David Friedland
A high pay and flexible working schedule are not the only things employees look for today. Due to the growing health and safety concerns, people are now looking for a safe and hygienic workplace. Safety is your employees’ main priority. Now that the offices are open once again, it’s the responsibility of employers’ to maintain the highest standards of safety and cleanliness in the workplace.
68% of employees agreed that they were likely to spread infections from unhygienic workplaces. If there’s one thing the COVID pandemic has taught us, it is that the health and safety of your staff, customers, and visitors should always be your primary concern.
However, this can seem pretty overwhelming, with small businesses in particular struggling to keep up with everything they need to do when it comes to health and hygiene. That’s why we’ve put together this handy health and hygiene checklist for small businesses.
Ensure Your Staff Practice Good Hygiene
Personal hygiene plays an important role in keeping your workplace clean. You can’t prevent viruses and bacteria from spreading through your workplace if your employees do not follow basic hygiene practices. Encourage your employees to wash their hands as often as possible.
Put stickers or posters that remind people about washing and sanitizing their hands near the sink, coffee machine, toilets, and lifts. Install no-touch soap dispensers and use mild soaps that preserve the natural oils in your skin while removing bacteria. Place a hand sanitizer at each desk, a couple of them in washrooms, kitchen, reception, and other spaces.
De-clutter the Desks
Workstation hygiene statistics show that the average office desk accumulates 10 million bacteria, which makes it dirtier than a toilet seat. Now, think about the number of times your employees touch their desks.
It is important to keep your workstation as organized and clean as possible. Install gel-dispensers and trash bins by each desk. Ask your employees to keep their workstation clean and organized. If paperwork contributes to most of the clutter in your office, consider going digital.
Hire Professional Commercial Cleaners
Aside from your employees’ personal hygiene, schedule professional office cleaning daily, or at least every few days to ensure a clean workplace. The kitchen, reception, washrooms, elevators, stairs, and other areas in your office should be cleaned every day. It is best to leave cleaning to a professional commercial cleaning company. They have the latest cleaning equipment and the best quality products to ensure a throrough and hygienic clean.
Professional cleaners can clean hard-to-reach corners, including the ceiling, furniture, windows, doors, and other small spaces efficiently. A clean space does not only reduce the risk of spreading infection, but it will also boost your employees’ morale and increases productivity in your office.
Regular cleaning is highly recommended for commercial spaces, as these areas pick up dirt and debris easily. You should also schedule deep cleaning services every few months. These practices go a long way to maintaining hygiene standards in your workplace.
Hire Laundry Services
The COVID virus can live on the fabric for a few hours. Your employees might sanitize their hands every few hours, but what about their office uniform? It’s hard to control how often your workers wash their uniforms, so the best thing you can do is contract professional laundry services. They offer excellent cleaning services without causing any damage to the color and quality of your fabric. It is a great way to keep uniforms, tablecloths, and other fabrics clean, and provide a safe and hygienic workplace.
Install Touchless Technology
People get anxious when it comes to touching the elevator buttons, railings on the staircase, desks, coffee machines, toilet seats, and other high-traffic surfaces. You can’t eliminate every touchpoint, you can make them safer. For example installing a smart touchless elevator system can provide you with a 100% touchless entry and exit facility.
This is the perfect time to automate most of your operations, such as accounting, HR, payroll, and other management tasks. These small changes in your workplace can help maintain social distancing in your office.
Invest in High-quality Hygienic Products
If you looked at your office mugs under a microscope, you’d be surprised to see the amount of dirt and fecal matter (eww)! Now think about how often you sip from these contaminated cups. The coffee machine in your workplace attracts a considerable amount of germs, more than you can imagine. This is not only true of kitchen appliances: 10% of credit cards, 14% of paper notes, and 16% of smartphones were found contaminated with fecal matter in a recent study.
Regularly cleaning them with soap will not eliminate 100% of germs from your office appliances. You need to invest in high-quality and potent cleaners to remove bacteria from the daily use items.
If one of the employees gets sick in your office, there’s a risk most employees will fall ill as well. That’s why workplace hygiene is a must, especially in the post-COVID work environment.
