How To Improve Office Hygiene

Hand Hygiene

In a recent study, 50% of workers had admitted to having left their office washroom without washing their hands due to poor quality washroom facilities/ products. Therefore, providing a satisfactory washroom experience can in fact, directly impact your employees behaviour in the washroom.

• Enforce good hand washing practices with consistent awareness campaigns and notices in commonly used areas
• Regularly clean taps and soap dispensers to help decrease cross-contamination on multiple surfaces. Consider no touch washroom facilities to minimise physical contact
• Damp hands spread 1000 times more bacteria than dry hands so ensure the efficient drying facilities are available

Cubicle hygiene

Bacteria & germs can spread easily via the air when toilets lids are not closed before flushing

It only takes roughly 60 seconds of a toilet being flushed for the average sized washroom to be covered with bacteria, urine and in some cases fecal matter. So, managing these germs, scale and bacteria build up within the toilet area can help reduce the risk of germs spreading throughout the entire washroom - or even office!

• Toilet seats should be sanitised on a regular basis, preferably after every use to reduce the risk of cross-contamination
• The same applies to toilet flush handles.
• All female washrooms should be well supplied with feminine hygiene facilities

Common areas

A recent study by Intial found that 32% of office workers sometimes or always use hot desks and 49% eat at their desks. Resulting in a high risk of cross-contamination as germs from the washroom are spread by contaminated hands and transferred to these hot desks, office equipment and even food.

• Encourage colleagues who frequently use hot-desks to wipe down the keyboard, mouse, phone and surfaces before & after using them. Shared desks are often neglected which means a build-up of germs and contamination can occur
• Disinfect all food surfaces as often as possible to reduce the risk of cross-contamination via contact with food
• Install convinient hand sanitisers in areas of common use