In it for the long haul
Paul Jakeway, Head of Marketing at Rubbermaid Commercial Products (RCP) EMEA, explains the need for long-term hand hygiene solutions.
In February and March 2020, many European countries entered lockdown periods. Businesses were required to close or drastically curtail operations. Advice to citizens was to stay at home, taking only essential trips for exercise or shopping.
National guidelines emphasised the role of hand hygiene in preventing the spread of COVID-19. Businesses and other spaces that remained open were under pressure to offer hand hygiene provisions, which coincided with the peak demand for hand sanitiser and hygiene products.
Rather than offering nothing, businesses implemented what they could. Often these solutions were functional; a bottle of hand sanitiser or a bulk fill station at the front door. Businesses had something in place, but urgency (and scarcity in some situations) affected the quality of provisions.
The Love Recycling Part 2 report found that as well as increased levels of PPE waste, almost 60% of businesses now consider hand hygiene a top priority. Understandable when the safety of staff and customers is paramount to the successful reopening of a business.
In the short term, this priority will remain prevalent across many sectors, but businesses need to prepare for the longer term with tailored, effective solutions. Businesses reopening or resuming full operations, cannot continue with the lockdown status quo.
Hand hygiene provisions will be a part of public life for the foreseeable future. Over time, customers will make choices based less on who has provisions, and more on who has the best provisions.
What do customers expect?
To support businesses with hand hygiene implementation, RCP undertook a research study with the public. In it, we aimed to discover their hand hygiene preferences. The questions covered expectations, attitudes, choices, behaviour and observations.
How does a lack of hand hygiene provisions affect their perceptions?
We asked respondents to describe a place with no hand sanitiser. The top responses were irresponsible, dangerous and unsafe. Other leading responses included careless and unclean.
These responses fall into two categories: perception of the space and perception of those operating it. Both are seen negatively, lacking caution and preparedness. In a correlated question, we asked about avoiding spaces. 60% said that they would consider avoiding a space with no hand sanitiser.
Where there are provisions, what type of sanitisers do people prefer to use?
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82% of respondents said that they preferred alcohol- based sanitisers over alcohol free, perhaps reflecting the public health messages that have been played back by the Government.
How, and where, do people prefer to get hand sanitiser?
Asked about dispensing options, a massive 93% of respondents prefer touch-free. This likely reflects prominent guidance on hand hygiene and touch as a source of transmission.
In many facilities, hand hygiene previously existed solely within the washroom or in areas with specific requirements such as healthcare facilities or back of house food service. Now, with hand hygiene occupying greater prominence, where do customers expect to see provisions?
In total, 90% of respondents expect provisions at least at the entrance. More than half say provisions should be available throughout a facility, as well as the front door. Entryways are a natural bottleneck to provide hand sanitiser, but customers and staff are looking for deployment that builds from the entrance.
Finally, it may seem obvious, but hand sanitiser needs to be well presented wherever it is placed. 70% would forego using the provided hand sanitiser if it looked unclean. It is reasonable to assume that some of this 70% would consider unusable provisions equal to no provisions. This may, in turn, lead to avoidance of the space.
What can businesses do?
We asked respondents about their personal provisions. Three quarters stated that they carry their own supply of hand sanitiser. While there are likely several factors influencing this behaviour, the general public are carrying their own supplies in part because they cannot depend on there being suitable options wherever they go. This emphasises the role businesses must play in supporting the public, and it also stresses the importance of implementing solutions that match the public’s expectations.
At the time of writing, countries in Europe are seeing COVID-19 case numbers increase. We will also soon begin the autumn and winter influenza season. To avoid the last resort measures of full lockdown being reimplemented, more needs to be done. Businesses are not solely responsible, but they have the opportunity to play a crucial role in keeping people safe.
To meet safety requirements and expectations, businesses need to change their solutions. Replace the immediately available short-term solutions with long term, manageable solutions.
Dedicated dispensers and touch-free stations meet several crucial customer expectations. People want touch-free
(
www.loverecycling.com) (
https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/show-me-the-science-hand-sanitizer.html)
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