Direct vs. Rude: Know the Difference
Learn the key difference between being direct and being rude—and how to communicate truthfully without doing harm. From conflict and leadership coach, Ryan Dunlap.
Why is waste so expensive?
Depending on what industry you work in, your waste removal expenses are potentially a significant burden on your bottom line. Sure, you can reduce waste — but compromising the quality of this service isn’t really an option. Finding savings is possible, but first you must understand what goes into the cost.
Waste cost categories.
It may be hard to imagine the price breakdown of waste removal, when most of the process happens away from your facility.
Your bill is most likely composed of four main cost types:
- Container costs
- Collection costs
- Transfer costs
- Landfill costs
Understanding your options among these four categories can go a long way in helping you reduce your bill.
Container costs.
Containers are the aspect of waste removal that you’re probably most familiar with, and an area where you have a fair amount of control. Commercial waste containers come in an array of sizes and are typically available for purchase or rent.
Pricing is based on the cubic yard sizing of a container. On average, a 4yd3 container costs $15 a month to rent, and $350 to purchase outright. Prices increase incrementally as size increases.
Knowing what size you need might come with trial and error. Come collection time, the optimized container is the one that is filled, but not to the brim or overflowing. Excess waste is often subject to excess fees.
Renting vs. Purchasing.
Whether renting or purchasing is more effective for you is going to depend on what you need. Depending on your line of work, a permanent container might not make sense. For example, temporary construction or landscaping projects are more likely to require a rental, compared to a residential building or school.
Expert Market advises that purchasing a container is more efficient if that bin will be in use for at least 23 months.
Collection costs.
Waste collection fees are going to be the most variant depending on your location, container size, and collection frequency. This could be as little as $30 a week, or as high as $3,000. Figuring out your needs can include some trial and error and industry research. A restaurant is likely to require more frequent collection than an office building.
The kind of waste your business generates, as well as local health codes and in-person traffic throughout your premises, is going to determine your collection frequency.
Transfer costs.
Factored into your waste removal fees are the fuel and other transportation costs of moving your waste to a landfill.
Transfer can be arranged in two ways, direct or indirect:
- Direct transfer transports the waste from your premises to a landfill in a single trip.
- Indirect transfer transports waste from your premises to a transfer station, where it’s stored and batched before being shipped to a landfill site.
- Because transfer stations aren’t free to use, indirect transfer is the more expensive option.
Based on your premises’ location, your transfer method may be out of your control. Businesses located far from landfill sites must rely on transfer stations to dispose of waste, which inevitably increases costs.
Many waste management providers have discounted rates with transfer stations and commercial landfills that are worth investigating.
Landfill costs.
Every time waste is disposed of at a landfill a landfill tipping fee is charged. On average, for commercial landfills, these range from $25-150 per ton.
As with transfer costs, many commercial waste management providers have preferential rates for customers at landfills.
The hidden costs of commercial waste removal.
Even when you’ve accounted for the four main cost categories of your waste removal bill, you may notice that there are some extra, unexpected charges on your bill. Keep these potential fees in mind when budgeting:
- Dismount and push charges, which apply per bin when drivers have to get out of their vehicle and push your containers to an unobstructed spot for emptying.
- Key charges, which apply per bin when drivers require a key to open a locked container.
- Enclosure charges, which apply per bin when drivers must remove bins from a fenced enclosure and then replace them when emptied.
- Gate service charges, which apply per bin when drivers must open a closed or locked gate.
- Long walk charges, which apply per bin when your containers are placed in such a way that the drivers have to walk over a specific distance — such as ten feet — to access them.
- Regulatory charges, which are depending on region, and cover the cost of providers complying with environmental regulations.
One way to avoid many of these charges is to evaluate the container situation on your premises and see if you can optimize the location to make it easier for haulers to collect your waste.
Reduce waste expenses.
This information might seem overwhelming. Waste expenses can really add up. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to optimize your services and reduce your expenses.
Start by considering an internal or external audit of your waste removal system. Are your bins being emptied too often, or not often enough? Could you be paying transport fees for a closer station or landfill? Are your prices increasing multiple times a year? Are your containers the right size for your waste output?
