Should I Disinfect My Office?

While COVID-19 has locked many of us in our homes and forced companies to adopt remote working measures, there are some businesses that cannot function effectively without access to their main office. If your company uses proprietary systems or enforces security measures that are not compatible with a work-from-home approach, then you have no choice but to come into the office and work as per usual.

While this can be concerning for you and your employees, following proper safety guidelines and adopting hygienic practices will greatly reduce the chances of COVID-19 spreading through your office. Contrary to the panic that the media has incited in the country’s workforce, it’s possible to drastically lower the chances of contracting the virus from your office if you take the right steps to clean your workplace and use established preventative measures.

One of the most common strategies to help maintain regular office productivity is to disinfect your office either with a reputable cleaning service or with your own supplies and tools. Regardless of your approach, an organized cleaning routine and effective hygiene practices are essential for a number of different reasons. It helps to curb the potential spread of COVID-19, it gives your employees peace of mind and it also keeps your business running.

Basic cleaning guidance from the CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published a set of effective hygiene guidelines that cover the cleaning and disinfection of workplaces. These routines can eliminate the presence of COVID-19 on surfaces and objects in your office and will provide your staff with peace of mind to continue working and being productive.

Here’s what you should know from these detailed guidelines:

• Identify surfaces and objects that are touched on a regular basis. This includes tables, switches, keypads and sinks. These should be high-priority targets for regular disinfection and guidelines should be pinned to remind staff.
• Any shared devices, such as keyboards, electronic equipment and proprietary hardware should also be disinfected on a regular basis.
• When cleaning, use disposable gloves, a gown and a mask. When finished, carefully remove these items and dispose of them in the trash.
• Clean surfaces and objects before disinfecting them. A simple solution of soap and water can remove particles that contain the COVID-19 virus. This will greatly reduce the presence of the virus before attempting to disinfect the surface or object.
• Check the EPA list of disinfectants for use against COVID-19 to ensure you are using the right product to disinfect surfaces. Keep the contact time and disinfection directions in mind before using the product. If you do not have access to these solutions, then a mix of 5 tablespoons of bleach per gallon of water is an effective alternative. For spray bottle applications, 4 teaspoons of bleach should be used for a quart of water.
• Do not attempt to mix cleaning products to create a stronger solution.

Giving you and your employees peace of mind

The main hurdle to overcome during the pandemic is finding a way to offer peace of mind to you and your employees. If your staff are unable to work from home due to the nature of your business and its processes, then commuting to the office can be a daunting prospect. Even if the chances of contracting COVID-19 at the office are slim due to your cleaning processes, there’s still a chance that you and your staff may be infected during the commute.

Establishing clear guidelines, tracking staff members and suggesting safer commuting options can help diminish these fears and prevent the spread of COVID-19. Here are some options to consider:

1. Work with your staff to establish a formal set of guidelines that must be followed by everyone in the company. This can include pinning hygiene reminders in the toilet, placing hand sanitizer bottles at the entrance to your office and encouraging staff to report early symptoms.
2. If possible, spread the position of staff members around the office to comply with social distancing guidelines.
3. Ensure you keep track of staff members as they enter and exit your office to help trace the potential spread of COVID-19 in the event someone reports symptoms or tests positive for the virus.
4. Providing face masks and travel bottles of hand sanitizer can help give employees peace of mind when commuting or working.
5. Request staff to avoid public transport where possible can curb the potential spread of COVID-19.
6. Suggest alternate methods such as cycling, walking or driving
7. Remind staff to sanitize their hands before entering the main office building and to clean surfaces they have touched before leaving the workplace
8. Remember that the pandemic can also cause a lot of distress and frustration in your employees. Understand that mental wellbeing during COVID-19 can be a sensitive topic that must be taken seriously to protect your employees.

While the pandemic has become a major concern for businesses of all sizes, perhaps the most affected group are smaller companies and retail stores that cannot afford to work from home to maintain business operations. Analysts have predicted more than 15,000 store closures by retailers as a result of COVID-19, and this is on top of the millions of Americans that are filing jobless claims which brings the total to 22 million citizens losing their jobs.

So to answer the title of this article; yes, you should disinfect your office as soon as possible. In order to keep the economy going, we have to start taking active measures to keep our businesses running. For offices, that means thorough disinfection and adopting hygienic practices to help protect workers and prevent the spread of COVID-19. We hope that this article has proven useful for business owners that are looking to resume operations and open up their offices after an extended period of downtime.