Today, more than 10 million bacteria are found on an office desk, that’s 400 times more than on the average toilet seat. With this startling statistic, you might wonder how you can keep yourself and your employees safe when you return to work.
All of these germs on top of COVID-19 can feel overwhelming, but there’s hope. Read on to explore how to maintain healthy workplaces when you return to the office today.
1. Enacting Workplace Safety
Healthy practices in the workplace will keep your employees, yourself, and your customers safe. It’s important to make communication a top priority when it comes to educating your employees about disinfecting and keeping their office space clean.
If required, go over proper protocol including masks, face shields, gloves, and others. Make sure that each person has hand sanitizer at their desk. In order to make your business more automated with the process, lobby management systems can help.
2. Vaccine Status
Find out about what you can and can’t require in your area regarding your employee’s vaccination status. You might need to keep their personal or religious reasons in mind if they’re not vaccinated.
For those who aren’t vaccinated, you might want to encourage more physical distance between them and your other employees. One way to do this is to have differing lunch breaks where they take turns.
In order to encourage a healthy workplace, it’s a good idea to give paid time off to those who will be going to receive the vaccine. If your employees refuse vaccinations, you can consider having mandatory COVID testing in order to keep everyone safe.
3. Scheduled Cleaning
Healthy workplace ideas include scheduled cleaning in the workplace. Consider hiring a professional cleaning company to come in and disinfect and clean the area.
While you can ask your employees to keep their desk spaces clean, it’s not on them to vacuum or clean the area. Make sure that disinfectant is included in all spaces including the bathroom.
For areas that are more communal, it’s a good idea to keep them clean every 1-2 hours in order to avoid exposure. Use antiseptics in the area in order to stay clean.
Be mindful of trash cans and throw garbage out when they’re full. Don’t let them overflow or have food sitting in them for too long.
4. Bathrooms
For the bathrooms, consider a door that employees can open with their foot instead of having to touch it. If that’s not an option, keep paper towels near the door and encourage them to use the paper towel to open it instead of touching it with their hands. Regularly disinfect everything in the bathroom in order to keep it safe and sanitary.
How To Maintain Healthy Workplaces
After exploring this guide, you should have some great ideas to maintain healthy workplaces for yourself and your employees. Don’t stop here, continue to learn as much as you can in order to reduce exposure.
Would you like to read more health and lifestyle tips? Check out our other articles today.