Ask yourself these questions and pay close attention to your waste removal bills. You might be spending more than you need to.
This article was originally published in July, 2021
Five tips for making the most of hybrid work models
As hybrid work becomes an increasing norm across several industries, how do you ensure your team is optimizing that experience for success? Successful hybrid work involves not only trusting your team, but knowing they can self-monitor to a degree, as well. So, what can you do to help them, and you, thrive with this model of work? In this issue of The Pulse, we take a look.
1. Keep the team on fixed hours.
It’s tempting to be more flexible around scheduling when working from home. However, for the most part, hours should be kept the same as they are when in the office. This works in both directions; meaning employees should be expected to be in front of their computers during regular working hours and clocked out outside of them. Employees who find themselves constantly on, checking emails and other communications functions outside of regular hours, may be more susceptible to burnout and work-related stress.
2. Provide clear communication protocols.
Some employees do better with the at-home isolation than others. Regardless of their preferences, it’s important to ensure they all have clear and proper communication channels to stay in contact with leadership and each other. Promoting conversation and responsiveness, even on at-home days, is a must to foster a strong, effective team.
3. Encourage a clear at-home workspace.
Like previously mentioned, flexibility is one of the perks of the hybrid model. However, it’s still important for your team to keep a designated workspace with the proper equipment and ambiance needed to be successful. Things like good lighting, a chair with proper posture in mind, and a professional background are important.
4. Check in with your team about their experience.
Display curiosity, empathy, and openness in talking to your team about their experience with hybrid work, and encourage them to do the same with their coworkers. Due to the isolation aspect of hybrid work, it can be easy to miss how other people may be reacting to the ups and downs of their work. Proactive check-ins and being open to feedback and adjustments will go a long way.
5. Prioritize engagement.
Depending on the hybrid schedule, it may be easy for employees to become checked out, and therefore less motivated. More than sixty percent of employees feel that a connection to their organization’s mission or purpose impacts their intent to stay, so focusing on this engagement piece is critical for avoiding costly turnover.
Some ways to prioritize employee engagement as a leader are:
- Hosting team-building events
- Recognizing achievements and milestones
- Encouraging collaboration and brainstorming where possible
- Making use of in-office days for teamwork-based activities/tasks
In conclusion…
As a leader, ensuring your team thrives on a hybrid schedule is a challenge, but a worthwhile one for all the benefits it can bring. Be mindful and proactive, and you should be able to ensure everyone’s needs are met while boosting your team’s performance.
The risks of oversupplying your office and stationery supplies
Keeping track of your office supply needs, between all your staff and the different items they need to do their everyday work efficiently, can be a challenge. Logistically and financially. Letting supplies go understocked isn’t the solution; that can mean staff don’t have what they need when they need it, meaning work may not be completed on time. Therefore, some businesses may find themselves in the position of allowing office supplies to become overstocked, so as not to run into this issue.
Despite this seeming easier in the short term, becoming overstocked on supplies is not a great long term financial solution. In this article, we take a look at some of the drawbacks associated with being overstocked on office and stationery supplies.
You’re spending more than you need to.
This is a simple but important point. When you’re buying more than you need, more often than you need to, you’re dedicating a portion of your limited budget away from somewhere it could be better spent.
It likely means you’re not documenting your inventory well enough.
Your supplies purchases and inventory should be documented and reviewed to avoid the purchase of redundant, out-of-policy, or unnecessary items. Often, oversupplied items, such as stationery, pens, binders, etc. are a clear sign that the inventory process is either not in place or not effective.
It encourages employee theft.
When items aren’t accounted for, or are over abundant, it contributes to the growing issue of employee supplies theft. This means, not only are you paying for supplies you don’t need, but you’re likely paying for supplies that are going home with employees and not used for business at all.
So how do you change your office supplies purchasing patterns?
It takes effort to remain appropriately supplied, rather than over or understocked. Some practices to consider are:
- Regular contract review – ensuring that your contract agreements, including delivery frequencies and inventory quantities, are being met, and continue to meet your needs, rather than paying for more stock or deliveries than is necessary.
