“The visibility and rigidity of cleaning routines has a key part to play in helping employees feel they are being looked after.”
Training for the return
Gill Ireson, Head of Sales at Robert Scott, highlights the areas that businesses need to be aware of in order to operate a safe workplace in the wake of the pandemic.
Employee training and cleaning education is vital if the British workforce is to return safely to office-based working. The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced a new world of regulations and requirements for employers and building managers to comply with, making training one of the most important elements of maintaining a safe workspace.
Compliance is key
There’s a whole host of new rules and regulations that must be complied with and employees want to see evidence that their workplaces have implemented protocols correctly. Facilities managers and others in charge of cleaning regimes must take the time to understand the rules and complete their own risk assessments to develop the right approach for their buildings to ensure they’re fully compliant.
It’s important to make sure clear guidance and easy-to-follow instructions are in place and that every employee has access to thorough training and education to reinforce new practices.
There are things you can do to make this easier. For example, bringing in a colour coding system is a good way of differentiating equipment for designated spaces to cut the risk of cross-contamination. Robert Scott’s Big White Mops come in a range of colour-coded heads to comply with the colour coding cleaning practice, allowing workplaces to easily identify which products should be used in certain areas from kitchens through to washrooms.
Get the basics in place
The new normal is going to include things like social distancing and hand sanitiser stations for some time to come, so your buildings may need to be reconfigured to allow for this.
Install hand sanitiser points in areas of heavy footfall and consider whether door stops — like a Door Stop & Handle, for example — could help reduce the number of touchpoints in the building and improve air flow. These steps will help
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reduce the opportunities for the virus to spread from person to person via hard surfaces.
We now know that good ventilation is really important for reducing coronavirus transmission, so factor in the need to keep areas well ventilated. If you have an internal ventilation system, ensure your team knows how to clean it properly. Items like the Flexi Tool are ideal for this job.
Assess your cleaning needs
It’s imperative that workplaces are kept as clean as possible, to reduce the risk of viral transmission. Assess your spaces and make a list of what each one needs. For example, if there are showers and changing facilities, set clear use and cleaning guidance to ensure they’re kept clean and clear of personal items and social distancing is achieved as much as possible.
You should consider if items coming into the workspace, like couriered goods, need to be cleaned or quarantined before use and, if so, where this will happen. Personal deliveries to the workplace would also fall into this category, so managers may need to take steps to halt these or implement a clear policy for staff to adhere to.
Consider employees’ perceptions
It’s really important that employees feel safe to return to the office. Earlier this year, the TUC polled 2100 workplace safety representatives in the UK and found that a quarter reported there were no measures for social distancing in their workplace, while a third complained PPE was inadequate.
Employee safety should be a top priority. The visibility and rigidity of cleaning routines has a key part to play in helping employees feel they are being looked after. By increasing the frequency of cleans and repeating key jobs throughout the day — not simply out of office hours — employees will quickly recognise the increased focus on cleanliness.
www.robert-scott.co.uk twitter.com/TomoCleaning
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