Studies have shown that a clean and healthy office environment is essential for good productivity and mental well-being of your staff. As an Office Manager or business owner you may have had complaints from employees about cleaning standards, you may have had to manage staff sick leave (and the associated productivity costs) or you may just want to improve the office environment.
Keeping a Clean and Healthy Office Environment
Below are some tips and advice to help you achieve a clean and healthy office environment for the year ahead:
- Firstly, ensure you have the right cleaning plan – That is the right tasks, being performed in the right areas, with the right frequency, tailored to your property.
- Increase the frequency of cleaning – If you have high staff numbers, pressure from ‘soiling’ build up or health risks you may need to clean more frequently. Some extra costs may be outweighed by the benefits.
- Have a cleaning quality control process – Ensure regular contact. Provide feedback. Monitor responsiveness.
- Implement office rules – For example, Clear Desk policies or No Eating At Your Desk policies.
- Install barrier mats – Barrier mats significantly reduce the soil entering a building when placed at entry locations.
- Provide cleaning wipes for staff – Staff can use these to clean desk spills, wipe phone handsets if they are ill etc. A healthy office environment relies on limiting contamination.
- Promote effective hand washing – Utilise washroom signage to communicate hygiene practices. Introduce hand sanitising stations within the office area. There are some very good products available.
- Implement flu prevention policies & education – Leading into flu season ensure you have policies & education in place to prevent illness being circulated with the subsequent impact on productivity.
- Schedule periodic cleaning – Carpet cleaning, window cleaning, hard floor maintenance, steam cleaning, pressure cleaning, pest control etc all help to maintain the presentation a healthy office environment.
- Engage the whole office team – It may take time but when all staff play a role it becomes a lot easier. Consider staff newsletters, staff meetings, an office quiz or rewards as methods to engage the team to work together to create a clean and healthy office environment.
Duticall – Brisbane Commercial Office Cleaning Specialists
We hope you find these tips useful in your endeavours to create a healthy workplace which studies have shown lead to greater productivity.
We will expand on these healthy workplace ideas in future blogs but if you would like any assistance in the meantime please do not hesitate to contact the team at Duticall.