Have you ever felt intense back pain at work from sitting all day? Or maybe you find yourself hunching over or rounding your shoulders frequently, even after you’ve left the office

A few easy stretches whenever you start to feel a knot in your neck or stiffness in your back, can be the key to the prevention of long term disability from occurring. In combination with a good ergonomic office chair, spending just a few minutes moving and stretching each day will help you to be much healthier in the long run.

Something as simple as standing periodically or as easy as stretching your arms overhead often can have major benefits when done on a regular basis.

Below are a few ergonomic exercises and stretches that can be done in the comfort of your office. The key is getting the benefits from these ergonomic exercises is to do them every day at work, so blood is allowed to circulate, and your muscles are never still for too long. It is recommended that you move around every 30 minutes.

Employees spend at least a third of their day at the office so creating a comfortable place for them to take a break or have lunch creates a good company atmosphere.

If possible, select a room in the building with windows and access to an outdoor space. It is also best for the location to be central for all employees. A breakroom in a dark basement that’s nowhere close to the main office isn’t going to be frequently used.

When decorating the space, select fun colors to make it feel less “office-like”, allowing employees to relax during their time there. Adding lounge furniture and large gathering tables make the room inviting and encourage team bonding.

To ensure the break room is usable, provide a fridge and microwave for storing and reheating lunches. (Bonus points for extra appliances!) A coffee maker, coffee supplies, and tea are also a nice touch your employees will appreciate. Lastly, if your budget will allows, providing snacks for when employees just can’t get away can be a life saver! Keeney’s works with Apple A Day to provide fresh fruits and vegetables each week.

Creating an appealing breakroom can be an easy and inexpensive way to show your employees you appreciate their hard work. Contact Keeney’s for everything from breakroom furniture, to compostable plates to snacks for your team.

Having an issue with a product or service you received is bad enough but seeing a 1-800 number as the customer service line is equally as cringe worthy. Communication problems, lack of knowledge and inflexible solutions can make a frustrating situation even more infuriating. At Keeney’s, we feel providing outstanding customer service is essential so we take pride in having an in-office customer service team available to help via phone, email or live chat.

Unlike most call center workers, our customer service team is very knowledgeable about the products we sell and how to use our online ordering system. They are also able to help find specific items quickly and have access to a team of supplies and furniture experts if they aren’t sure of an answer.

Being on-site also means they have the ability to consult the management team on unusual requests and get you a resolution quickly instead of giving you a scripted response or a promise that a supervision will call you back. The team is also in regular contact with our delivery drivers so delivery instructions can be relayed seamlessly.

Lastly (and we feel most importantly), having an on-site team means you receive personalized service. You speak with the same three team members each time you contact us so they are familiar with your company and needs.

Contacting customer service should be a great experience and at Keeney’s you will always be greeted with a friendly, knowledgeable and resourceful team member to help meet your needs.

Office colors make an impression on clients visiting your office and on how your team works within the space.  Generally speaking, warm colors evoke feelings of vibrancy, positivity, excitement, and optimism. Bold colors, like red or orange, usually represent passion, adventure, and creativity. Cool tones are meant to inspire feelings of trust, calm and stability. Cool colors like blue and green are often used to convey quality and reliability.

Neutral colors are the most frequently used in office design and furniture, but can be easily updated with a few bright accents. Check out five easy way’s Keeney’s has added a splash of color to projects:

Bold Accent Furniture or Rugs

Bright Desk Accessories

Unique Artwork

Plants in Vibrant Containers

Colorful Accent Walls

Lisa Keeney McCarthy, President of Keeney’s Office Supply | Office Interiors was named a 2018 Puget Sound Business Journal Women of Influence honoree. Visit the Puget Sound Business Journal for their profile on Lisa.

Eastside Staples

June is National Safety Month, so it’s a great time to inventory the safety supplies you currently have, ensure you are compliant with safety codes and order everything you need to have on hand in case of emergency. No matter the size of your company or the type of work you do, ensuring your employees are safe should be your first priority. Here are a few items every office should have:

First Aid Kit
First aid kits are regarded as essential features in any office as they are an important first line of defense that can provide immediate help in most medical emergencies. A typical kit may consist of items like bandage, gauze, ointment, or antiseptic. Depending on your line of work, you can always customize what is in your kit.

Shop First Aid Kits

Biohazard Kit
A biohazard kit is equipped with materials required to dispose of waste that is considered to be dangerous or contagious. As there are different kinds of biohazardous waste, there are different types of biohazard kits.

Shop Biohazard Supplies

Fire Extinguisher
Clear out small, manageable fires with fire extinguishers. There should be an extinguisher on every office floor and it should be visible and easily accessible. Make sure your employees know where the fire extinguisher is and that they understand how to use a fire extinguisher in the event of an emergency.

Shop Fire Extinguishers and Signage

In addition to stocking your safety supplies, make your office a safe environment by keeping it clean and clear, ensuring your staff has proper training on the equipment they are using and providing workers with ergonomic work stations. At the end of the day, the better prepared you are, the safer your business will be. For assistance selecting the right safety supplies for your office, contact your designated sales rep or our customer service team at info@keeneys.com.

