We’re on the road back to the workplace, and it has never been more important to ensure a safe and hygienic environment for employees. Partnering with the right cleaning provider to guide you is vital.
We will be heading back to the office soon, and there is an onus on employers to keep people safe.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world as we know it. Many have spent the better part of the past two years at home and away from our workplaces.
But with a national and state-level roadmap out of lockdowns revealed, we can expect to head back to the office soon. But heading back to the office has highlighted what businesses are doing to keep their employees safe. Because the virus that caused COVID-19 is here to stay, the onus of keeping it out of the workplace lies on employers. A part of this effort involves investing in professional cleaning services, even after the lockdowns lift.
COVID-19 has revealed no two cleaning companies are the same. While your offices may look clean, not every cleaning company uses the correct products and methodologies for infection prevention. Additionally, your cleaning provider may not be equipped to manage emergency infectious cleans should a person in your office become infected.
So what should businesses expect from your commercial cleaning provider to keep your workplace safe when staff return to work?
- Preventative Cleans: Along with your routine cleaning services done at night or early morning, your cleaning provider should be providing preventative cleans. This involves touchpoint cleaning for high traffic areas where surfaces are touched frequently, such as reception/foyer doors, benches, tables, kitchen areas, and toilet areas. Increasing the frequency of general cleaning can help reduce the risk of community transmission. This service should be undertaken during the day when surfaces are routinely touched. GJK follows cleaning best practice methodology, cleaning surfaces with a neutral detergent before using the appropriate disinfectant.
- Consumable Supply: A professional commercial cleaning company can ensure you have all the necessary consumables to help your employees feel safe in the workplace. Supplying hand sanitizers (including free-standing, hands-free sanitizer units in common areas and bathrooms, as well as bottles in workstations) sanitary wipes and even face masks and temperature units. These products can be used quickly, so you need to know you can rely on a professional cleaning company for continual supply and replenishment.
- Visibility of Hygiene Control: When your employees come back to the workplace, they may be concerned for their wellbeing and worried about catching COVID in the workplace. As an employer, you want to put people’s minds at ease and make them feel comfortable and safe. Your cleaning provider should manage this by making their cleans highly visible to your employees. They can do this through visible cleaning attendants during the day as well as signage. GJK, for example uses Optiqo boxes to highlight the time of the last clean, as well as ‘cleaned’ cards and hangers for visual assurance to employees. We also work with customer health & safety teams on general signage around the office for reminders to staff on the correct hygiene and sanitization practices.
- Verification: As mentioned, the office can look clean but is it? Professional cleaning providers will audit their cleaning regularly and have the ability to monitor sanitation levels through scanning and swabs, such as the ATP audits.
- Infectious/Deep Cleans Infectious or deep cleans should be used for potential or confirmed COVID areas of contamination within a workplace. Not all cleaning companies can conduct this important job, nor react to it nimbly and quickly to enable your employees to return to the workplace.
Using a large, professional company like GJK, our team of specialists can be deployed as a matter of priority to attend COVID-positive locations. They are highly trained in infection control and follow COVID cleaning best-practice methodologies. This includes cleaning and disinfecting surfaces using products approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and using the correct application method.
For suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases, we will help you to determine the level of cleaning required by following DHS recommendations for workplace COVID Deep cleaning. Depending on the level of cleaning needed, some areas may need to be closed or partially closed down during the cleaning process. Our aim is to return a safe and hygienic workplace to you as quickly as possible with as little disruption to your business as possible.
We’re on the road back to the workplace, and it has never been more important to ensure a safe and hygienic environment for employees. Partnering with the right cleaning provider to guide you is vital. Proper COVID-19 cleaning and all that it entails is one of the most important things businesses need to get right for the road ahead – are you ready?