Is your team back to the office yet? Two years ago, in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, most companies sent their employees home – often with a laptop, and a pat on their back.
While many struggled to adapt, some employees quickly embraced the change and even became adept at working remotely.
Now, with Covid cases trending down and vaccinations rising, companies are now exploring ways to transition back to the office. However, many of them are grappling with creating and maintaining workplaces that are sanitary and hygienic for their employees.
While there’s no one size fits all approach to hygiene, we’ve put together three simple, but essential tips to help you and your employees set yourselves up for a successful and safe return to the office.
Tip #1: Create a safe workspace
Upon return, it will be essential to create and maintain a safe workplace to reduce the risk of Covid-19 exposure and infection. Therefore, focus on cleaning and sanitizing the workplace before your employees get back.
Hire a cleaning service to deep clean your entire business premises. Their cleaning procedures and solutions will help clean your premises thoroughly and kill more germs than most typical cleaning procedures and products do. They’ll also get into every cranny and nook, where germs and viruses could be lurking.
Next, create a daily cleaning routine for your workspaces and common areas. Ensure employee’s desks, offices, high traffic areas and common areas such as door handles, counters, and elevator buttons are disinfected daily.
Tip #2: Create & communicate essential hygiene and safety protocols
While your employees could be returning to familiar corridors and desks, a lot has changed in the way people interact. Your organization needs, therefore, to create new workplace policies and procedures in line with current covid-19 best practices.
Here are a few concerns you can create policies around:
- Social distancing
- Sick leave policy after one tests positive for COVID-19
- Office meetings and public gatherings
- Temperature checks and testing
Creating these policies will not only help keep employees stay safe but will also put them at ease and give them confidence that you care about their safety in the workplace.
Tip #3: Encourage good hand hygiene
Lowering the risk of covid-19 isn’t just about social distancing, proper hand hygiene is essential too. To promote good hand hygiene in your workplace you can;
Keep plenty of hygiene supplies in areas that are easily accessible such as
- Disinfectants
- Hand sanitizers
- Hand soap
- Paper towels
- Tissue
- Facemasks
Create visual reminders
Hang posters or signs in common areas that share information about handwashing practices and bathroom etiquette. A little reminder, sometimes, is all that it takes to get your employees to wash their hands.
Encourage employees to sanitize their workspaces
Remind employees to keep disinfecting their personal spaces and items such as their desks, and keyboards. This will help reduce the spread of germs between workers and ensure everyone in your office stays healthy at all times.
Final thoughts
As you work on bringing your employees back to the office, it is important you stay highly vigilant to ensure hygiene standards are maintained for a safe transition.
At Kim-Fay Professional, we believe in empowering every organization with the right tools for hygiene and safety in the workplace. Talk to our in-house experts at +254709892000 or via email: customercare@kimfay.com and let us help you to protect your most important resource; your team.
