As rates of COVID-19 infection gradually decline and some parts of the world are cautiously emerging from the pandemic, the main question on everyone’s mind is what does the new normal look like?
When it comes to returning to work, how can you prepare to keep your office safe and healthy? Ensuring thorough preventative cleaning and disinfecting prior to reopening your business is top of the list—and you should start booking commercial cleaning staff now to avoid the rush of post-lockdown requests.
Business owners and managers are learning about back-to-work protocols being implemented in areas around the world where pandemic restrictions are already lifting. In some countries, corporations are bringing employees back to work in percentage shifts and ensuring their facilities are deep-cleaned and disinfected on a daily basis. Some are even going the distance by disinfecting elevator buttons several times throughout the day to prevent transmission of disease as people travel in and out of buildings.
Your business will need to prepare its own health plan and policies to ensure safe working conditions for your employees returning to work. The following is a checklist of some protocols you may want to consider implementing to help maintain a clean, healthy and safe workplace.
- Update your company health policies to include specific reference to COVID-19. Ensure employees who may have been exposed to the virus continue to work from home until recovery or full quarantine has been achieved.
- Adjust office layout arrangements and implement adequate physical-distancing protocols for employees in all work areas.
- Provide PPE masks for employees and visitors who require or request them.
- Install hand-sanitizer stations in key locations throughout your facility, especially at entry and exit points and in bathrooms and kitchens.
- Remind employees and visitors that frequent hand washing is the best way to avoid spreading infection.
- Increase the frequency of professional cleaning and disinfecting in your facility, ideally to a daily schedule
- Improve the air quality and overall cleanliness in your office by increasing the frequency of vacuuming and commercial carpet cleaning.
- Implement a de-clutter policy to ensure desks and other surfaces are cleared off at the end of the day to allow janitorial staff full access to clean and disinfect all high-touch areas.
As experts in creating clean, safe and healthy environments, ServiceMaster Clean is aligned with Health Canada recommendations and we have preventive commercial cleaning and disinfecting processes and procedures to respond to all types of infectious disease contagions, including COVID-191.
Our locally owned ServiceMaster Clean team can help your business implement effective preventive cleaning, disinfecting and sanitizing protocols to help prevent outbreak and spread of infectious disease in your workplace. Please call to let us be of service.
1 Human coronaviruses can remain infectious on inanimate surfaces at room temperature for up to 9 days. At a temperature of 30°C [86°F] or more, the duration of persistence is shorter. Veterinary coronaviruses have been shown to persist even longer for 28 days.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/coronaviruses-how-long-can-they-survive-on-surfaces
DISCLAIMER – COVID-19 is an emerging pathogen and new information becomes available on a regular basis. The information presented here is based on reports available at the time this article was written, in May 2020, and is derived from several sources including the U.S. Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization, Health Canada and other sources. The information contained in this article may be updated at any point by the organizations mentioned herein. It is the responsibility of every business to stay current on new information regarding COVID-19 as it emerges. This article should not be construed to be the totality of all information available on COVID-19.