Offices are a bustling working environment where staff often work around 40 hours per week. Therefore, it is important to keep the place clean and tidy- ensuring that the environment is nice to be around and sanitary, particularly when we are still dealing with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many companies still rely on the office manager or office employees to keep the environment clean. However, this has its pitfalls. Hiring a professional cleaning company can make a positive impact on the whole office, making a difference in productivity levels and saving time and money… Let’s take a closer look!
While a hard-working office manager may try their best, they will not be comparable to the years of experience that a reputable cleaning company will have. Any staff that work for a cleaning company will have received training, understand the products that they are using and have built up more knowledge through cleaning on the job. This ensures that every part of your office is cleaned properly and efficiently.
Hiring a professional cleaning company frees up time for the office staff who would previously be expected to clean. This gives them more time to concentrate on their work and provides them with a clean environment to focus and be more productive in.
Ultimately, if someone is working in an office in a space that is messy or cluttered, then they are less likely to be productive and complete their best work. According to a survey conducted in London, for example, 9/10 office workers actively felt more productive in a clean and tidy environment.
If you are asking employees to take time to clean the office to an adequate standard, it is to be expected that it will take up a large chunk of their time, meaning that it will cost your business money as they are not working in their role. This time could be utilized more productively to generate a profit for your business instead of cleaning. While hiring a professional cleaning company will have an initial cost, it will save employees time and money in the long run.
Employees that are doing their best to clean offices may not have the appropriate training required to properly disinfect and clean the office environment. Over time, despite their best efforts, bacteria may build-up- which can impact the staff’s health. If staff are unwell, they may take days off, costing the company money in sick pay or temporary staff.
Professional cleaning services will use products that kill harmful germs and bacteria and will keep on top of cleaning to ensure that the environment is always sanitary and hygienic. This is especially important in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which reminded us how quickly viruses and bacteria can spread.
By not asking office managers and office staff to undertake cleaning responsibilities and instead hiring it out to professional cleaners, staff feel more valued. This further shows staff that you want to invest time in making them feel more comfortable by improving their environment.
In addition to bringing in their skills and experience, a professional cleaning company can also bring industrial cleaning products and equipment that is better than the standard products that appear on supermarket shelves. This ensures that your office is cleaned to the highest of standards and any surface that is shared by multiple people is appropriately disinfected.
Many professional cleaning companies have now also switched to environmentally-friendly products which are not only effective but are kinder to the environment. This helps reduce businesses’ carbon footprint and commitment to the planet.
A working environment that frequently welcomes potential clients or customers should be finished and cleaned to a high standard in order to create a good first impression. Clients will look for companies that take pride in their surroundings, as this shows that they are likely to put the effort into their services. While office staff may be able to keep the office clean, a professional cleaning company will finish it to the highest of standards, impressing those who wish to invest in your business.
Offices often have long working hours and will have different requirements depending on the type of business that they are in. Fitting in time to clean around your work schedule can be difficult for employees. By hiring a cleaning company, they can listen to your needs and work around your schedule, arriving at a time that is most convenient for your company.
Professional cleaners can work with you to understand what the business’ particular needs are before creating a bespoke cleaning contract that suits your needs.
Hiring a professional cleaning company will ensure that your office is kept to a high cleaning standard. One way that this is guaranteed is that there will be a cleaning contract between your company and theirs. If the cleaning standards slip, a contract is in place to rectify the situation.
As part of their contract, many cleaners undertake regular training on products and health and safety issues.
Putting the burden of heavy office cleaning on staff members and office managers can be stressful. Staff will feel pressured, and this can have an impact on their mental health and their ability to work productively. Additionally, tension can build between employees if some are doing more cleaning than others or creating more mess than others which does not lead to a positive working environment.
Professional cleaning services take the stress of cleaning responsibilities away from staff, allowing them to focus on their job.
With the development of the Covid-19 pandemic and the increased risk of transmitting harmful viruses and bacteria, it has never been more important to ensure that workplaces and public settings are kept clean and sanitary. This is even more vital in a healthcare setting where many will be receiving treatment that makes them even more vulnerable.