- Implement employee usage policies – to prevent the chances of employee theft and the need to overstock, ensure your organization has a clear usage policy for company office supplies.
- Avoid auto-renewals for supplier contracts – don’t allow your current rates and agreements to roll over before assessing their effectiveness and seeing if there is room for rate negotiations or discounts.
- Request employee feedback – is there a product you’re ordering that’s consistently going unused? There may be a reason not to keep supplying it, or to change products or suppliers.
Careful monitoring takes time.
All of this effort takes time. We know time is a valuable resource for business owners. Still, staying on top of your office supplies inventory, contracts, and delivery schedules is important. Working with a third-party expert on procurement, who specializes in reading and understanding these contracts, might just be the tool your business needs to redirect funds into more important budgetary matters.
Why most people are only giving 70%—and what happens at 100%
“The voice in your head is not you. You are listening to that voice. It’s a heckler, trying to make you feel bad.”
John Amaechi knows what it takes to go from overlooked to unstoppable. The NBA veteran and psychologist reveals the mindset behind his success—how mastering the mundane, handling setbacks, and focusing on small, deliberate actions led him to achieve the extraordinary.
Success isn’t about talent—it’s about paying the FEE: Focus, Effort, Execution.
Is solar power the future of telecom?
Solar power as a renewable energy source hasn’t been breaking news for a long time, but recently, it’s gained some attention in the telecom sector as an answer to increasingly strenuous demands for energy. As technology – including AI – continue to demand more from our energy sources, is solar power the answer? In this article, we take a look.
Solar powered telecom is an increasing trend.
Many in the telecom industry – from providers to critical players in infrastructure – are looking to solar power to meet an energy demand. This has been a quietly growing trend for years.
For example, in 2022, AT&T invested in a massive power purchase agreement (PPA) with energy trading company, Vitol for solar electricity. The goal of the purchase was to help create a source of clean energy to reduce the company emissions, given that their electricity used to power their network is the company’s largest source of emissions. They had made a similar investment in solar energy in 2019, as well.
This year, leading global wireless network infrastructure company, American Tower Corporation, partnered with Swift Solar, a solar cell manufacturer, to work on integrating their specific type of “perovskite-silicon tandem” solar panels into telecom towers. According to PV Magazine, these perovskite-type solar cells are “known for high conversion efficiency, enabling more electricity generation from a smaller surface area.” They generate as much as 30% more electricity than traditional solar panels and are lightweight and easier to build.
Given that American Tower Corporation operates approximately 42,000 communications sites in the U.S. and over 149,000 sites globally, integrating these solar panels could be a game changer for energy consumption across the telecom industry as whole.
Solutions are needed.
The more our technology advances, becoming increasingly faster and more efficient, the more energy it burns. Investing in renewable, clean options is a must. For example, as AI data centers become more prominent, the amount of electricity needed can be staggering, not only for the strain it puts on power grids, but for its consumption potential. Solar power is one way to make this technology less environmentally harmful, while still prioritizing the communications technology of the AI age.
Solar power is being used beyond North America.
While North America is making steps towards integrating solar power with its telecommunications infrastructure, in other parts of the world, even bigger strides are being made.
In Malaysia, one telecom tower infrastructure company is launching a solar program to ideally cover 100% of the energy needed to run its networks.
One of Argentina’s largest telecom providers has signed a ten year engagement agreement with a solar energy provider to power its operations, with a goal of reaching 50% reliance on renewable energy.
In Nigeria, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is “intensifying efforts to promote the use of renewable energy, especially solar, in the country’s telecoms sector, aiming to reduce operators’ reliance on diesel and lower costs.” Solar energy infrastructure would also make telecom more accessible in remote regions on the country, which have historically been excluded from high-speed access.
In conclusion…
Solar power investments are providing solutions to challenges facing the telecom industry all over the world. As our reliance on data networks continues to increase, robust solutions are of critical importance.
What is cognitive bias and how might it be holding you back in business?
