Engage your employees!

A common problem for almost all workplaces is the lack of employees’ engagement. We may blame it on the employee, but when the majority of employees suffer from it, workplaces know they are also part of the problem, or perhaps their management techniques.

However, employees are not hard to satisfy, and they can be happy in a workplace even if they are not paid very large sums. In fact, in a study, 90% of employees said that a more fun work environment increases their engagement and 72% of the engaged employees confirmed that their opinion was taken into consideration by their company. One may consider stress as a normal factor in work, but constant stress is bad. And although a manager has more experience that the employees he manages, but it does not mean employees do not have great ideas.

So treat your employees like you would treat your date to make them happy: talk to them about their interests, care for their opinion and point of view, and offer them activities that interest them, not just activities that interest your company. Their engagement will return with plenty of benefits to the company!

This content was originally posted on https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6538329110396174336

hashtag#businesshashtag#employeeshashtag#HRhashtag#engagementhashtag#workhashtag#lifehashtag#Lebanonhashtag#tipshashtag#trickshashtag#datehashtag#interesthashtag#opinionhashtag#managementhashtag#MENA

#business #employees #HR #engagement #work #life #Lebanon #tips #tricks #date #interest #opinion #management #MENA

Change your online behavior to save the Earth! (2)

It seems strange that being online is causing pollution. We are using a computer, reducing the need for paper, not travelling distances to communicate, and we are using mostly energy efficient machines that have a low average electricity consumption. So why does being online cause pollution? And what can we do to reduce it?
In the previous part, we gave you tips on how to reduce your personal carbon footprint impact. In this part, we are giving you tips on how your company can act greener and reduce its Internet pollution impact!

Internet Pollution

Are you familiar with the term Internet pollution? It is a term that refers to the pollution caused by the data processing servers and data centers, since they consume a lot of energy. In fact, a data center on average consumes the same amount of energy as 30’000 European inhabitants DAILY! Energy is used to power and cool down servers, and ensures that they operate c continuously in case there’s a failure. Since the world still relies heavily on dirty energy, this energy is causing an additional release of CO2!

The Internet pollution, also known as Digital Pollution, originates mainly from activities that require a lot of resources, such as streaming videos, mining for bitcoins, and sending/storing emails.

What your company can do

Companies can adopt greener online behavior as well, and their contribution can reduce immensely their online activities’ carbon footprint by using really simple tips:

– Use the FAQ section to answer your customers’ most common questions on your website. Be clear and straight to the point. Customers will need less time to research and read, you’ll receive less clarification requests through emails and phone calls and you’ll gain a reputation for being a transparent and honest business.
– Optimize your intranet: reduce unnecessary files create and a systematic filing system. Prefer putting your news on the intranet instead of sending emails if you can.
– Encourage live communication, or even phone calls within the company instead of sending tons of emails. Make the emails a un-urgent issue so employees can work uninterrupted, without keeping their eye the whole time on the inbox.
– Use white boards within a department (with nontoxic whiteboard pens of course) for small news, it’ll do the same job as a forward to all email.
– Encourage employees to remove useless emails from their inboxes and to only keep what’s essential. Your company’s party invitation from 5 years ago is a nice memory, but it’s not necessary to keep it in the inbox.

– Remind your employees to send clear emails and include any necessary details to avoid follow-up emails.
– Prefer simple pages and designs to using extremely heavy online content on your website. Most companies do not need to load their websites, it will slow down the website launching and use up too much internet. I have tried to use the same tips on my startup’s website, and it did not affect the traffic nor the amount of information I wanted to share.

Companies, when working together, can achieve goals much faster than individuals. Consider these tips as a head start in your green behavior, they will not cost you money, but they will definitely save a lot for planet Earth

Change your online behavior to save the Earth! (1)

It seems strange that being online is causing pollution. We are using a computer, reducing the need for paper, not travelling distances to communicate, and we are using mostly energy efficient machines that have a low average electricity consumption. So why does being online cause pollution? And what can we do to reduce it?
In this part, we will be giving you tips on how to reduce your personal carbon footprint impact. In part 2, we will give you tips on how your company can act greener and reduce its Internet pollution impact!
I gathered the best advice from various sources, I hope you will enjoy the content!

