Keeping a Clean Office: How to Ensure a Safe & Sanitized Workspace

Wondering how to keep a sanitized, safe and clean office for your employees? Here are the steps you need to follow to ensure maximum protection.
As COVID caseloads increase, we’re all concerned about how to go about our lives as safely as possible.

And those concerns particularly extend to how we conduct business.

Even outside of the pandemic, maintaining a clean office environment is crucial to ensuring a safe workplace Office deep cleans need to be conducted on at least a yearly basis. And even more frequently during the current circumstances.

To ensure a healthy workplace, follow these steps to maintain a sanitized office space.

Giving the Office a Deep Clean

As you might guess, the first step towards a clean office is giving it a good cleaning. However, this means more than running a vacuum or a mop over the floors and calling it a day.

To ensure that you’re clearing out any potential pockets of dirt, bacteria, and other pathogens, you need to seek out all of those hard-to-reach areas. Start by following these steps.

First, you’re going to want to take precautions like wearing disposable gloves and gowns.

Many commercial-grade cleaners and disinfectants are corrosive to the touch. And even setting that aside, you want to minimize contact with soiled surfaces and materials as much as possible.

Next, clean surfaces with soap and water, with particular attention to high-touch areas. This means doorknobs, desks, tables, and the like. Also pay special attention to bathrooms and dining areas, as well as any out-of-the-way spaces that may have been skipped in a regular cleaning.

For soft areas like drapes and upholstery, remove the items altogether and have them laundered if possible. If not, wash with water and a material-appropriate cleaner.

For electronics, you should consider using removable plastic covers wherever possible. This both makes cleaning and disinfecting easier, but reduces the risk of potential damage.

And always ensure that anyone tasked with cleaning washes their hands immediately after removing their gloves and protective wear.

Disinfect After Cleaning
Soap and water will remove visible dirt and reduce the number of germs on a given surface. But they alone are not enough to ensure that an area is decontaminated.

For that, you’ll need to fully disinfect all of the surfaces that you just cleaned. Fortunately, the EPA provides a list of disinfectants confirmed to kill the COVID-19 virus. Start by selecting a suitable product from that list.

If EPA-approved disinfectants aren’t available then diluted bleach can be used on appropriate surfaces. Only use bleach containing 5.25%–8.25% sodium hypochlorite. If the percentage is outside that range or is not listed, or if the bleach is expired, don’t use it.

If any employees suffer from asthma or other respiratory ailments, make sure that they are out of the area during and immediately following the use of disinfectants. For this reason, it’s usually a good idea to handle deep cleaning and disinfection tasks outside of normal office hours.

Even if no one has any known health issues, you need to make sure that protective gloves and eyewear are available, and that the space is well-ventilated.

Follow the instructions on the product label, paying particular attention to the contact time required. And always be sure not to use multiple products in the same area to avoid harmful chemical reactions.

If you have cleaned and disinfected soft surfaces like carpets or upholstery, vacuum them afterward.

Promoting a Clean Office Culture
To keep a safe workplace, not only do you have to clean the space, but you have to get employees to keep it clean.

You can help facilitate this by communicating limiting the number of surfaces that your employees need to touch with their hands. For example, installing motion-activated lights, water faucets, and removing unnecessary doors removes potential transmission venues.

Installing hand-sanitizer and hand wipe stations are another way to help keep employee hands, and the surfaces they touch, clean. But above all else, encouraging regular hand-washing is vital.

You should also take the time to communicate to your employees what steps you are taking to help ensure their safety. By keeping your staff in the look and being open to their feedback, concerns, and suggestions, you can boost employee confidence and make it easier to get everyone on the same page.

Precautions to Take if an Employee Gets Sick
No matter what precautions you take, there are always factors outside your control. As such, an employee could fall ill and contaminate the office before they known they’re sick.

To help mitigate these risks, you need to set a response plan in place.

For starters, instruct your staff to monitor themselves for symptoms daily. If an employee may have been exposed to COVID, try to provide solutions that allow them to continue their work outside of the office for a 14 day period.

If an employee becomes ill after spending time in the office, immediately cordon off areas that they were in. Turn off in-room, window-mounted, or on-wall recirculation HVAC to reduce the spread of contaminants.

Open outside windows and doors to increase ventilation. If possible, wait for 24 hours before beginning cleaning and disinfecting. If 24 hours isn’t workable, at least try to wait for as long as you can.

Clean and disinfect all areas used by the employee as instructed here. Do not vacuum the space while other employees are present, and instead wait until after hours. Having cleaned and disinfected the area, it may once again be opened up for use.

A Sanitized Office is a Safe Office
Providing a clean office space is critical to ensure the health and productivity of your employees. This means regular deep cleanings, disinfection, cultivating healthy workplace habits in your staff, and having a plan in place should an employee fall ill.

Using these guidelines will help your team to carry out business as usual while staying safe. Of course, it never hurts to go above and beyond these measures.

