08 Apr Tips for Emphasizing Strong Hygiene at Work
Keeping yourself and your co-workers healthy must be a priority. Each year in the United States, employers lose $450 to $500 billion in productivity due to employees being sick.
With the recent coronavirus pandemic, strong hygiene is essential to keep your co-workers healthy and to ensure that business runs as smoothly as possible. However, regardless of whether there is a pandemic or it is simply flu season, it can be a challenge to encourage your employees to improve their current hygiene habits.
Here are a few tips for employers to emphasize strong hygiene at work.
Encourage Hand Hygiene
Proper hand hygiene is one of the best defenses to keep your employees healthy and to prevent spreading germs. Washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds multiple times a day or using hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol, can help to slow down the spread of these dangerous germs.
While it is impossible to make your employees wash their hands often throughout the day, little reminders can make a big difference. Place signs throughout your office reminding employees to wash hands often. Make mention of this task in meetings or in emails. Little reminders will keep this task in your employees’ minds and will encourage them to wash more often.
You can also take this a step further and include facts with these reminders, which can give employees a little extra motivation. For example, did you know that one germ can multiply into more than 8 million germs in one day?
You can find many fact sheets on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Website.
Set Time Aside for Disinfecting Work Spaces
Disinfecting work areas is vital to slowing the spread of germs. However, sanitizing work areas once a week is not enough. In fact, all work areas should be cleaned daily, if not more often. Encourage your employees to sanitize their work stations several times throughout the day. This could be as simple as wiping down all areas and office supplies with sanitizing wipes and using sprays.
You can send out calendar invites two or three times a day for your employees to spend some time cleaning. Assign someone, including yourself, to clean all main work areas such as the break room and bathroom door handles. If you have clients come in and out of your lobby, wipe down all surfaces that they’ve touched including your front door handle.
Provide Plenty of Supplies
If you want to emphasize strong hygiene at work, you cannot be stingy with cleaning supplies. You must provide the tools your employees need to properly sanitize their desk areas and make these items convenient to access. For example, give each employee their own bottle of hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes, and sprays to keep on their desk. You may also wish to place cleaning supplies on popular areas such as in the break room, front lobby, etc.
When you make your employee’s health a priority, everyone will reap the rewards. You and your employees will feel better and will be more motivated and productive at work each day.
