After over a year of Covid-19 restrictions affecting our personal and work lives in a way we never thought possible, we start to look at returning to a ‘new normal’ in every aspect of our lives.
A recent study of 2000 people by the IWFM (Institute for Workplace Management) has revealed the vast majority of employees will expect a ‘hybrid’ approach to work, with nearly half surveyed (44%) planning to work from the office three days or less a week. With most employers likely to be reviewing their workplace practices, with flexible working and hotdesking as options – new approaches will be required to support these new ways of working, ensuring the safety of employees when they do return to offices, as well as clients and customers.
Here are Cleaning4Health’s top tips on a Covid-19 safe, clean and hygienic work environment for businesses:
Restore confidence with a deep clean
After over a year of dormant offices, there is likely to be a sizable build-up of dust and dirt. Before the planned return of more staff to the office, it is a good idea to arrange a deep clean in reception areas, general office spaces, meeting rooms, WCs, kitchens and beyond.
It is also a worth including ATP testing and ULV fogging if you’ve had some staff using the office space during the time of restrictions. This allows you to test and detect for bacteria with the ATP testing and eliminate it with ULV fogging technology, which deactivates bacteria and viruses upon contact.
Hot desks, not hot beds
If you are to offer flexible returning to work solutions such as hot desking, which may mean a reduction in floorspace and multiple people using workstations on different days of the week, you’ll need to think about eliminating germs on a daily basis. If multiple people are using one space, there’s a higher risk of this becoming a hot bed of germs and the greater risk of cross infection. There are an estimated 21,000 germs per square inch on desks*, keyboards and chairs. As well as Covid-19, there’s a risk of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Staphylococcus Aureus, Actinomycetes and Norovirus which can lead to stomach bugs, flu, coughs and food poisoning.
Staggered start times
With the majority of office work commuters, especially within central London using public transport each day pre Covid-19 – about 80% of 1.1million, who either arrive by underground (400,000 daily) or by railway (860,000 daily) ** it’s wise to offer staggered start times to minimise exposure to crowded trains and stations. If every workplace takes the same approach, commuting windows will be lengthened, ‘rush hour’ will become more of a thing of the past, your staff will be better protected against exposure to Covid-19 from the close proximity to other commuters, and there’s less chance of contracting and spreading the virus amongst fellow colleagues, clients and customers.
Sanitise, sanitise, sanitise
It’s critical you have plenty of sanitising stations for your staff to protect themselves and others as soon as they arrive in the workplace. Having these in reception, outside lifts, staff restaurants, breakout areas, WCs and regular stations in each open plan space will reduce the risk, as well as assuring your staff, clients and customers that you’re talking all the necessary precautions to protect their safety.
Daily cleaning routine
Having a regular cleaning contract is the best way of maintaining the highest, safest standards. Having the same cleaning staff at ‘out-of-office’ times will ensure quality and safety is maintained, with the opportunity of cross contamination minimised.
Contact us today for more information on one-off, deep cleans, Covid-19 safety cleans - ATP testing and ULV fogging, cleaning contracts or santising stations. We can help you with all your commercial cleaning needs info@cleaning4health.co.uk or call 0204 531 0889.