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December 2018

2018Sum

Ideal’s 2018 Summary

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Ideal’s 2018 Summary

2018 Summary

2018 has been a huge year for us at Ideal. We have a lot to talk about with new contracts being won as well as new and old leaving and joining the company! All in all, we can say this year has been successful in terms of friends and business and we hope to continue that growth to the next year. However, our most important mention this year is an economical and electronic switch to ZetaSafe.

ZetaSafe

ZetaSafe is an electronic auditing software which our clients and employees can use in order to access data recorded by our operatives. This paper free system has saved on half of the paper we use and that is just in the beta stages of the applications release. As we move forward; we hope to cut that down further as well as give more clients access to dashboards and weekly reports received through emails. We understand that the release hasn’t been perfect however we are pushing forward, and our team is working hard daily to complete and produce the reports.

ScanningApp
ScanningApp

Promotions and Newbies

In terms of internal proceedings there have been a few new faces join and others have gone up in the ranks. We would like to officially congratulate our two new directors; Gary Benning and Gavin Ingle whose hard work and determination for the company has seen them get where they deserve to be. Also, two of the original family members; Chris and Adam Dring were promoted. Chris has become the National Operations Manager and Adam is our new East Midlands Regional Manager. Congratulations to you both. There have also been new faces who have joined the company this year. They include:

Retirement

We are always happy to see new faces join the company but sad when they leave, especially after working for Ideal for such a long time. At the end of last year Stephen Leahy left the company after over 45 years’ service. He will be missed by all at Ideal however has visited time to time during this last year to help and provide support when needed. Another retiree is Jane Oldroyd, in the Sales department for over 20 years. She was a friend of everyone and was very good at her job.

Big Contracts

This year Ideal teamed up with two major contracts in the West Midlands region. Birmingham City Council (BCC) and Pioneer group. These have allowed us to grow our team in those areas and provide the service that we see fit at our high standards.

Good business.

Ashley’s

Ashley’s joined up with Ideal midway through the year and have been working round the clock to help as well as work effectively with Ideal to complete the new tasks that we are both taking on together. All the staff transferred over and their office staff now work hand in hand with ours efficiently organising the teams which do the cleans.

Website

A major change for Ideal this year has been our new website! We now have unlimited access which we have not had previously allowing us to keep it updated and ever changing. The new site has kept the same colour scheme however has changed by condensing the previous information to more select readable sections. Also, the new blogs mean we can interact with the public daily. However, as well as us interacting with the public it has become clearer how to communicate with us.

Ideal Team-building

For a bit of fun; the Ideal family also went to an escape room. For those who don’t know, you have 1 hour to solve as many puzzles as it takes to escape the room. Out of the three teams that went two escapes and then there was a punishment for the captain of the losing team. (Pictures below)

Babies and Marriage

A massive congratulations to Chantel Fox who gave birth in December to a little girl called Phoebe, we at Ideal want to send you all our love and best wishes as we hope you have a wonderful few months away from work and spending time with your bundle of joy. A second congratulations to Nicola who gave birth to Jessica, another little girl who has made a few visits to our head office to see the staff. Finally, a huge congratulations to one of our Supervisors in Nottingham, Andrew. He got married last month and hopefully will be for many happy years.

The IDEAL Way To Get Ready For Christmas

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At Ideal, we always get into the festive mood for Christmas; mainly because food is involved. We have put together a list of ideas that will get you and your work colleagues ready for Christmas.

Decorate The Office

Not everyone enjoys or celebrates Christmas, so it’s best to not decorate the whole building with eye catching tinsel. However, for those who want to celebrate Christmas, you could decorate your work space i.e. your desk, with lots of festive trimmings!

Maybe you could put up a Christmas tree that has been decorated with far too many baubles. To really give your office that extra cosiness, put up some festive lights around your door frames and window sills. Another idea would be to put a bit of tinsel around your computer monitor.

There’s absolutely no shame if you want to go over the top and decorate your workspace from top to bottom- go for it!

Have a Good Ol’ Fuddle

Let’s face it. We all LOVE Christmas food. Mince pies, sausage rolls, ginger bread men or chocolate- we’ll have them all!

