Doing our bit to promote child safety

Here at Office & General we take our Corporate Social Responsibility very seriously indeed. We’re passionate about our business and the impact we have on the community we serve.

We work with the Children’s Safety Education Foundation on initiatives aimed at making our children safer – it’s staggering to think that more than 700 children die in the UK each year as a result of unintentional injury. Health & Safety is obviously a huge part of our business so we’re keen to support the CSEF in the good work they do making safety education accessible to every child in the UK. A bit further from home, but still close to our hearts is Children of the Andes who look to keep Columbian street children safe from poverty and violence.

We’re running a ‘Spot the Taxi’ Competition at the moment – by taking part you can help a worthy cause, and win £50 for yourself! You’ve seen the pics of our lovely O&G taxi, now you just need to find it on the streets of London, snap it and email it to emily.clark@officeandgeneral.co.uk. For every entry we receive we’ll donate £10 to Children of the Andes, and also enter you into a prize draw to win a £50 M&S voucher. Full competition details are available here. 

KEEP THOSE EYES PEELED!

Looking forward to the year ahead

We are very proud of our excellent customer service

Recent research by the Plimsoll Group revealed that we are one of a minority of companies in our industry to increase in value during 2011. The sector is consolidating fast, and a number of our competitors are treading water or actively experiencing difficulties.

Here at Office & General we are proof that growth and development is still possible, even in the most challenging of market conditions. Our secret? The reputation for outstanding customer service we have developed over the last 25 years. We owe everything to the staff who provide the service day in day out and we never forget it is them who are primarily responsible for our commercial success.

As we have grown, we have maintained the family culture we established very early on. We continue to treat our staff fairly and with respect, engaging and motivating them, and investing in their personal and professional development. In return, we provide them with a stable working environment where they enjoy their work and feel valued.

In an industry increasingly dominated by Private Equity owned businesses and large European Facilities Providers, where success is managed purely on the balance sheet rather than by customer satisfaction. Customers large and small are seeing the benefits in dealing with strong independent companies, like O&G, who can offer quality assurance, price and outstanding service.

Here’s to 2012!

Have you read our Sustainability brochure?

See how green we are!

SUSTAINABILITY is the founding principle of Office & General.  You could say it’s our middle name.  It is not a bandwagon we have jumped on but is firmly embedded in our thinking and all our activities. Our commitment to sustainability covers all environmental and commercial processes as well as the communities in which we work. We’ve long held the ISO 14001 for environmental management and were actually one of the first companies to be awarded the standard across all our sites, not just our HQ. So, it’s serious business – and actually really interesting! Click here to have a read of our sustainability brochure if you don’t believe us!

Spot the O&G taxi… and win £50!

Our taxi has already been spotted in traffic outside Finsbury Town Hall

As many of you already know, there is an Office & General black taxi roaming the streets of London. We thought we’d have a bit of fun with it, so here we have the ‘spot the O&G taxi’ competition. All you need to do is see it, snap it (with your camera or phone) and you could win a £50 voucher.

And what’s even better – for every competition entry we receive, we’ll donate £10 to the O&G nominated charity, Children of the Andes. Send your photos to emily.clark@officeandgeneral.co.uk before Friday 30 March 2012 for your chance to win the prize. After the closing date, the best photo will win a £50 voucher for Marks & Spencer. We’re not looking for the best photo, but the photo that best reflects the taxi – in a funny position, next to a landmark, or even with a celebrity inside!

The competition is open to everyone and the judge’s decision is final. The winning photo will be posted here on our blog. Remember the closing date is 30 March 2012.

Promotions and appointments

Steve Trott

It’s been a busy few months at the O&G HQs, what with the Wolverhampton move. There have also been a few personnel changes including some new faces and a promotion for Steve Trott! Steve is now Director of Major Accounts and takes responsibility for managing customer relationships with a number of key accounts including King’s College and Burberry. He is also the single point of contact for all commercial and account issues, with his role focusing on protecting and extending our revenues with key clients, particularly with those with a national presence. Steve will still be based in Wolverhampton, but will work in London two days per week.

