The last few months have been challenging for many of us. It’s more important than ever to take care of your body and mind at this time. Here are some health and wellness tips for you and your workforce. 

Self isolating, social distancing and working from home may have left you bored, frustrated or lonely. You may have experienced periods of feeling low, worried or concerned about your finances, health or people you know – these are completely normal to feel under these circumstances. 

It’s important to accept that everyone reacts in their own way to the current situation, and, for most of us , these feelings will pass. Here are some health and wellness tips from us at Okappy for you and your workforce. 

Support your workforce 

Many people are worried about work and money as many businesses face a great deal of uncertainty. It’s important to take extra care of the people in your organisation during this time. 

The UK Government website has published it’s coronavirus guidance for employees,

including information on the details of Statutory Sick Pay and other things employers may be able to do to help. Acas (the Advisory, Conciliatory and Arbitration Service) also has information about coronavirus for employers and employees, including guidance on sick pay and taking time off to look after a child or other dependent.

If you are an employer or involved in running a business, you may find this coronavirus guidance helpful:

• UK Government coronavirus guidance for businesses and employers, in English. 
• Welsh Government coronavirus guidance for businesses and employers, in English and Welsh. 

There is also information about what support is available for businesses:

• UK Government information on what support is available for businesses, in English.
• Welsh Government information on what support is available for businesses, in English and Welsh.

Stick to a routine

It’s highly likely that the normal routines of people in your workforce have been disrupted and it’s probably not going to look how it did for some time. It’s important to think about how you can adapt, create positive new routines and set yourself goals. Writing things down can be a good place to start planning for your day or week.  

It’s also crucial to maintain boundaries between work and personal space.  If you’re working from home – keep the same hours you would normally work and stick to the same sleeping schedule. Make sure you’re taking time off as well. It’s easy to continue to work and never switch off when working and resting are in the same place. You could implement a marker to end the day, such as going for a walk or changing your outfit.

Do things you enjoy

Sometimes when we feel worried or low, we might stop doing the things we enjoy. Although some of those things are not possible to do anymore, think about how you could adapt them, or try something new! 

A whole host of restaurants have released recipes for their famous dishes for people to try at home – why not organise a meal “out” at home and invite friends to join in via a video call. If cooking isn’t your thing, there are a bunch of free tutorials and courses online for other options. How about hosting a pub quiz or music concert?

Look after your body

Building physical activity into your daily routine is also vital to keep both your mind and your body healthy. The majority of us don’t own exercise equipment like treadmills or heavy duty weights, but there are still a whole range of ways you can stay active. 

Many personal trainers and fitness bloggers are offering free classes online such as Joe Wick’s PE classes and Yoga with Adriene. You can also get the exercise in whilst cleaning your home, and going up and down stairs. It’s likely that many of us are finding ourselves sitting down for long – you can reduce this by setting alarms to get up and stretch, or even do a set of star jumps. These gentle seated exercises from the NHS will also help to improve your mobility and posture. 

People working in the Trades have a reputation for living off pies-on-the-go and energy drinks, but these options are probably doing you more harm than good. Fuel your body with nutrient-rich food and drink lots of water, so you can keep healthy and perform your best. 

Take care with news and information

Stick to the facts and get your information from credible sources you can trust like the GOV.uk, NHS and WHO – and fact-check any information you get from social media or Whatsapp group chats. Be mindful of what you share as inaccurate information can be harmful to others too. 

Consider limiting the time you spend consuming news stories and think about turning off alerts for breaking news on your phone to avoid getting overwhelmed. It might be helpful to set yourself a specific time to read updates or limit yourself to a couple checks a day.

Reduce stress with breathing and relaxation techniques

One way to relieve stress, anxiety and depression is through breathing exercises. This is a calming activity that takes just a few minutes and can be done anywhere. Have a read of this NHS article on breathing technique for stress, anxiety and panic. Also worth checking out, is this helpful article from Mind on relaxation tips and exercises to help you.

Stay connected

When we’re experiencing times of high stress, we cope better in company and with a support network. Try your best to keep in touch with your support network via phone calls, emails, social media and video calls. Lots of people are also finding the current situation difficult, so staying in touch could help them out too.