Internet Pollution

Are you familiar with the term Internet pollution? It is a term that refers to the pollution caused by the data processing servers and data centers, since they consume a lot of energy. In fact, a data center on average consumes the same amount of energy as 30’000 European inhabitants DAILY! Energy is used to power and cool down servers, and ensures that they operate c continuously in case there’s a failure. Since the world still relies heavily on dirty energy, this energy is causing an additional release of CO2!

Retrieved from CCCB Lab, Source: Jon Koomey.

The Internet pollution, also known as Digital Pollution, originates mainly from activities that require a lot of resources, such as streaming videos, mining for bitcoins, and sending/storing emails.

How can I help?

You may think that as a user, you may not make a difference. It is true that the upgrade of data centers and servers is up to the companies. But you can reduce your own activities’ carbon footprint and energy requirements with a few steps:

Take care of your email

Clean your inbox regularly, and get rid of those thousands of emails that you stored a long time ago to read later on, but never did. If you are a nostalgic person and you saved every email your friends and family sent you, just save these letters on your computer and remove them from your inbox, you’ll be doing the Earth a favor.

Unsubscribe from the useless newsletters that you do not read, it will reduce the distraction created by recurrent incoming mail, reduce the number of emails uselessly stored, and help you find the important emails faster.

Send short, clear, and easy to read emails, with optimized attachements. It will require less energy to send and receive the content, and your recipient(s) will need less time to read the email, and understand your goals better. If the email is unclear, you will receive back another email demanding clarifications, which will cause an unnecessary amount of energy to be spent for additional emails.

Use compressed and light format files in your email attachements and when uploading files to an online drive. If you are sharing a photo with family, prefer JPEG format to Bitmap to reduce the size, and you can always resize it. Although a 10 megapixels photo is cool, unless you need professional work done on the photo, you can have a great photo quality for 5 megapixels as well. You can easily resize the photo using Paint or online tools.

Don’t check your email all the time. To avoid missing out on important emails, we advise you to have a personal email for all the personal emails, and a professional email for all education and work emails.
You can stop all the incoming email notifications during work hours from your personal email, and you can disconnect from work by turning off the notifications of your professional emails during your off-work time. Not only will you reduce the carbon footprint, you will also be able to work with much less interruptions and have a better performance during work hours, and be able to disconnect better from work and its stress in your off-duty hours.

Unless you REALLY NEED to, don’t use the “reply to all” option when sending back an email. Send the follow-up message only to the concerned people.

Make use of the subject line in emails to inform your recipient about the content, so they know whether it is urgent/important enough to read on the spot, or whether they can read it later.

Act more responsibly online

This part is really important. You need to reduce any unnecessary carbon emissions that your online presence may cause.

Choose a greener online cloud service, use lighter file formats, and reduce the unnecessary use of online space. We know it’s awesome to have a free cloud storage and put all our treasured memories, but it is also consuming too much energy, when you can keep an offline copy on an external storage and/or your computer. Make sure to back-up regularly your files and remove that 4 year old university project that you saved online when you feared you might lose it.

Reduce the number of photos you share on social media by removing unnecessary photos. These photos take a large space off servers, and with the increasing number of users, companies keep on adding data servers to cover the need. Your school photos are really cute, but do you really need an album of 100 photos to confirm it?

Delete your old accounts if you no longer use them, and don’t create unnecessary email addresses just for fun. Although it’s cool to have 1 extra free month from Netflix when using a new account, it’s doing a lot of harm when you consider the number of users doing it.

Bookmark the websites you always visit, instead of researching them every time you want to use them. It will save a whole lot of energy.

Reduce the time you spend online. Since pages usually keep on loading, if you have a long read, you can download the web page as offline copy, or simply disconnect yourself from the internet until you need to use it again.

