Important Guidelines For Reopening Your Office

After a year of uncertainty, we are starting to see more and more office spaces reopen. Even though Covid-19 cases have dropped and many are getting vaccinated, you may still find it important to help your employees feel safe as they return back to the work space. Here are some things employers can do to ensure employees feel safe. 

1.    Create Covid-19 Signage:

Make sure you have the appropriate signage around the office to keep people informed and as a reminder to wear a mask (if you are requiring that), to disinfect and/or wash hands frequently.

2.     Encourage Work from Home (if applicable):

If an employee is feeling sick, it’s better if they stay home. Consider having a quick online survey for them to fill out every morning if you feel that is necessary. Also, have a checklist with Covid-19 symptoms and send home any employee that has any of the symptoms.

3.    Encourage Social Distancing:

If necessary, you may ask employees to still wear face masks and keep everyone 6ft apart. Make sure all the desks are separated and if possible, install desk dividers.  If you need help getting these installed, ask a handy-man if your janitorial company does not offer this service.

4.     Have Cleaning and Sanitation Procedures in place:

Train your employees on cleaning and disinfecting. Make sure they are washing their hands frequently. Have hand sanitizing stations throughout the office. Talk with your janitorial cleaning company to implement cleaning and disinfecting of regular touched surface areas. Make sure any shared areas like the kitchen, restroom, and printing areas are being disinfected frequently.  Ask your janitorial company to add extra disinfecting services. If your office was being cleaned three times a week, now is a good time to switch to five times a week. Adding a 2-4 hour day porter may also a good option.

5.      Have an emergency plan ready:

If someone tests positive for Covid-19, have a plan ready to make sure anyone that was in the office is informed so they can take necessary precautions. Call your janitorial cleaning company to come do an Electrostatic Fogging Disinfecting service as this service will kill the virus in the area as well as help make employees feel safe returning back into the office.

Implementing a Sanitation and Disinfecting Plan for your Workplace

Is your office open or opening back up soon? Creating a routing sanitation and disinfecting plan is important to reduce the risk of exposing your employees or clients to Covid-19. The following are things that you should implement to keep everyone in your office as safe as possible.

1.  Create a Sanitation and Disinfecting Plan

• Evaluate what surfaces are cleaned in a normal cleaning routine and which surfaces are frequently touched and need to be disinfected properly.
• Make sure frequently touched surfaces are properly cleaned first. After they are cleaned make sure they are disinfected with a product from the EPA’s list of approved products that are effective against Covid-19. Very important to understand there is a difference in cleaning and disinfecting.
• IMPORTANT: Do not mix bleach with any other cleaning products.
• If the office has been closed for more than 7 days, the office will only need a deep cleaning. This is due to the Covid-19 virus not surviving on surfaces for that long of a period.
• Add a day porter or have someone in the office clean high-touched areas during business hours. Depending on the amount of people at the office and your operational budget, we suggest an 8 hour day porter to a 4 hour day porter.

2. What Areas Should be Disinfected?

• Tables, doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, desks, phones, keyboards, toilets, faucets and sinks, touch screens, ATM machines, printers, shredders, and copy machines.

3. Keep Disinfecting Supplies in the Office

• Leave disinfecting wipes around shared equipment and ask employees to wipe them down after they are used.
• Make sure to have strategically placed hand sanitizers around the office and in communal spaces and touch points.

4.     Social Distance and Wear Face masks

• Encourage your employees to keep wearing their face mask and maintain social distance around the office.
• Change office layout or consider adding dividers to help follow social distance guidelines.
• Cancel all in person meetings if social distance cannot be met.

5.     Emergency Disinfecting Services

• Make sure to have an emergency plan with your Janitorial Cleaning Company if someone in the office tests positive for Covid-19.
• Most Janitorial Cleaning Companies offer Electrostatic Disinfecting Services. Have a plan ready in case of any emergency.

Adding a Day Porter is Now Essential

Almost a year ago, the world as we knew it changed forever. Hopefully one day things will go back to normal, but as of right now, we are still in the middle of a pandemic. As your employees  are preparing to head back into the office over the coming weeks, one thing you can do to better protect  your business is to staff up on a Day Porter Cleaning Service. A Day Porter is a cleaning professional that is staffed during regular working hours to continuously clean and disinfect high traffic areas.  Here’s how adding this cleaning professional to your business could help protect your employees:

1. Prevent the Spread of Covid-19:

Before Covid-19, a cleaning company would mostly go at night to service the facility. They would take care of the basic cleaning. Covid-19 changed cleaning companies and the services they offer. One of the main focuses of a cleaning company is to disinfect and sanitize the facilities. There are many offices that are still open and employees  aren’t able to work from home. To stop the spread of Covid-19, it’s important to have a day porter disinfecting and sanitizing high touched surfaces. Day porters can service break rooms and restrooms through the day. 

2. High Traffic Hours

Disinfecting Day Porters can make sure to keep everything clean and stocked during high traffic hours. You might feel you only need a day porter for a few hours a day. They can come during lunch hours and service the break rooms to make sure everything is cleaned after lunch. They can also service the restrooms to make sure they are fully stocked and cleaned after the high traffic hours.

3. Emergency Cleaning

Accidents happen frequently especially in offices. People spill their coffee on the rugs, break things, etc. Day porters can take care of any accidents around the office. They can clean up spills as soon as they happen, which can help prevent those hard to remove carpet stains.

4. Customizable Service

Every office is different. Depending on what your needs are, a cleaning company can work with you and customize the day porter service you are looking for. Cleaning companies will work with you and your schedule. 

