How to Make Your Facility Clean and Safe for Employees’ Return
It’s been nearly a year since the start of the pandemic when many employees were sent home to work, leaving many offices empty or scaled back. The office culture has, undoubtedly, been changed, likely forever.
With vaccines being offered more widely and the number of cases decreasing daily, we may finally see businesses bringing some or even all employees back in house sometime this year.
When that happens, new protocols will need to be implemented to continue keeping the virus at bay and keep employees, customers and vendors safe in a shared environment.
Preparing Your Office for Employees to Return
But before you start bringing employees back––whether that’s in a month or two or later this year––there are some things you can do now to get your space deep cleaned and ready for people to be back in the building.
Take the time now while your team isn’t in the office to talk and walk through how best to move desks, walls, chairs, and supplies around to make everyone feel safe. As a part of that process, discuss how you will clean and disinfect spaces. It may be that the “redecorating” has a significant effect on how and when you are able to clean.
Office Re-Entry Cleaning Checklist
First up, a good, deep clean is something to schedule before the office gets crowded. This is a great time to tackle projects that often get neglected or are difficult to address when the office is full.
The Centers for Disease Control has published some basic guidelines for cleaning to alleviate the spread of Coronavirus.
Here at DPM we have developed our own checklist for our customers as they think about bringing their teams back on site. Here are the areas where your cleaning team should concentrate:
1. Eliminate dust on high surfaces.
Time to get the ladders out and shake off the dust of months of inactivity. Not only will this make your facility look better, but anybody who suffers from dust allergies will be grateful as well.
For areas that are especially hard-to-reach––such as beams, ductwork and parking garages––our high surface cleaning service can help. We have special equipment to get even the places you can’t see clean.
2. Clean and disinfect surfaces.
Your facilities have millions of surfaces. Make sure they are clean and disinfected before your employees start using them. Our Sani Shell system will not only eliminate existing microbes on those surfaces, but it will also protect them from harmful germs weeks after it is applied.
Using SaniShell is a great way to make ongoing surface cleaning easier once employees return since our system includes a protective layer that continues to kill viruses and germs for up to 90 days on hard surfaces and textiles.
3. Deep clean tile and grout.
Look around your buildings and you’ll likely find more tile and grout than you realize. It’s not just in the kitchen or bathroom areas.
If it’s been a long time since you’ve had your tile and grout cleaned, now is a good time to take care of this. We typically recommend deep cleaning tile and grout twice a year––especially in bathrooms.
4. Deep clean carpet.
Germs, food, drink, mud, etc., all become trapped in carpets. And if that has been left to linger in your carpet for months, you might have issues with mold, mildew or musty smelling carpets.
Not only will freshening up your carpets make for a cleaner work environment for your team, but it will also help protect your carpet investment.
Having a trained commercial carpet cleaning team, such as DPM, can ensure that your carpets are truly clean and disinfected.
5. Cubicle panels and upholstery cleaning.
It will be more important than ever for panels that separate workspaces to be cleaned frequently and correctly. Panels that use fabric can trap germs and residue. That’s why it’s so important to clean them regularly.
If you’re reconfiguring your office before employees return, it is an especially good time to have your cubicle panels cleaned.
Plan Your Office Re-Entry Cleaning
No matter when you decide to bring employees back to your facility, creating a re-entry cleaning plan will help you have a clean and germ free workplace.
If you’re located in the Nashville or Knoxville areas, we’d love to help.
In short, we can help you clean and disinfect your entire facility both before and after you bring employees back. Contact us today to start the process so you can look forward to welcoming your teams with a healthy workspace for all.