The whole point of a commercial cleaning service is to make a facility cleaner, not dirtier. We want our office cleaning services to keep illness and bacteria in check, not to spread them around. While it may seem like your commercial janitorial service is doing these things, if they aren’t using a color coded cleaning cloth system, then you aren’t really receiving a proper cleaning. A color coordinated cleaning cloth system helps prevent cross contamination in the workplace because it systematically targets and prevents the spread of germs from hotspot to hotspot and stops germs from one surface from easily traveling to another. If your commercial cleaning company isn’t paying special attention to these hotspots and touch points, nor using a color coded cleaning system, they are contributing to cross contamination hazards in your facility. We know that one sick person can spread pathogens everywhere they go, so imagine what one germ-infested cloth could spread. For you, this can mean higher rates of absenteeism, lowered productivity, and even high employee turnover.
We all pick up our smartphones, turn lights on and off, and use the computer mouse without thinking twice about what bacteria and pathogens might reside on their surfaces. To reduce the chance that something is in fact, taking up residence on your switches and often touched surface, insist that your commercial cleaning service provider use a color coded cleaning cloth system and frequently clean hot spots and touch points. Not only is it easy to implement, it assures that cross contamination is minimized in your facility. Typically, the color coding system is as follows: red for high-risk areas like toilets and urinals; yellow for lower-risk restroom cleaning such as mirrors and sinks; blue for any other general cleaning such as dusting and wiping in your facility; and finally green for food-related services. Using tools to keep track of high-risk areas and keep them separated from lower risk areas can dramatically reduce cross contamination and significantly lower risk of transmission of colds, flus, and other easily transmitted illnesses.
If your cleaning services company isn’t already utilizing color coded rags, they aren’t aligning with the industry standard. If they aren’t, you should encourage your commercial janitorial services company to make color coded cleaning cloths a priority to help reduce cross contamination and keep your office safer and healthier. A color coded rag system will not only help cleaning teams keep track of their towels, it will quickly become a routine and habit to follow the industries best practices in cleaning. You get a cleaner, safer office as well as visual assurances that best practices are being followed.
Normally, when a change is implemented to any service or process, time is needed to relearn and retrain. However, because a color coordinated rag system makes cleaning simpler, not more complex, this is not an issue. That being said, while this change is often a welcome one, it does require some basic training and on the job reinforcement to be effective. A good starting point is posting color coding chart that will give cleaning staff a clear visual to follow. If you make your office cleaner aware of the danger of cross contamination, most will take steps with this clear, simple system to avoid it. Color coding towels and cloths will even offer employees a sense of engagement and responsibility in keeping your office clean and safe, further protecting your facilities members.
As we’ve noted, color coded clothing makes cleaning easier, efficient and more effective, that isn’t the only benefit, however. Color coded clothing is a powerful management tool that makes it easy for supervisors to quickly get a read on what cleaning your facility requires, what is actually being done, what might be being overlooked and so on. For instance, say that fourteen red mop heads are generally used to in your building and now there are only five mop heads to wash, an observant supervisor is made aware that either mop heads aren’t being replaced often enough or the area in question isn’t being cleaned as required. While this shouldn’t be the only quality assurance tool your commercial cleaning company has, it can be an effective one in their arsenal.
Color-coding cleaning tools may seem like a basic change in how we do things but it is a BETTER approach to cleaning. Not only is it a low cost, easy to train method of cleaning, it helps assure the quality and efficacy of the cleaning that your facility is provided by your commercial cleaning service. Any and all types of facilities benefit from this simple change to your cleaning practices. Everything from health care cleaning to school cleaning to industrial cleaning to office cleaning. Reducing the risk of cross contamination is a powerful safeguard against infection and give customers the quality that they deserve. Here at Stathakis, we use the color-coded cloth system company wide in an effort to further reduce the risk of cross contamination and systemize efficient, health conscious cleaning practices.