Staff members getting exposed to hazards and germs is bad enough in itself. When people actually start getting sick and calling out one after another, like a domino effect, productivity could come to a screeching halt. It’s a serious responsibility to protect your workforce from the risk of injury and illness.
Arm yourself with some of the commercial cleaning industry’s proven practical strategies for a safe and sanitary office environment. Below, you can familiarize yourself with why disinfection is important, how, where, and why to do it, with tips you can utilize right away.
Why Is Disinfection of Office Spaces Important?
Just like any public space, in a shared office space, there are endless surfaces for dust, dirt, mess, and illness-causing germs to accumulate. From the break room or kitchen to the bathroom, workstations, entrances, and even hallways, high-touch surfaces like keyboards, phones, and doorknobs/handles can spread germs fast.
When workers show up to a clean, disinfected office every day, they can stay healthy and focused on the task at hand. Your team deserves a place where they can enjoy the peace of mind they need to stay motivated and on task.
So communicate to your team that their well-being and morale are a high priority by keeping germs, messes, hazards, and allergens out of the shared office space. You’ll keep your staff happy, healthy, and tuned into their work.
When to Disinfect and Sanitize Office Spaces
Of course, extra cleaning and disinfecting are key after someone in the office has gotten sick. Protect the health of other folks in the office by killing germs around the individual’s work area including the desk, keyboard, mouse, pens, phone, public spaces like the breakroom, and any other frequent touch points.
But you also shouldn’t wait until after the fact to clean and disinfect the office regularly. Light tidying, trash removal, cleaning, and basic disinfecting are in order once per week at the very least (but preferably daily if possible), paying particular attention to all those tricky high-touch surfaces.
When the office receives more thorough, top-to-bottom disinfecting can vary depending on how much space there is and how many people share it or come and go. The average office may ask their cleaners to disinfect more intensively once per week in addition to whenever someone gets sick.
How to Properly Disinfect or Sanitize Office & Work Spaces
Do regular cleaning first: Clean any dirt, dust, and residue off surfaces before disinfecting or sanitizing, to allow the products to work properly and kill germs.
Be safe: Use EPA-registered disinfecting solutions that are known to work on the viruses or bacteria you want to get rid of. Read the label to make sure the product is right for the surfaces you need to disinfect, checking for instructions on safe use such as:
- Ventilation
- PPE like gloves, goggles, gowns, or ventilator masks
- Avoiding ingestion/inhalation, contact with skin, eyes, etc.
- Proper storage
- Dilution
- Shelf life
- Not mixing different products or chemicals together
Useful Tips for Disinfecting Office Spaces
Here are some helpful tricks that can make your regular disinfection practices more efficient and effective:
Wipe in a Single Direction
When wiping a surface with disinfectant, it may not be necessary to make multiple passes across the surface. Instead, try to make single passes in one direction to avoid simply spreading the germs around.
Use Disinfectant Regularly
Make it a habit. It’s normal for germs to end up virtually everywhere, and they can spread quickly. So, it’s extra important to make disinfection a continuous process at the office to keep them under control.
This may go without saying, but you should be sanitizing and wiping down common-use areas as often as possible. We highly recommend loading up on sanitizing wipes that you can use to wipe down virtually any surface.
Clorox and other companies offer bleach-free cleaning wipes that are safe to use on a variety of surfaces in offices, conference rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, and just about anywhere else that you can think of.
Everyone Can Pitch In
One of the best ways to ensure that you’re protecting the team from Coronavirus is having everyone on the team pitch in. Sharing the burden alone in cleaning and disinfecting your office can be a full-time job for one or two people, but if everyone does their part, it can make the job a lot easier.
Post some easy-to-use standards and guidelines that will encourage your team to clean surfaces clean as they go. Instead of having one person responsible for wiping down everyone else’s desk at the end of the day, make cleaning materials available so that your team can wipe down their own personal space and areas that they frequently use.