According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, it is best practice to clean a healthcare setting before using disinfectant or sterilization products. This is to ensure that any foreign materials such as organic material and soil are removed. To complete the initial clean, use water with detergent to wipe down all surfaces. It is important to do this and remove the foreign material, as if this step was skipped, the material could interfere with the effectiveness of the disinfectant process. When cleaning surfaces manually, it is important to apply friction to the surface and use appropriate fluids to remove the debris. Surgical instruments or tools should also be cleaned before disinfecting by soaking or rinsing them to remove bodily fluids in a medical setting. With these tools, it is important to ensure that they are fully cleaned; therefore, instruments with hinges should be fully open.
Cleaning can also be undertaken with automatic or mechanical cleaners. One of the most common types of automatic cleaner is an ultrasonic cleaner, that can remove debris from tools by cavitation and implosion from the waves of acoustic energy through a solution to break down the bonds that connect the debris to the surface of the tools. It is important to note that some cleaning fluids often used with ultrasonic cleaners can result in endotoxin contamination, which can lead to inflammatory reactions in patients, so it is best to avoid this. Instead, consider using a neutral or near-neutral PH detergent solution as this is more compatible. Enzymes such as proteases can be added to these solutions, as these can help remove organic material by attacking the proteins in them.
After any cleaning or disinfectant solutions are used, the equipment or tools should be rinsed to reduce any residual chemicals or products on them.
One concerning statistic is that only 34% of surfaces near patients are cleaned in accordance with the standards and policies recommended by healthcare experts. This can lead to an increased risk of infection or transmission of bacteria and virus, leading to patient illness. In order to improve these, it is important to add a monitoring process into your cleaning routine as this can improve the levels of cleaning, doubling the effectiveness. In order to ensure that effective cleaning has taken place, a reprocessing verification test can be employed. Although the CDC does not routinely recommend this, it does ensure that the cleaning process is working.
After all surfaces and tools are appropriately cleaned, the disinfection process can then take place. Disinfection helps reduce the number of micro-organisms on a surface to reduce the risk of transmission to patients. It is recommended that hard surfaces should be disinfected with 1000ppm (0.1%) chlorine releasing agent/hypochlorite solution or chlorine dioxide solution. This solution should be diluted according to the manufacturer’s exact instructions to ensure that the solution will work to its maximum capacity.
Hypochlorite solutions can be corrosive, so they should be rinsed off stainless steel surfaces after the process, while chlorine solutions do not require this final step.
There are three main types of cleaning in a healthcare setting: routine, enhanced, and terminal. Routine cleaning should be completed at least once a day and cover all general surfaces and tools with a detergent and then a disinfectant solution.
On the other hand, enhanced cleaning should be utilized if there if an outbreak or increase in infection levels, for example, during the Covid-19 pandemic. The rate of cleaning should increase to at least twice per day, and it should include all surfaces usually disinfected in a general clean, plus high-touch points such as rails, the arms of chairs, door handles, and push plates.
Terminal cleaning is at the top of the scale; this is where a whole facility or department is cleaned due to an outbreak of infection in close proximity to the area, after the discharge or death of a patient with a known infection or isolation of a patient with a potential infection. At this stage, some facilities may wish to add in additional measures such as vaporized hydrogen peroxide or steam to decontaminate the air as well as surfaces. At this point, all cleaners should wear PPE equipment to protect themselves. This should be discarded after one use and disposed of as clinical waste. Any windows should be opened to aid ventilation, and disposable cloths and mop heads should be used so that they can also be disposed of as clinical waste.
Here at Innovative Cleaning Solutions, we provide top quality cleaning services for many different healthcare facilities. We work in collaboration with our clients, creating a Cleaning Maintenance Plan based on the individual facilities needs. We use our decade of combined experience to ensure that we follow international health standards and specialize in the ‘Cleaning for Health’ methodology. We ensure that our products are both environmentally friendly, non-toxic, and offer high levels of disinfectant. We use a three-step check after our cleaning to ensure that it meets the high standards necessary in a healthcare setting.
First, we use UVA inspection tools to locate any missed areas. Second, we utilize Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to help identify any bacteria left in the area and measure its level of harm. Third, we then resolve these issues, breaking down any bacteria or micro-organisms, ensuring a sanitized environment. If you are looking to keep your healthcare setting clean, safe, and sanitized, contact us today for a free, no obligation quote.