3 Simple Ways to Keep Your Office Kitchen COVID-Safe

Keeping your workplace kitchens clean and safe is of utmost importance, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. A single infection can put more than one life at risk; it can spread quickly among your employees and to their families. Even if just one cough or sneeze can contain enough of the virus to spread to other human beings.

In the workplace kitchen, you need to make sure that everything is clean to avoid transmission. To protect yourself, clean your hands frequently with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water. 

Since the vaccine is rolling out, there is a chance that lockdown may be lifted soon, and you may have to go back to work. If you go back to your workplace, a few things need to be done a little differently to keep everyone safe. It wouldn’t be a problem because many of these adjustments were made during the first months of the pandemic. 

 

You just need to add a few rules, such as limiting the number of people in the kitchen and implementing a rigorous cleaning schedule. One of the most important things to implement is keeping the workplace kitchen safe and clean. Some offices have banned communal kitchens entirely since these shared spaces feature high-touch surfaces, which may spread the virus from unsanitized hands. 

If you do plan on keeping your communal kitchen open, here are some of the precautions you need to take to keep it clean and safe for everyone:

• Improve your cleaning rotation to keep everything clean

One of the best ways to promote a safe and clean workplace kitchen is to boost your kitchen cleaning schedule. Have someone clean the kitchen, especially after high traffic times: lunch hour, snack time, and coffee breaks. It’s best to work together with your cleaners to create a rigorous cleaning schedule for your workplace kitchen. 

• Place a hand sanitizer at the entrance and exit of the kitchen

It’s best to keep alcohol or a hand sanitizer at the entrance and exit of the kitchen. In this way, workers would clean their hands before and after using the shared space. 

• Reduce the workplace kitchen facilities and set a capacity limit

Another way you can reduce the transmission of the virus is to limit the usage of the workplace kitchen facilities. One way to do it is to encourage staff to bring only cold lunches to work, which don’t require refrigeration or heating. In this way, you can reduce the number of touch points in the kitchen. 

As for the capacity limit in the kitchen, you can place a rule wherein there should only be 2 to 5 people in the kitchen at a time. With this rule, you can reduce the cross-contamination between staff sharing surfaces even in a larger space. Many businesses apply the “one in, one out” policy.

Conclusion

Keeping your workplace kitchen clean and safe does not only benefit the company but your employees too. You can alleviate their fear of going to work by making sure they are taken care of. Set these rules before you let them go back to work and ensure they are strictly followed. 

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