Cold and Flu Season / COVID-19:

How Cleaning and Disinfecting Further Prevent the Spread of Infectious Diseases in the Workplace.

Cold and flu season is coming up, which brings its own set of challenges to the workplace. Combine those seasonal health risks with Covid-19 pandemic risks, and it becomes a lot more complicated than just dealing with Colds or Flu alone! Thankfully there are proven cleaning techniques that help keep your employees healthy in their work environment - like customized programs from Clean Sweep Commercial experts for facilities who want them (we can identify high touch areas too!).

Touch-Points And High Traffic Areas

Clean Sweep Commercial's cleaning routine is focused on the high-touch points of a business. These include light switches, door handles and handrails in places like elevators and other objects that are often touched, such as paper dispensers or break room appliances, for instance!

Cleaning And Disinfection 

Cleaning:

Cleaning is a process that involves removing dirt and impurities from surfaces. Frequently, cleaning with chemicals will involve using surfactants (soap) which can physically remove germs causing illness such as bacteria or viruses to help lower the risk of spreading infectious diseases through contact with an infected surface.

 Disinfection:

On the other hand, disinfecting a surface after cleaning can further lower the risk of spreading infectious bacteria and viruses. Disinfectants don't always remove tough stains or dirt, so be sure to follow your instructions for the best results!

Cleaning your facility is the best way to keep it clean and healthy, but if you want germs taken care of too, then be sure to do both tasks as needed! The first step in keeping things tidy should always involve cleaning surfaces so that dirt doesn't build up on them over time. Afterwards, apply disinfectant as per manufacturers instructions. 

Equipment And Chemicals

Clean Sweep's cleaners are equipped with the latest disinfectant application equipment such as electrostatic sprayers. These devices ensure that no germs or viruses can survive on your surface, making for an effective clean-up process!

Keeping Workplaces COVID Safe 

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) advises implementing the below six steps:  

• Covid Risk/Method Assessment
• Cleaning, Hygiene and Handwashing
• Ventilation
• Talk to Workers and Provide Information
• Working From Home
• Vulnerable Workers

Clean Sweep Commercial has been a leader in the commercial cleaning business for more than 16 years. We've got extensive experience and processes that can help reduce the spread of infectious diseases. This cold or flu season, be sure to protect your employees and customers by partnering with Clean Sweep!

 

 

 

Keeping Your Business COVID secure

The emergence of coronavirus has created a striking impact on the way we work and live. As the virus continued to spread, public life was highly affected. Many lost their lives, and almost all the industries in the world went through a tough time. Even though the situation is coming to normalcy now, but the fight is not over yet. There are still signs of coronavirus across the world, and the worse thing is there are many dangerous variants of it present in the environment. Due to this, we need to be extremely cautious about health.

Now many organizations are opening after almost two years of remote work. This can be very risky, but there is no other option but to tackle this virus. So how to do that in offices? As well all know that the spread of coronavirus is due to poor hygiene, so the best thing we can do is to maintain a healthy and clean environment in the workplace. There are other things as well in order to survive but maintaining a clean environment is the most crucial one. So here we will cover some points that will help your business to be COVID-FREE. 

Regular cleaning guidance by GOV.UK

COVID-19 transmits when people breathe in air contaminated by droplets and small airborne particles containing the virus. The risk of breathing these in is highest when people are in close proximity, but they can be inhaled over longer distances, particularly indoors. Transmission can also occur if splashed or sprayed with contaminated fluids in the eyes, nose or mouth, and, rarely, via contaminated surfaces. People remain contagious for up to 20 days and can spread the virus even if they do not develop symptoms. With good disinfection and a deep cleaning routine, you can reduce or even eliminate the risk of the spread of this virus through objects and surfaces. Having a clean environment has now become a necessity in life. 

GOV.UK has provided detailed instructions on their website to people on how to maintain a disinfected workspace. You need to read the Working Safely During Cooronavirus (COVID-19) guidelines and understand them, but before that, here are some key points you shouldn’t miss.

• Cleaning work areas and equipment between uses.
• Determining the required cleaning process for expensive equipment that cannot be washed down. Design protection around machines and equipment.
• Frequently clean objects and surfaces that people touch regularly. This includes door handles and keyboards. Make sure there are adequate disposal arrangements for cleaning products.
• Clearing workspaces and remove waste and belongings from the work area at the end of a shift.
• If you’re cleaning after a known or suspected case of COVID19, refer to the guidance on cleaning in non-healthcare settings.
• Providing extra non-recycling bins for workers and visitors to dispose of single-use face coverings and PPE.

 

 

 Special consideration for escalators and elevators

• Encourage your employees to take stairs if possible so that the escalators or elevators won’t be crowded. 
• Limit the number of people in an elevator entering to ensure social distancing.
• Hire a professional service to clean the elevators from time to time, and the buttons are touched by so many people, and the chance of the virus spreading is high. 
• Ask all the staff and employees to keep their hands clean and wear a mask all the time. 