Optimize your research by using specific keywords and favorite your frequent searches. Remember that each search is using more energy. Prefer using green search engines like Ecosia, as they use way less energy, and prefer clean energy to dirty one. In addition, many of them use the revenue to support an environmental cause!

Research the companies whose services you’re using. You will discover which ones are working towards greener services and which ones do not care about it at all. A good reference is RE100, a reference for companies that pledged to use 100% renewable energy. RE100 is a global corporate leadership initiative bringing together influential businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity. You can also check Clickclean, an initiative by Greenpeace. They do annual reports on the green performance of large corporations, and they do campaigns to influence companies to turn green through petitions.

The next time you think that you can be more eco-friendly when using online services, think twice! Sometimes, their environmental impact is worse than doing things the traditional way. If you can communicate it live, prefer it to sending emails or instant messages. If you feel safe to store a file on local drives, prefer it to cloud systems.

One person may have a small impact, but when a group of people do it, they can make a difference and inspire others to do so as well. So make sure to inform others on how to reduce their online carbon footprint as well!

FabricAid: reusing clothes for an amazing cause

We do not realize how lucky we are, to have the ability to enter a shop, check items, and buy the item, without overthinking of the cost. So many people have to choose between a loaf of bread and a shirt to put on their back. Although you may think that making free donations can help them, they easily hurt these people’s dignity and may not even be useful for them at all, since many NGOs cannot tailor clothes per group and end up sending the same package to all the people it’s taking care of.

Luckily, a team of Lebanese students in 2016 decided to change things. They created FabricAid, an initiative that gives second hand clothes a new life, and allows underprivileged individuals to enjoy a shopping experience without worrying about the costs.

Omar Itani, a founder at FabricAid and the man behind the idea

The team created a network of donation bins, and made a collaboration with businesses and NGOs to collect clothes. They check the items, select what’s in good condition to be reused, clean it up, iron it, tag it, and put it in their shops. They have pop-up markets called Souk El Khlanj and several permanent markets. Souk el Khlanj means the shop of like-new items.
The shops are located in areas where there is a high level of poverty, they are just like any other shop, with well organized merchandise and fitting rooms. The prices range between 0.3$ and 2$, so that people who have low income can shop and pay without having to worry about the bill being out of their purchasing power.

One of Home of Hope Lebanon NGO’s children choosing clothes at a shop that was set up by FabricAid as a collaboration

The items that are not fit for resale are sold in bulk to existing second-hand stores for much lower prices, or they can be used to create new items for RemAid, FabricAid’s own upcycled fashion brand. In 2018, a partnership between RemAid and ESMOD (one of the best fashion design school in Lebanon) was made, and 100 items were created by students and sold in a special event, where prices of unique clothing items made from the used fabric were between 50$ and 150$. The event was made to support FabricAid’s cause. The items were redesigned by ESMOD fashion students and sewed by Sawa for Development and Aid’s women refugee tailors.

2018’s event to exhibit the clothes made by ESMOD’s students for RemAid

This team has also been able to win multiple competitions, and is one of the few to reach over 200 000$ in funds through competitions. Their work has contributed to alleviating two major problems: clothes waste and poverty aid.

Through their amazing initiative, so far, FabricAid has been profitable, created jobs, and made great numbers:
– 55,000 Kgs of clothes collected
– 37 markets set up
– 7,000 beneficiaries
– 17 staff members
– 32,685 items sold
– 19 clothing collection bins distributed

One of the collection bins

The clothes donors are also benefiting, as every once in a while, a new partnership between FabricAid and businesses that support the cause is seeing the light. For example, Jaleesa, a babysitting business, offers discounts to its clients. All these collaborations can be found on their Facebook page, and they’re updated every once in a while.

If you are interested by their initiative, wish to make a contribution, get in contact with the team, or just wish to learn more, you can always check their website and their Facebook account. If you don’t live in Lebanon, make sure to search for similar initiatives or maybe to share the news about FabricAid to encourage others to make similar initiatives in their own communities!

Also, please don’t forget to follow my startup news on Facebook, Instagram and the Website.

Is your private data exposed online?

