11 WAYS TO ENCOURAGE YOUR STAFF TO MAINTAIN GOOD WORKPLACE HYGIENE

There are many things businesses and organizations can and should do to promote good hygiene in the workplace, such as regular and thorough cleaning and proper waste disposal. However, they cannot maintain exemplary workplace hygiene without their employees’ complete participation. Any organization is only as strong as its weakest link, so businesses must make efforts to ensure their staff members maintain good hygiene in the workplace.

Good hygiene at work is critical to stop the spread disease and infection at any time, and now more than ever. Not only is this part of any organization’s duty of care to its employees and visitors, but it is also in their interest: illness and absenteeism can cost businesses significantly in lost productivity. Additionally, workplaces can be a centre for transmission during a pandemic, so proper workplace hygiene etiquette to stop the spread of infection is also part of their responsibility to the community in general.

Tips over How to Maintain Good Workplace Hygiene.

1. Encourage Regular Hand-Washing

A key part of proper hygiene in the workplace is regular hand washing. We carry viruses and bacteria on our hands that we then pass on to others when we touch common objects or surfaces. In fact, around 80% of all diseases are transmitted through touch. Regularly washing our sanitizing their hands can prevent employees from spreading germs throughout the workplace.

Train your staff in how to properly wash their hands – which means for 20 seconds with soap and running water – and reinforce this with signs above the washbasins. Also make sure that washrooms are well stocked with soap or hand wash. You should also supply hand santizer and disinfectant wipes to your team so they can frequently sanitize their hands and disinfect surfaces. A great idea is to put travel-sized hand sanitizer on every desk.

2. Train Your Staff

It is critical that you educate your team on health risks and the hygiene measures that can prevent the spread of infection. Be sure to communicate clearly with your team about current health risks and recommended office hygiene practices. Use current information that is relevant to the season and your industry. Keep communication two-way: encourage staff to raise concerns and ask questions.

3. Reinforce Information with Signage

Although training is essential, it doesn’t last forever. It is also important to reinforce this information over time. A great way to do this is by using signage throughout the workplace. Posters and signage is subtle yet effective way to remind your employees of the importance of workplace hygiene.

Posters and other information should be placed in key places around the workplace, including bathrooms and break areas as constant reminders. These could cover topics such as good respiratory hygiene, proper hand washing techniques, and cleaning recommendations.

4. Use Technology to Minimize Risk

There are also some structural things you can do to promote better hygiene practices in your workplace. The development of technology has assisted greatly with this. For example, you can implement equipment and tools that will reduce the need to touch surfaces and therefore lower the risk of transmission of viruses and bacteria.

These include double swinging push doors that reduce the need to touch door plates or door handles, and motion sensor lights instead of light switches. You may be able to address this by implementing certain broad policies, such as an employee dress code. It could also be necessary to have a gentle conversation with certain individuals.

5. Encourage Good Personal Hygiene

Maintaining good workplace hygiene not only depends on what your employees do at work, but also their habits at home. It is important that your staff develop good office hygiene etiquette in their personal lives so that hygiene issue do not carry over into the workplace.

Any issues in this area, of course, can be very delicate and difficult to address.

Also Read: Office Move Checklist: Project Plan for a Successful Relocation

6. Make Sure Employees Eat Only in Designated Areas

One of the biggest offenders when it comes to poor hygiene in the workplace, believe it or not, is food. It is not uncommon for staff members to eat lunch or snack at their desk or other work areas. In fact, this is becoming increasingly common as pressure increases in many workplaces, and people work through their lunch breaks in order to meet deadlines.

However, this is a disaster for hygiene in office space. When staff members eat at their workspace this scatters bits of food and debris, which in turn encourages the growth of bacteria and other germs. To avoid this, you should insist that staff eat exclusively in designated areas such as the break room or kitchen. Taking a break will also help with your employees’ mental health and productivity!

7. Arrange Meetings to Appreciate Who Manage Workplace Hygiene

Of course, you can arrange an office meeting to educate your employees about the hygiene rules and encourage them to maintain a better workplace. Similarly, you can set a regular meeting with different teams to acquire their ideas and suggestions they have regarding the place hygiene and office management.

After all, they are the ones who directly operate at a certain place, so they can give you a better insight into what to do for making a clean office space. Moreover, you can compliment your employees and teammates, who contribute to maintaining office hygiene etiquette. That certainly inspires others to do the same, also supporting the ones who follow it.

Also Read: Five Best Practices to Ensure Employee Productivity

8. Make Sure to Set a Garbage Disposal System

In order to avoid office wastages, smells from over-flowed trash bins, you need to arrange the garbage disposal system first. Provide the desk-wise garbage bins, so that employees don’t have to leave junks anyway, and at anywhere.

