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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world of businesses and has forced businesses to re-evaluate their health and safety policies. In this new normal situation, it is the duty of the company’s managers to keep their workplace safe for workers and visitors by ensuring that their housekeeping services obey all the precautionary measures when carrying out their daily tasks. It is no wonder that, considering the current circumstances, your housekeeping department and your staff need to adjust to new procedures and policies in order to keep your office secure and hygienic. You therefore need to promote drastic steps within your workforce, some of which may be short-term, while others need to be continued for several months. As a consequence, you need to reconsider the hygienic culture of your corporate room, and here are some tips on how to do that.
Hand sanitizer, hand soap and disinfectant wipes are difficult, if not impossible, to find in supermarkets. We are no longer just concerned about the dirt we can see; we’re protecting against a highly infectious virus, as well as all the unseen germs we’ve always tried to clean up. It’s a physical problem that brings with it a huge mental and emotional strain. When businesses consider how to get people back to work, the ways we clean, disinfect and sanitise must not only change, but must also be more transparent. The first step is to clarify the scope of what a clean office entails.
Amended housekeeping programmes
First and foremost, the vital housekeeping facilities of your workplace must be updated in order to comply with modern hygiene requirements and protocols. Your office housekeeping staff needs to be educated rigorously so that they can get to know the latest procedures. All they do, from cleaning and preserving the office decoration to serving drinks to the visitors, needs to be updated. For example, you need to ensure that any type of food or beverage served to visitors or staff must be served in one-time cutlery, using trays, in order to prevent contamination of food and drink. Office kitchenware must be avoided at all times. Everyone should be encouraged to get their own bottles and crockery and, at the same time, the workers should be encouraged to wash their own crockery. While we are currently fighting COVID, we also need to keep environmental friendliness at the back of our minds.
Overcrowded Cleaning Protocols
You need to fully rewrite the cleaning protocols. Office workers must now sweep and sanitise the office more frequently by using disinfectants and not just soapy water and standard floor cleaners. Surfaces that are often reached like door knobs , handles, taps, door lifts, keys, coffee machines, phones, etc. need to be cleaned on a bi-hour basis. This is important because these surfaces can be hotspots for pollution. Cleaning equipment and materials used by housekeeping workers must also be disinfected and sanitised every day. Next, the high-traffic areas of your office, such as the reception area, conference rooms, pantry, etc., must also be cleaned periodically. Particular focus should be put on meeting rooms and, thus, they should be cleaned before and after each meeting. Another important area that needs to be washed and disinfected regularly is the washroom. Washrooms can be used for all the staff, including those who may be sick or contaminated. Maintaining a high degree of hygiene in washrooms is therefore important. And, at the end of the day, your office needs to be fumigated with disinfectants to kill any virus, decreasing the risk of infection.
Staff cubicles and workstations must be cleaned and sanitised on a regular basis, particularly at the beginning of the day. However, it might be difficult for housekeeping workers to do this without violating the privacy of your employees. You must also supply the workers with personal alcohol wipes that they must use to clean and sanitise their workstations at least once a day. Similarly, it would be better if you advised your workers to be self-sufficient in maintaining hygiene standards instead of depending solely on housekeeping staff. In addition, there must be a correct procedure for disposing of gloves, shoe covers, masks, tissue papers, wipes, etc. It must be within easy reach of all the offices, but away from any high-traffic region. Biohazard disposal must also be properly labelled and carefully disposed of in high-quality garbage bags.
Personal Safety Activities
With strict health checks, you can also apply different safety practises that need to be practised by your workers. First of all, anybody entering your office needs to use a sanitizer to wash their hands. This must also be compulsory for your workers who can leave for short breaks during the day. As for your housekeeping and security workers, they must wear PPE kits that include disposable gloves, masks, and shoe covers. You will need to allow the staff to wear face masks at all times, even though they don’t feel sick. This would greatly minimise the likelihood of transmission of the virus in the workplace. In the coming months, the housekeeping department of your office will have to take on the mantle to face the challenge. They need to work harder and build a comprehensive plan to keep the facility safe and stable for those who visit it. But even with that, the workers will have to behave smartly to keep themselves and those around them safe and secure.
Office safety checklist
A COVID office checklist will help you gather the right resources for your day-to-day routine, prepare a thoughtful plan, and put it in place in your office with the help of your team.
- Use the right office cleaning process
- Gather the right cleaning tools
- Establish an Office Protection and Health Plan
- Develop an office cleanliness plan
- Promoting good workplace hygiene
- Implement social distancing practices
Office Safety and Sanitation after COVID-19
There are safety protocol steps that your company should take to continue to provide your workers with a secure work atmosphere. In addition to routine cleaning with soap and water, you can use these COVID-19 reopening maintenance procedures to ensure the health and safety of your entire staff.
- The schedule for regular cleaning and disinfection of all high-touch surfaces in your office, such as door handles, desks, phones, light switches and faucets, should be washed and disinfected at least daily. For surfaces that are most widely used in public spaces such as PIN pads, shopping carts and point-of – sale keypads, you will need to be thoroughly washed and disinfected before each use.
- Make sure that you use the EPA-approved coronavirus disinfectant and follow all appropriate dilution and safety practises on the bottle.
- Increase the duration of regular deep cleaning, concentrating on high-touch surfaces in the Office Housekeeping, such as workstations, keyboards, telephones, handrails and doorknobs.
- Increase your security controls, please. Traditional protection systems could not be well suited for the post-coronavirus office climate. Now more than ever, you should be aware of who is coming and going from your facility, be able to monitor the data in real time, and respond rapidly in case of an emergency. With remote work and staggered shifts likely to continue, make sure your security system offers cloud-based access so that you can easily track remote access to your facility and provide better security for your employees.
Main Takeaways for Coronavirus Protection Guide
The health and safety of your employees is the most important factor in your company. Although changing your workplace policies after COVID-19 growing seems overwhelming, it is essential to approach your return to the office with an abundance of caution. In order to ensure that both the facilities and workers are prepared for a post-coronavirus work climate, you should set out COVID-19 protection recommendations to minimise risk and reduce the spread of germs between workers. Before re-opening your office after COVID-19, make sure you obey the necessary instructions for sanitation and disinfection. Although personal hygiene plays a key role in preventing the spread of the virus, there are several control factors for businesses to consider, including upgrading hands-free door access methods, reconfiguring Office Housekeeping to enable social distances, and increasing the level of disinfection and sanitation in high-touch areas of the workplace.
