No employer wants their team to fall victim to nasty colds, flu bugs, or other contagious illnesses spreading through the office like wildfire. Not only does it wreak havoc on productivity, but workplace germs pose serious risks for employees with weakened immune systems or underlying health conditions. Preventing sickness from taking over requires a comprehensive approach of smart policies and proactive measures.
Promote Proper Hygiene
One of the simplest yet most effective ways to keep communicable diseases at bay is encouraging basic hygiene fundamentals like frequent handwashing with soap and water. Post signs in restrooms and kitchen areas with step-by-step reminders on thoroughly scrubbing for at least 20 seconds. Provide ample hand sanitizer stations in high-traffic zones too.
Cough and sneeze etiquette merits equal emphasis. Require employees to cover mouths and noses with tissues (or inner elbows as a backup), then promptly discard used tissues. You may even want to implement a policy allowing remote work for those exhibiting moderate symptoms to avoid spreading germs in the office.
Clean and Disinfect Consistently
Microbes can linger on surfaces for shockingly long periods, rapidly multiplying and expanding their reach. That makes consistent cleaning and disinfection paramount for halting illness transmission before it starts.
Partner with professional office cleaning services in Nashua like All Pro Cleaning Systems that use EPA-approved, hospital-grade disinfectants proven to be effective against common pathogens like influenza, norovirus, MRSA and more. Make sure they focus on sanitizing high-touch surfaces like desks, keyboards, phones, doorknobs, and light switches during each visit. Be sure to provide ample supplies such as disinfecting wipes, sprays, and hand sanitizers in all workspaces for supplemental wipe downs.
Improve Air Quality
Ensure HVAC systems use high-efficiency filters capable of removing airborne bacteria, viruses, mold spores and other contaminants from circulating. You may even consider installing UV air purifiers or bipolar ionizers to further decontaminate air supply. During peak illness seasons, increase fresh air exchanges to flush stale air out more frequently. And control humidity levels, keeping indoor moisture between 30-50% reduces survival rates for many infectious microbes.
Optimize the Office Setup
How you arrange and equip your physical workspace environment makes a surprising difference in illness prevention as well. A few smart adjustments minimize unnecessary microbe spread:
- Separate workstations and install partitions to allow proper social distancing.
- Upgrade to touchless fixtures like automatic soap dispensers and motion-sensor trash bins.
- Increase cleaning frequency for often-overlooked germ hotspots like vending machines and water coolers.
- Limit shared equipment and supplies that multiple people touch throughout the day.
- Create outdoor ventilated spaces like patios for small group meetings and meals.
When designing new office layouts or facilities, prioritize solutions that reduce transmission risks like these right from the start.
Educate and Empower
Ultimately, you can implement every protective resource available but still struggle to contain illness spread if employees lack awareness or buy-in on prevention protocols. Leverage all-hands meetings, digital signage, informative emails, and other channels to underscore why conscientious hygiene habits benefit the entire team’s wellbeing.
You can even appoint employee health ambassadors to receive special training, then model and encourage positive behaviors. Or roll out incentives and competitions around meeting certain hygiene goals. The key is fostering a culture where anyone feels empowered to respectfully remind colleagues about safer practices in a supportive way.
Conclusion
Staying ahead of sickness requires vigilance on multiple fronts, but it is well worth the effort. Even just reducing office illness incidents by 20% can yield huge payoffs in recaptured productivity, healthcare savings and maintaining business continuity. So evaluate your current prevention strategies today. A few simple adjustments or expanded initiatives may be all it takes to drastically improve your workplace’s infection defense.
