Office sneak peek

One our favorite things is when a customer is moving into a new space. We get a sneak peek and a chance to install our coffee and water coolers before the desks and staff arrive. Look at this gorgeous new space. It used to be an old machine shop. Even a roof top patio!!

5 Stress-Reducing Yoga Poses You Can Do at Your Desk

Set that timer on your phone and try these stretches every few hours to keep limber and alert.

How to maintain the well-being of your team

Fantastic Tips - a must read for improved Workplace Happiness.

https://my.happify.com/hd/how-to-maintain-the-well-being-of-your-team-infographic/

On your mark — get set — GO!

When we have new products in our kitchen for staff to try, they seem to last about 20 seconds. Look at some of the yummy new items we are adding soon.

 Wait — even more.

COLLON CREAM?? What? Not sure that one made the cut.

The $25 Stand-Up Desk

Here is a great answer to the stand up desk. Worth trying something cheap and simple (and portable) before investing in more sturdy and expensive options.

Hootsuite CEO launches $25 stand up desk company

Why the Eight-Hour Workday is an outdated concept

How productive do you believe you are in your eight-hour workday? There may be a few ways to define the answer:
Semi-productive: you’re halfway there but you still slack occasionally.
Mediocre: you don’t really try, but somehow you get things done.
Or,
Top-level: you like to keep yourself super busy.
Well, no matter which one you most identify with, the truth is that you could probably be doing better.
Eight hours a day at an office desk is not the definition of productivity. You can thank the British Industrial Revolution for it. They worked out that this allotted time would yield higher outputs within a fixed schedule for factory workers. This may have worked in the 1800s, but today it has become an outdated logic which needs to be reworked.
Podio has broken it down in this infographic. They explain how squeezing as many hours as possible into one workday to be “productive” can be counterintuitive. In the end, everything depends less on time and more on your focus, motivation, and overall well-being — all of which link directly to your energy levels.

“My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do.” — Francine Jay

Cheers
Calvin

Keeping the office clean.

Check out this video of school children in Japan cleaning their school. This practice continues into the office also with most companies in Japan. Office workers in Japan have many differences from North American companies as noted in this interesting article.

Building a great corporate culture of respect and camaraderie may just start with enrolling staff to help clean the offices together.

Measuring happiness at work.

Measuring happiness at work.

Our mission at Lykki is to "Inspire happier workplaces". And one of the ways we do that is by researching how other companies engage their employees and then share these ideas with our customers and the world. Many times we take the ideas we find and try them for ourselves. 

One such idea comes from a company that found a simple way to measure happiness in their workplace. What they did was place three buckets near the time clock where their employees would scan out each day. 

One bucket had the same number of tennis balls in the bucket as there were employees.  The second bucket was empty and had a sign that said "Had a good day"

The third bucket was empty and had a sign that said "Didn't have a good day"

How the company measured happiness was each day as the employees scanned out at the time clock they were to take a tennis ball from the bucket and drop it into either the good day or not so good day bucket depending on how they felt. There were three data points the company measured. First was user engagement - how many balls were

left at the end of the day. Second was how many ball in the good day bucket and finally how many balls in the not such a good day bucket. 

These three data sets were tracked and almost immediately they saw that Wednesdays were a low point with staff. So the company mixed up the Friday happy hour and moved it to Wednesday.  Problem solved. 

We are starting the Happy Ball project at Lykki - so we'll see how it works. 

I'm always on the lookout for interesting ideas like this so please share if you have one. 

Cheers

Calvin 

Keep your milk fresh!

Did you know it only takes a half an hour for a jug of milk on your counter to reach the temperature where bacterial damage starts?

Download our Fresh Milk tip sheet here. Print a copy for your breakroom fridge! (It might be a good reminder for those co-workers who leave those jugs out by the coffee machine...)

What we do for the H1N1 Flu

You could say that the H1N1 flu epidemic has a direct effect on our average work day at Costless Express. Everyone in our sales team and even our marketing department has been busy trying to help our customers prepare. We understand that everyone wants to protect their employees and their families from any sort of germs going around.

It is interesting to see reports of the epidemic on the news and the way people are preparing. I can't say that I feel the urge to to wear a face mask in public, but I have been reaching for the hand sanitizer a bit more often that usual. I dont know a lot of details about who is actually getting H1N1. It seems like a healthy diet and a healthy body is just as important as using hand sanitizer and washing our hands properly. It is much easier to catch all that junk if we don't have healthy immune systems to begin with.

Those opinions aside, in the healthcare and government sectors, keeping your hands germ free is crucial. At work, we all have these little Purell Pals on our desk: (You can get your own Pals here.)

Here are some other great products from Purell that are great ways to keep your hands clean and avoid germs.

Purell NXT Space Saver Hand Sanitizer Dispenser and Refill
Promotes hand hygiene by killing most common germs without need for soap and water. The perfect duo. Ask us about FREE wall dispensers for your office!

Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer with Aloe
Kills 99.99% of common germs that may cause illness, without soap or water. Plus, aloe always feels really nice, and light green is such a soothing color.

Cheers,
Calvin

BPA & Bottles

Sunday, and here I am in Denver waiting for my connecting flight from Dallas, Texas to Vancouver. Sandy, Darrin and I were at a conference on our company software. I was sipping a bottle of water, and started thinking about the recent news on the chemical BPA that is found in some plastics. Was this one of the unhealthy bottles? What is the story here, and how does it effect our customers?

I'm sure you have all seen the news about BPA and how some retailers like The Bay and Mountain Equipment Co-Op have removed product from their shelves. What I have found is there is ample evidence that North American human exposure levels are approximately 100,000 times below (TDI) Tolerable Daily Intake levels established by various authorities. The big news recently is the announcement by Health Canada that they are ready to become the first jurisdiction to take the unprecedented step of listing BPA as a "dangerous substance".

At Costless Express we sell over 3,000,000 recyclable containers, and many are plastic water bottles. I am happy to report that plastic water bottles are not made with BPA. Feel safe and chug away. It does raise a concern for me though. What is on the list of nasty things we are consuming that is on Health Canada's Tolerable Daily Intake list?

Calvin

Spread the Word, Not the Germs!

Flu season is fast approaching, and if your business is anything like ours, when one prson gets sick, we all feel it in one way or another.

This year at Costless Express, we partnered with Purell to combat absenteeism in our workplace with our first Health and Wellness Committee. Our goal is to combat germs in the workplace and reduce the spread of viruses that cause the staff to get sick.

If you have not heard of Purell, it's an instant, alcohol-based hand sanitizer that kills 99.9% of the most common germs that may make you sick, without the need for soap or water. It's an easy way to keep your hands clean and fight the spread of germs without having to leave your desk!

Recently we were asked by one of our customers to assist them in launching a Wellness Program in their 300 seat call centre. We gladly launched a program that included wall dispensers, desk dispensers, phone wipes and posters—all for free. We even brought along a cake with the wording "Spread the Word, Not the Germs" to help kick off the campaign. Thanks to our Call Centre lead Kathie Jenson for the nifty words and setting up the program!

Comprehensive studies on workplace wellness and cleanliness have shown dramatic results in the lowering of company absenteeism due to illness. Read and learn more about how FedEx lowered their numbers by 25%!

If your company would like some help in setting up a Workplace Wellness program for your staff, please give your fantastic account rep a call!

Calvin