Get help if you need it

There are also lots of helplines you can call if you are in distress and need immediate help. You can call NHS urgent mental health helplines any time of day. Search ‘NHS mental health crisis’ to find local helplines and speak to a mental health professional. ⁣⁣

There are also many charities offering helplines, support and advice including:

• The Samaritans Helpline: Offer emotional support 24 hours a day – in full confidence. Call 116 123 – it’s FREE!
• ​⁣⁣The Mind Infoline: To answer questions about types of mental health problems, where to get help, drug and alternative treatments, and advocacy. Call the Mind infoline on 0300 123 3393 (UK landline calls are charged at local rates, and charges from mobile phones will vary considerably). Or email info@mind.org.uk.
• Shout Crisis Text Line: For support in a crisis, you can text Shout to 85258 if you’re experiencing a personal crisis, are unable to cope and need support.

~

How Okappy can help

Okappy is designed to streamline your communications and workforce management processes, and is one solution that could help you reduce work-related stress and stay connected to the people in your business. With Okappy you can communicate with your network, send and receive jobs, manage your workforce remotely, run reports, and raise invoices – all on one platform. You can receive updates to job details as they happen and view all important documents needed for the work in one secure place. To learn more, request a call here.

You may also be interested in:

• 6 Ways to Deal With Uncertainty In Business
• Employee Mental Wellbeing in the Facilities Management Industry
• How Are The Okappy Community Adapting to COVID-19?
• How to Handle Your Cashflow Amidst COVID-19
• How You Can Use Okappy to Improve Cash Flow

Leave your email below to stay up to date with our latest tips, tricks and trends on all things business?

First Name:

 

Last Name: *

 

Email:

 

Submit

 

Against the very uncertain backdrop created by the spread of the COVID-19 virus, businesses have had to adapt fast to their changing environments. We caught up with two of our customers in the Drainage sector to see how they’ve been adjusting the way they work. 

What are the key ways you’ve been adapting?

COVID-19 has altered things massively. The main adaptation has been with our use of PPE and making sure that it’s all in place.  The way that we are with our clients is different now, since taking on board the social distancing regulations. Especially with things such as the RAMS (Risk Assessment and Methods Statement) that we do. Previously, we were just using the RAMS set up to cover a general drainage site, but now that has to be set up to cover the Coronavirus risks too. 

How do you communicate with staff about implementing some of these changes?

As soon as we were advised by the WHO (World Health Organisation), we started making changes. Those guidelines were passed directly onto our engineers. Obviously, the office staff were sent to work from home. So, now everything is done communicating via online apps and phone calls. There’s no face to face meetings or human interaction at the moment. 

Did you feel prepared? 

We were as well prepared as can be. We were never anticipating something of this scale to happen, but we had everything in place to cover us so we weren’t left out on a limb. As long as we have access to a computer then the business can still run, the engineers can still get their jobs and, as long as they’ve got their smartphones, they can still carry on as if things were normal.

With Okappy we’re just carrying on as the same, we haven’t had to make any adaptations to the way we communicate whatsoever. Nothing needed to change with our workforce management at all. 

Do you have a go-to place where you look for resources and advice for the drainage sector?  

We get all our information straight from WHO and the government’s advice. We took everything on board that the WHO had to say as soon as we could. 

Have you experienced any changes to the sorts of jobs coming in? 

We haven’t seen many changes in terms of the sorts of jobs, but we have seen changes to the flow of jobs. It has slowed down massively. This is both with our call outs and with the PPM (Planned Preventive Maintenance) that we serve. The reason being, at the moment with how uncertain things are, a lot of people have put a hold on things. Obviously, a lot of sites have closed as people aren’t going into work for there to be problems for us to help resolve. 

With Okappy we’ve had nothing that we’ve needed to adapt or change at all. As long as I have access to my computer, and as long as the engineers have access to the mobile app, then everything can carry on as normal. There haven’t been any hiccups on the way – it’s just been plain sailing in terms of managing our work and carrying on as we were.

What would  you say is the main way the drainage industry is changing right now?

It’s become more reactive than preventative in terms of the maintenance measures we perform. Although, I’m aware that some places are using their time to carry out preventatives due to empty buildings. A lot of places are shut, so that means the work has stopped working for a lot of sites for the time being. Some camera surveys have slowed up, which makes up a proportion of the work that we do. A lot of work is now up in the air as acquisition of properties, end of tenancies and condition surveys are on hold at the moment. When lockdown ends we’ll see who’s still standing!

What are the key things you’re doing as a business to adapt to these changes?