Every month, we hear about data breaches on some of the most used websites. Most of the time, small data breaches also occur. Is your privacy was breached? How do you know? And what can you do?

Thankfully, there is an easy way to know. Since all services require an email and a password for you to use them, you can check your email addresses and see which ones were compromised, when, on what website, and what information could have been stolen.

How to check if your email was involved in a security breach?

To get these information, use the website haveibeenpwned.com, put your email addresses, and check all the security breaches that affected your accounts. If you tend to change your passwords frequently, you may be safer than others. In case you forgot when was the last time you changed your passwords, it is safer to change it.

How to reduce the chances of having my data exposed?

To keep your data safe, you need to have a safe online behavior. I gathered 12 tips to help you stay safer online:

1- Do not use the emails that contain personal and/or professional details everywhere, have an email for fun, and an email for serious use.

2- Make sure to use a secondary email that is not used much, to secure your more active accounts and be able to retrieve them.

3- Do not use the same password everywhere, and make sure to change it frequently. If you are as forgetful as I am, keep a paper version of your passwords and update it regularly.

4- Check the websites you use carefully, make sure they are protected: if you see the lock icon and the https on the address bar, then the website is secure.

5- If you are sending sensitive data, as soon as you are done, delete the information to avoid the details getting to others in case of any future hacking. Request from your recipient to do so as well.

6- Add the minimum number of personal details, just the essentials, when using any website.

7- Use a browser add-on to check on the safety of websites, like Avira Browser Safety, so you land less on bad websites.

8- Do not download from shady websites, and check your computer all the time for viruses and malware.

9- Pay attention to the emails you receive, too many fall for scams and download malware by downloading content from spam. Even if the email says Apple, check the email address and more often than not, it will not be sent from Apple.

10- If you can afford it, buy an antivirus, Kaspersky have great products for very reasonable prices. If you cannot buy an antivirus, at least download a good one, like Avira, Avast or AVG, update them regularly and scan at least one a week.

11- Add antiviruses to your phone as well and choose carefully the apps you download.

12- Check haveiveenpwned.com regularly to see if your emails were compromised in additional breaches of security.

I wish you a safe internet trip!

Food deliveries plastic-free?? Yes please!

Although I am usually a homemade food or restaurant-goer type of person, many times I cannot take my own food nor do I have time to visit a restaurant, which means I have to request a food delivery or takeaway. Both options mean that I am stuck with large quantities of single-use plastics and loads of non-recyclable cardboard due to food contamination. And this makes me feel extremely bad and guilty.

Luckily, a new company for packaging has launched in Lebanon: Convertec Packaging! Although they are mainly in the corrugated packaging, but these awesome people have found a way to separate the food from the cardboard in order to keep it recyclable, WITHOUT using plastic! In fact, they can offer you a pulp container that can biodegrade within 60 days in a landfill. And we all know that landfills are the most probable destination of our trash in Lebanon. But for once, this is not a bad thing! I was also very pleased to learn that they can also provide paper straws, which is amazing since so many businesses still rely on plastic straws due to the lack of Lebanese companies offering affordable and easily attained solutions.

Convertec Packaging can also offer you cool designs for your packaging, whether it is for catering, beverages, industrial, or protective needs, and they can print on them whatever you want.

If you are a business owner, not only will transitioning to a cleaner packaging help the environment, but it will also enhance your brand image and made it easier for you to reach the niche market of eco-aware individuals.

You can contact the company via their website or by directly contacting Wissam Bacha (T: +961 5 433 142 – +961 5 433 765 ; M: +961 3 904 813 ; info@bachaconvertec.com) or Mira Bacha (T: +961 5 433 142 – +961 5 433 765 ; M: +961 70 087 058; sales@bachaconvertec.com)

Dear reader, if you are not Lebanese, it still concerns you. You can find a similar business just around the corner if you are really willing to become friendlier to the environment, and that is becoming a necessity.Also, since the company is relatively new and needs to have more exposure so that more companies, especially food-related, can learn about it and consider more seriously to become eco-friendly with their packages, you can support it by sharing the news, liking their Facebook page and following their Instagram account.