Further, make sure to follow a system to empty the bins daily from time to time. Advice your employees, to use different trash bins for wet and for dry wastes. Such habits ultimately save the efforts of office servants, and also keep the office environment clean and refreshing via eliminating the chances of bad smellings.

9. Check for the Air-circulation System.

Having a better air circulation system is a way to prevent deadly stinks from damaging employee morale. Office interior plays a major role in making the air-free environment and let the employee freely adjust to the workplace. Mismanagement of the available space can cause discomfort to your employees and issues about workplace hygiene etiquette.

Plan in advance. Make sure cubicles and cabin arrangements are at best, to handle the available work staff. Manage your air circulation system according to the number of employees at a particular cabin, plus arrange air conditioning and cooling system likewise.

Also Read: How to Make Your Air Conditioner Serve You for Longer

10. Give Employee a Required Sick Leave. 

Due to the current scenario and safety needs of every other worker, you require to prioritize your employees’ health first. For that, don’t force your employee to follow certain guidelines related to taking leaves and day-offs. Prefer a dynamic system to approve leaves depending on the situation, and give employees time to take rest and recover from illness.

And if it’s possible, then allow your employee to work from home and manage the remote system accordingly. That may prevent spreading germs at your office space and other employees also will be safe from infections from it. Don’t stick to rules and regulations that force employees to come to the office, even if they are not in a situation to work actively. Always be ready to help them with sick leaves and day-offs.

11. Hire Professional Office Cleaning Services

This is not the right time to leave office hygiene, and the safety of employees at the chance, at any cost. Find, reach out to office cleaning services in your area. Apart from educating your employees, you also need to hire a cleaning company to clean your workplace on a regular basis. Having an active cleaning system will improve your workspace quality and inspire your employees to maintain office hygiene.

Moreover, a clean workplace itself influences your employees to maintain workplace hygiene and cleanliness ultimately. That gives them another reason to keep their own desk clean and understand responsibility towards the company and their surroundings.

Also Read: Is a Maid Service Worth It?

Final thought: 

Managing hygiene etiquette, is essential not only because of the present scenario of coronavirus and all, But also due to making employees feel like a sound working environment. As workplace conditions also play a major role in inspiring employees to contribute to the company.

Working at home or at the office, managing cleanliness is always the first thing to improve work productivity. It’s an individual’s responsibility to take care of the place’s sanitation for ownself and for others, as well. Again, it’s not a responsibility to be taken by one person or being served by the cleaning services only, it’s overall team efforts combinedly to manage the sound working environment via securing workplace hygiene.

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How The Spa Industry Is Dealing With Coronavirus?

As we all try to adapt and stay safe in these times we can see a new normalcy taking place. How long will it be here? We don’t know. What we know is that we are working on ways to stay safe and adjust our daily routines. One Industry that has been hit hard with the way they do business is the Spa industry. The Spa industry is so up close and personal, it’s difficult to reimagine what some services will even look like. But with ingenuity and the goal of keeping everyone safe, ideas bloom. Look at an example of East Vale Village Spa in a recent blog to their clients explaining the new protocol they created to take care of their clients. If you are also a day spa, we hope you might come up with some ideas from this post on how to implement safety in your practice…

East Vale Day Spa- We’ve spent the last 3 months learning everything we could to reduce the risk of transmitting COVID19 to our guests and employees. There is no perfect solution and every service will come with risks, despite our best efforts. We feel confident that, short of staying closed, we are doing everything within our power and we’re confident our guests will serve as our partners in risk management.

Social Distancing

This is a key to managing virus spread, but we won’t lie, this one tears at our hearts a bit. We went into these high-touch careers because we’re nurturers. We long for the “old days” when we’d spend a hectic Friday morning sharing treats (when will it be safe to offer someone a bite of your pastry again), laughing, and falling over each other as we set up for a day packed with our favorite guests. These days are temporarily on hold. Instead:

  • We’re dividing our employees into 2 non-intersecting teams until cases significantly decline in Polk County and we feel confident that a case on our team wouldn’t cause an outbreak or cluster. If we do have a case, we would only have to close 50%, instead of 100%.
  • We’re limiting the number of employees and guests in the spa at a time to about half what we normally have and extending hours until we can increase staffing levels.
  • We’re only having one receptionist on site at a time instead of two (please be patient with us, this is the biggest challenge!)
  • We’re temporarily disabling online booking until we have a better handle on staggering guest check-in and check out in accordance with new guidelines for spas.
  • We’re temporarily asking guests to wait in their cars and not bring others with them to their service to minimize the number of people in the spa at a time, in adherance with new guidelines for spas.
  • We split our cozy nail room into two separate nail rooms. Only one guest and one provider will be in a nail room at a time. It’s actually pretty awesome, we’re very proud of the safety measures we have in place for nails.
  • We’re temporarily unable to offer couple’s massages. While we know that couples are likely not distancing from each other, our employees are, and couples services make that tricky.
  • We have a great webstore so customers who can enjoy our products with quick shipping or parking lot pick-up!