It’s also important to be mindful of fomites (see blog #1) in the workplace, especially those items shared by multiple staff. Keep standard-use disinfecting products like household cleaning wipes conveniently placed around workstations, conference rooms, and kitchen/breakroom facilities, encouraging everyone to take a few moments to clean up after themselves.
Common fomites/places that individuals should clean frequently in their workplace:
- Their entire desktop
- Their keyboard
- Their mouse
- Regularly used notebooks or electronic tablets
- (iPad, Lenovo, projection remotes)
- Pens, pencils, and other writing utensils
- Shelves
- Phones
- Screens and monitors
- Chairs and stools
- Comfortable or homey objects on your desk
Anything in your presence that will be touched or is within breathing or sneezing distance of others is something that should be wiped down and cleaned regularly after use.
Sanitize and Clean Common Use Areas
One of the most important ways to limit viruses and bacteria is to ensure that you keep all public and shared areas within your office clean. High-traffic spaces that pose a distinctly heightened risk of germs and illness can include:
- Food storage, prep, and dining areas
- Breakrooms
- Bathrooms
- Hallways
- Entryways
- Conference rooms
Any place in your office where groups of people tend to congregate or use regularly throughout the day is a prime location for viruses and bacteria to grow. Make sure you are using wipes and heavy-duty cleaners in these areas to keep them as germ-proof as you possibly can.
Sanitize High Contact Surfaces
When considering the most occupied spaces in your office, make sure you pay close attention to surfaces that people are using. A large table in the conference room can be a breeding ground for all kinds of viruses and bacteria, as well as other forgotten places around the workplace:
- Countertops in bathrooms
- Door handles in bathrooms
- Door handles in conference rooms
- Door handles to office
- The main entrance and exit door handles
- Kitchen countertops
- Phones and speakers
- Light switches
- Sinks
- Tables and chairs
- Other furniture around the office
Have cleaner and sanitizer handy in every area so that surfaces stay clean and your workplace stays a safe place.
Make Soap and Sanitizer Available to Clients and Customers
One of the most important ways that you can prepare to keep your office safe from things like covid, strep, colds, and the flu is by making sure that you have plenty of soap and sanitizer in the public areas around the office. Make sure that you keep soap stocked at all of your sinks at all times, and keep sanitizer stocked and available for public use areas.
Protect Your Office Spaces Against Diseases with Dallas Janitorial Services
When you entrust the conditions of your DFW area office to Dallas Janitorial Services, they can help you determine the best disinfecting methods and frequency for your needs, along with the perfect combination of services to keep your office clean and productive.
Highly trained and experienced staff will communicate with you to ensure that germs and diseases stay under control. You’ll receive the services you want on your schedule with the excellence you expect.
Interested in specialized COVID office cleaning services?
Contact us today at (214) 778-4689 to request a quote and learn more. See what our many satisfied clients have to say.
Frequently Asked Questions About Disinfecting Office Space
What is the most effective way to clean your office?
Focus on food prep, storage, and dining areas, bathrooms, light switches, doorknobs/door handles, elevator buttons, railings, and work areas, including phones, computers/keyboards/mice.
How do you sanitize office equipment?
Before sanitizing office equipment, remove dust and residue with a soft cloth, compressed air, and/or mild detergent or soap. Then, use disinfectant spray or wipes.
How do you disinfect an occupied room?
If a professional cleaner has to disinfect a workspace that is being used to work in, they will try to arrange an ideal time to clean and knock before entering any rooms that are in use, then quietly clean frequent touchpoints with the correct products.
How do professionals clean so fast?
Professional cleaners speed up the process by cleaning regularly, establishing a logical and methodical system for cleaning, starting at higher surfaces and working their way down to the floor without backtracking, which can spread more mess and germs around.
How often should an office be cleaned?
Even the smallest offices with just a handful of people working should get cleaned at least once per week, and the bigger or more crowded the office, the more frequent cleaning should be. Some offices get cleaned five days a week.
