Workplace Hygiene: 11 Ways to Maintain Cleanliness in the Office
A lot of people spend their working hours in the office. That’s why it’s essential to keep up with the tidiness of the place to boost productivity and, therefore, your company’s growth. More so, if employees work in a clean and tidy workplace, it’s less likely that they’ll get sick, increasing the company’s chances of turnover. But if they’re working in ideal conditions with the workplace hygiene, they’ll stay in their jobs much longer, helping drive company growth.
In this post, we’ll talk about the nine effective ways on how to maintain hygiene and cleanliness in the workplace for better productivity and safety.
Workplace Hygiene Tips: Ways to Maintain Hygiene and Cleanliness in the Workplace
Implement a Hygiene Policy
Provide staff with a written hygiene policy. That way, they’ll be well-informed with your expectations and intentions of a clean office.
As we always tell our clients at Maid Sailors Office Cleaning Companies NYC, “Offices can be a Petri dish for germs and viruses. If you fail to enforce good hygiene rules in the office, this can be easily passed on to others. For instance, you can place hand sanitizers on critical areas in the office or regularly set up a cleaning schedule. Doing this will let your employees know that you’re taking office hygiene seriously. “
Take Out the Trash Daily
The next thing in the workplace hygiene policy is that the trash must be taken out daily, after a long day at work. An essential out of all work hygiene tips.
If left alone for a more extended period, it can turn into a breeding ground for germs and bacteria. Moreover, the trash that’s gone a long time indoors will leave an unpleasant odor.
This makes your workplace a dirty and unpleasant place to work in. The trash can be taken out first thing in the morning, or soon as everyone leaves for home.
Minimize Clutter on Desk
Desks serve as work stations for people in the office, and it is where most employees will be doing the majority of their work. So, ensure that this stays as organized as possible.
It’s easy for the entire workplace to look untidy if office desks are cluttered and untidy.
One way to keep everyone’s desk tidy and clutter-free is by installing gel dispensers trash bins in critical areas in the office, which everyone has quick access to.
Assess Risks
Before you can enhance the cleanliness in your workplace, you need to assess the risks. Know, and prioritize specific areas of concern.
Conduct a full assessment of your facility provided. Check out which key areas are prone to clutter, spills, dirt, and other environmental factors that can affect everyone’s health and safety? These places should have an air ventilation system as well.
Make Daily Cleanup a Habit
Everyone should take full responsibility for their respective workstations. More importantly, every employee must do their part in making sure that they develop a habit of cleaning and caring for their area.
Here are some helpful work hygiene tips:
- Make a cleaning policy and communicate this policy to your workforce.
- Put up signages that will remind everyone to keep cleanliness in mind.
- Come up with a checklist for your employees’ work areas, and actionable things that they can do to scan, or do before leaving, every day.
Some of the things that you can place in your checklist are making sure that every area in the office is clear of spills, debris, or other workplace hazards.
Encourage Employee Hygiene
Training everyone in the office to practice good hygiene in the office is vital. It’s easy for clutter and dust to accumulate, and provide an opportunity for infections, germs, and viruses to spread.
Maintaining cleanliness in the workplace should be everyone’s responsibility, and therefore, shouldn’t be taken for granted. Every employee’s personal hygiene could impact others in the workplace and could significantly affect the overall atmosphere.
Provide Clean Wipes, Sanitizer, and Tissues
In some workplaces, there’s only one sanitizer that you can find in the washroom. To make the work environment work hygienic, provide hand sanitizers, cleaning wipes, and tissues to your employees.
Make this readily available to everyone in the office anytime they need to wash their hands without making a trip to the washroom.
Let’s say someone from your staff wants to clean their hands after taking out the trash.
Hand sanitizers should be located strategically on the entrance and exit points of your office. Doing so will remind them to wash their hands regularly.
Provide a Clean Bathroom
A clean bathroom is pivotal to having a clean workplace. Make sure that this is cleaned and disinfected regularly.
Tissues, hand sanitizers, antibacterial soap, and running water should be available as well.
Make Sure All Utensils are Clean
If your workplace offers tea, coffee, and snacks for employees, make sure that everyone washes and cleans their cups, utensils, and dishes after use.
That’s because food particles could also create a breeding ground for germs. All utensils should be washed by warm soapy water, and then rinsed and dried afterward.
The tea preparation and snack area should be wiped and cleaned after use, and the towels should be hung dry.
Schedule Office Cleaning
Apart from the conscious effort of your employees to make the workplace clean, ensure that your workplace is also regularly cleaned by cleaning professionals.
Your employees cleaning the office may not be as thorough as a cleaning service doing the work for you.
More so, if you have your office regularly cleaned by professional cleaners, you won’t have to spend a considerable sum of money for a deep clean later on.
Note that deep cleaning your office may take for a couple of days, depending on its severity. So, you might not have enough time for that.
Organize cables
One of the things that people often forget about is organizing their cables.
However, this can be potentially dangerous in the long run and can be a hazard if left on dangerous areas. Loose cables lying around the office can also make cleaning harder, so organize cables well.
Final Thoughts
With the global pandemic, you must maintain a clean and healthy workplace for you and your employees. Enforcing regular cleaning habits will help keep the overall cleanliness of your workplace.
When your workplace is clean, there will be fewer turnovers from your employees, eventually boosting productivity.
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