Workplace Blog

Workplace Trends - Lockers are In, Clutter is Out

Posted on May 13, 2014

When was the last time that you walked in to your workplace feeling like you’re in college again? While lockers are generally considered to be the hallmarks of schools and gyms, more recently, they are increasingly being used for drafting office plans. Whenever we picture an office, images of congested cubicles and over-crowded private desks flash before us. For a long period of time, the typical illustration of a workplace had been chaotic, but this has changed. There are several reasons for the shift away from a cluttered office to an organised one. Over the years, our working style and interactions have gone through significant changes. Laptops have replaced paper and keyboards have substituted pens. With these technological advancements, personal offices and sprawling desks are being considered as a waste of space and finance. Large office tables are now solely being used as status symbols, reminding employees of their importance in their particular w...

Hazard Storage Cupboards

Posted on May 12, 2014

Several people were treated at a hospital in Danville, Virginia after inhaling acidic vapours created by accidental mixing of chemicals at a local water treatment plant. Such incidents are reminders of the importance to be cautious when dealing with chemicals at the workplace. Hazardous substances are not limited to TNT or Uranium. Things as harmless as motor oil or even soap can cause serious accidents when not handled properly. Imagine someone accidentally ingesting a cleaning fluid or slipping on spilled oil. Any decent workplace should have dedicated colour-coded cabinets for storing different things that can be deadly mixers. Salt and detergent look similar, as do beer and…well, so many other chemicals. Legal Requirements and Colour Coding for Hazardous Cabinets Hospitals, manufacturing, printing and metalwork industries, catering kitchens, hotels, schools, workshops, and almost every other workplace can use a hazard storage cupboard or two, if not more. All such in...

Setting Up Your Secure Office Car Park - Things You Need

Posted on May 09, 2014

According to a parking report issued by the RAC Foundation, 800 cars are parked every second in Britain. Rapid commercialisation has rendered the cities into underachieving replicas of the future cities depicted in old movies such as The Fifth Element, except for the flying cars. The sad absence of flyable cars is made worse by a more than tenfold increase in the number of road cars, from 2 million in the 1950s to over 28 million now. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why there's a nerve-wrecking parking problem in our cities. Parking blues keep most cars parked at homes, 80% of their life on the average. They are parked elsewhere for 16% and move for only 4% of their average lifespan. The point is, if your office is blessed with a private car park, you can consider yourself lucky. Your parking makes your office much friendlier for your employees and customers, who don’t have to go through the traumatising experience of having to find a parking space before they can come to...

Motor Vehicle First Aid Kits - New British Standards

Posted on May 06, 2014

Until last month, no official standard or specifications existed for motor vehicle first aid kits in Britain. People would buy any good looking, portable first aid kit for vehicular use, or store some basic first aid items in a container that could be anything from a lunchbox to a toolbox or even shaving pouch. The British Standards Institution (BSI) has filled this gap in vehicular safety by introducing BS 85599-2, the new standard for motor vehicle first aid kits. Car and vehicle first aid kit plays a vital role in case of accidents or medical emergencies. Items such as pressure bandages and splints can prevent injuries from worsening or even leading to mortalities. Yet, it is not always possible for an average person to envisage the kind of emergency he/she can potentially encounter when in a motor vehicle. Before BS 85599-2, the new standard for motor vehicle first aid kits in Britain, the selection of items for the car first aid kit depended upon some vague recommendations...

Ramp Up Convenience and Safety with Workplace Utility Ramps

Posted on April 29, 2014

Workplace utility ramps are designed to provide convenience and prevent tripping accidents at your office, warehouse, workshop, departmental store, or anywhere else where you're dealing with uneven floor levels or kerbs. If you have ever tried to push a pallet truck, trolley, or wheel chair over a kerb or step, you know how hard it can be to negotiate just a few inches of height difference. Utility ramps solve the problem and make wheeled movement between uneven levels very easy. Types of Utility Ramps Apart from the broad variety of ramps available at The Workplace Depot, there may be other variants of this simple contraption that you could buy at your local hardware store. However, the utility ramps that we offer are tested and guaranteed for quality. Each utility ramp comes with specified load limits and a recommended utility height and use. From ramps for cars to those for bicycles, wheelchairs, pallet trucks, sack trucks, reel trucks, trolleys, and pedestrians, you'll...

Ahoy – Mobile Safety Steps Come Under Pressure!

Posted on April 23, 2014

The Workplace Depot manufactures safety steps and access platforms at a factory in Leicester. We offer an extensive range of mobile safety steps and access platforms and also welcome bespoke orders - additional features may include a larger platform, a safety gate and different types of wheels. We can also make them as tall as you like and in any RAL colour – The RAL colours also applies to our Fetra trucks and trolleys. Safety Steps Load Testing In February 2014 we had our safety steps and access platforms load tested by Pegasus Mechanical Lifting, a UK specialist lifting e...

