Across the United States, restrictions around being indoors with others are beginning to ease, allowing offices and other workspaces to reopen. To do this safely and while regarding the mental well-being of employees requires attention to detail, especially when it comes to cleaning protocols.
That is why working with a commercial cleaning service can make your office reopening safer, not to mention less of a headache. The following points are just a few benefits your facility could realize by working with commercial cleaning services.
Get Feedback from a Cleaning Professional
An expert from a commercial cleaning service can inspect your building, identifying any challenges unique to your workplace. They can then adjust cleaning plans accordingly.
Before reopening your building, it may be helpful to send a short survey to employees to get a sense of their concerns. They may be worried about issues you already have a clear plan to address. Or they may bring up issues that have slipped past you that you should discuss with your cleaning service. This will give you valuable information about the best way to reopen the office and help employees feel listened to.
Make a Return-to-Work Plan
If you work with a commercial cleaning service or janitorial service, you can ask them to propose a few return-to-work scenarios. Work with them to determine which enhanced cleaning protocols are worth considering in your building.
A comprehensive plan for a return to work can help make the transition from working remotely to working in the office smoother for everyone. Janitorial and commercial cleaning staff will know what tasks are expected of them. Employees will know what cleaning is done, putting their minds at ease. And you will have a comprehensive plan to point to when people have questions.
Communicate Public Health Expectations Clearly
A commercial cleaning service can be an authoritative source of knowledge. For example, if you expect employees to wear masks in specific spaces but not in others, a commercial cleaning service can post clear signage in every area where masks are required. This eliminates confusion and makes it harder for employees to not follow your expectations. You can also post reminders about washing hands in the bathroom.
You may want to work with the human resources department of your company to coordinate messaging. For example, an email explaining any mask mandates or staggered schedules could also address any additional cleaning protocols that have been added since the office closed.
Also, be sure to provide employees with specifics about the cleaning regimen. Since some cleaning will happen outside of business hours, this can reassure employees that deep cleaning and disinfection are happening even when they aren’t there to see it.
Implement an Enhanced Disinfection Regimen
An enhanced disinfection regimen can help keep your employees healthier, happier, and more productive. Clean environments can also encourage employees to do their part to keep the office clean and neat. Enhanced disinfection practices are usually focused on disinfecting high-traffic areas — such as elevator buttons, tables, and door handles — quite frequently.
Put Employees at Ease
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how many people, including your employees, feel about public spaces. What may have felt like a clean space in 2019 may no longer feel clean. Stepping up your cleaning regimen is vital to helping your employees feel comfortable again in the workplace.
Working with a commercial cleaning service is as much about putting employees psychologically at ease as it is about public health. Having thorough cleaning procedures can help alleviate the stress that may come with reentering the office after a long period of working from home.
Have Visible Markers of Attention to Public Health
Visually indicating the company’s dedication to public health can help your employers and any outside vendors feel more comfortable returning to your office. This includes having professionally dressed cleaning professionals in your building. You can add to this with other visual reminders, such as sanitizing stations near all doors. This can keep surface-borne germs from entering or exiting your office space and help any employees or vendors who don’t happen to have their own sanitizer on hand.
Consider the Pegasus SuperiorClean Program
The Pegasus SuperiorClean Program may be what your office needs to return to a sense of normalcy. It is a data-driven disinfection approach tailored to your office space's unique needs. And with the PegAssure platform, you can track cleaning progress in real-time.
