How much do companies spend on the little things, not to say that stationery and pay slips are small and meaningless, but you don’t necessarily think of these items as costing a substantial amount of money. 

So, why is it that companies are happy to spend a considerable amount of money on these things, and hesitate to invest in the wellbeing of their people? 

What are some of the small expenditures for a company?

  • Buying office stationery. 
  • Printing memos, receipts, letterheads etc. 
  • Photocopying.  
  • Repair and maintenance of machinery. 
  • Fruit or pastries in the kitchen/ conference rooms. 
  • Christmas party.

This is a short list of some of the expenses that a company might expect to pay for annually. 

So, what do these things cost? 

Payslips:

If you’re a business that outsources your payroll, then you would need to pay for your company payslips to be sent/emailed to your employees. 

Costs for sending payslips differ depending on the service that you choose and the number of employees within your company. The more people, the less per payslip. 

Let’s look at an example of how much outsourcing your payroll would cost…

Payroll Service (UK) Limited offers a set charge of £15 for a payroll run for 1-8 employees, £1.75 per payslip per month for companies with 9-99 employees, £1.50 per payslip per month for companies with 100-250 employees, and £1.25 per payslip per month for companies with 250+ employees. 

So, why is it that companies choose to outsource their payroll?

Simply put, it is easier for them. It means that they do not need to an in-house accountant, which wouldn’t be an issue perhaps with a larger company. However, organisations with fewer numbers of employees may choose to outsource and pay for their payroll services instead of creating a new position within the business to manage this task.

How much does an average company spend on stationery annually?

Stationery is used by most businesses, if you’re working in an office environment, you are bound to use stationery, print documents and fax or photocopy documents. Therefore, within the company budget, will be a budget for office supplies. 

These costs will differ depending on the size of the business and how many individuals within the business are using these supplies. 

According to eHow, the average cost of standard inkjet paper is anywhere between £7-11 for 500 sheets, you can expect to pay up to £29 for 100 sheets of glossy photo paper. If you require ATM rolls for debit or credit purchases to provide receipts for customers, you would be spending between £58 to £65 per 50 rolls of 140 inches. 

When it comes to writing materials, you can expect to pay between £1.20 to £2 per pen, if you buy in bulk, it is obviously cheaper, you may only need to pay £0.50 per pen for 500 pens in a bulk order. For whiteboard markers for meetings, prices range from between £2 to £3 per package of four colours. 

Additional business stationery, such as business cards and letterheads are also part of the office supplies list. You can expect to pay around £32 to £48 for 120 personally designed letterheads. The more you order, the cheaper it will be. 

For business cards, they usually cost between £14 to £17 for 120 cards with a glossy UV finish. 

For printers and fax machines, you need toner. A simple black toner can cost anywhere between £26 to £35 depending on the brand. 

Think about how many of these office supplies your office uses. How much do you think it costs to maintain the office supplies? 

Repair and maintenance of machinery costs

What happens when a computer or printer breaks down in the office? Or, perhaps a card machine or till breaks. What would be the first thing that a company does? 

They would call somebody to repair it. 

It’s pretty obvious, something is broken, so you fix it. 

Additional costs are incurred through maintenance checks, you must run frequent safety checks on your machinery to ensure that everything is running smoothly. It also means that whilst running a diagnostic on the machine, future issues can be sorted before they have posed major inconvenience. 

So, why is it that we run diagnostics on machines, but not our people? 

People are the most resourceful and productive aspect of a business, without people, a business cannot function. Therefore, companies must ensure the psychological safety of their people, strengthening their wellbeing and productivity through regular check-ins. 

However, there has been a lack of budget for wellbeing initiatives within companies, whilst wellbeing is slowly rising up the corporate agenda, largely due to the pressures presented by Covid-19, it hasn’t taken priority. 

This needs to change. 

Wellbeing interventions and their costs

There are many marvellous wellbeing interventions out there that can positively solve the issues of presenteeism and staff turnover within a company at a small cost per person per month.

Why not spend the £5 a month you might dedicate to each employee for pastries in the conference room or the annual Christmas party, to ensuring your employees are safe and well at work? 

 

 

 

Here at Wellbeing with Cari, we believe that everyone should be psychologically safe and feel the joy of peak performance at work. Our mission is to use neuroscience and AI technology to solve the problem of presenteeism by seeing behind a brave face. 

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