Author: Ethan Theo

A business can’t thrive in today’s extremely competitive market without happy and healthy employees. Making sure that they’re at their best for their jobs, and that they’re working in optimal conditions can lead to success for the company in the long term. Providing a safe working environment for employees and ensuring that they’re healthy for productive work are important duties that any successful entrepreneur should be on top of.

Invest in employee wellness

Healthy employees make the most productive workers. Reserving company finances to maintain the well-being of the most important resource of the entire workforce can be an effective measure to this end. Prevention is better than cure, as they say.

Company-paid medical examinations and drug screenings can be effective ways to anticipate health-related labor issues early on. Drug testing, in particular, through hair drug testing kits or other methods can be a reliable tool to ensure a safe, drug-free working environment.

Inspect the workplace regularly

Workers are entitled to a safe working environment. Therefore, it’s important that business owners regularly inspect the workplace to ensure that the workers are working in good conditions, with the optimal tools for their tasks.

Safety should be a paramount concern at the workplace. Scope out possible hazards and prepare contingency plans to handle them when the need arises. Look into existing and potential problems, and apply corrective and preventive measures. Being proactive is the key in this endeavor.

A well-equipped employee is generally more productive than an ill-equipped one. A carpenter armed with shoddy tools will find it difficult to create well-made furniture. Providing the workers the best, cost-effective tools for their task can be a major factor in the overall productivity of the company.

Look into incidents and keep records

Keeping records of accidents and other incidents that involve the company is part of responsible management. Carefully investigating how a particular incident came about is the first step to ensuring that it won’t happen again. Follow-up investigations promptly with the needed changes to prevent a recurrence.

Of course, there are situations that no precaution or preventive measure can remedy. Criminality can be a surprise issue, as well as the sudden natural disaster. Learn from these experiences and prepare as best as possible for the future.

Build morale and trust between the employees

Team building is sometimes a neglected activity that can greatly improve working conditions in the company. It can result in a more harmonious, safer, and ultimately more productive workspace. Don’t be afraid to fund the employees’ team building efforts. So long as the costs are reasonable, the dividends to holding a successful team building event can be significant, especially in a newly-formed group.

Team building events can be as simple as a paid group meal outside on a weekday or sending the employees to a fun teamwork-inspiring activity within the building. Decide which activities are suited for each group and give them ample time to bond with each other.

Keeping the workforce safe and healthy is a crucial part of managing a successful business. The process is always ongoing and there will be unavoidable costs, but the potential benefits can greatly outweigh the time and resources spent.

Businesses today rely heavily on information technology, from automated production in the manufacturing process to shared data and resources in the office, and even through to websites or online shops. As a business grows, resources can be stretched which may impact productivity. At this stage, it only makes sense to add more resources to meet the demand; that can mean the hiring of more staff, the purchasing of more equipment, the expansion of premises and changes in the way the business uses computers and the internet. This where load balancing comes in.

In simple terms, this is done by taking the work that one computer would do and distributing that work between two or more computers so that efficiency and productivity can be increased. Load balancing can be done using software, hardware or a combination of both depending on the needs of a business. It’s a common strategy by businesses which offer online purchases, whose websites have a high volume of traffic. If one server was used, the volume of traffic could be such that visitors to the website could find the website slow to load at best or may not be even to see the website at all if the server crashes. For example, 40% of people will abandon a website that takes longer than 3 seconds to load, while a delay of 1 second can cause a 7% loss in conversion.

By sharing the traffic among multiple servers, the business can make sure that there is no disruption to guests visiting their website and potentially losing out on the custom that these visitors can generate. Because load balancing uses more than one server, it is typically combined with services that prevent failure such as backup and failover protection. One way this can help is by having servers in multiple geographic locations so if for example there is a power failure in one location there is still at least one other available.

It is not only in that way that load balancing can benefit a business. Load balancing has the added ability to making scaling up much easier simply by adding more servers as needed either locally or online. Load balancing systems are highly programmable, allowing a business to customise how traffic is routed to and from the servers, which is hugely beneficial when it comes to security as well as efficiency. For example, if your business is only using one server to host its website and that server falls foul of a malicious cyber-attack, then your whole website could be down until the problem is resolved. On the contrary, having your website running from multiple servers can help keep the website up and running whilst the attack is being neutralised.

In late 2016, a series of DDoS attacks from a botnet engulfed the internet connections of Dyn, a DNS provider for companies such as Twitter, Spotify and Amazon. The attack came in three waves lasting hours and affected over 150 websites. According to the CEO of Dynatrace, a company that monitored the attacks, up to $110 million was lost in sales. One way of fighting against these types of multi-pronged attacks is to use a layered or multi-dimensional defence model. This model incorporates multiple defence solutions or protection methods in different points in the network. The way this works is that if an attacker penetrates one level of defence or exploits a weakness or flaw in the first layer, then the second layer can compensate with a different form of protection and so on with the subsequent layers of defence. This is where load balancers excel as they are built to work within a network with layered security.

With the advent of cloud computing and the promise it holds for the future of Information Technology, load balancers can also help prepare the business world utilise cloud computing effectively and securely. The obvious benefit of this is that the business can operate at all times, which can be very important if the business trades internationally working with clients in multiple locations in today’s global market.

Here at Cunningham Covers, heavy duty tarpaulins are what we do. We also do lighter duty covers, but here we’re going to take a quick look at the more industrial tarpaulins and what they can be used for.

Here’s eight of the most popular uses for industrial tarps.

In transportation

They can be used in transportation to secure loads and protect them from wind, rain and sun. Many haulage and transportation companies need customised tarps for their vehicles, made to specific measurements and with their company logo and advertising on. We’re particularly proud of the tarps that we’ve sent out to haulage fleets.

In construction

During construction works, or after severe storms, homeowners can be left living with huge holes in their roofs. It can take several weeks or even months for repair or building work to start and finish, so heavy-duty tarpaulin comes in handy to replace the roof for a while, keeping everyone inside dry.

In humanitarian aid

As it’s relatively light, stocks of tarpaulins can be delivered to disaster areas or refugee camps, where they can be used to create temporary shelters until families find more permanent homes. Their easy portability also makes them handy for tourists and campers – they can be folded up and put in a car or van boot and moved from one place to another,

In agriculture

Tarps are especially handy here, both for smaller scale farmers and larger farms. They’re used to cover machinery to protect it from the elements, as well as covering newly-harvested crops and less-than waterproof buildings.

Tarpaulins are also important when it comes to livestock, as they can be used to create temporary shelters for animals to protect them from extremes of heat and cold, as well as rain and snow. Just look over any working farm and you’ll see at least a few tarps that have been pressed into service.

On sports grounds

Many people don’t associate tarpaulins with sports, but many sports grounds – cricket and bowls in particular – rely upon them to protect the pitches and greens. These types of very large covers are known as field tarps and they’re custom-made for the different grounds they cover. They can be different shapes and made from different materials depending on the conditions of the grounds.

For insect nets

Some tarpaulin makers make specialist insect nets for use in farming to prevent harmful pest insects – or maybe birds – from reaching valuable crops.

In and around the house

If they’re not being used to replace a roof, they can be used to cover stored furniture, or vehicles so that water, dust and other potentially harmful substances don’t get to the items.

In light and heavy industries

Some industries have processes that create fine mists – of liquids or solid particles that can escape into the air and cause pollution or breathing problems. Specialised tarps can be put up around the area in which these processes happen to stop the vapours or mists spreading to workers or nearby residents. It’s important that these covers are well-maintained so that they work well and comply with safety regulations.