We’ve taken some more PPE measures such as using hand sanitiser and face masks. It’s quite strange going into residential properties, as you can’t see everyone’s faces because they’re all wearing masks. 

Nothing has really changed with how we were working before in terms of our workforce management. A lot of people have furloughed loads of staff, we haven’t furloughed anyone.

~

If you want to keep up to date with business activity across the Okappy platform you can do so on our Business Activity Index Page.  We’re tracking the number of jobs completed by day by companies across many different industries including Plumbing and Drainage, Electrical Contractors, Facilities Management, Construction and the Public Sector.

Okappy is designed to streamline your communications and workforce management processes, and is one solution that could help reduce disruption to your business. With Okappy you can communicate with your network, send and receive jobs, manage your workforce remotely, run reports, and raise invoices – all on one platform. You can receive updates to job details as they happen and view all important documents needed for the work in one secure place. To learn more, request a call here.

You may also be interested in:

• How to Handle Your Cashflow Amidst COVID-19
• How You Can Use Okappy to Improve Cash Flow
• 6 Ways to Deal With Uncertainty In Business
• How Okappy Helped to Improve Clemlec Ltd’s Cash Flow

Managing cash flow may present some challenges over the next few months. We share some of our tips and tools for how to handle your cash flow amidst the global crisis of COVID-19.

Across the world, the impact of COVID-19 on trade businesses has been unprecedented. In terms of the volume of jobs, quotes issued and invoices sent, there was a big drop in April as the lockdown took hold, but a bounce back after Easter.  Many businesses operating in the UK are likely to have already experienced a decrease in income or may well experience this in the coming months. 

Tracking your cash flow and learning how to forecast are crucial in order for trades businesses to operate. But even in the best of times – with multiple stakeholders along the chain of work – this can present a challenge. It’s imperative to have a good understanding of the money coming in and out of your business. 

Having a clear overview of your cash flow is vital and can help paint the paint of how your accounts are fairing over time. So, how do you do this? 

The number one thing to get to grips with is forecasting. This starts with understanding what the current cash flow situation is and how you expect it to change over time. We know that this may not be looking its best at the moment, but understanding what’s going on will help you put a plan in place to improve it. 

There are a few things you can do using Okappy to help you with this.

On Okappy, you have various invoice report options that will help you put your cash flow forecast together, such as for:

• Invoices raised
• Invoices paid
• Invoices outstanding

These reports can be combined into a Google sheet to create a cash flow forecast. 

Use the reports to estimate the impacts of increased costs, decreased income and to help you make decisions. Since no one knows what the future will bring, you can use your cash flow forecast to help you factor in for any number of different scenarios that may present themselves e.g. what happens if income is reduced by x for x amount of time? 

Additionally on Okappy, you can also see from the jobs dashboard which jobs are completed, but not invoiced for. This allows you to raise invoices more quickly and easily, ensuring your forecast has all the correct data.

Once you’ve built up a clearer picture of the cash coming in and out, and what it may look like in the future, you can start to plan accordingly. There are some proactive steps you can take to positively impact your cash flow over the next few months. Here are some things to consider:

Cutting your costs

You may be limited in what you can do to increase your income in the short term, but there are likely to be ways you can reduce your outgoings. What is the state of your variable expenses? What about your overhead costs? It’s worth reviewing these in detail to identify what could be reduced, even if temporarily. Suppliers might even be prepared to give you a discount if they can, so it’s worth checking. 

Increasing your rates

Do you have any scope to increase your current rates? You can consider adding a premium to emergency services if you haven’t got one in place already. Make sure you are setting your pricing sensitively and appropriately. 

Issuing all invoices

Have all invoices for work completed been sent out? Make sure they’re sent out as soon as possible to bring in cash quicker. The faster you send an invoice, the better the chances are of it getting paid. Consider who you’re doing work for, if a customer has big outstanding balance then maybe cut back on the work you do for them rather than risk not getting paid

With Okappy you can:

• Raise your invoices as soon as the job is complete and, with one-click, send them out
• Allow customers to see the invoice as soon as it’s raised 
• Take payments though the platform so you get your cash faster
• Run reports of the invoices received and invoices raised over time
• Use the outstanding invoices report to see who owes who what
• See how much is owed when adding jobs for a customer, so you know whether it’s safe to continue doing more work. 

Getting financial assistance

If the situation of your cashflow finds you with more money going out than coming in, you may need to receive some assistance from the government. Information and resources regarding financial support for businesses can be found on the UK Government website here. 