To ensure complete cleanliness in your office, cleaning services for COVID prevention is the way to go. For guidance on where to start, check out these tips on choosing a commercial cleaning service for your business.
Wondering how to keep a sanitized, safe and clean office for your employees? Here are the steps you need to follow to ensure maximum protection.

As COVID caseloads increase, we’re all concerned about how to go about our lives as safely as possible. And those concerns particularly extend to how we conduct business.

Even outside of the pandemic, maintaining a clean office environment is crucial to ensuring a safe workplace Office deep cleans need to be conducted on at least a yearly basis. And even more frequently during the current circumstances.

To ensure a healthy workplace, follow these steps to maintain a sanitized office space.

Giving the Office a Deep Clean
As you might guess, the first step towards a clean office is giving it a good cleaning. However, this means more than running a vacuum or a mop over the floors and calling it a day.

To ensure that you’re clearing out any potential pockets of dirt, bacteria, and other pathogens, you need to seek out all of those hard-to-reach areas. Start by following these steps.

First, you’re going to want to take precautions like wearing disposable gloves and gowns.

Many commercial-grade cleaners and disinfectants are corrosive to the touch. And even setting that aside, you want to minimize contact with soiled surfaces and materials as much as possible.

Next, clean surfaces with soap and water, with particular attention to high-touch areas. This means doorknobs, desks, tables, and the like. Also pay special attention to bathrooms and dining areas, as well as any out-of-the-way spaces that may have been skipped in a regular cleaning.

For soft areas like drapes and upholstery, remove the items altogether and have them laundered if possible. If not, wash with water and a material-appropriate cleaner.

For electronics, you should consider using removable plastic covers wherever possible. This both makes cleaning and disinfecting easier, but reduces the risk of potential damage.

And always ensure that anyone tasked with cleaning washes their hands immediately after removing their gloves and protective wear.

Disinfect After Cleaning
Soap and water will remove visible dirt and reduce the number of germs on a given surface. But they alone are not enough to ensure that an area is decontaminated.

For that, you’ll need to fully disinfect all of the surfaces that you just cleaned. Fortunately, the EPA provides a list of disinfectants confirmed to kill the COVID-19 virus. Start by selecting a suitable product from that list.

If EPA-approved disinfectants aren’t available then diluted bleach can be used on appropriate surfaces. Only use bleach containing 5.25%–8.25% sodium hypochlorite. If the percentage is outside that range or is not listed, or if the bleach is expired, don’t use it.

If any employees suffer from asthma or other respiratory ailments, make sure that they are out of the area during and immediately following the use of disinfectants. For this reason, it’s usually a good idea to handle deep cleaning and disinfection tasks outside of normal office hours.

Even if no one has any known health issues, you need to make sure that protective gloves and eyewear are available, and that the space is well-ventilated.

Follow the instructions on the product label, paying particular attention to the contact time required. And always be sure not to use multiple products in the same area to avoid harmful chemical reactions.

If you have cleaned and disinfected soft surfaces like carpets or upholstery, vacuum them afterward.

Promoting a Clean Office Culture
To keep a safe workplace, not only do you have to clean the space, but you have to get employees to keep it clean.

You can help facilitate this by communicating limiting the number of surfaces that your employees need to touch with their hands. For example, installing motion-activated lights, water faucets, and removing unnecessary doors removes potential transmission venues.

Installing hand-sanitizer and hand wipe stations are another way to help keep employee hands, and the surfaces they touch, clean. But above all else, encouraging regular hand-washing is vital.

You should also take the time to communicate to your employees what steps you are taking to help ensure their safety. By keeping your staff in the look and being open to their feedback, concerns, and suggestions, you can boost employee confidence and make it easier to get everyone on the same page.

Precautions to Take if an Employee Gets Sick
No matter what precautions you take, there are always factors outside your control. As such, an employee could fall ill and contaminate the office before they known they’re sick.

To help mitigate these risks, you need to set a response plan in place.

For starters, instruct your staff to monitor themselves for symptoms daily. If an employee may have been exposed to COVID, try to provide solutions that allow them to continue their work outside of the office for a 14 day period.

If an employee becomes ill after spending time in the office, immediately cordon off areas that they were in. Turn off in-room, window-mounted, or on-wall recirculation HVAC to reduce the spread of contaminants.

Open outside windows and doors to increase ventilation. If possible, wait for 24 hours before beginning cleaning and disinfecting. If 24 hours isn’t workable, at least try to wait for as long as you can.

Clean and disinfect all areas used by the employee as instructed here. Do not vacuum the space while other employees are present, and instead wait until after hours. Having cleaned and disinfected the area, it may once again be opened up for use.

A Sanitized Office is a Safe Office
Providing a clean office space is critical to ensure the health and productivity of your employees. This means regular deep cleanings, disinfection, cultivating healthy workplace habits in your staff, and having a plan in place should an employee fall ill.

Using these guidelines will help your team to carry out business as usual while staying safe. Of course, it never hurts to go above and beyond these measures.

To ensure complete cleanliness in your office, cleaning services for COVID prevention is the way to go. For guidance on where to start, check out these tips on choosing a commercial cleaning service for your business.