7 Steps to Help Prevent the Spread of Sickness at Work

Ever wonder what effect the flu can have on your business. According to research, the flu costs the British economy £1.35 billion every year. It is undoubtedly a big number for the British economy and has a huge impact on your business too. It hampers the overall productivity and smooth operation of the business. Prevention is better than cure, so it is wise to take preventive action before the flu affects your business. In this article, we have discussed the 7 steps that will prevent the spread of sickness at work. 

Steps to Prevent Spread of Sickness at Work 

Planned office setup and policies can prevent the spread of sickness at work. You need to follow some preventive actions and policies to do that. Here are the 7 steps you can follow to prevent the spread of flu. 

1. Skip Handshake 

Hands are one of the popular conveyors for the flu. Through handshakes, through touching food the flu can spread from one person to another. So, if you can skip handshake or any hand-driven transmission of the virus you can simply save your office from the spread of sickness. 

Keep your food in a separate place, advise everyone not to handshake during their sickness. It is wise to skip handshake entirely since it could spread germs from one hand to another. Use hand gloves during handshakes. 

If any of your employees forget to use gloves during the handshake, instruct them to wash their hands for 20 minutes before handshake to prevent the spread of unknown germs and viruses.

2. No Office During Contagious Disease 

Discourage your employees to attend office during contagious disease. Cough, sneezing can seem very simple, but they are not. Tell your employees they can take sick leave during their contagious disease even if it is a simple cough or sneezing. 

If it is required to attend office for an emergency, tell them to use a mask during their stay at the office, instruct them to avoid face to face contact, maintain 1-meter distance from their colleagues and avoid direct face to face communication as much as possible. 

3. Keep Desk, Keyboard and Mouse Clean

A single keyboard and mouse can be dirtier than the toilets containing 1,676 germs per inch. It is 400 times more germs than the toilet seat. So, you can imagine, if you don’t clean them properly, no matter what, you are inviting germs and viruses to spread throughout the office to spread sickness. To prevent germs from spreading across seats. 

According to the research, a keyboard contains 3295 germs per square inch and as a boss the office, encourage your employees to wash their keyboard and mouse once a day with glass cleaner or other cleaning materials. Make sure your maintenance staff clean each of the office desks, keyboard and mouse at least two times a day. 

Encourage your employees to wash their hands just after touching or using a keyboard and mouse. Provide a hand-sanitizer so that your employees can clean their hands after using the computer.

Clean and Disinfect the wall, floor, equipment and surface of your office. Relying on only cleaning won’t save your office from the germs spread. It is important that all your equipment is clean and free from all kinds of germs. Talk to your maintenance staff or the cleaning company about that, and instruct them to disinfect the surface, walls and all the equipment of your office. 

4. Keep Dishes and Utensils Clean

Keep your office dishes and utensils clean. Wash them regularly, so that they stay free from germs. Make a specific eating room if your office provides evening snacks. Because germs can be spread from the utensils and from the food too. 

Discourage your employees from eating in the workspace. As mentioned before, the workspace contains so many germs that can be transmitted from hand to mouth during food.

However, keep your eating area clean as well, so that it stays safe from the consumption of unwanted germs and their transmission from hand to mouth. After each of the snack breaks make sure your cleaning staffs clean the eating areas, dishes and utensils properly. 

5. Use Flat Mops for Cleaning

Clean your office using flat mops. Flat mops are the special kind of mopping tools that contain microfibres. Microfibres can remove tiny dirt from each corner of the floor.

The traditional mops can not remove dirt properly, after the mops they contain residual dirt. Leaving residual dirt on the mop can cause disease spread. 

However, with the flat mop, you can clean all the surface clearly after a deep clean. Surely, this will keep your office safe and clean from the germ disinfects spread. 

6. Use Colour Coded Microfibres

Just imagine the impact if your cleaner cleaned your toilet and office desk with the same rag. Of course, it will be worthless, since the rag can contain germs from the toilet to the office desk. 

Even cleaning the office desk with the same rag they use for cleaning the kitchen will be worthless too, since the rag can contain germs of the office desk and can spread it in the kitchen. 

Colour coded microfibres are the best way to skip reusing fibres for cleaning two different office areas. Colour coded fibre helps the cleaner team to identify fibre for the specific areas and clean them properly. For example, use red fibre for cleaning your restroom, nobody will reuse it to clean your office desk. A separate colour-coded microfibre keeps your office safe and clean. 

7. Provide Workplace Personal Hygiene Training

Business is teamwork. You can not ensure 100% safety at your office if you fail to follow a complete team work. There are lots of things to do from your part to keep your office safe. 

But, it is also important your employees also take part in the office hygiene training to all of your employees. They also maintain personal hygiene pro hygiene so that your office stays safe from the spread of sickness. For this, provide personally and do not spread  germs. 

Alpha Academy is a renowned online course provider in the UK. They offer a Level 2 Certificate in Workplace Management: Personal Hygiene online training program. Since the course is fully online, your employees do not need to manage their busy schedules to attend this course. 

They can access this course anytime from anywhere. Even they can access this course while having a rest on their most cosy bed. The best part of this course is, your employee can get a valuable certificate after a successful compilation of this course. This means, you will get confirmation and your employees will get accredited certificates that will enhance your CV. 

The course covers all the details of personal hygiene, using this knowledge you can ensure a safe environment in your office. With the participation of your employees in this training program will help them to stay away from the germs and keep their office safe. As a result, you can completely prevent the spread of sickness at work. 

Related:
1. Working From Home? 10 Exclusive Tips For Staying Productive
2. Top 10 Must-Have Skills for Entry-Level Workers in the UK in 2023

Closing Note 

Staying safe is the best way to stop the spread of sickness at work. To keep your office safe, it is mandatory you follow and keep doing the above-mentioned task regularly and strictly.

Grab skills in personal hygiene from Alpha Academy. Enrol in the workplace personal hygiene online training program to stop the spread of the sickness completely from top to bottom. 

What are you waiting for? Enrol NOW!!!