Going forward, paths to ensuring occupant wellness will take precedence over many other priorities typical to business endeavors to promote ongoing and increasing public health and safety.
Ensuring Facility Occupant Wellness
Cleaning trends had long been moving toward a focus on cleaning for occupant health and wellness over appearance.
Now, due to obvious circumstances, a turning point has been reached where schools and businesses will adopt a new focus on the purpose and promise of a facility that is maintained with the safety and overall wellbeing of occupants in mind.
Conversely, those organizations that fail to rise to the current challenge may begin to hemorrhage valuable human resources.
According to a recent article published by industry magazine, CleanLink;
There’s a major mindset shift for employees that’s actually an amazing opportunity for employers.
COVID-19 is absolutely a watershed moment for how businesses approach their facility maintenance specifically in light of employee wellness concerns.
Facilities no longer have to simply look clean, the real sticking point for employees (and anyone else who steps into a public workplace) will be:
Are the people in charge of this space-maintaining it with occupant health and safety in mind?
In short: Does my employer care enough about me to spend the extra money and time to help assure my health?
People will gravitate to places that seem sanitary and be repelled from places that don't.
However, the process involved with ensuring facility cleanliness and occupant health will require several things, including:
- Highly trained and dedicated staff.
- Modern tools and chemicals, and;
- Advanced planning and documentation.
Tips to Ensure Occupant Wellness and Pathogen Control
In general, there are several areas critical to the health and cleanliness of any facility, including:
- Enhanced Hand Hygiene - Restrooms and other hand hygiene stations should include touchless fixtures to dispense paper towels, top-loading liquid foaming soap, and hand sanitizer (typically placed outside of the restroom and adjacent to high-contact touchpoints throughout the facility). Posters, emails, and regular training sessions will help instill the importance of frequent handwashing to ensure individual and public health and safety.
- Surface Cleaning - Modern cleaning chemicals are not one-size-fits-all--what you use to clean the floor in the restroom is likely inappropriate for cleaning the tables in your breakroom--so cleaning product choice and use should be contingent upon the zone and surface type. Additional considerations will involve the use of modern tools, such as color-coded smart disposable microfiber towels and touchless cleaning and disinfection systems. Advanced chemical management and dispensing systems will also be necessary to ensure proper dilution while eliminating guesswork and worker exposure to chemicals.
- High-Touch Surface Disinfecting - 80% of commonly spread pathogens travel from person to person via touch, making routine high-contact touchpoint disinfection a crucial component of any facility wellness program. Given that these surfaces are touched routinely throughout the day, combined with the inability to determine the hygiene of the hands touching them, the best solution is to wipe down the surfaces multiple times per day with an EPA-registered medical-grade disinfectant wipe appropriate for your specific facility and surface type. Additional touchless disinfection services should be performed regularly, especially during cold and flu season, and at the first signs of a pathogen outbreak.
- Custodial Safety - Maintaining a highly trained and motivated team of custodians will require increased salaries, ongoing advanced training, guaranteed career advancement paths, and the assurance of personal safety. That means the acquisition, maintenance, and issuance of high-performance personal protective equipment that exceeds environmental demands. Cutting corners in this area will almost assuredly hasten the departure of valuable human resources to a competitive organization that values all of its employees.
- Pollutant Source Control - Indoor air pollution is a profit, grade, and productivity killer. Sources of contamination include dirt, chemicals, germs, and bacteria brought in on our shoes from the outside. Additional sources include odors and bacteria originating in trash receptacles or the buildup of recyclable products, as well as mold and mildew buildup in drains. Each of these areas will need to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, which is appropriate for your organization type, facility constraints, and other factors, including occupant demographics and health.
References & Resources
Takeaway
When it comes to facility cleanliness and hygiene, 'business as usual' is now a thing of the past.
Ensuring occupant wellness to the degree which is being demanded will require a highly skilled and well-equipped custodial and facilities maintenance team.
Given the high industry turnover rates of the past, combined with the immediate need for technical skills, expensive equipment, and experience with planning and executing zone cleaning plans, outsourcing to a service provider with a proven track record of success will yield the best outcome for your organization.
Contact us today and discover why Vanguard Cleaning Systems® is the Standard of Clean® for businesses throughout Northwest Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma.
In Oklahoma, dial 918-960-4450
In Arkansas, dial 479-717-2410
In Missouri, dial 417-812-9777