While each and every person is unique, with our own views of the world shaped by our individual lived experiences, we also all function similarly, to a degree. Our brains experience similar patterns of thoughts and behaviors. Meaning, most of us are susceptible to the same quirks, from time to time. One of those is cognitive bias. A cognitive bias is a predictable pattern of error in our perception of reality. It can lead to altered or irrational decision-making and even subjective interpretation of objective fact.
What does any of this mean in business? In this issue of The Pulse, we take a look.
How do cognitive biases work?
Our brains have allowed us to create mental shortcuts – officially known as heuristics –during the decision-making process of our everyday lives. Of course, we don’t use them all the time. Some decisions require a lot of focus and consideration. But for most things, our brains take these shortcuts to avoid the mental overload of having to really process all of the choices we make every day. Which, by the way, can be an estimated 35,000. If you had to think about 35,000 different choices a day, you might not get anything done.
In order to form these shortcuts, our brains rely on our pre-existing experiences and beliefs to help form judgments and predictions. This happens subconsciously, without you intending to do it.
Our brains are more likely to default to taking these shortcuts under certain circumstances, including:
- When we are reaching limited information-processing capacity, such as when we are tired, burnt out, hungry, etc.
- When we are forced to make emotional decisions
- When the decision can help us confirm a conclusion we wish to see confirmed, even subconsciously
- When our decisions might be impacted by social influence or lead to social consequences
That list is non-exhaustive, but does give an idea of how easily our rational side can be overpowered by the need for these mental shortcuts.
Examples of biases.
Cognitive biases fit into such common patterns that behavioural scientists have actually classified them. Here is a list of some examples that may impact your business decisions, specifically:
- Action Bias – in which we prefer any action to no action at all
- Affect Heuristic – in which we rely on current emotions to make a quick decision
- Ambiguity Effect – in which we prefer options we already know
- Anchoring Bias – in which we compare all new information to the first piece of information we received
- Availability Heuristic – in which we think things that happened recently are more likely to happen again
- Choice Overload – in which we have a harder time choosing when we have more options
- Commitment Bias – in which we have trouble changing our mind from past ideas, even when presented with evidence that they’re wrong
- Hyperbolic Discounting – in which we value immediate rewards more than long-term rewards
Once again, this is by no means an exhaustive list – it just provides some examples of how these mental shortcuts could lead us into making an incorrect and ultimately costly choice.
What is the impact of cognitive bias in business?
While the risk of cognitive bias in most of our daily decisions – such as what to eat for breakfast, whether to skip a song on our playlist, or what to wear – isn’t huge, letting it determine your business decision-making isn’t always wise. These mental shortcuts can lead us to misunderstand events, facts, or other people. Meaning, we might make the wrong choices or struggle to think critically.
This could lead to missed opportunities, mistakes with clients or colleagues, and – given the brain’s likelihood to seek the familiar – stagnation in your career path.
How can you steer your brain away from these shortcuts?
We all are impacted by cognitive bias to some degree – it’s quite literally human nature. However, practicing being in the right mindset to make important decisions on the job is important. Some strategies to combat cognitive bias include:
- Being aware of potential biases that might impact a situation, and that you may be more susceptible to
- Consider all possible factors that might influence your decision
- Highlight things that make you uncomfortable and might lead to a snap decision
- Reflect on patterns in past decision-making
- Ask questions and seek out new information; don’t rely on just the initial information given
- Seek multiple perspectives when evaluating a choice
- Look for evidence that may disconfirm your preconceived biases
In conclusion…
Everyone experiences cognitive bias. It’s part of the human experience and protects our brains from becoming overwhelmed. However, it’s important to know when and how to challenge it to thrive in your career.
Reducing employee soap waste in the workplace
It may seem like a small thing, but the price of soap can add up in your budget over time. And while you never want to discourage your employees from exercising proper hygiene, there are common reasons why these supplies end up experiencing excess waste, which costs your business money in the long run. To reduce this source of unnecessary spend, here are some tips and tricks.
Don’t change dispenser cartridges too frequently.