Gary James joins us as Business Development Manager in Wolverhampton, with 18 years experience of working in the cleaning business. Gary is an avid Chelsea fan and also coaches his son’s under 14 football team, which won both the cup and the league last season! Emma Woods is another new face in the Wolverhampton office as she assumes her role of Administrator. Having recently returned from working and travelling in New Zealand, Emma is also studying sign language at college.

Dan Barr

Dan Barr is our new Vehicle & Equipment Services Manager, who will look after the PAT testing throughout the company and also responsibility for company vehicles. Dan loves football and supports Spurs (never mind!).

Welcome to Gary, Emma and Dan, and congratulations to Steve!

Meet our very own taxi!

Our O&G taxi visits Big Ben...

Drum roll please…. we are pleased to unveil our brand new Office & General taxi which will be roaming the streets of London for the next year. Everyone here is really pleased with the way it has turned out – thanks to our friends at Beach Marketing for designing the livery. We are currently devising a ‘spot the taxi’ competition – so check back for more details in the next few days!

... and the famous London Eye

New Wolverhampton contact info

We have recently moved offices and our Midlands office is no longer based in on Spring Road in Ettingshall. Our new address and telephone number for the Wolverhampton office is:

Unit 9 Fordhouse Road Industrial Estate
Steel Drive
Wolverhampton
W10 9XB
Tel: 01902 783763

Consider a daytime cleaning regime

Despite its popularity in other parts of Europe, daytime cleaning hasn’t quite caught on in the UK. Over here tradition sees the office staff clocking off as cleaning staff clock on leaving the cleaners themselves, and their methods out of sight.

A recent article has suggested that, for progressive facilities managers looking for a closely managed, high quality, cost competitive and socially responsible cleaning solutions, a daytime cleaning regime is the right choice.

So what is daytime cleaning?

Daytime cleaning is just that – cleaning of the workplace during the normal 9-5 working hours. That doesn’t mean you’ll have a hoover hassling your ankles when you’re making an important phone call – noisy and potentially intrusive cleaning tasks are still done outside of normal working hours.

Let’s take a look at some of the benefits for facilities managers.

Increased productivity – if cleaning is taking place while you’re on site you can tell your cleaner when they’ve missed something, or if there something outside of the normal routine you need doing.
Cost savings – it’s cheaper to employ daytime cleaners than it is night time staff.
Reduced carbon footprint / energy costs – you’ll be using your energy more efficiently – i.e. you won’t need to light and heat your office for cleaning staff out of hours.
Social benefits – cleaning staff become part of the team – and daytime cleaning reduces the health problems associated with night time working too!

Read the full article here.

Office & General offer daytime cleaning solutions to suit your requirements. Call us on 020 8206 6363, or if you’re an existing member of the O&G family, contact your Account Manager.

When is residual waste not residual waste?

All homes in the country now have bins for recycling and general waste. In our experience though, many recyclable items end up in the general waste bin. Most food packaging these days is recyclable which just leaves the food waste itself to get rid of. So – why not put it in a separate food bin and throw it on the compost dump! No residual waste at all.

For our customers, we are making a promise to take away ALL waste they produce and send it for recycling. From December we’ll offer a separate food waste service which will be paid for from the savings generated through heightened levels of recycling. It’ll be a much simpler process for our customers – all waste goes into the food or non-food bin and the environment will also benefit. Not only will we be driving up recycling, but we’re getting rid of our big waste truck too so there’ll be fewer carbon emissions. Here at O&G, residual waste is a thing of the past!

Fed up with a dirty office? No job is too small for O&G!

Sick of having to clean the office yourself? Tired of sweeping the shop floor?! Let us handle all your cleaning needs and leave you to get on with your day job.

Don’t be fooled into thinking we only work with large organisations with huge buildings to care for. If you’re a small one-room office with just three or four people, we have cleaning solutions for your requirements and would love the opportunity to provide you with a quote.

If you’ve visited our website before, you’ll probably have noted our green credentials and our accreditations – so you can be sure that with O&G quality is assured. We’ve also established an unrivalled reputation for customer service of which we are extremely proud

Remember that with us, you can rely on sparkling workplaces everytime – and at reasonable rates. Call us for a quote today on 020 8206 6363 or email us here.