Don’t forget to follow my own early stage startup news on Facebook, Instagram and the Website. Kindly consider helping me grow by liking my Facebook page, so I can reach more people!

#lebanon #green #alternative #saynotoplastic #clean #greenlife #idea #lebanese #industry #packaging #plasticalternative #company #linventif #food #biodegradable #paper #noplasticstraws 

Agonist coffee shop: giving work opportunities to people with special needs

If you feel like a fresh croissant with a hot beverage or a quick bite, and you want a really sweet and kind staff to serve you, then Agonist Coffee Shop is the place you need to visit.

Their employees are mainly people with special needs who were trained to become servers and cashiers in the cafe. They know the menus, prepare the orders, suggest additional items and make your experience full of sweetness. The owner of the cafe Dr Wassim el Hajj is also available most of the time there as to ensure that everything is going as it should.

The food there is really good. I got to eat breakfast there and I can honestly say that their croissant was cheesier and one of the most delicious ones I ever tasted. I would go there again in a heartbeat!

The decoration of the place is simple and cute, they also offer salads and sandwiches, plus some delicious specialties. Around Christmas, they were offering gingerbread houses and cookies for example. They also have small gadgets like inspirational quotes on wood planks that you can hang.

Bear in mind that the service may be a little slower than in conventional coffee shops. The kind staff working in the cafe may do a small mistake or forget a detail from time to time, but the way the team helps the customers, makes the location feel like home. They will make you forget your stress and help you enjoy your time. So just have a little patience and allow yourself to forget time restrictions and enjoy a calm simple meal in a really friendly mood.

Allowing people who face more challenges everyday than others to get a job is one of the noblest things anyone can do, and anyone with any type of handicap should be accepted and given a chance. If there is a lack of laws to give people their rights, you should not lack humanity to offer them a job just because they experience the world and approach life in a way that is different than yours.

For anyone looking for the place, it is actually facing the parkings of Rim company in Jal el Dib, next to La Durée catering, 15-20 meters from the Jal el Dib highway, direction Dora to Jounieh. You can also call them on 76 769 444 or check the map on their Facebook page Agonist Coffee Shop.

This is a beautiful initiative to allow us to see how anyone has the potential just when they are offered the opportunity. Other similar initiatives can be found in Lebanon, like in Sunbola Bakery where workers are mainly with Down Syndrom. Also internationally there are multiple places hiring, like in Farmers’ Market in the USA. If you know any and want to bring attention to it, share with us! 

Don’t forget to follow my own early stage startup news on Facebook, Instagram and the Website. Kindly consider helping me grow by liking my Facebook page, so I can reach more people!

#food #lebanon #cafe #restaurant #jaleldib #specialneeds #croissant #breakfast #lunch

#dinner #philantropist #social #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #humanrights #coffeeshop #coffee #shop

Green houses innovated à la Libanaise

Sustainable buildings that do not look like caravanes nor space ships? Yes please!

If you are looking to build a house, feel interested in the various construction options available in Lebanon, or just want to know what people are capable of creating to conserve the environment, you have to learn about the Lifehaus project.

The Lifehaus project was created by Nizar Haddad, a Lebanese architect and founder of NH Architectes, whose designs aim on reducing the pollution in construction by using Eco-friendly construction methods, sustainable materials and a lot of passion and creativity. he result? Houses that not only have a reduced carbon footprint, but also use energy very efficiently and are integrated in their surrounding environment.

The houses can withstand the harsh conditions of mountains, and they use renewable energy. They can be the Lebanese solution for a life off-grid without having to sacrifice the use of electric households (a big plus for me, I love my microwave). In addition, their costs are not exorbitant, which means they can be accessible to more people, and they do not cost much on maintenance, especially when we take into consideration the savings in utilities by going off-grid partially or totally.

