Pro CleanWhen desks and workspaces are covered in papers, clutter, and trash, these signs send a powerful message about the value (or lack thereof) of workplace hygiene in your office or facility. However, even workplaces that are neat, organized, and lack the appearance of clutter doesn’t guarantee a genuinely clean environment.
You can have a pristine-looking workplace but still have employees frequently becoming ill and calling out of work — or, worse still, working on site while sick. That’s because office health is determined by more than just cleanliness in terms of appearance. This is where effective commercial cleaning services and encouraging employees to practice good hygiene in the workplace come into play and can help to improve workplace hygiene.
A commercial cleaning service that focuses on cleaning for health and not just appearances is a must for any organization regardless of industry. Schools, hospitals, office spaces, and retail — if there are people, then it needs to be healthy and clean. Office cleaning, for example, matters for several key reasons:
- It improves the health of your employees;
- It decreases health and medical costs from hygiene-related illnesses;
- It decreases productivity loss from hygiene-related illnesses; and
- It enhances the appearance, perception, and reputation of your organization or facility.
Just How Healthy is the Workplace Environment?
Common areas and workstations are a hotbed of dirt, germs, bacteria, and viruses that are created through poor workplace hygiene. According to an article that was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine:
“The typical office desk harbors more than 10 million bacteria, 400 times more germs than found on a standard toilet seat. High bacterial counts have been detected on elevator buttons, office phones, water fountains, computer keyboards, and vending machine buttons; particularly high viral counts were detected on desks, computer mice, and phones, especially in cubicles.”
According to the study, employers experience health-related losses that are estimated to top more than $260 billion a year due to “the indirect costs of poor health, most notably absenteeism and attending work while sick (known as “presenteeism”), exceed direct medical costs by two- to three-fold.”
The workplace hygiene concern multiplies as more organizations move toward open-space floor plans.
How Workplace Hygiene Contributes to Office Health
A significant factor of good hygiene in the workplace has a lot to do with the behavior of the people working in the space. Hand hygiene is one of the most effective ways to reduce the transmission of germs in health care facilities and is the cornerstone of most infection prevention programs.
When people regularly wash their hands following the guidelines provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), clean down their individual workstations, and practice other workplace hygiene tips, it helps to create a cleaner, healthier environment for everyone.
A personal hygiene in the workplace policy can come in handy in helping to reduce the spread of germs and bacteria. Establishing and enforcing policies for personal hygiene in the workplace can help you to adjust employee behavior. It can address requiring employees to wash their hands, the use of hand sanitizer, and working when sick.
Why You Need to Clean for Health and Not Just Appearance
Office health and good hygiene in the workplace are significantly impacted by the way a workplace is cleaned and not just the fact that it is cleaned. Cleaning for health includes the small but important details, such as:
- Cleaning restroom hand dryers;
- Refilling hand sanitizer stations, so employees have access to these sanitization methods;
- Detail dusting all horizontal surfaces and objects from top to bottom; and
- Using disinfectant wipes, microfiber cloths, backpack vacuums, and other industry recommended cleaning methods and equipment.
At Pro Clean, our green cleaning experts employ industry standard cleaning practices that are outlined by ManageMen’s Operating System 1 (OS1) certificate program. Each employee must be trained and certified in the program, which requires passing an exam before they can clean for any of our clients.
Pro Clean is a commercial cleaning service for businesses that value employee health and being environmentally responsible. Since 1989, we have been serving the greater Orlando and Tampa Bay areas of central Florida.
To learn more about how commercial cleaning services can positively affect workplace hygiene and office health, click on the link below to speak with one of our cleaning experts.
