Keep Your Office Clean to Protect Your Staff and Bottom Line

The office environment can be a hotbed of germs waiting to pounce on their next victim, particularly during the colder months when bugs thrive. From norovirus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa to general coughs and colds, shared facilities in a close environment can be a recipe for disaster.

According to Dr Lisa Ackerley, hygiene expert and visiting professor at the University of Salford, 50 per cent of office workers don’t wash their hands after going to the toilet, which can spread germs and illnesses in the blink of an eye. And when you consider the number of shared surfaces, it’s scary to think what you could be ingesting when you tuck into your lunchtime sarnie.

cleaning

The amount of sick days taken by office workers can be dramatically reduced if you implement a good cleaning routine. With winter looming on the horizon, we’ve come up with a few pointers so that you can do your best to ensure a healthy working environment for you and your staff:

1. Promote good hand hygiene

It’s important to make two key things available – a high quality antibacterial soap and antibacterial hand sanitiser. Hand gel alone cannot always kill all sickness and diarrhoea bugs, like Norovirus, so the best way to cull office germs is to encourage a two-step process of washing and then sanitising.

Furthermore, installing quick and easy hand washing devices like touch free dispensers and hand dryers can increase workforce compliance, making for a much safer environment.

2. Clean desks

If you think about the amount of time many office workers spend in one spot, is it any wonder that their desks can be a breeding ground for germs and bacteria? According to Dr Ackerley, only 20% of people clean their workspace before dining al desco – a shocking statistic. Ensure you provide your staff with antibacterial wipes and encourage them to clean their desk regularly, even if you must have a dedicated ‘clean your desk day’.

3. Clean surfaces

Influenza can live on surfaces for a whopping 72 hours. Just think about how many people will use those areas in that time and how easily infection can be spread. Try and reduce the risk of your employees picking up each other’s bugs by cleaning shared surfaces and light switches with antibacterial wipes or equivalent.

4. Keep unwell staff out of the office

Although it can be inconvenient to have absent staff, ensuring they stay away from the office for at least 48 hours after symptoms have gone will help you protect your wider workforce from infection. After all, one person off is one thing, but an entire team is quite another.

5. Hire in the professionals

MCS cleaning

While you can put the steps for a healthier office in place, you can’t always guarantee that your staff will follow your guidelines. That’s why hiring in a professional cleaning company that specialises in office and commercial cleaning can be very effective in helping to prevent the spread of infection in your workplace environment. They’ll get into all the nooks and crannies, and will know all the top spots where germs congregate.

At MCS Cleaning, we work with many companies to clean their offices and help protect their workers from illness and infection. To start protecting your workforce and bottom line today, call us to arrange a no obligation estimate on: 0800 6120437.