Keep the ventilation systems clean, and maintain air quality.

The covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of indoor air quality. Germs and spread through the air, and it can affect the immune system, which further increases the risk. Offices have to take preventative measures to maintain air quality and make sure the air is free from contamination and organic compounds like mould, bacteria, and viruses. To maintain a good indoor environment, offices can hire a professional cleaning service to clean the system and filtration system. Try to add filters to enhance the efficiency of the system. 

Follow these tips for a better indoor air quality 

• Examine indoor air quality and address the problem in the environment
• Conduct test and quality assessments to improve the ventilation system 
• Create air-quality awareness in your office 
• Use additional filters where needed 

Hire a cleaning team

Many offices have decided to hire full-time cleaning teams, and you can do the same. It will cost you little money, but the result will be worth it, the smaller organization needs few cleaning staff compared to big offices. Decide what is best for your business and take preventative measures accordingly.

If you are going to hire a team, then make sure the team is experienced enough.  

• Deep cleaning

Deep cleaning should be done in all frequently touched and used areas at least once a day.

• Periodic cleaning

This cleaning can differ throughout the day, and it includes cleaning items immediately after the use and also surfaces on regularly to reduce the spread. 

 

 

Final words

With an effective cleaning routine, you can fight against the spread of coronavirus. Even now, there are vaccines available, and you need to take the responsibility to make sure that your building and employees are COVID-secure. Don’t forget that a healthy environment can lead to your business goals. 

The current COVID pandemic has meant that many businesses have had to relook at current cleaning regimes and schedules to remain COVID-secure. It is of little surprise that business are now reconsidering or looking at out of hours cleaning. In my experience, cleaning is safer and more cost-efficient out of hours, making it a win-win for everyone, especially in these uncertain times.

 

Disruption

Studies have shown that "it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task". Thus every time a member of your staff has to move or is interrupted, it's costing you time, and we all know time is money. How does it look when your client can hear a vacuum in the background.

 

Exposure to toxins           

Since COVID, we, like many other cleaning providers, are using hospital-grade cleaning chemicals. These chemicals need dwell times to be effective in most cases, meaning spraying them and leaving for several minutes. Our operatives wear appropriate PPE when cleaning. Are your staff and visitors protected as well? 

 

Health & Safety

 Obviously, cleaning out of hours means there is no need to worry about staff and visitors tripping on wet floors or tripping on a vacuum cord. The HSE estimates trips and slips on average cost employers £500.00 a year. 

 

COVID

As I write this, we are still in a lockdown; however, going by previous government guidelines and regulations, one can assume that COVID-19 will still be here for the foreseeable future. Therefore it makes sense that cleaning operative should remain in their own bubble separate if at all possible from your staff and visitors.   

 

Time-Saving 

Simply cleaning out of hours saves time. Not having to clean around staff and visitors, our operative can drastically save you time and money. 

What is a KPI, and what does it have to do with my Cleaning Service?

KPI's, or Key Performance Indicators are quantifiable metrics that a company uses to measure how it's doing in terms of strategic and operation goals.  

The overall objective of KPI reporting by your cleaning provider is to ensure they respond to your goals in keeping your facility clean and safe for staff, visitors and contractors. 

There are five main categories of KPI's your cleaning service provider should be reporting:

1. Quality of Service
2. Client Satisfaction
3. Cleaning Operatives
4. Safety
5. Financial

Within each of these five categories, there is a variety of possible KPI's. Your provider should work with you to determine which are the most relevant to your business.   

        

1. Quality of Service 

a. Results of quality audits by location and/or department (identifying if a particular area or department needs improvement) 

b. Results of quality audits by individuals and/or team (identifying if a specific individual or team needs improvement) 

c. Results of quality audits by item (identifying if a particular service such as dusting needs improvement throughout the location or by an individual) 

d. NOTE: All quality audits should be compared to the established quality requirements of the location 

 

2. Client Satisfaction and Responsiveness 

a. Results of client surveys (has your service provider surveyed you recently?) 

b. Number of special requests submitted compared to number of special requests completed 

c. Number of client compliments

d. Number of client complaints and their disposition 

 

3. Cleaning Operatives 

a. Employee productivity (identifying production rates of square footage cleaned per hour; cost per cleaned area; area cleaned per full-time janitorial worker) 

b. Employee retention

c. Employee turnover

d. Employee attendance/absenteeism

e. Training hours for cleaning procedures, safety and policies 

 

4. Safety 

a. Number of near misses

b. Number of lost workday incidents

c. Number of recordable incidents

 

5. Financial 

a. Comparison of actual expenses to budget, to include labour, equipment cost, chemical cost and consumables cost   

 

How Does Your Current Cleaning Service Measure Accountability?

 

 

Our In-House Bespoke Auditing Software SENTINEL allows you to Track Daily KPI's, Date/Time on Site, GPS Location, Questionnaires, Images and QR codes.