Workplace efficiency is something that businesses in almost every industry need to revisit regularly to see cost savings and improvements to their profits. The procedures you have in place can help you trim the fat accordingly and hit your profitability targets. A common area for many workplaces to improve efficiency comes with improvements to building maintenance. Neglecting the space, your employees work in could lead to costly repairs and seriously impact how your organization is run.
If you are considering an efficiency study for your business, this guide can help you examine your building maintenance procedures more closely with some easy tips on improving your location. With these building maintenance tips, you can improve morale, workflow, and profitability by reducing your chance of financial losses from workplace maintenance issues. Here are some top building maintenance tips that will help you improve efficiency.
1. Check Your Business Insurance
Business insurance companies may make your life difficult in an emergency. Regularly reviewing your plan can help with cost savings and your emergency plan. As your business continues to grow, your assets will grow along with it, and as a result, your insurance plan will need to scale too. Suppose you need to look at your policy coverage regularly. In that case, you could be caught short in an emergency or operating in your daily business with the potential for a massive loss if you won’t receive coverage from your insurance provider. Checking your business insurance policy may also allow you to reduce your policy during the lean times or change your approach to reflect seasonal fluctuations within your industry. Revisiting the policy regularly can give you peace of mind and ensure you can see ongoing cost savings through emergency prevention or cost reduction in your monthly fees.
2. Consider Heavy Equipment Rental for Maintenance
If you need efficient heavy equipment rental for inventorying your stock, keeping up your property, and other functions for building maintenance, rent it. There is no reason for a business to buy inferior equipment for maintenance processes that you might take on a few times a year. Rent the required equipment to take on a task as quickly as possible. If this means renting a parking lot cleaner or a chair lift a few times a year, you will be able to complete tasks faster and at a lower cost than purchasing and maintaining that equipment. The time you can save will also usually pay for the rental fee. Only buy equipment to complete building maintenance tips if you can rent it inexpensively.
3. Get Regular Roofing Inspections
Your roof is one of the most important structures for your business. If you are not getting regular inspections from a local roofing company, your business could lose money consistently with your heating and cooling bills. A roof that has fallen into disrepair can be costly for your business. It can lead to water damage, lost heating and cooling, and potential structural damage if it severely degrades. Being proactive with your roofing maintenance can keep your business running efficiently. You can plan roof patching or work around your business operations and finances. Working with roofing companies can also let you know more about green roof coatings and reflective coatings that can help you maximize your efficiency even further. Roofing materials have come a long way in the past decade, and businesses can now use their unused roofing space with solar panels, living roofs, and more. Work with your local roofing company and ask them for building maintenance tips alongside regular six-month or yearly inspections of your property.
4. Inspect and Improve Lighting Systems
Good quality lighting can play a significant role in maintaining business efficiency. Schedule regular inspections for your light fixtures, wiring, and switch controls, and also consider regularly upgrading lighting to high-efficiency solutions. Improving the lighting in your office can make for a better aesthetic and ensure that your employees can operate at a higher level. Changing the tone of illumination or simply improving lighting in one area of your office could significantly improve output. Enhancing your business lighting to high-efficiency LEDs can also help you save a considerable amount on your electricity bill.
5. Manage HVAC Efficiency
HVAC maintenance can have a massive effect on your building costs as well as the speed of work. AC installation service providers in your area are likely to offer regular maintenance packages that can assist your business in keeping its HVAC system operating well. Managing your AC system will ensure that you can prevent breakdowns and also be able to save your business running efficiently no matter what the outside temperatures may be. Based on studies completed by The University of Chicago, when temperatures in the workplace rise above 27 degrees C in businesses requiring manual labor, output drops by 4% for each degree the temperature rises. Without following building maintenance tips and letting your floor temperature rise to 30 degrees, you could lose 12% or more output on each hot workday.
6. Commercial Window Tint
Your business can gain various functional and aesthetic benefits by installing commercial window tinting. This simple window treatment is a big building maintenance tip for modern offices. A commercial window tint can reduce glare and help you control lighting inside, improving your business’s atmosphere and focus. It also enhances privacy and helps control temperature by reducing the amount of UV light entering your business. Installing window tints can be a massive win for your HVAC system as well as for improving employee focus. You can see a significant impact on your energy bill by installing this simple business upgrade.