You may not be in a position to dramatically improve your cash flow right now, but there are other ways you can prepare your business for when things pick up again. 

Keep connected with customers

Make sure you keep communicating with your customers to check in and update them with where you’re at.  Even if it’s to say that you’ve furloughed all your engineers, but will let them know when you’re ready to serve again. This will help keep them in the loop and build trust. 

Make improvements to your business 

You may find yourself with more time to focus on some of the areas of your business that you don’t normally have time to address. How could it be looking in better shape? Perhaps now is the time to look into other areas of digital marketing, such as social media, that could be benefiting you. You could also use this time to ask for customer reviews – something we all know is important but often gets forgotten.

~

We hope you find this article useful and it gives you a starting point in helping you understand and manage your cash flow during this time. Don’t forget, Okappy is designed to streamline your communications and workforce management processes, and is one solution that could help reduce disruption to your business. To learn more, request a call here.

You may also be interested in:

• How Are The Okappy Community Adapting to COVID-19?
• How You Can Use Okappy to Improve Cash Flow
• 6 Ways to Deal With Uncertainty In Business
• How Okappy Helped to Improve Clemlec Ltd’s Cash Flow
• General Advice to Improve Your Businesses Cashflow

As the Coronavirus outbreak continues to spread, governments and businesses alike are making necessary preparations. Across the world, many businesses have closed and employees are being asked to work from home.

Google has requested all of its almost 100,000 workers across 11 offices in the US and Canada to work from home. Italy has put in place a national lockdown, restricting the movement and activities of the country’s 60 million inhabitants. It’s likely that the UK will experience something similar in the coming weeks.

In the 2020 budget, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced a £30bn package to boost the economy and help the country take the necessary measures to get through the coronavirus outbreak. This includes suspending business rates for many firms in England, extending sick pay and boosting NHS funding.

But what can you do to make sure your employees and your business are prepared? Creating a sound framework and implementing strong processes and controls will put your company and employees in the best position for handling any significant disruption to business operations that the COVID-19 could bring.

Don’t wait until it happens to figure out that your team doesn’t have the right tools to be able to work remotely. Evaluate what software, equipment, information and resources you’ll need in place to maintain your productivity.

Identify and appoint key personnel (and back-up personnel) to coordinate pandemic readiness activities. It’s also a good idea to identify back-up personnel for key functional stakeholders should they fall ill or be unable to execute responsibilities.

When you’re working from home, there’s no opportunity to walk over to your colleague’s desk to ask a quick question. If you don’t already have a procedure in place, here are some questions to consider:

• How will the company respond to various scenarios such as closure of sites, quarantine of areas or coworker(s) suspected or confirmed to be infected?
• What methods of communication will you use and for what?
• Will you have to hold remote meetings?
• How will the company send official updates on the status of operations and how will the company make an “all clear” announcement for a potential return to standard processes?

Start the week or day with an agenda that can be constantly updated so everyone can refer back to it and keep on track. End the week with an update to make sure everyone is up-to-speed on the progress of a particular project. Managing expectations and setting clear deadlines will help make sure everyone keeps on top of them.

Equally, you’ll need a communication strategy with outside parties such as your clients, subcontractors and vendors. Keep open communication with your critical service providers and make sure you are aware of their plans to support your business during disruption. You may want to develop backup or alternative processes (e.g. manual or in-house) to ensure the continuation of your critical business operations.

Test and secure remote access for work-from-home situations. Make sure you use multi-factor password authentication and encryption. You can identify any issues with remote working in advance, by beginning to rotate staff to work from home on selected days of the week in anticipation.

You may need to source provisional laptops for some employees or require employees to carry their laptop home everyday in case of short notice quarantines and closures. Ensure employees understand how to access critical business systems as well as company and/or client information remotely. For example, make sure you have digital cloud files of any important paperwork that may need to be accessed so you can share access to documents when required.

Make sure you have all your key contact numbers and email addresses saved. It’s also important to make your schedule available to your colleagues and network, so they know your contactable hours.

When working from home, the separation of work and personal life can become blurry. It’s important to carve out a dedicated workspace, whether it be a desk in a spare room or setting yourself up on the kitchen table.

