How to prevent the spread of infections in an office

As much as we love a clean workplace and a fresh office environment, it is also important to pay attention to the germs and pathogens lingering around the office. Though we all want to keep our commercial premises free of germs, it is easier said than done. Your basic office cleaning routine might not be effective enough to remove pathogens and keep germs at bay. What you need is professional office cleaning services by CLEANA.

A neat and clean workplace will surely allow you to attract visitors and boost the productivity and morale of your employees, but it is of no use if there are germs all over your facility. And yes, it is very much possible for pathogens like germs and viruses to survive your routine cleaning, which is why you may need to go one step ahead and hire an office cleaning service from Clean Group to ensure the complete safety of your premises and people from common pathogens.

Infections tend to spread from one thing or person to another easily and very quickly through touch and respiratory actions. At the same time, disease-causing germs can be carried from an infected surface to a person through cross-contamination, which is why your primary focus should be on avoiding cross-contamination in the workplace.

What Is Cross-Contamination and Why Is It Bad for Your Office?

Cross-contamination refers to the transfer of germs and harmful bacteria from one place or person to another. This can happen through direct contact and through manual transfer. For instance, a cleaning mop can catch an infection when used to clean a toilet floor.

When the same mop, without washing, is used to clean the floor in an office, the infection will transfer to the new floor and surfaces. This happens more often than we’re ready to accept.

Cross-contamination can happen in many ways in an office as co-workers come in close contact during meetings or when eating lunch, though the most common cause is the use of the same products (cleaning mops, cloths, buckets, etc.) for cleaning different areas in an office.

This enables bacteria to move seamlessly from one area or surface to another. When a perfectly healthy person touches an infected surface like a doorknob or light switch, the bacteria transfer to the person and make them infected. This can then spread to others through sneezing and coughing.

How to Avoid Cross-Contamination in the Office

The best way to prevent the spread of infections such as the common cold in the office is to avoid or minimise cross-contamination. Here are some ways to do that.

1. Make Regular Hand-Washing Mandatory

Make it mandatory for workers in your office to wash their hands at regular intervals and particularly after using the bathroom and before eating. Every time you have been in contact with a possibly infected surface or touched another person or a surface, you should wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

To make it easier for your office workers to keep their hands clean, provide them with personal hand sanitiser bottles and consider placing hand sanitising stations at all entries of your office. To encourage hand hygiene in the workplace, you can consider putting up signage, using computer reminders and providing hand sanitiser to every employee.

2. Disinfect Doorknobs

As they say, prevention is better than cure. What if you could prevent the bacteria from entering your office in the first place? You can do so by keeping your entryways and doors well-protected. Start by making sure that all doors and door knobs around the office are routinely disinfected, preferably multiple times during the day.

All visitors coming inside the office must be required to wash or sanitise their hands before entering. If possible, place a person at each entry to open the door to let outsiders in without having to touch the door or knob again and again. Alternatively, you can consider keeping the entry doors open during office hours so that people can avoid touching them when entering your office.

3. Disinfect Light Switches and Other Touchpoints

Touchpoints are the points or surfaces in an office that are touched very frequently by many people during the day. These may include light switches, water taps, door handles, glass, water dispensers, handrails, lift buttons, phone receivers, electronics, and others. These touchpoints can actively contribute to spreading germs in your workplace.

Every time an infected person touches one of these surfaces, germs get transferred to the surface, from where it will transfer to the person who touches it next. Disinfecting light switches, door handles and other touchpoints multiple times during the day will help reduce and kill germs and prevent the spread of infections in the office.

4. Sanitise Phones and Electronics

Shared electronics in an office are another major culprit in spreading infections. As many workers use these shared gadgets, including office phones, printers, coffee machines, copiers and more on a daily basis, they need to be sanitised more often than anything else.

Use disinfectant wipes or an approved disinfectant to thoroughly clean and sanitise office electronics at least once every day. In addition, employees should be disinfecting their personal phones as well, so consider providing them with disinfectant wipes for personal use.

5. Encourage Cleaning in the Office

Encourage your office employees to clean up after themselves and keep their desks clean. Provide them with whatever cleaning material they might need to keep their surroundings clean. Eating at work desks should be forbidden in the office. If an employee is still eating at their desk, they must be required to clean and wipe it thoroughly after and not leave any trash.

Put up signs everywhere in the office, asking workers to keep the office clean and not litter. Garbage cans must be put in every corner and cabin and make sure that the employees are using them. Even if you are having a professional office cleaning team to clean the office, including workers' desks, routinely, you must still ask your employees to clean their personal desktops and equipment daily.

6. Let Sick Employees Work from Home

As we explained above, infections in an office can spread very quickly and to many people. This is because an office is usually a closed space with limited room. Everyone is breathing the same air and using the same objects, so they ought to catch the infection sooner or later even if a single employee is sick.

It is, therefore, better to ask sick employees to work from home or take a leave of absence and return to the office only when they are completely healthy. Germs from an infected person can quickly spread to others in a closed space like an office. It is wise to be safe now than sorry later.

7. Routine Office Cleaning by Professionals

The importance of routine office cleaning cannot be emphasised enough. General cleaning of office floors, furniture, upholstery, windows, toilets, kitchens and other areas on a daily basis will not only improve the appearance of your workplace but also reduce germs even if it doesn’t remove 100% of them. Dust, dirt and debris in the office can promote germs by providing them with a safe haven. By keeping your office free of dust, you can effectively reduce or remove germs. Cleaning of toilets and other infection-prone areas should be done more frequently and thoroughly to minimise the chances of cross-contamination.

If possible, use professional and experienced office cleaners as your regular cleaners might not be very effective for thorough office cleaning.

8. Use Colour-Coded Cleaning Supplies

One thing that makes professional cleaners stand out from others is that they use colour-coded supplies to avoid cross-contamination in the office. Colour-coded cleaning supplies refer to cleaning items that have been sorted and used by colour. For example, green-coloured supplies, including mops, microfibre cloths, buckets, etc. can be designated for the cleaning of common areas while red-coloured supplies can be used for cleaning sensitive areas such as toilets.

This will help prevent cross-contamination, which can happen due to the use of the same cleaning supplies and tools in every area of the office. As you can imagine, cleaning clothes and tools can also pick up germs and carry them from one place to another.

9. Practice and Promote Personal Hygiene in the Office

A few simple things such as using a handkerchief, covering your mouth when coughing, sneezing into your shoulder, keeping your nails trim and clean, and having a bath daily can make a big difference in maintaining proper hygiene in the workplace and limiting the spread of germs.

This should be followed by each and every employee in the company. If necessary, make it a rule that no employee will be allowed in the office if they haven’t taken a bath that day. Make them wear masks and cover their mouths when sneezing or coughing.

10. Empty and Clean the Trash Can Regularly

This sounds like something everyone would do, but not many people actually do. The trash cans in your office can be one of the germiest things and become a breeding house for bacteria if not cleaned regularly. People throw all kinds of garbage and filth in trash cans and will rarely use separate bins for dry and wet trash.

If you let garbage sit in the trash can for some time, it will eventually start routine, causing all sorts of problems, including bad smells and health risks. It is better to get your cleaner to empty and clean all trash cans all around the building every day.

Hiring a professional and reliable office cleaning service is your best bet when looking to keep your office premises clean and prevent the spread of infections. Make sure that your cleaning staff follows cross-contamination rules when cleaning.