Every business lays claim to offering superb customer service. Small office supply businesses that have survived the Costco wave, the Office Depot/Staples wave and now the Amazon wave can probably lay claim to actually providing a high level of service – but the words themselves are empty now, so let’s talk about what it really means to the customer to do business with a truly “customer-centric” provider.

Several years ago, Amazon.com started coming up at the top of the list on surveys regarding customer service. This shocked us because there is no human touch with Amazon, and we are all about providing a level of care and understanding that can only come from human contact and conversation. But Amazon was so consistent in its delivery schedule, so advanced in its webstore, and so brilliant at getting favorable press – they actually redefined the customer’s definition of “customer service.” This rocked our world. We made sure our web store was great, we made sure our customers could track their deliveries, and we kept our level of service through personal contact as high as we could.

Today, several major news outlets broke a story that Amazon has an unstated policy that a customer who returns too high a percentage of their purchases (anecdotally, it seems to be around 10%) – or returns purchases for atypical reasons – can get banned from Amazon, even if they own outstanding credits, gift cards, etc.

We take customer returns seriously, too – and a 10% credit rate is high. But our interpretation of what a high return rate means is very different, and the difference is key to understanding what real customer service can mean to a consumer. Amazon sees a high rate of returns, and they think “abuse and fraud,” so they ban the customer. We see a high rate of return (honestly, not very often – but it happens) and we think “we could do better for this customer.” We meet with them, we understand why the items were returned, and we figure out how to help that customer buy the right item the first time. Returns are expensive for us but they are also expensive for the customer – we’d rather solve the problem with the customer than solve the problem by rejecting the customer.

So when we talk about extraordinary customer service, it comes from a deep place of commitment. We walk that talk. Demand that your supplier is focused on your bottom line, not just their own.

Several years ago, the office furniture industry declared that “sitting is the new smoking.” As we learn more about the human body at work, and as more studies have come out, it has become clear that the key to a healthier workstation is that it promotes movement – not simply standing, but changing from sitting to standing several times throughout the day. Moving around the space, taking breaks, going ta different part of the office (or going outside) or scheduling walking meetings all help to fight the unhealthy, sedentary work day that those studies said would contribute to our early deaths.

Desks that adjust to allow workers to alternate between sitting and standing throughout the day are tremendously helpful in combatting health problems from back pain to obesity, high blood pressure, fatigue and diabetes. Taking it to a whole new level, some companies have combined fitness equipment with workstations, resulting in mixed reviews. The treadmill desk was a pretty short lived sensation; while it definitely promoted movement at work, it also was found to decrease accuracy and increase the chance of workplace injury.

To create the best possible work environment, we are always looking for furniture that promotes movement and promotes postural variation throughout the day. We are selling more sit/stand desks than ever along with an increasing number of perching stools that allow a third posture at a desk, one that promotes a healthy back position but also relieves pressure on the worker’s knees.

We offer anti-fatigue mats to ease the stress of standing for more than an hour at a time.

Recently, we have begun offering the Safco Balance Board, a standing desk accessory that combines the benefits of a ball chair (you have to engage core muscles to stay upright and working on a balance board) with the benefits of an anti-fatigue mat (the balance board is made of a firm but springy plastic that is much easier on the joints than a hard concrete or wooden floor). The balance board is fun, too – it looks like a big skateboard.

We continue to monitor the innovation in the office furniture world because we care about the health and well being of every employee working with every one of our customers. Please let us know if we can help you make your office a healthier, friendlier environment.

Tracking your company’s supply inventory can be tedious and time consuming work, but it’s vital to running a business. Since managing the supply room is not typically not anyone’s sole responsibility, it is often forgotten or little thought is put into ordering the supplies. By hiring a professional to manage this task, the desired inventory levels are preserved, the supplies are put away in the correct places and over time you will be able to see an accurate spend on day-to-day supplies. Utilizing outside help also frees up time for your staff and allows them to focus on the tasks they were hired to do.

Benefits of Professional Inventory Management:

Inventory Levels

Running out of essential supplies like paper can halt the work in your office so making sure inventory levels are maintained is very important. Ordering too much of a specific product is also a problem as it isn’t an efficient use of funds and takes up valuable storage space. With professional inventory management, the supplies you are low on are ordered each week so the supply room is always stocked with the necessary items.

Clean and Organized

Hiring a professional to maintain your inventory will help to keep your supply room neat and ordered. Since the same person is putting away your orders each week, items will go in the same place so everything is easy to find. Empty boxes are removed so you can see what’s available at a glance and supplies are stored in organized bins and shelves.

Accurate Budget

When supplies are maintained at a consistent level, it is easier monitor how much of a particular item you use each month and budget for supplies accordingly. With business reviews of your inventory management, you can evaluate if the quantity standards you set are accurate and adjust quantities of each product kept on hand.

If your company needs assistance maintaining consistent levels of office products, your supply room is a mess or you would like to define a clear budget for your office supplies, visit our website to see how Keeney’s can help!