Facility managers play a crucial role in keeping COVID-19 at bay. With the current state of the world, not only do they need to maintain cleanliness, but they now also need to develop strategies to create a safe environment for employees to work in. This way, they can remain operational and not have to close down due to COVID-19 transmission.
In this article, we will take a look at four practices that office managers can emulate to keep their employees safe and their businesses operational amidst the pandemic:
If you weren’t working with a commercial cleaning service before the pandemic, then now is the time to consider your options. Just remember that when looking for a provider, ensure that they do more than just vacuuming and wipedowns.
Ensure that their staff is well-trained, bonded, and insured at the minimum. Since you’re paying them to help curb the spread of the virus, their team should be equipped with the proper personal protective equipment too.
This way, they can protect themselves from being carriers of the virus in the first place. They should also be knowledgeable about the proper handling of cleaning equipment to efficiently sanitize your workspaces.
With no cure or vaccine in clear sights yet, the only way that we can combat COVID-19 is to keep our environment as sanitary as possible. If you had your office janitorial services clean your offices once a day before the pandemic hit, raise that frequency by two to four times a day.
Place particular emphasis on high contact surfaces, such as door handles, toilets, tables, doorknobs, telephones, light switches, and other similar implements. To ensure the effectiveness of your sanitation efforts, see that the cleaning products being used meets Canada‘s requirements for emerging viral pathogens.
Sanitation efforts can only go so far. Whenever possible, echo the authorities’ recommendations, such as the World Health Organisation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Facility managers are responsible for enforcing policies that help curb the spread of the virus in the workplace.
Among such recommendations are:
While it will ultimately fall to the individual employee to take these policies seriously, facility managers should find ways to ensure these policies are being followed.
As mentioned earlier, it’s important to maintain a measure of social distancing protocol. This means looking at your office floor plan and look for ways to implement the policy. If the space is not big enough to fit the whole workforce with social distancing, remote working should be made a viable option.
If an employee gets sick while working on-site, the area where the infected person worked should be closed off and disinfected by your office janitorial services immediately. Any person who got in close contact with that employee should also be sent home and told to monitor themselves and check if they closely develop any symptoms.
With COVID-19 pushing for lockdowns and quarantine restrictions, causing business in Canada and worldwide to shut down, the crisis has become both medical and economical. With their livelihood cut off by the pandemic, people will have a more challenging time getting access to medical care and nutrition.
As such, keeping businesses open by curbing the spread of the virus in the workplace is necessary, not just for the company, but for the workers to thrive in these times. In this effort, it’s best to make the entire situation safe for your employees to continually provide both income and well-being in this time of fear.
Cleanrite Services brings over 25 years of experience as a commercial cleaning service in Medicine Hat, Alberta. We do office cleaning, carpet cleaning, commercial and industrial cleaning, and more. To help curb the spread of COVID-19 in our workplaces, we also offer electrostatic disinfection services. Connect with us and request a quote today!
403-529-1760
info@cleanriteservices.ca