Regardless of how clean and seemingly healthy you and your employees are, the office will always be one of the perfect locations for disease causing pathogens to stake out. There are a number of people in a small space frequently touching communal objects. Office break rooms, restrooms and other highly trafficked spaces can set the perfect storm for the spread of colds, flus, and worse. Of course, colds, flus and stomach bugs are virulent all year long but cold weather brings the cold and flu season in full swing as more and more people spend more time indoors spreading more germs.
Unless your commercial cleaning company is prepared and on their A-game, your employee count is going to take a hit and subsequently hurt your productivity and mess with your bottom line. The best protection against the seasonal upswing in illness is to minimize the transmission and pay particular attention to those areas most likely to serve as breeding ground for disease causing microbes. Is your office cleaning company doing everything in their power to make sure that your office is healthy and that employees aren’t getting sick?
Innovation and research has helped explain many of the mysteries surrounding the causes and spread of disease. For instance, did you know that every minute, a working adult can touch upwards of 25 objects in close proximity to them contaminating them with bacteria and other pathogens. According to a recent and reputable workplace study, desktop surfaces such as computers, keyboards, mouses and telephones can have more germs than a toilet seat. This might sound counterintuitive because we know bathroom business can be germy but think about it, it’s done in one place whereas your hands touch everything.
Any reputable, professional, experienced commercial cleaning companies should be familiar with how colds and flus spread in your facility and where germs like to hide and thrive as well learning terms such as hotspots, touch points, and dwell times. They must train their teams on safe and effective chemical usage and the best practices that we know decrease the spread of disease causing germs. See the ISSA’s Infographic on the real cost of substandard office cleaning. On average, absenteeism can cost businesses more than $225 billion dollars each year and results in as much as a 54% loss in productivity. Don’t settle for bad cleaning, it’s costing you more than you think.
Touch points are critical for keeping your office clean and healthy, so it might be surprising how many office cleaning companies are unfamiliar with them. A touch point or hotspot is any area in you facility that hands come into contact with frequently. Some common touch points are phones, computer mouses, door handles, business machines, light switches, the office fridge handle, microwave handle, railings as well as a number of other office objects. Research confirms what seems pretty obvious, the areas that are touched the most are most likely to house and thus spread disease causing germs.
If these critical areas are not given proper attention they can be the perfect little disease hub in your office. Office cleaning companies that are unfamiliar with touch points in your office or inconsistent in they way they handle them will result in more illness and significantly higher rates of employee absenteeism, lower productivity, decreased satisfaction and engagement, and even increased employee turnover. Is your commercial cleaning company actively cleaning office computers, handles, mouses and other often used equipment? Effective office cleaning isn’t just about how the office looks afterwards, it is how clean the office actually is.
We all know that poor cleaning can leave your facility looking dirty and unkempt, but it can also make your employees sick. We know that areas that have a high viral and bacterial load can make people sick easily and we also know that we can reduce this risk by treating such areas with the appropriate bactericides and cleaners. Studies confirm that when hotspots are cleaned frequently and with the correct chemicals, illness-related absenteeism have be significantly reduced. With fewer cases of the flu and the common cold lingering in the office, often employee satisfaction and productivity will increase. Further, as a result of increased satisfaction, employees are more engaged which helps increase employee retention rates. When you keep your office clean and healthy, the people that work there can focus on their jobs.
The best commercial cleaning companies not only clean for aesthetic appearance, they clean for health. These companies have a firm grasp of bacterial and viral transmission and are familiar with the difference between cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing. They are competent in realizing when to remove dirt from surfaces and when to sanitize to reduce the bacterial load. Finally, they know how to use dwell times to their advantage so as to effectively maximize the usefulness of their cleaning products to reduce the germ load in your facility and to keep everyone healthy. Cleaning for health and the concrete science behind effective cleaning has advanced, and if your commercial cleaning company isn’t keeping up advances, updates and innovation, they are leaving you open to exposure and failing to give you the value and return you deserve from your office cleaning budget.
What should your commercial cleaning company be doing? First, you need to partner with a commercial cleaning company that will actively put your employee’s health in the forefront of their cleaning. Second, make sure your employees are hand washing and following other cold/flu etiquette to minimize the spread of pathogens in the facility. Finally, make sure that your employees are not showing up sick to work. Sick employees not only won’t be able to work, they risk getting other employees sick and speeding up the cycle of colds and flus n your workplace.
The best way to make sure that you facility is a healthy work environment is to have a professional, effective, and most importantly responsive Detroit office cleaning and janitorial company. Here at Stathakis, we work with all types of businesses to keep their workplace clean and healthy. We have a thorough understanding and background of touch points and hotspots. We also understand that the people that clean your facility are as important as how they clean your facility. As such, we go well beyond industry requirements when it comes to screening and hiring our staff. Can we help you? If you would like to learn how we help Facility Managers just like you with effective janitorial services all while staying on budget, please contact us at (800) 278-1884.
Stathakis proudly serves the Southeastern businesses of Ann Arbor, including Detroit, Royal Oak, Farmington Hills, Downriver, Farmington, Dearborn, Livonia, Troy, Auburn Hills, Novi, and Plymouth.