You may think that creating an environment-friendly house would result in a miniature and strange design, just like the many concepts created nowadays. Surprisingly, Nizar Haddad was able to make the houses beautiful and easy on the eye. The exterior of the houses are beautiful, and their design has a little of a futuristic shape but seems to be inspired by the traditional Lebanese buildings.

It is very important to note that the currently used construction methods, especially the use of concrete, contribute largely in the pollution of the air, water and soil. Therefore the innovation in this essential yet dirty business is a very urgent necessity to save our planet.

In addition to architecture, Nizar Haddad takes the time to create workshops and participate in talks on sustainable solutions, all open for the public. His latest workshop was on how to build an Eco-friendly mass heater.

If you want to learn more about this awesome Lebanese architect and his passion for green buildings, you can check his Facebook page, his professional profile and his past, present and future projects

#greenlife #green #construction #lebanon #ecofriendly #clean #house #architecture

#innovation #passion #lebanese #creator #architect #solution #support

#housing #building #greensolution #linventif #offgrid #nature #environment #clean

Also don’t forget to follow my own early stage startup news on Facebook, Instagram and the Website

A super yummy bakery in Lebanon

Want an #authentic #mankoushe experience in Lebanon?

You can always rely on ma’alin Ghassan to offer you one of the best manakish you can taste! His bakery, Furn Ghassan, is in the heart of Bourj Hammoud, Arax street. During lent, you would find his pastries to be perfect for the restricted diets.

Not only he offers very delicious manakish, he also has a range of dried pastries, such as kaak asrouniye, and brioches with various fillings. You can get them all fresh and made with love. A few years ago, No Garlic No Onion featured a post on his very delicious tahina kaake, a must-try for anyone looking for a new sweet tooth challenge. This is how he got his NGNO recommended sticker.

When you enter the bakery, it is your same old type of Lebanese bakeries, with the amazing aromas of baked goods tickling your nose and making your mouth water. Nothing fancy, nothing extravagant, prices affordable for the poorest of people. The family-owned bakery has a little history that ma’alim Ghassan would be delighted to tell you about. His wife and himself open the bakery every morning, they work together, no extra staff, and he makes sure everything is clean and tasty. You can strike a conversation with this baker, he will tell you all about Arax and Bourj Hammoud, how today is compared to the past, and about how his family was brought up in this crowded city.

When you leave, you will feel like you had, even for a few minutes, relived the good old days of Beirut, in a humble little bakery that represents the soul of our beloved city.

His bakery is available on Zomato: https://www.zomato.com/beirut/furn-ghassan-bourj-hammoud-metn

More pics are available on my personal Instagram account:  @clumsypops91

#foodpics #instayummy#foodlife #lebanesefood #lebanesecuisine #lebanon #lebanese_food
#lebaneserestaurant#lebanesedesserts #manakish #manakeesh #pastry #foodie #foodporn
#foodgasm #nom#nomnom #nomnomnom #lent #baking #bakery #eatingfortheinsta #eat
#eating #march#bourjhammoud #instagram 

Check out how this artistic company can make events colorful and unforgettable!

You have an event and you want to make it unforgettable? Think of including handmade origami to decorate instead of the same old flower arrangements or overused printed frames.

Passigami offers you beautiful creations from paper, colorful, happy, customized, and the best part is that you can keep that bridal bouquet over the years, and it will remain in mint condition! And it doesn’t just stop at flowers, they can make butterflies and many other shapes to suit any type of happy celebration.

Initially launched in Lebanon, the success of Passigami led it to open in Dubai as well.

Encourage fellow Lebanese creators, make your events extra special and keep a token from your special days with Passigami.

You can check their amazing creations on their page on facebook Passigami – Paper Art and you can call them on +961 76 355 801 if you reside in Lebanon or on +971 521463440 if you reside in Dubai. From the numerous positive reviews of their customers, satisfaction is guaranteed!

Don’t forget to follow my own early stage startup news on Facebook, Instagram and the Website

#passigami #paper #art #lebanon #dubai #origami #event #decoration #wedding
#baptism #birth #birthday #engagement #artistic #linventif #lebanese #artist

(The photos are credited to Passigami solely)