How Office Hygiene Creates a Healthy and Safe Work Environment

Employee absences are often inevitable. They may occur due to illness, injury, mental health, and family issues. However, in many cases, preventative measures can help minimize their occurrence. Employers are responsible for ensuring employees are healthy and safe while at work.

This starts by promoting proper office hygiene. Workplace policies and a well-maintained and clean space are great ways to start. Employers can also encourage workers to maintain personal hygiene in the workplace.

Proper office hygiene helps promote employees’ health, safety, and welfare. They reduce illness while increasing attendance and productivity. Workplace cleanliness and hygiene also create a positive image and environment for staff and customers. The key lies in making it a part of your company’s culture.

The Importance of Office Hygiene

Workplace cleanliness promotes a clutter-free, tidy environment. This can have a significant impact on an employee’s attitude and disposition. Studies have shown that clean work and living spaces reduce stress and anxiety. It also creates a more relaxed environment, helping to enhance focus and concentration. The result is a happier, more productive workforce.

Workplace injuries often occur due to spills or improper storage of items. These mishaps can result in long recovery times, keeping employees out of office. This increases the workload of others and can affect efficiency and productivity. Organized workspaces help prevent injuries and mishaps for both employees and clients. This can save you time and money.

Work absences can also be a result of illness. Germs are everywhere. They spread quickly, facilitated by high-touch surfaces found throughout office spaces. Touchpoints such as elevator buttons, door handles, and keyboards are often overlooked as major transmission surfaces. Workplace hygiene prevents the spread of germs, which can lead to illness. This, too, can save you money.

An employee’s absence from work costs employers between $2,000 to almost $4,000 per year for each worker. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 3 million workdays are lost annually due to sickness and injury. This productivity loss can end up costing businesses and the economy billions every year.

You can avoid this by simply implementing policies that promote better hygiene in the workplace.

How to Promote Office Hygiene

There are many ways to promote office hygiene. It includes implementing a daily cleaning regimen and getting employees involved. You'll also need to provide them with products that encourage better cleanliness.

Establish a Clear Hygiene Policy for Employees

Cleanliness should be a part of your workplace culture. Making this a reality starts with establishing and implementing a workplace hygiene policy. It should set clear guidelines and expectations for maintaining a clean work environment. This should include:

• Keeping a clean desk and workspace
• Staying home if an illness is contagious
• Practicing personal hygiene
• Maintaining good hygiene in common areas, including the office kitchen, conference rooms, and bathrooms

Share these guidelines with new employees. You should also ensure they are easily accessible for current employees to review.

As an employer, there are various strategies to enhance office hygiene. Yet, understanding how to address personal hygiene in the workplace can be a nuanced challenge, and it's crucial to approach it with sensitivity and care.

Reminders help, along with providing wipes, sanitizers, and tissues. However, it may be best to itemize personal actions in your policy that promote proper personal hygiene in employees. These may include:

• Keyboard cleaning
• Avoiding touching your face with your hands
• Coughing or sneezing into your elbow and sanitizing or washing hands after
• Disposing of tissues in a hygienic manner
• Washing hands and face after smoking
• Minimizing desk clutter

Encouraging these actions can help to make them a part of the work culture along with your formal work policy.

Provide Hand Sanitizers and Disinfectant Wipes

Supply staff with products and materials that help them maintain a clean environment. This is one way to promote better hygiene among employees.

Wipes should be at the top of this list. They provide a quick, efficient way of disinfecting workspaces and other high-touch surfaces. A wipes dispenser can make them more easily accessible to employees. Place these strategically throughout the office, especially high-traffic areas such as the kitchen, bathroom, and conference rooms. These can provide a great reminder to employees to regularly wipe the surfaces around them.

Ensure hand sanitizer and tissues are available in common areas and at each workstation.

Stock Up on Wholesale Disinfecting Wipes

These dispensers should never be empty, as even one occurrence can create more lax habits. Stock up on wholesale disinfecting wipes to ensure dispensers are always full. Purchasing wholesale wipes can save you up to 50% based on retail unit costs.

Encourage Regular Handwashing

It may seem counterintuitive to remind adults to wash their hands. However, if you’re promoting a culture of cleanliness, subtle cues won’t hurt.

Position signs in key areas such as bathrooms and kitchen sinks to provide clear guidance. Additionally, disseminate literature emphasizing the significance and advantages of regular hand washing to staff. Broadcasting PSAs on company screens serves as an effective reminder, keeping hygiene at the forefront of employees' minds.

Reminders should include washing hands:

• After using the toilet
• After sneezing or coughing
• Before and after eating
• After dealing with customers or money
• After using a high-touch surface
• If soap and water aren’t readily available, use hand sanitizer.

It’s one of many ways you can also help to promotepersonal hygiene at work.

Disinfect High-Touch Surfaces Frequently

Wipes can help encourage employees to consistently disinfect their workstations. However, cleaning staff should also disinfect these and high-touch surfaces throughout the day. These areas include copy machines, water dispensers, conference room tables, and chairs.

This is particularly important if your business has high foot traffic.

Implement Proper Waste Management Procedures

This includes providing a wastebasket at every workstation and in common areas. Place trash bags in them for easy disposal and to reduce contact with contaminated items.

Cleaning staff should remove trash bags daily, ensuring the removal of any perishable items. This will also minimize unpleasant odors throughout the office.

Ensure Clean Break Rooms and Restrooms

The common areas in an office can be breeding grounds for germs and bacteria due to the high use volume. Clean areas such as the break room and restroom throughout the day. This ensures these areas are well-sanitized and disinfected at all times. It also helps to maintain a steady supply of wipes, sanitizers, toilet paper, soap, and paper towels.

Also, encourage employees to keep these areas clean by posting signs as reminders. These may include flushing after use, cleaning up after food prep, and wiping counter spaces and the sink.

If the policy consists of washing dishes after use, ensure it is enforced. Have cleaning staff disinfect communal items, such as the coffee machine, microwave, and fridge, weekly.

Develop a Routine Cleaning Schedule

By implementing a daily cleaning schedule, you can maintain a consistently clean office environment. Incorporate a detailed checklist that outlines every cleaning task for each office area, offering precise guidelines that can be marked as done upon completion. Such a systematic approach provides clarity and ensures a seamless transition should there be a change in the cleaning staff.

Keep Your Employees Safe with Wipes.com

The spread of germs in the work environment dramatically contributes to employee absenteeism. This can cost companies billions due to lost productivity.

Employers can help mitigate this by promoting office hygiene for a safer, healthy working environment. This helps prevent illness and can create a positive shift in employee attitudes. Both promote greater efficiency and productivity.

Maintaining this starts with providing the tools needed to keep your office clean. Disinfecting wipes are one of the most effective ways to clean high-touch office surfaces. Purchasing wholesale wipes allows you to keep a steady supply for use throughout the office by employees, cleaning staff, and even clients.

Reach out to us today to find out how to get bulk orders of cleaning wipes for your office space!