Try and remove any distractions that might get in the way of you getting the job done. Turning off notifications can be a good start. Once you’re in the flow of work, it’s easy to keep on going and, before you know it, you’ve worked a 12 hour day. Set some boundaries, such as sticking to a strict clocking-off time.

Okappy is designed to streamline your communications and workforce management processes, and is one solution that could help reduce disruption to your business. With Okappy you can communicate with your network, send and receive jobs, manage your workforce remotely, run reports, and raise invoices – all on one platform. You can receive updates to job details as they happen and view all important documents needed for the work in one secure place. To learn more, request a call here.

We are in exceptional circumstances. Many of our customers working in the utilities industry, particular types of construction sites and other key public services are now considered key workers.

While Public Health England may change their recommendations in the future, for the time being we must all do our utmost to ensure the protection of the workforce still operating during the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and minimise the risk of spread of infection.

For those of you still working and doing site visits, here’s some of the latest advice on how you can stay safe:

Shielding, social distancing and self isolating are all very important tactics to protect yourself and others from Coronavirus. However, there’s been a bit of confusion about the difference between these, so we thought we’d clear it up for anyone still unsure what they are, and which you should be doing.

A measure to protect those who are at very high risk of severe illness from coronavirus (Covid-19) from coming into contact with the virus. Those most at risk should receive a letter or text from the NHS to strongly advise them not to go out for 12 weeks from the day you receive the recommendation.

Everyone in the UK should be practising social distancing at this time. It means staying at home and only going out to get essential supplies like food and medicine and once a day for exercise.You can also go out for medical needs and for work if it absolutely cannot be done for home. When you are out, stay at least 2 metres away from people that you don’t live with.

You should self isolate if you show symptoms of Coronavirus, such as a dry cough and high temperature, you think you might have been exposed to it, or live with someone with symptoms.

You should not leave home for any reason other than to exercise, staying a safe distance from others. If possible you should avoid going out to even buy food and other essentials. If you are unable to get supplies delivered, you should do what you can to limit social contact as much as possible when you do leave the house.

Being isolated can affect your mental health. If you’re struggling you can get support for your wellbeing from the Every Mind Matters website.

To implement the Government’s social distancing recommendation the Construction Leadership Council has now published Site Operating Procedures. Here is a summary:

Wherever possible workers should travel to site alone using their own transport and sites need to consider:

• Parking arrangements for additional cars and bicycles
• Other means of transport to avoid public transport e.g. cycling
• How someone taken ill would get home.

• Monitor site access points to enable social distancing – you may need to change the number of access points, either increase to reduce congestion or decrease to enable monitoring.
• Drivers should remain in their vehicles if the load will allow it and must wash or clean their hands before unloading goods and materials.
  The workforce should also be required to stay on site once they have entered it and not use local shops.

•  Only absolutely necessary meeting participants should attend
• Attendees should be two metres apart from each other
• Rooms should be well ventilated / windows opened to allow fresh air circulation
• Consider holding meetings in open areas where possible.

There will be situations where it is not possible or safe for workers to distance themselves from each other by 2 metres.  Non-essential physical work that requires close contact between workers should not be carried out. 

• Work requiring skin to skin contact should not be carried out. 
• Plan all other work to minimise contact between workers. 
• Stairs should be used in preference to lifts or hoists

• With cafés and restaurants having been closed across the UK, canteens cannot operate as normal. The workforce should be asked to bring pre-prepared meals and refillable drinking bottles from home.
• Where catering is provided on site, it should provide pre-prepared and wrapped food only.
• Kettles and microwaves should be removed from use.
• Dedicated eating areas should be identified on site to reduce food waste and contamination.
• Workers should sit 2 metres apart from each other whilst eating and avoid all contact.

Regularly clean common contact surfaces in reception, office, touch points, access control and delivery areas e.g. scanners, turnstiles, screens, telephone handsets, desks, particularly during peak flow times.

Require all workers to wash or clean their hands before entering or leaving the site. Providing hand cleaning facilities at entrances and exits. This should be soap and water wherever possible or hand sanitiser if water is not available. Sites will need extra supplies of soap, hand sanitiser and paper towels and these should be securely stored.

Okappy is designed to streamline your communications and workforce management processes, and is one solution that could help reduce disruption to your business. With Okappy you can communicate with your network, send and receive jobs, manage your workforce remotely, run reports, and raise invoices – all on one platform. You can receive updates to job details as they happen and view all important documents needed for the work in one secure place. To learn more, request a call here.