Without exception, every workplace in the world needs to enact careful hygiene management to ensure the health and safety of their employees and guests. Those businesses involved in industrial applications or food preparations have an even greater need for this since unsavoury conditions can lead to a contaminated finished product that is unfit to take to market.
Because of the importance played on office hygiene, every business also needs to ensure that they have ample stock of whichever cleaning products and supplies they require to maintain a healthy working environment.
Of course, each business’s needs in this regard will differ depending on their exact nature and the environmental challenges they face. So let’s take a look at what your business needs to maintain a perfectly hygienic work environment.
Meeting the Unique Needs of Your Business
The first thing to understand is that your business is unique, which means that it has very specific requirements for cleaning supplies when compared to other businesses.
This means that you need to identify the challenges faced by your business when conducting hygiene management and source the appropriate materials for combatting them.
There are, however, still basics that you will need to cover regardless of the nature of your business; things like brush ware, buckets and mops. Your needs for specialised chemical sanitisers will likely change depending on your business.
Starting with the Basics
There are those few supplies that every business will need in order to conduct day-to-day cleaning, and these supplies will need to be held in ample stockpiles to ensure that cleaning tasks can be conducted without any interruptions.
These include brushes, sponges, cloths, buckets, glass polishing cloths, dustpans, brooms, protective gloves and, where cleaning is being conducted in particularly large, open spaces, a caddy to make moving equipment during cleaning, easier to handle for whoever you have charged with maintaining office hygiene.
While not strictly considered consumables, these items will have a lifespan, so it might even be well worth your while to have spares handy for when you need them.
Storing Supplies
To ensure that cleaning equipment serves you to the full extent of their lifespan, you need to ensure that they are properly stored away when not in use. This is particularly the case for smaller items like sponges and brushes that may go missing.
Any extras that you have stockpiled should be kept in packaging where applicable and stored out of the way until they need to be used.
Specialised Chemical Sanitisers
With the basics taken care of, your business will now need to decide which chemical sanitisers would best fit your needs for hygiene. Some of them will be a staple for any business, regardless of your operating environment and the challenges presented by it.
Others will meet the unique needs of your business, particularly those involved in the production of food and produce, where hygiene and the chemicals used to maintain it, are directly related to the quality of the finished product.
You will need to check your operational requirements before sourcing any specialised sanitisers, however, there are a few consumables that every business will still need:
Around the Office
For general cleaning around the office, you will need a few essentials such as floor cleaner. If you have carpets or a problem with damp areas, mildew cleaner is also recommended.
For counter-tops, desks, tables and other surfaces, an effective disinfectant or multipurpose cleaner will also be necessary. If the client’s frequent your premises and you want to impress them with an environment with a better finish, a quality furniture polish will do the job.
If your office has plenty of glass surfaces or windows, stocking up on glass-cleaner and de-scaler will also be a good idea.
In the Washroom
In every office, the washroom holds some of the highest concentrations of bacteria when compared to other areas. If these areas are left un-sanitised, or if cleaning is done without the correct cleaning products and supplies, it could result in the spread of germs and illnesses that put your staff and guests at risk when using your facilities.
With so many people using them each day, there is more of a need to focus on cleaning efforts in these areas.
To ensure that this can be done effectively, businesses should ensure that they stock up on toilet cleaner, bleach, and maybe even laundry detergent for laundering towels, floor mats and other fabrics, to reduce the concentrations of bacterium on them.
You will also need to ensure that you have an ample supply of everything your staff and guests need to maintain their personal hygiene. Hand-soap dispensers, hand-towel dispensers, air fresheners and the like, will also need to be kept in ample amounts.
The Office Kitchen
Office kitchens are about as important as washrooms when it comes to cleaning, for many of the same reasons. These areas are often damp, hold on to odours (thanks to that one staff member who keeps on microwaving their fish), and also holds on to high numbers of bacteria thanks to the presence of food and dirty dishes.
For these reasons, protecting the health of your staff and guests can only be effectively done if strict hygiene control is enacted in the kitchen.
If you run a catering company or are involved in the production of food or beverages, then your kitchen cleaning products and supplies are some of the most important ones you can have at the workplace; as an unhygienic kitchen will have a direct impact on the quality of your products, and the satisfaction and health of your clients.
So, what does the average workplace kitchen need to manage its cleanliness?
