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Everything You Need To Know About Commercial Hygiene Equipment
As specialists in cleaning and hygiene, we give you a rundown of everything you need to know about commercial hygiene equipment. Perception is reality in any business, and as a business, you want customers to walk away from a fantastic experience, which includes bathrooms. After all, a bathroom is usually the first or last place a customer goes to when they visit your business. The bathroom may be the smallest room in a building, but it is possibly the most important room. Any business owner should prioritise hygiene equipment, so let’s look at everything you need to know about commercial hygiene equipment. What is Commercial Hygiene Equipment? As per the World Health Organization (WHO), “Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases.” Commercial hygiene equipment, commonly used in public bathrooms, is made up of a range of products which includes: Soap Dispensers Paper Towel Dispensers Hand Dryers Toilet Roll Holders Sanitary Bins Wall Mounted Bins Air Freshener Dispensers Hand Sanitiser Dispensers Changing stations for Babies Why Should I Invest in Hygiene Equipment? Business owners and facilities managers should not view hygiene equipment as an expense but rather as an investment. If you maintain a clean office environment, it will pay for itself in the long run. If you want your staff to practice good hand hygiene in the workplace, then you have to provide top-quality hygiene facilities for them to do so. Unpleasant facilities discourage best hygiene practices, leading to illness and more staff sick days. Dirty sinks result in employees washing their hands less, thus spreading germs. Investing in commercial hygiene equipment should not just be about appearance; it should be about preventing the gathering and spreading of germs. You can draw a correlation between cleanliness, employee attendance and performance,
What Your Landscape Says About Your Business
Your landscaping is curb appeal and a large part of your business image, and property owners should focus on what your landscape says about your business! The brand image expresses who you are as a business, how you want to portray your business to customers, and the types of clients you want to attract. As any good business owner would know, first impressions make lasting impressions. Your Landscape And First Impressions First impressions start forming as soon as a potential client or employee approaches your business. As they observe, they will form an opinion about whether or not you care about your business, employee well-being, if your property is well maintained, do you have green outdoor spaces, if it is well maintained, etc. Have a look at your commercial property with a fresh set of eyes, and as a business owner, ask yourself; what does my landscape say about my business? A good working environment for employees is a well-maintained outdoor space. Greener outdoor spaces reflect whether or not you and your employees take pride in your business. Shape how your employees feel about their working environment – create outdoor spaces to enjoy, unwind, and re-energize. Add flower beds lined with plants, shrubbery, and beautiful seating areas where employees and visitors can sit and enjoy the outdoor air. Also, read greener spaces in commercial property here. Pristine Outdoors For A Pristine Company Display professionalism and pride in your business with landscaping and add value to your property. Ensure the surrounding area of your commercial property is maintained. Just as you would market yourself to the public through different forms of advertising, your landscape can be another way to promote your business to clients. Walking by a company with neglected gardens reflects poorly on the business. Potential customers will note how
Spring Building Maintenance Add Years To Your Property
Spring building maintenance add years to your commercial property, and with Spring rapidly approaching, property owners should consider adding building maintenance tasks to their checklist. Maintenance isn’t just seasonal, we agree it should be top of mind year-round, but a seasonal checklist will cover all the needed care in a 12-month cycle. Tips to add to your Spring Building Maintenance Checklist: Making your property look inviting and attractive is important. Here are some essential spring building maintenance tasks that you can add to your list: You may also want to read: How to prepare for the season ahead Gutters Gutters are often overlooked, and even though you cleaned out the gutters during winter, it is worthwhile to check that they have since remained clear of debris. Taking an hour or two, giving the gutters a good clean, and washing down with high-pressure water will be time well spent. Cleaning The exterior of the building may still be looking good, but unbelievably it is not as clean as you might think! Washing the walls with high-pressure water will dramatically change the appearance and return the building to its once newly painted look. Spring cleaning isn’t just for residential properties; it applies to business owners too! If you want to get your business on track for success, get a good deep cleaning to form part of your spring building maintenance. Also read: Working In a Clean Workplace Signage Give your signage the spruce-up it needs with a wash, or consider adding new signage altogether. It’s a truism that “first impressions count,” what is the value of having a clean building exterior if the small details such as signs and road markings on your property are somewhat unkempt? Parking Areas Parking areas may need maintenance and repairs. If potholes or other significant defects
Top 4 Trends In Facilities Management for 2022
