Regardless if your workplace handles food, personal products or anything else, it’s adamant that it remains a safe and hygienic environment for staff and visitors. As a business manager or owner there are a number of things you can do to help promote the overall hygiene of your employees and workplace.
People take note of dirty office environments, and that includes non-hygienic employees. If your workplace and/or staff appear dirty and unkempt you are practically asking for a domino of issues. Prevent a variety of common issues with these 6 tips to promote employee hygiene in the workplace.
How To Promote A Clean and Healthy Office Environment
1. Hire A Commercial Cleaning Service
In order to promote good staff hygiene, it’s important that the space they work in reflects these same practices. The best way to maintain a clean office environment is to hire a professional commercial cleaning service. Employees have a lot of work to get done on a daily basis, and there’s no need to add deep cleaning to their ‘to do’ list. It’s more efficient to hire a cleaning service to get the job done right. This gives employees time to focus on their real job, while still promoting the cleanliness of your office environment.
2. Create A Firm Employee Hygiene Policy
Personal hygiene is the overall habits, appearances and cleanliness of employees. This can be a touchy topic for managers and employees, especially if it is not addressed from day one. By maintaining an official policy, you avoid awkward encounters and give employees the benefit of knowing exactly what is expected of them before they ever start working at your company.
3. Promote Your Hygiene Policy Even During The Hiring Process
Make sure that you pick employees that are prepared to keep up with these policies. You could even include a couple questions throughout the interview process that focus on cleanliness habits, or how one would react to a messy or unsanitary coworker.
4. Set Basic Rules For Maintaining Private Workspaces
Office hygiene policies stretch to include the appearance of employee workspaces. It is standard policy to ask all employees to keep their workspace clean and orderly. A survey of US employees found that 60% of workers judged their co-workers on how clean they kept their workspace. You better bet that customers, partners and other visitors are also judging employee workspaces and using these judgments to form opinions about your business.
By setting rules and standards about cubicle or office space cleanliness you present a brighter picture to visitors and employees. This may include rules regarding regularly cleaning out trashcans, as well as washing them out so that old food particles do not begin to decompose and stink. You could also enforce clearing off desks on a weekly basis, and/or implement systems to deal with paperwork so that it does not build up in messy piles.
5. Work With The HR Department To Promote Hygiene
Every company must adhere federal Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) standards to promote a safe and healthy workplace for all. Your HR department is your go-to in order to enforce health and safety in the workplace. Enlisting help from HR takes pressures off of direct management. Managers often find it rather uncomfortable to address employee hygiene matters and then go back to discussing company budget plans, or whatever else.
HR can send out company-wide emails to handle issues they notice, such as employees wearing sandals on the job, or leaving unsanitary messes on their desks at the end of the workday. This is a less direct way of addressing issues with particular employees. If the problem persists, that’s when it’s time to have a face-to-face conversation. Most importantly, standards must apply to all employees, and no one should feel unfairly targeted.
6. Set Your Employees Up For Success
Continually provide employees with health and safety training, not just at the time they are hired. These programs should include everything from good office hygiene practices to first-aid training and emergency response tactics and plans. Encourage employees to take time off when they are sick to prevent contamination in the workplace.
By instituting the right health and safety measures you make your business a better place to work. You also decrease your potential for monetary losses and legal liabilities.
As outlined above, there are a number of things you can do to make your office safer and healthier. In doing so, you show your workforce that they matter to you and make them more inclined to adhere workplace hygiene policies.
Tidy Team would love to help you maintain a cleaner, healthier and safer workplace. Contact us today to learn more about our customized commercial cleaning plans.