- Multi-purpose cleaner for countertops, appliances and cupboards;
- Degreasers for pots, pans, stoves and surfaces;
- Dishwasher chemicals for glasses, crockery and cutlery;
- Oven cleaner.
Your Human Resources
The next thing you need to think about it how cleaning will be conducted; or rather, who is going to do it. Certain tasks would be better left done in-house, particularly those daily cleaning measures like washroom hygiene, washing dishes, sweeping and mopping.
Still, there are also certain tasks that are best left to cleaning specialists who have experience with deep cleaning and office hygiene management.
Let’s take a closer look:
Hiring Staff
You will need to hire a staff member in most cases, particularly if you have larger office spaces and a number of existing employees.
The job of an office cleaner is an often understated one, but their role is as important as the accounts department or your production team.
So, select your candidate carefully, and speak to them about what their needs are when it comes to maintaining hygiene in your workplace. They will be able to give you details based on the particular needs of your business.
Outsourcing to Cleaning Specialists
There are also those cleaning tasks in your business that may not be practical to handle in-house. They may either require specialised skills or could be too effort and time consuming to make them viable for you to do yourself.
In such cases, it is always worth your while to hire a cleaning specialist with the equipment, training and experience to give you the best possible results, without cutting into your productivity.
Selecting the Right Cleaning Specialist
There are a few things to consider when selecting a cleaning specialist for your office, to ensure that they give you the best value for your particular needs. So, consider the following when selecting one:
What is their experience in the industry?
The more experienced the company is, the more likely they are to offer you a seamless service.
Have they worked with a business like yours before?
Does the cleaning company in question know the particular needs of your business and industry?
What is the cost of their cleaning service?
You need to find a cleaning service that fits int your business’s budget.
How regularly will they service your workplace?
Depending on your needs for hygiene maintenance, you may want a cleaning service that comes around weekly or monthly.
If they supply equipment, how regularly do they service it?
If your cleaning company supplies dispensers, paper-towel holders and the like, they will need to be restocked and serviced on a regular basis.
What about Pest Management?
Where office hygiene is a concern, so too is the presence of pests, and the two don’t exclusively come together.
While an unkempt office environment might be the perfect location for pests such as rats and roaches to gather, that doesn’t mean that they can’t be found in clean environments.
Still, wherever they are present, there is a risk of disease and contamination, particularly if your business is working with foods or any substance that offers nourishment to pests.
Because of this, pest management should be considered a preventative measure, rather than a reactionary one that only takes place when you see them scurrying about your workplace.
Eco-Friendly Pest Control
Something to consider with pest management solutions, you want to find one that is eco-friendly. The goal with pest management is not to eradicate all life within a kilometre radius of your workplace, but rather to simply keep them out of your indoor spaces.
Pest management should be handled very carefully, and only environmentally-friendly products should be used. While eliminating pests from your working environment, eco-friendly products will ensure that your efforts don’t have a larger, more negative impact on your environment.
Because of this, it is not advisable to use over-the-counter poisons and repellents, since these products generally offer a shotgun approach that has wide-reaching consequences for the environment. In some cases, they can even increase health risks in your working environment.
So, it is generally a better approach to use the services of a professional pest control company that takes a bit more of a holistic approach to managing pests.
These services will also be far more effective. Over-the-counter products may be effective for a short while, but they are generally only temporary. Add that to the damage they do to the environment, and it is easy to see why opting for a professional, eco-friendly service, is always a better bet for your business.
Contact Ecowize for Details on Our Cleaning Services and Supplies
Each business is different, and as such, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to effectively maintaining workplace hygiene across the board.
Business owners need to take stock of the unique properties of their working environment to determine which approach to cleaning would suit them best.
Professional cleaning companies generally offer a tailored approach that first takes into account the key areas of a business where hygiene needs to be better managed.
They will advise clients as to the best possible approach following a consultation; which is particularly important for production plants where cleaning processes may affect the actual production process, as well as the quality of its yields.
If you would like to know more about how our cleaning company, Ecowize, is able to assist your brand by keeping it fresh, clean and hygienic by tackling the exact challenges to hygiene presented by your work environment, be sure to get into contact with one of our representatives today to find out more about our cleaning products, supplies and services.
Alternatively, we invite you to browse through our website or take a look at our social media pages for detailed information about our wide range of cleaning, sanitation and pest control services, and how they can benefit your business.
Comments are closed.
