Many organisations have yet to bring their staff back to the workplace or may only have been operating on a skeleton basis during the pandemic. Some employees faced with a return to the workplace will be naturally anxious that their working environment is COVID safe. Employee safety should be a top priority for all organisations, yet in a recent TUC survey, a significant number of safety representatives suggested that adequate COVID security had not been implemented in their organisation.
The visibility and rigidity of cleaning and sanitisation routines, for example, has a key role to play in helping employees feel that they are being properly safeguarded. We set out here a few simple common sense and easy to implement guidelines to help ensure that your employees can return to work to a safe environment.
As a first step, assess and prioritise the areas to be kept clean and sanitised*.
Give priority to areas with high footfall and where people will most frequently come into contact. Within these areas consider potential infection hotspots such as desks, photocopiers and don't forget door handles and push plates.
Develop a list for each room, hallway, entrance and so on and identify the key infection risks - where people congregate, come into close contact or objects they frequently touch. Once developed, determine the frequency of cleaning and sanitising that will be necessary. Importantly, be strategic and focussed. Don't for example assign the same priority to cleaning skirting boards, which are rarely touched, as to regular sanitisation of handles on frequently opened doors.
If you have not already reconfigured your workspace to allow for social distancing or, where not possible, installed safety screens or similar, then now is the time to do this. You may also need to adapt work processes or introduce rules designed to reduce the number of interactions between your staff.
Encourage regular hand washing and install hand sanitiser stations at key points. Preventing the spread of infection, whether COVID-19 or any other pathogen - is dependent upon on certain 'key moments' which occur during the working day - visiting the WC, when entering a building, handling waste and so on. Employees can greatly help reduce the risk of spreading infection by sanitising or washing before these moments. See our article The 8 Moments of Hygiene for more guidance.
We also know that good ventilation is really important for reducing coronavirus transmission, so consider how you can keep areas consistently well ventilated.
Assessing your requirement, developing an appropriate cleaning and sanitising regime, implementing social distancing and sanitising stations and the like, although fundamental, only has value if the protocols developed around these actions are consistently followed. For this to take place, you will need to implement clear guidance and easy to follow instructions, and ensure that every employee has access to appropriate training and education.
See our Infection Control articles for more help and advice regarding specific aspects of keeping your workplace safe and infection free. Or contact us if you have any specific questions regarding cleaning and sanitisation applications or the appropriate products to use.
* Although often considered to be one and the same thing, there is a significant difference between cleaning and sanitising. Cleaning will remove dirt but not necessary all sources of infection (bacteria and viruses), which is the job of sanitising. For a quick understanding of the differences see our short video The differences between cleaning and sanitising