Hiring a day porter has many benefits. The most important right now is to help prevent the spread of Covid-19. Talk to your cleaning company to see what they are offering to help keep your office as safe as possible.

Changes in Cleaning Protocols for Janitorial Teams During Covid-19 and the Future

COVID-19 has caused many changes in cleaning protocols for Janitorial Cleaning Companies. Janitorial Cleaning Teams have retrained staff, adapted to the new protocols, and become even more essential to our cities. The main focus for cleaning companies has shifted from regular cleaning services to high-touch point full disinfecting services. Here are a few tips that can help cleaning crews implement effective and efficient disinfecting protocols.

1.     Train your cleaning teams on the difference between cleaning and disinfecting

Cleaning refers to the removal of dirt and germs. Disinfecting is the process of using chemicals to kill germs. Before COVID-19, we wouldn’t hear much about the importance of disinfecting surfaces and high-touched areas. Clients would ask for daily trash removal and weekly dusting. Now, almost all of the services being requested are upgraded request to focus more on disinfecting all surfaces on every visit. Disinfecting surfaces helps eliminate COVID-19 and helps reduce the risk of spreading the virus, any virus. Janitorial Teams have to make sure they are focusing on both cleaning and disinfecting.

2.     The use of disinfecting products and training cleaning teams

You don’t need to buy a lot of different disinfecting products. Select an appropriate product that can be used throughout the facility. This makes training easier. You will not need to train your team on how to use a variety of products. This reduces risk of error and improper use.  We recommend using and an EPA registered disinfectant that is also a neutral cleaner making it safe on all surfaces, including floors.

3.     Add disinfecting as part of the cleaning process

When janitorial companies walk a facility to generate a cleaning proposal, they create a cleaning plan for the client. It’s important cleaning companies add disinfecting as part of the daily work scope, making sure to follow CDC Guidelines as well as using EPA approved and registered products.  Some businesses have added Electrostatic Fogging Disinfecting services in between shifts in addition to the high-touch point disinfecting services. This helps reduce the risk of multiple employees becoming sick at once.

We can’t predict when COVID-19 will be over, but for now, we can adapt quickly to the current situation and be more proactive in keeping our facilities safe. COVID-19 has caused a heightened cleaning standard and has changed the cleaning industry for the years to come. In preparation, Professional full service janitorial companies need to stay informed d to ensure all staff is trained properly accordingly to new protocols.

Disinfecting programs to stop the spread of Covid- 19

The pandemic has changed the way of life and the way all businesses now operate. March 2020 will be unforgettable for the entire world. It’s crazy to see entire office buildings closed for for now almost a full year. The streets are empty and a lot of people are staying home and trying to social distance as much as possible. What happens next? Slowly, businesses are starting to open back up but things have changed completely. Property Managers have had to find and implement solutions to keep their employees and tenants safe. What disinfecting programs is your landlord or you implementing to stop the spread of Covid-19? The following are useful and important items to keep in mind when you reopen your business to your staff and clients again.

Day Porter High Touch Point Disinfecting: Most offices used to only be cleaned at the end of the day. Keeping an office clean and disinfected throughout the day has become extremely important. Hiring a Day Porter to disinfect high-touched surfaces and make sure your consumables are fully stocked will help ease the mind of your employees that are back in the office. Make sure all door handles, keypads, printers, counters, tables and chairs are disinfected daily and multiple times.  It is very important you are using an EPA registered neutral disinfectant.

Making Sure you Have Enough Supplies: When the pandemic started, facilities saw a huge shortage in supplies like toilet paper and paper towels as well as disinfecting products. Luckily, things got better now, but as more offices start opening back up, we might see another shortage. Make sure you have a reliable wholesale provider or a janitorial company that works with one. Most well established commercial janitorial companies already have long-standing partnership with suppliers and can easily keep your supplies and disinfecting products fully stocked.

Stay Informed: While we have learned so much about Covid-19 there is still a lot more we need to discover. Facility managers need to make sure to stay fully informed especially if any health organization like The World Health Organization (WHO) or Center of Disease Control (CDC) update their cleaning and disinfecting guidance as we learn more about the virus.

What to Expect: Remember, there is always something good that comes out of a bad situation. Due to Covid-19, we have all adopted better cleaning protocols and they will become part of your daily life moving forward. This will help facility managers to be prepared and address other outbreaks like the seasonal flu or other challenges to come in the near future.  

Schedule Deep Cleaning Services

Many of us are still working from home and either not going into the office at all or going in only as needed.  While some of your facilities are still in shutdown mode, it’s important to continue to have regular cleaning services to maintain the space. Our recommendation is to have a deep cleaning service at least once monthly.

Regular cleaning services will help prevent bug and cobweb buildup and prevent stains from setting in on sinks and toilets that aren’t in use. As well, it will ensure your A/C intakes are kept clean from dust and debri buildup. Regular cleaning services will also help ensure your facility is in tip-top shape, so that when your team makes the decision to go back to work in the office, the space will be ready to go.

One more point, if your team has been primarily working remotely, you may not be aware of some additional services your commercial cleaning crew is now offering and that now is the best time to schedule since the facility is vacant.  Here are a few services that come to mind that you should consider to help your employees feel safe as you reopen your space:

1. Electrostatic Fogging Disinfecting Services – can be scheduled as a regular recurring service or as an emergency service if a COVID-19 case is suspected in the workspace
2. Regular Deep Cleaning Services
3. Day Porter Disinfecting Service during the hours of high employed traffic
4. Carpet Cleaning and Floor Care Services

Reach out and ask us how these services can benefit your workspace. And as always, we are here to help your office space stay clean so your team can stay healthy.