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If you work in an office, then the chances are that you spend just as much time, if not more, there each week.
If your office space is messy, cluttered and unorganised, then this can have a direct impact on your motivation and productivity levels for your work at the office.
Advantages of a clean and organised Work Space
A clean work environment has been shown to reduce the number of sick days, too, so maintaining a clean and tidy workspace isn’t just beneficial for you, but for your co-workers’ health also.
Not only does having a clean workspace make your office a much nicer place to work, but it is easier to locate important documents or files and it leaves a better impression on visiting clients or customers. If you are already interested in keeping your office space clean and tidy, then here are a few tips on how to get started, or if it is something that you haven’t considered yet, you’ll discover new benefits perhaps, such as boosting employee morale.
Reorganise your Office Space
The usual hustle and bustle of a busy office usually results in cluttered desks at the end of the week. When keeping an office-based workplace tidy and organised, it’s best to let go of any unnecessary clutter. Start with sorting through all important documents and invest in a proper filing system so that you can find them easily in the future, declutter any mess which might be lying around on employee’s desks and keep potentially important documents safe.
Try to encourage employees to keep only essential and necessary items on their desks, as having less mess and clutter on their desks will make your office instantly appear bigger and desks will be much easier to clean on a regular basis. The same applies for employees partly working from their home office.
Clean as you Go
Much like when it comes to cleaning your home, cleaning up and organising as you go is easier to keep on top of than leaving it for once a week. For example, instead
of leaving your pots in the sink until the next time you go into the kitchen, washing them once you’ve finished your dinner will save you from putting the task off later on and makes the kitchen a much nicer place for your co-workers.
See some dust on your desk? Give it a wipe down. Spotted some mugs in a meeting room? Move them. Cleaning up small bits like this makes it easier to reduce unnecessary office waste and mess. It’s much better to clean as you go than to leave it and deal with a huge cleaning task at the end of the month!
Focus on Public Areas
It is important, now more than ever, to ensure the regular cleaning and disinfection of shared and public spaces within your office. Whilst your office space will need to be cleaned regularly, you should pay close attention to areas such as the toilets, meeting rooms and entrance halls. These tend to be the areas where bacteria and dirt accumulate over time and where most of the high-touch points in your workplace will be.
Ensure that handles, light switches, handrails, elevator buttons and keypads are disinfected multiple times a day and that entrance halls, corridors and bathrooms are regularly tidied, mopped and swept. In areas such as the shared kitchen and break out areas, things such as spillages and leftover crumbs are commonplace, so these areas should be cleaned every day, with surfaces being wiped down, floors mopped and hoovered.
Disinfect and sanitise Personal Areas
Ensuring that your employees are working in a clean office space is largely down to your management, but part of it is their own responsibility. Desks and computers can have more germs per inch than the average toilet seat, but people tend to clean their personal workspace just a few times a month. Ensuring that all areas in the office, including personal desk space, are regularly cleaned and sanitised can help stop the spread of germs and illnesses, particularly Coronavirus, and you are then also ensuring that your workplace is safe for your employees during the pandemic.
Encouraging your employees to regularly wash or sanitise their hands can also stop the spread of bugs and illnesses. You can buy disinfectant sprays to keep around the office, put packs of sanitising wipes on each employee’s desk and have hand sanitiser stations around the office, especially in shared areas.
Hire professionals
If you have a particularly large office space or find it hard to keep on top of regular cleaning and disinfection, then it might be best to hire a professional specialist cleaning company to come in and help every now and then. These cleaning staff of these companies are trained and particularly efficient in cleaning large and multipurpose areas, such as offices and own much more effective cleaning equipment than what is available in the supermarket. If you’ve had an outbreak of Covid-19 in your workplace, or just want to ensure the safety of your employees, then many also offer specialist Covid-19 cleaning services, too.