Bringing your dog to work not only reduces stress levels, but may also make jobs more satisfying for other employees, according to a study published in the International Journal of Workplace Health Management.

The study, which looked at 75 members of staff, was carried out by a team of researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University. They compared staff that brought their own dog to work, with those who had a dog but left them at home and staff who didn’t own a dog at all.

They studied the employees’ stress levels, job satisfaction and their feelings about support from and commitment to the company over a week long period. Stress hormone levels were also measured by taking saliva samples from the staff during the day.

The research findings found that, during the course of the working day, stress levels appeared to decline for those employees whose dogs were present, whereas the stress levels increased for those who had no pets or didn’t have their pet at work with them.

Randolph Barker, lead study author said dogs can make a positive difference in the workplace.

“The differences in perceived stress between days the dog was present and absent were significant. The employees as a whole had higher job satisfaction than industry norms.”

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Using the internet has become part a vital part of everyday business life, so understanding the amount of data you’re using  is vital, especially if you’re aiming to keep bills down  as going over your monthly limit means extra charges.

Downloading or streaming video, browsing the internet, downloading high resolution images, all use up some of your broadband usage, but what does that actually mean?

Streaming video is one of the biggest culprits for those going over their limits. The BBC  provide information detailing how much of your bandwidth is used when streaming an hour’s worth of video, based on a connection using the very popular iPlayer as an example:.

We’ve found that if you are using iPlayer in normal quality then for 1 hour programme you download about 228MB-300MB and upload 6MB approximately. If you are watching the same programme on high quality then expects your download to be about 300MB-400MB with upload of 8MB.

So what about VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)? Using VoIP as a small business typically means you can have between one to five people using VoIP at any one time, and therefore using your business’ internet connection. This means, while you might not think you’re using the connection, you can easily go above your download limit, especially if you are on a residential broadband package which may limit you to as little as 2GB. Couple that with all your other internet activity and you could be in for some expensive months!

As a VoIP provider this is why we advise our customers to have two broadband lines coming into their business; one for data and one for VoIP. This allows the business to have one line dedicated to voice data and another line for web browsing, downloading etc. It also means that businesses don’t have to worry about the activity of your employees off the phone impacting on the audio quality or stability of VoIP calls.

There are other options of course, if you are a smaller company or you feel you don’t need two broadband lines. We do offer a variety of broadband packages with a range of generous allowance limits, from 20GB to 200GB. We also prioritise all VoIP data on our broadband network, which means your VoIP calls will always come first over traditional data.

If you need to talk about your usage limit or would like to find out more about our broadband packages, call our sales team on 01225 800123 or email sales@gradwell.com

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We are very excited to announce our significant 4×4 expansion plan – four times larger in four years – supported by a £1.15 million investment from regional equity fund Altitude Partners LLP.

The investment from Altitude Partners (www.altitudepartners.co.uk) will enable us to significantly scale our infrastructure and make major investments in our technical support and business development departments to provide a more reliable and future-proof service for you, our customers.

It is really exciting that after more than 12 years of steady growth we are able to cement our position as a leading supplier of VoIP and broadband to small businesses. The company has grown enormously in the last 12 months, expanding staff to 60 and becoming a true 24/7 business.

The way you deal with Gradwell and the services you receive from us will not change, but with Altitude on board we have a firm foundation to leap forward and provide the most useful VoIP platform on the market for our customers.

Simon White of Altitude Partners commented:

“Gradwell is one of the most established and innovative businesses operating its own platform in the VoIP telephony market. The company is expanding at a rapid rate as more businesses discover the benefits of using VoIP for their telephony requirements. As an investor in regionally based growing businesses across the South, this investment fits well with our strategy.

“We are pleased to be backing Gradwell’s dynamic team, who have a comprehensive knowledge of this burgeoning industry and a clear vision for the growth of their business.”

I’m delighted that Altitude Partners has agreed to support this growth with a £1.15 million investment. After a rigorous selection process, we felt that Altitude Partners shared our ambitious vision and would offer the business invaluable advice and support as we continue to expand.

Kind Regards,

Dr Peter Gradwell