Be Concerned With Your Office Cleanliness!

7/1/2020 (Permalink)

Cleaning Your Office Is Important

Have you ever considered how an office space might affect your health?  Industry research consistently reveals that office environments can be breeding grounds for germs.  Notice these statistics:

• The average desk harbors about 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat, with some of these bacteria types being incredibly harmful and contributing to the spread of disease.
• Office phones have been found to harbor 25,127 germs per square inch.  And, these germs can be different types of bacteria – everything from Helicobacter pylori, to E- Coli.
• Office kitchenettes can be heavy ‘sickness-inducing’ germ offenders.  For example, refrigerator handles, cabinet tops, water coolers and the like can host a heavy concentration of germs.  Research showed one office water cooler to house 2.7 million germs per square inch!  
• A survey of 1,000 office workers found that over two-thirds of workers put themselves at risk by not following recommended guidelines for how often to clean your workspace.

Thus, the cleanliness of your office can directly affect the health of office employees and customers.  Cold and flu season can greatly exacerbate the risk.  Your Facility Manager and Cleaning Company should be concerned with your office cleanliness to reduce harmful germs and bacteria.

Here are a few reminders of high impact office cleaning tasks:

• Keep entrance glass spotless.  Smudges and a ‘greasy look’ will generate an immediate negative perception.
• Foyer and lobby floors should be well maintained.  Even small amounts of debris and dirt can give the impression the ‘whole office must be dirty.’
• What about odors when entering your office suite?  Does it smell clean and fresh?  Or possibly stale or ‘slightly off’?  Often, carpets can be the culprit in office odor.  Regular professional carpet cleaning is highly recommended.
• Dirty HVAC vents and returns will quickly relay an unclean environment.  Use a HEPA vacuum to thoroughly clean vents without dust reintroduction.
• Water fountains and water coolers that reflect stains, debris, and standing water are off-putting and unsanitary.  Often daily sanitizing is necessary to maintain a clean look and healthy use.  Also, take note of carpet stains or wet areas caused by leaking fountains.

Thus, a clean office will assuredly enhance your brand reputation.  However, a dirty one will drive opinions to the negative, and this can indeed spread quickly via word-of-mouth, social media, and online reviews.  Ensure you have a strong commercial cleaning program.  Foot traffic, geography, industry and the like play an important role in cleaning tasks and frequency.

SERVPRO North Highlands/ Rio Linda