7. Hiring a Professional Cleaner
Hiring a professional cleaner may seem like an added expense for your business, but it can pay dividends in its efficiency improvements. Cleaning and organization can be a time-consuming aspect of your business, and your employees may need to clean to a different standard than a professional. A qualified professional will have all the suitable cleaning materials to sanitize your workspace and keep it safe. A professional cleaner can improve workplace morale, a better first impression for prospective clients, and fewer sick days from your employees. A clean working space is the most efficient way to run your business.
8. Regularly Inspect Fire Safety Equipment
This isn’t just one of our building maintenance tips but also a requirement for any business. Unfortunately, it can be a task that gets rescheduled and forgotten in many industries. Fire safety equipment can malfunction, which can cause shutdowns and more. You also need to ensure that the safety items in place can protect your business in an emergency. Don’t leave anything to chance, and ensure that you follow through with regular inspections on smoke alarms, sprinkler systems, and fire extinguishers. Have a safety plan with your employees and run through regular drills to ensure that you can react safely in an emergency situation. These drills can prevent damage to your business and reduce shutdown times during a false alarm or minor emergency.
9. Get Regular Air Quality Assessments
A building maintenance tip that many companies overlook is air quality studies. Modern offices should look at their air quality and encourage regular professional duct cleaning to prevent employees from breathing in harmful contaminants and dust daily. An HVAC professional can inspect your air vents and air conditioning system and potentially recommend an air quality testing professional. Scheduling a regular inspection every quarter can help you improve air quality across your business. Improvements to airflow and air quality can improve employee output and reduce sickness and sick days lost.
10. Upgrading Workspaces
When looking at your business maintenance tips, you must consider regularly upgrading workspaces. This only sometimes means changing the layout of your office but introducing improvements that can make employees more comfortable and focused. Something as simple as introducing ergonomic chairs or standing desks can keep employees healthier and improve the time they spend at their desks each day. Outfitting workspaces with the best in comfort items can ensure that employees use fewer sick days and will feel more motivated to work while they are at work. Make sure you are swapping out old or broken workplace furniture as needed to maintain employee health. Looking at some functional improvements to your workspace regularly can improve employee morale and keep your business efficient.
11. Perform Regular Walking Audits
A simple but effective one of our building maintenance tips any manager can follow is to schedule regular walking audits to spot problems in a business. Walking through a company with work or a task on your mind can cause you to put blinders on. Walking through a checklist of items that could use improvement or a checklist on building performance in every section of your building can help you spot trouble early. A weekly walking audit that a manager takes on can help repair small items that lead to minutes or hours of inefficiency from your employees daily. Walking audits are an excellent way to identify lighting that could be out, equipment that runs inefficiently, leaks, odors, and more that could all contribute to your business running just off of its peak efficiency.
12. Additional Efficiency Tips
Apart from your business maintenance tips, there are also some great inter-staff and technology tips that your business can consider to improve efficiency and morale. Here are some quick ideas that are commonly overlooked in business efficiency:
13. Racial Bias Training
Seeing your workplace as a community of diversity can have a massive impact on relationships in your business and the speed of work. Racial bias training and cultural sensitivity training can be excellent moves for your HR department, and they can help to unite your workforce. Regular training and investment in your staff can lead to a reduction in HR complaints as well as a more united team.
14. Improve Business Tech Support
Outsourced tech support or a full-time tech support employee is an excellent tip for keeping your business running efficiently. More companies today are using on-call IT to prevent shutdowns with their technology and to regularly assess their business for the latest tech improvements. Having someone to install crucial software, maintain the network as well, and test and implement new features for your business will keep you current and ensure that someone is on hand to prevent emergencies. A tech support professional is a crucial extra on top of your building maintenance tips.
15. Connectivity to the Cloud
After you have looked at the technology that you outfit your business with, consider the speed of connections. Connectivity to the cloud is essential for linking your business to its partners and for the speed of operations. Cloud-based software can ensure that your employees can work more collaboratively, and choosing cloud-based inventory systems can keep your business running smoothly. Connectivity to the cloud and systems that integrate with cloud-based software can give your employees all the information they need to keep your business running, whether off-site, in your warehouse, or in their cubicles.
16. Potential Rebranding
Regularly revisiting your branding can get your staff on board with the newest direction of your company. Looking at your branding every few years can keep you current and staff morale high. Rather than going to a local sign shop to pick out new company branding, consider a deeper level of rebranding, starting with corporate culture and moving to your graphics, technology, and mission.
We hope that reviewing our building maintenance tips for efficiency has inspired you to find efficiencies within your business. You can find new ways to improve output in any industry by regularly reviewing your property, performing preventative maintenance, and auditing your day-to-day operations.