If you really want to impress your fellow colleagues then go all out and bake homemade goodies. Try searching for delicious ideas on Pinterest or Instagram.

If you’re not really a star baker, a trip to the supermarket will suffice (I don’t think it’s considered festive to poison your colleagues)

Secret Santa

I love Secret Santa, even though it never stays a secret. You always end up spilling the beans on who you have, nevertheless, it’s fun to do.

You don’t have to have a big budget. I know you spend the majority your life with the people you work with, but a £5 gift is more than enough to show them you care; just make sure the budget it communicated to everyone before you take part.

Also, please try to refrain from buying any inappropriate or offensive gifts!

Christmas Gift Wrapped With A Bow

Get Out Your Best Festive Jumper

An ugly one, one that plays music, one that lights up or a subtle one. You could do a best /worst jumper contest if you are really competitive. Or for all of you Christmas loving lot, why not go extreme and come to work dressed as Santa?

Charity Christmas Raffle

It’s always good to give at Christmas. Ideal always partake in a Christmas Charity Raffle. Instead of Christmas cards, employees at Ideal donate money to Charity. Half of the money will go to Charity and the other half goes towards a prize.

Office Party

I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say we wait all year for the Christmas Party to arrive. Christmas Parties don’t always have to include alcohol either. A fun activity could be something which the Head Office employees at Ideal participated in recently, an Escape Room, not only is it team building, it’s also fun too!

For the more traditional lot, it’s nice to put on your glad rags and go for a nice meal and a “few” drinks. There’s nothing like an awkward/funny drunken office story.

two girls celebrating

Two Women At Party Drinking Champagne

Once the festivities are over and you need to complete “operation clean up” – contact Ideal to arrange a free quotation on 0115 913 2222; or via email sales@idealcleaning.co.uk
Xmas Dinner table

The Run up to Christmas (From a cleaning point of view)

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The Run up to Christmas (From a cleaning point of view)

The run up to Christmas is the busiest time of the year whether you are a business, home-owner or event organiser you are starting to think about that all-important day! However, maybe more important than the day itself is the preparation that must be done before hand to make it run as smooth as possible. Even though at Ideal we are Commercial and Industrial cleaners, we want to share our 70 years of wisdom with the rest of you.

So here are some tips on us…

#Tip 1:

Do not start too early! Just because this blog has been released early December, it doesn’t mean you need to start cleaning RIGHT NOW. You have to remember people still work/live in the area you want to get ready. It may seem too late to a lot of you, but it needs to be done just before the day or event. If you need to hire a team then this can be done even quicker then doing it by yourself but do allow yourself more time.

#Tip 2:

Do not stress. A lot of people will use the stress to get them into the cleaning mood and kick start themselves into action. This is not advised for your mental health or for time/preparation reasons. If you are stressing it normally shows you have left it until the last minute and you don’t think you can get the job done. In any business this is a big NO. We never think we can’t get the job done, therefore will always be ready and allow plenty of time.

Stress drawn in red

Stress drawn in red

#Tip 3:

Use good quality tools. We are not suggesting you run to the shop and spend a lot of money on all the newest, strongest and most powerful chemicals. What you have may be more then good enough already; just ensure you use it safely and plentiful. We also recommend using micro-fibre cloths and read the reviews on chemical cleaners. DO NOT just look at the name and think it is good; it’s often not the case. Our stores team will be happy to advise on any queries regarding products.

#Tip 4:

Accidents do happen. We all know that nothing in life runs smoothly. Things break, tools don’t work correctly and you just can’t figure out where that last screw came from. Therefore, it is important to give yourself an extra day on any project. Use that day for if anything goes wrong to implement any required corrections. Maybe, on the off chance it all works out well; it will be a well-deserved rest. So really, it’s a win- win situation.

Broken egg, messy table

Broken egg, messy table

We will have some more tips to follow soon, hopefully these will tide over any compulsive cleaners and even help you choose a cleaning contractor in the future. If you do have an enquiry, you can contact us on: contact@idealcleaning.co.uk or Call: 0115 913 2222.