Like the idea of a new filtered drinking water tap for the office? Not sure how to raise it with the boss? Here’s a quick set of summary points you can cut and paste into an email to the decision makers.
- Investing in a hot, cold and sparkling water filter can pay for itself with productivity gains and better customer service.
- You can reduce staff time wasted getting coffee/drinks outside the office.
- AquaClear has developed a basic productivity calculator to help you calculate the value of an hour of your team’s time.
- Hydrated staff perform better and are happier.
- There are taps you can install if you are leasing and want to take them with you when you relocate at the end of lease.
PRODUCTIVITY
Staff time is often the biggest investment of a business. If employers added up the number of work hours their staff spend in cafés, they could be shocked and disappointed. It is not just a productivity issue, it is also a customer service and competitiveness issue. Often it is the administration or front-end sales/service staff that are asked to go and grab some drinks for a meeting, potentially leaving nobody to answer phones. How many times has that happened in your office?
What is the true cost of a missed phone call or a delayed response to an email? Do you have staff or customers in the field pulling their hair out, because they can’t reach the relevant people at head office at critical moments?
An investment in a modern water filter tap that can dispense chilled, sparkling and boiling water could pay for itself very quickly from a productivity perspective. It simply gives staff a safe, clean, convenient alternative, so they can grab a drink during work hours. Even if the tap only stops one trip to the café per week, it could pay for itself quicker than you think.
Investing in a filter tap that can provide perfect sparkling, chilled and boiling water helps productivity all year round. On hot days, sparkling and chilled water can be popular, and on cold days, instant boiling water could help your staff cut down their café trips by half. Sure, if you do not have a reasonable coffee machine, there will always be those that prefer the corner café, but a basic machine plus a great water filter will greatly reduce the number of ‘coffee runs’ each week. This is particularly the case now that drinking green and peppermint tea is again becoming more popular.
Sparkling water is extremely popular in café’s around Australia, and is often chosen by staff as a lower calorie option to coffee, and ‘something nicer’ than flat water. Modern water filters from Zip and Billi offer five options from the one tap; Sparkling, filtered boiling, filtered chilled, plus regular hot and cold tap water for washing.
According to Choice Magazine, Australians spend more than half a billion dollars a year on bottled water. Your water utility annual charge is likely to be $1.50 per employee (for two litres per employee a day.) Alternatively, bottled water per employee could cost $2800+ per year.
AquaClear has created a basic productivity calculator to help you calculate the value of an hour of your team’s time. This is a simple MS Excel spreadsheet that can help you add this key point to any investment foryour workplace that helps people be more productive. This tool is available free of charge from AquaClear.
HYDRATED STAFF PERFORM BETTER AND ARE HAPPIER!
So how much water should your staff be consuming? A 1945 American Food and Nutrition board recommended an allowance of water of 2.5 litres a day in most circumstances. This was converted to 8 glasses a day. According to Australia’s chief scientific body, the CSIRO, the ‘8 glasses a day” rule is a myth. “There is no set recommendation as to how much water we should consume – its all dependent on your size, activities or general health. One key thread of all the literature is that humans need to regularly drink water to maintain optimum cognitive ability and wellness. Employers should pay particular attention to the needs of staff that would need more than average:
- Any staff that are pregnant, due the physical demands of pregnancy.
- Someone that is dehydrated after a big night ‘entertaining clients’
- Anyone that is planning to exercise in the heat after work
ITS OK IF YOU’RE LEASING
One common misconception is that you cannot have built-in filtered taps if you are leasing. There are options that involve simply replacing your existing tap, and installing a unit in the cupboard under the sink. When your lease expires, you can take your unit with you! Free-standing units are also available. Just call AquaClear to discuss the options on 1300 070 007.