Unchanged soap dispenser cartridges can lead to problems; bacteria buildup is a big concern. Likewise, a cartridge left empty means that employees are lacking hygienic options. However, changing them too frequently has monetary consequences to be aware of.
Changing a cartridge before it’s entirely empty could be potentially “throwing away 50 to 100 milliliters of usable soap (equal to 25 to 50 hand washes).” Depending on the traffic around that dispenser, that’s quite a significant number of washes.
Don’t skimp on dispensers.
The right soap dispenser is imperative to reducing employee waste. First, you want to make sure you’re spending the money upfront on one of quality, which will lead to less breaking and spillage in the long run. Let alone, the cost of replacing a faulty dispenser.
Likewise, the type of dispenser matters. Touch-free, automatic soap dispensers not only reduce the transmission of germs but also decrease the frequency of soap waste by dispensing the exact necessary amount per handwash. They’re more expensive than manual pump dispensers upfront, but long term, help control costs.
Many automatic soap dispensers are designed to dispense foaming soap, which is also an advantage. Foaming soaps tend to be better value than liquid alternatives, with some estimates saying you get up to 50% more hand washes for the same cartridge size.
In conclusion…
Right now, the facility supplies you need to keep a hygienic workplace – and the cost of having them regularly delivered – are more expensive than ever. The last thing you need to spend extra money on is soap. By ensuring you’re using the right product, in the right dispenser, and changing it at the proper frequency, you can save considerable money on this expense every year.
Is Generosity the Most Underrated Leadership Skill?
Leadership isn’t about a title or position — it’s about generosity, says organizational expert Joe Davis. Drawing on his extensive experience as a people manager, he shares three essential tips for leaders to unlock the potential of their teams by listening generously, embracing vulnerability and leading with humanity — and shows how it’s possible to both earn trust and drive results.
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The classifications for LTL shipments are changing – here’s what you need to know
The National Motor Freight Classification system has made some updates on how it classifies less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping. The changes go into effect on July 19th.  If your business or organization uses LTL services to move your product, here’s what you need to know about these new classifications.
Who is the National Motor Freight Traffic Association?
The National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA) is a nonprofit membership organization and the world’s leading organization representing the interests of LTL carriers. The association’s membership is comprised of motor carriers operating in interstate, intrastate, and foreign commerce. Meaning, their membership may include your LTL vendor. Therefore, their new classifications could impact your services.
The changes you need to be aware of.
Industry experts are expecting the NMFTA’s changes “to streamline classifying LTL Freight.” Its classification system – The National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC) – has been critiqued in the past for being very confusing, and the aim is to simplify it. Its goals are to:
- Simplify the classification using a “standardized approach based on density, handling, stowability, and liability.”
- Enhance user experience, by making the classifications easier to understand.
- Increase efficiency, by making freight classifications more accurate.
This will be accomplished by introducing:
- A standardized density scale for LTL freight with no handling, stowability, and liability issues
- Unique identifiers for freight with special handling, stowability, or liability needs
- Condensed and modernized commodity listings
- Improved usability of the ClassIT classification tool
What does any of this actually mean for shippers?
If you’re not sure what any of this means, that’s okay. Industry jargon can be hard to understand from the outside. But if your business uses LTL for operations, here are the important things to keep in mind. NMFTA says that, for shippers, “identifying your freight class will be easier, but you may need to provide handling unit dimensions and weight.”
Meaning, that in the long run, this should make your life easier, however, if you fail to be proactive about the new classification systems, it may result in misclassified shipments, which could then cause unexpected charges, delays, and disputes. These changes are being implemented July 19th, so theoretically, charges and delays could begin as soon as then if you don’t take the time to review the new classifications and ensure all your shipments are in order. It’s also a good idea to contact your provider and ensure all the classifications and changes are made on their end as well.
If your company uses LTL providers that operate in the United States, NMFTA recommends reviewing all the changes on their bulletin, found here.
In conclusion…
Proactivity is key. If you’re a business that ships products with LTL providers, be aware of the new classification changes, and ensure you’re not accidentally misclassifying your goods come July 19th.