Security Mirrors - Simple Surveillance Solutions for Warehouses, Shops and Offices

Posted on April 17, 2014

Security convex mirrors have universal applications when you're trying to create a safe and secure movement area or monitored space. Security mirrors work like security cameras, but they are much cheaper and need no maintenance or power supply. Moreover, they provide utility where cameras may be too complicated to use, such as blind curves and corners. Security mirrors come in all shapes and sizes for shops, warehouses, driveways, security checkpoints, and other places where you need an inexpensive "eye-in-the-sky". Security Mirrors for Warehouses The warehousing and road haulage industries reported more than 8,500 accidents in 2009–10, out of which some 1,600 caused serious injuries such as fractures or even amputations. Blind spots and corners can cause collisions between loaded trolleys or hoists, with disastrous consequences. A blind s...

Manual Handling Training - What Every Manager Should Know

Posted on April 09, 2014

Over one-third of some 439,000 work-related musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) cases reported in 2012 were caused by manual handling, which makes manual handling the most hazardous activity around the workplace. The Manual Handling Occupation Regulations (MHORs) of 1992 define manual handling as, "any transporting or supporting of a load (including the lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving thereof) by hand or bodily force.” The menacing numbers of MSD cases have forced employers to take a closer look at their manual handling operations, especially since injured employees started suing their companies for damages. Thanks to the best practices and manual handling guidelines issued and recommended by HSE and RoSPA, there has been a decrease in the incidence of MSD in the last couple of years. Employers are increasingly opting to get their handling procedures reassessed and get their employees trained for manual handling. Manual H...

London's Fashion Scene - Designers, Events, and More

Posted on March 31, 2014

London has been ranked among the top 5 fashion capitals in the Global Language Monitor rankings for many consecutive years, and rose to the top spot in 2012 and 2011. London and other leading cities such as New York, Paris and Milan are termed fashion capitals of the world because the trends that originate in these cities are followed by the whole world. The Fashion Scene in London More than half of the United Kingdom's fashion jobs are concentrated in or around London, where the fashion industry employed more than 46,000 people in 2010. Most of the fashion outlets and designers are located in the Knightsbridge district, but many of them can also be found in South Kensington and Chelsea areas. The City hosts many fashion events, with the London Fashion Week being the most notable among them. The London Fashion Week Organised by the British Fashion Council and sponsored by Vodafone, (among others), the London Fashion Week attracts more than £100 million...

The Biggest Personal Protective Equipment Myths Exposed

Posted on March 24, 2014

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is just one aspect of the health and safety regulations that the government has been attempting to push over the last few years and unsurprisingly, it’s separated into two groups. Some people will kit themselves out in every piece of equipment imaginable, while others will cut corners and subsequently be under protected. This means that countless myths have emerged over the years, with some just basic misconceptions while others are bordering on the ridiculous. In a bid to showcase the sector in its true light, here are the favourite five that we have found. Myth #1: Once I've bought PPE, my obligations are over Whether you are an employer or employee, the obligations are far from over once you fork out for your initial PPE gear. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve bought out the entire shop, this is just the tip of the iceberg and as well as obviously wearing it, you’ll also have to store and keep it appropriately. ...

Setting Up a Mail Room

Posted on March 18, 2014

Despite the phenomenal rise of email, the good old snail mail still remains a part of the everyday reality for many offices. All sorts of documents are dispatched and received via regular mail - contracts, notices, bills, greeting cards, parcels; and only the mailman can tell what else. Government offices usually have a mailroom to deal with the public mail that they receive by the truckloads, and to dispatch notices and bills, which they also send out by the same measure. Certain businesses, such as insurance companies or banks usually have mail rooms in place. For most business, however, the need for a mail room is felt when the business grows to a certain size, and usually after the mail starts getting lost. A mail room (or post room) can have two basic functions - to sort and distribute incoming mail, and to seal and dispatch outgoing mail. Additional functions such as filing or printing of envelopes and address labels may also be assigned to a mail...

Top 10 Funny, Weird and Wacky National Days

Posted on March 12, 2014

Today is National No Smoking Day - perhaps one of the best known and most worthwhile in the 'National Days' calendar. March also has many other well known 'days including Saint David's Day (1st), Pancake Day (4th), Ash Wednesday (5th), International Women's Day (8th), Saint Patrick's Day (17th), Spring Equinox day (21st) and in some years March also hosts Good Friday and Easter. There has been an explosion in recent years of not so important 'national' days - thanks to the abundance of funny, weird and downright wacky national days that the calendar might not show you, we'd thought we'd bring you a list of our top 10: 1. Festival of Sleep Day It's 3rd January and you're just back from the holidays. Weren't they exhausting! How about catching up on some sleep? Though the origins of this day could not be traced, it must have been started by some lazy desk-dozers. Sleeping at work isn't recommended (or tolerated), so take a day off and celebrate the Festival of...