As our world becomes more digitised and automated, we look at the top 4 trends in Facilities Management for 2022. The need for facility managers who can manage and operate advanced building systems continues to grow. A company relies on its facilities to efficiently support its people, locations, and processes. With hybrid models already in place, and people working remotely, buildings and offices have grown empty, with communication methods reliant on digital tools. Facilities Management, like many other sectors, has faced dramatic change amid the pandemic, resulting in shifts for the facilities management industry and FM teams. Keeping in mind how much the FM industry has changed with fewer staff returning to the office is crucial as we look towards the future. Here are some observed trends as the world moves towards mid-2022 in the facility management industry: Outsourcing Sustainability Hybrid Working Reduction of Real Estate Footprints 1. Outsourcing Outsourcing your facilities management can save your organisation money if done correctly. Outsourcing in facilities management involves turning over the complete management and decision-making authority of an operation to somebody outside the organisation. It helps many businesses maximise returns on investment and establish long-term competitive advantages in the marketplace. Outsourcing is increasingly delivering complex services and impacting more significant opportunities for in-house teams to focus on core activities and deliver strategic value. 2. Sustainability Sustainable facilities management encompasses a leader’s ability to make decisions that will affect the planet. Good sustainability practices ensure that each building has a significantly reduced, or even neutral, impact on the environment. This implies many changes in the daily operations, as well as changes to the structure of the building itself. Serving as a facility manager gives an individual the power to make decisions that can positively or negatively impact the environment. For facility managers, sustainability
Greener spaces in Commercial Property
Greener spaces benefit the environment. This is true. What is becoming more and more evident, however, is that along with being better for the natural world, greener spaces improve business. They can have an almost immediate positive impact – such as the intangible benefit of tenant well-being to the undeniable increase in long-term financial returns for investors. There is a clear demand for greener spaces in commercial property and the data shows that this trend is growing. RICS is a globally recognised professional body respected for its global standards and trusted data and insights. From a recent study, RICS found that globally, around 35% of the participants in the survey believed that green buildings secure higher rents over comparable non-green buildings. Being environmentally sound is becoming a key development strategy. Technology and accessibility to premium environmental service providers and supplies have made it easy for commercial property owners to transition. This could mean drawing less power from the grid, reducing the business carbon footprint or several other factors that can significantly lower operational costs. How can you incorporate greener spaces into your commercial property? Landscaping: Sustainability is always at the forefront of the mind for FSG. After all, landscaping is where nature and man work in tandem to create a lush outdoor oasis. Our landscape architects can design and create; public parks, parkways, plan sites for campuses, corporate office parks and residential estates. We also work with large wilderness areas or reclaim degraded landscapes. We strive to make a positive impact on your bottom line while keeping conservation in mind. This applies to a new landscape design that is cost-effective, energy-efficient, water-saving, and environmentally sound. This also applies to existing spaces, where we can recycle debris, and improve water management in existing gardens. We were recently recognised by the South
South African Landscapers Institute (SALI) Recognises FSG’s Landscaping Services
With the right landscaping services, urban and suburban greenery can be a feast for the eyes. This year, FSG was recognised and awarded by SALI, the South African Landscapers Institute, for contributing to beautiful spaces. Many private homes and commercial properties have the potential to be magnificent, tranquil spaces. Busy lives in the hustle and bustle does make it challenging for property owners to install their own gardens and to give their gardens the on-going care they need. Luckily, landscaping services are on-hand to help. Award-winning excellence from FSG The FSG Group takes immense pride in its attention to detail and eye for the aesthetic. Recently recognised by the South African Landscapers Institute (SALI) for not just one but eight of their projects that include commercial and residential landscapes, FSG continues to build its reputation as one of South Africa’s leading landscaping companies. This year, FSG was awarded for properties in the Landscape Construction and Commercial Garden Maintenance categories. The company won the Double Gold Award in Landscape Construction for its work on the grounds of the prestigious University of Pretoria Onderstepoort Residence, known for its magnificent botanical gardens, and a lush residential property nestled in the heart of the Eagle Canyon Lifestyle Estate. The home’s superb garden has uninterrupted views of the surrounding golf course, and the family’s love of the sport is evident in the garden’s design. The entire back garden was recreated and reshaped into chipping and putting space for the family to enjoy. Beautiful Spaces with Conservation in Mind Double Gold not only recognises the aesthetics and design ingenuity of the landscape. It also acknowledges the environmental consideration that has gone into the design to ensure the property is water-wise and mindful of Africa’s precious resources. Sustainability is always at the forefront when FSG designs a
