a few of the top picks for this year. 

nChart: nChart is a free project management tool, where you can organize your projects, support your team and use the interactive Gantt Chart. A few of the key features of nChart include resource management, multiple workspaces, collaboration systems, and more.

Answer The Public: Entrepreneurs know that creating killer content is so important, and to do so, you’ve got to improve your keyword research. With ‘Answer The Public,’ you can find out the most unusual questions that people are searching for, and make some seriously amazing content!

Hubspot CRM: Hubspot offers a great free tool for all your customer relationship management needs. Here you can connect all elements of your sales processes from your website to your service providers and social media. The software allows up to 1,000,000 contacts, plus unlimited storage.

2. Remote Staff

Permitting your staff to work from home means you’ll save on utility expenses, plus you’ll save on hardware. As the coronavirus pandemic goes on, many companies are continuing to run on a remote basis. Various studies have suggested that remote workers tend to be more productive. Productive staff means higher profits and the potential to save.

3. Accounting apps

Hiring an accountant can be expensive; to save money, it can be useful to try an accounting app. A robust accounting application can help you manage your budget, invoices, expenses, and taxes. Waze is a free accounting app that is ideal for smaller operations. Other popular accounting apps include Freshbooks and Quickbooks.

4. Improve your personal finances 

Running a business can be costly, with a start-up you’ve got to invest to start making money. If your finances aren’t in order, it may be difficult to invest and keep your business afloat. To improve your personal finances, the first thing you’ve got to do is get out of debt. It’s easier said than done, but there are ways that you can work towards becoming debt-free. One option is looking into the ‘Debt To Success System’; with this program you could eliminate your debts and improve your finances. For more info, take a look at http://www.dtss.us/programs.html.

5. Improve your waste management 

The more waste that your business creates, the more money you’ll lose. What’s more, waste is bad for sustainability initiatives. The best thing to do is to review your waste management program using lean principles. Lean principles focus on every stage of the production process, including wasted time and resources. If you’re looking to save money, improving you WM should certainly be on your business essentials checklist!