In the age of Covid-19, it’s an even tricker time than usual for businesses. If you’re operating your business premises, how can you make your office or workplace safe for everyone during the pandemic?
Regular cleaning is, of course, as important as ever. But there are additional cleaning requirements to minimise the chances of spreading the Covid-19 pathogen between your staff and site visitors.
Make it easy for employees to clean
Regular cleaning during the working day is, of course, going to minimise the chances of spreading any bacteria or the pathogen for coronavirus. Give all employees easy access to the following sanitation items in your office or workplace:
- Anti-bacterial hand sanitiser gel
- Surface disinfectants and cleaning cloths
- Plenty of hand soap in toilets/bathrooms
- Clean hand towels (disposable)
Providing guidance for your employees will help too. For example, require that after use, any surface or touchpoint should be cleaned. This includes work tops, computer mice and keyboards and other work equipment.
Provide masks and gloves
For public-facing businesses, such as food retail or on-demand services, you should also consider providing masks and gloves for your staff. Even with social distancing, masks can help to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the workplace.
Disposable face masks are fine, but you can also invest in reusable cloth face masks.
Latex gloves can also be very useful to avoid spreading any germs via touch.
Daily deep cleaning
For workplaces that see any footfall during the Covid-19 outbreak, a daily deep clean is an essential requirement. Simply mopping the floor and vacuum cleaning the carpet isn’t going to be enough during these tough times, so special attention will need to be paid to:
- Disinfecting touch points such as keypads, lift or door buttons, swing doors/handles, countertops etc
- Regular cleaning of shelving, shopping baskets, trolleys, pens, touchscreens etc
- Thorough cleaning of all seating
- Deep clean any communal facilities such as water towers, kettles, microwaves, storage lockers, bike railings or other such items
- If uniform is used by your staff, ensure it is washed daily
Products to use to clean your office during Covid-19
Although encouraging your staff to keep the workplace clean during work hours is essential, this isn’t enough to cover for a deep clean. You should also make sure that at the end of the work day (or at a suitable time during changeover shifts for example), a thorough clean is conducted using the following:
Bleach solution
Using ⅓ cup of bleach to 1 gallon of water. Clean the surface with water and detergent first and rinse off, then clean with bleach. Be sure to thoroughly clean the bleach off after cleaning to prevent damaging metals, plastic or work surfaces.
Hydrogen peroxide
Use 3% hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle to clean surfaces. Once sprayed on, allow it to sit for at least one minute to be effective. But once again, be sure to clean it off well or it could damage fabrics and other materials.
Isopropyl alcohol
A 70% alcohol solution is an effective way to deep clean and kill viral germs on surfaces. Clean the surface with detergent and water first, remove and then spray on the alcohol solution. Leave to sit for 30 seconds and then clean off.
Disposable cleaning garments
It is strongly advised to use disposable gloves, overalls and face masks when conducting a deep clean of an office or workplace for Covid-19. The reason for this is that you need to make sure the chances of spreading it are minimised as much as possible, so making sure the pathogen can’t travel on clothing is also important.
Using professional coronavirus cleaning services
If your work premises have people coming and going in any capacity during the coronavirus pandemic, deep cleaning is the only way to be sure that you’re avoiding the spread as much as possible. Keep your staff and customers safe and use a professional deep cleaning service.
Business premises based in London can hire Golden Mop to conduct a thorough and professional deep clean. You can rest assured that all our staff have been trained and briefed on the special requirements for this difficult time. We also use the best quality cleaning products to keep your office Covid-19 free and will make sure that every surface is thoroughly disinfected.
Ask us how we can help make your office or workplace Covid-19 safe…