Building maintenance for your organisation
Building maintenance is imperative for health, safety, cost reduction, and sustainability. Our experienced team at FSG highlights the top 6 reasons why building maintenance is crucial for your organisation. Have you ever left something unattended, just to find that it costs more to fix than if you had addressed it in the beginning? This is even more applicable when referring to buildings – as they inherently function less effectively over time. Daily occupational use of a building will contribute to wear and tear. Natural causes such as rain or the accumulation of leaves can quickly deteriorate a structure. Unwanted creatures like ants or rats take no time to become an infestation. Mechanical operations of lifts, air conditioners, and security systems are also bound to give trouble at some point. If these things are left unchecked, it can ultimately result in an unexpected, expensive and frustrating exercise. Whether you lease premises or own a building, there are many benefits to maintaining the property. For owners, a building is a substantial financial investment. As with any investment, a property owner would like to see the value maintained and, preferably, increased over time. One of the crucial ways to ensure this is through proper and consistent building maintenance. As a tenant, you would want to deliver a pleasant user experience and have a safe and healthy environment for the people who use the space. Unfortunately, for many, building maintenance can seem daunting or costly. It may even seem superfluous especially when building functions appear to be running smoothly. Astute business owners, however, often budget for regular building maintenance. They understand that the upkeep of their asset is a necessary expense that more than pays for itself in the long term. After all, maintaining the internal and external integrity of the property preserves the
Hardscaping and Landscaping: What’s the difference?
Hardscaping and Landscaping are complementary components, however, Landscaping is often used as the overall term for both activities with ‘softscaping’ (natural, living elements) and ‘hardscaping’ (man-made elements). In this article, we look at the two and compare them to define the difference between hardscaping and landscaping. They are complete opposites and there is so much more to them than meets the unskilled eye. It’s not simply a case of planting a few trees and flowers or plonking a pond or gazebo where you think it will look good. One has to have a real ‘feel’ for the job at hand either deep-rooted or learned. With nature and man working in tandem to create an outdoor oasis, the incorporation of well-designed and -executed manmade or hardscape embellishments can transform work environments into lush and spectacular, sculpted works of outdoor art. A quality, rewarding and holistic landscape installation, requires design and landscape architecture skills, precision, lots of dedication, and time. All key reasons why it should be undertaken by qualified professionals trained to know their stuff. Whatever terminology one chooses to use, the ultimate objective is to create a soothing, harmonious, and beautiful environment for people to enjoy – whether in a corporate office parklike setting for employees or visitors or at home for family and friends. Here is a synopsis that puts hardscaping and landscaping into perspective, underscoring the multiple skills that may be required to achieve your desired outcome. Landscape architecture is a multi-disciplinary field, incorporating aspects of botany, horticulture, architecture, industrial design, geology, and the earth sciences, environmental psychology, geography and ecology. The activities of a landscape architect can range from the creation of public parks and parkways to site planning for campuses and corporate office parks; from the design of residential estates to the design of civil infrastructure; and the management
Are security cameras an effective security plan?
Are security cameras an effective security plan?… is a question we often get asked. Before looking into the benefits of security cameras, let’s begin by putting crime and security into perspective. South Africa’s crime rate is in an upward spiral and it’s no longer a case of ‘if’ but ‘when’ it impacts you. While housebreaking or burglary has consistently been the most common crime experienced by households in South Africa, business property and related crime is not far behind. SA Police Services crime statistics show that for the period July-September 2021, burglaries at business premises increased by 18.2% compared to the same period three month period in 2020. Simply put, criminals don’t care who they target as long as they can get away with it. They are growing increasingly more daring, skilful and sophisticated and the onus is on business owners and property managers to beef up security and constantly revise and update their security plans. While you can’t safeguard your company completely from every potential theft and break-in by criminals operating both inside and outside your organisation, you can take steps to protect your assets and minimise the damage if an incident does occur. There’s a lot of truth in the old adage “prevention is better than cure” and devising a security strategy is the first step in safeguarding your assets. If you have not done so already, NOW is the time to get an integrated security game plan in place. Prioritising security Business crime is expensive eroding profits and productivity and security camera systems are a cost-effective way of reducing these costs. Business crimes, especially for smaller companies, can be extremely difficult to recover from which makes the prioritisation of security essential. Remember, having a comprehensive security plan in place will reduce your insurance, liabilities and a multitude of