Managing virus spread in the air

Our biggest concern is that viruses can linger in the air so the best thing we can do to reduce risk is to reduce the risk of inhaling droplets.

  • All employees will wear masks in public areas of the spa and treatment rooms.
  • Guests and visitors to the spa are required to wear masks or face coverings at all times, including during services. If you need a disposable mask, we’ll provide one before you enter.
  • Unfortunately, we’re temporarily unable to offer facials and lip/chin waxing as guests need to wear masks too, but we have a great temporary menu with some alternatives.
  • We have to suspend our complimentary beverage service temporarily, but we’ll offer every guest a hot or cold beverage to go.
  • We’ve installed plexiglass barriers at the desk and in the nail room at manicure and pedicure stations as an added barrier in addition to masks, especially as guests and providers will be in prolonged close face-to-face contact.
  • Employees will have options for face shields in addition to their masks if they wish.

Hand hygiene and reducing surface contamination risks

We’ve always used recommended cleaning protocols and gloves for services where we could come into contact with mucus membranes or blood, but we’ve kicked it up for your comfort and we’ll be more visible about it.

  • We’ve switched to wipes exclusively instead of sprays and wipes to clean surfaces. These hospital grade wipes have a shorter surface contact time to kill COVID19 and other viruses and bacteria.
  • We will continue to wear gloves when it makes sense (waxing, manicures, and when we offer them again, facials) but we don’t plan to add gloves to massage. Proper handwashing and hand sanitizer is more effective for services where there isn’t a risk of coming into contact with blood or mucous membranes. If you’d prefer your massage therapist wears gloves, let us know. We certainly can, but we massage with our hands, forearms, and elbows (then properly wash thoroughly) so it isn’t really helpful.
  • Table coverings: We’ve added waterproof coverings to all pillows including body pillows, and to our table warmer. All can be thorougly sanitized with our disinfectant wipes. We switched out heavy blankets for heavy towels so we can launder them more rigorously.
  • The front desk area and common supplies like ipads and pens will now be cleaned with hospital-grade wipes regularly.
  • We’re offering more ways for guests to do forms and even check in and out from their own device!
  • We’ll require a credit or gift card on file for no-contact check out.
  • In-spa restroom high-touch surfaces will be wiped down after every use and thoroughly sanitized daily. The common area cleaning crew hired by our landlords has been doing an excellent job cleaning common spaces outside of the spa.
  • We’ve got hand sanitizer everywhere you turn and guests will be expected to use it before and in some cases, during services. We will do the same!

Employees won’t work sick, please don’t visit us when you’re sick!

  • I can’t stress this enough, we’ll need guests to cancel when they are even a bit sick. We’ve always asked clients to do this, but it is a matter of utmost importance now. We are waiving cancellation fees for any amount of notice if guests cancel for COVID19 reasons.
  • If our employees are at all under-the-weather or have been exposed to COVID19 in or out of work, we will cancel or reassign their services until we have more information. We’ll be erroring on the side of caution, so please understand if this impacts your service.
  • We’ve got a detailed plan for testing, tracing, and notification if an employee is suspected of having COVID19 or has been exposed.
  • All guests must agree to contact us ASAP if they learn they may have had COVID19 at the time of a visit so we can follow our testing, tracing, and notification protocols while maintaining confidentiality.
  • We are not doing temperature checks unless we have a concern. We do have a no-contact thermometer at the ready. Here’s why: The majority of people who have COVID19 will not present with a fever or will be PRE-symptomatic at the time of a visit. We worry that fever checks cause people to let their guard down. I’ve consulted with salons and spas who are open and doing temperature checks. Most have found the only people with a “fever” are those who have been waiting in a hot car, and their temperature drops after a few minutes in the air conditioning. We’ll assume every person we encounter is an asymptomatic carrier to ensure we use best practices.
  • We are temporarily asking all guests to complete a COVID19 intake prior to all sessions. We appreciate your patience as this quick form will help make everyone (including YOU) safer.

Understanding health risks after COVID19 recovery or with lesser understood symptoms

The last thing that’s kept us on our toes with our reopening preparation is reading up on potential contraindications with some of the vascular symptoms and issues caused by COVID19 and what that could mean for our services.

  • Our massage therapists will be asking additional questions of people who have had COVID19 to check for potential modifications they need to make due to blood clotting and other vascular challenges.
  • All of our providers will will be on the look out for skin changes and potential symptoms on the extremities and toes.
  • We are committed to continuing to read and research the latest information on how we can help people who have recovered from COVID19 in the safest way possible.

That’s a lot to think about as we navigate uncharted waters in the Spa industry. Our all encompassing goal is to keep the client and our staff safe. Reinventing safe ways to perform our services with new safety protocols in place is the new daily challenge. You Protector was invented out of this ingenuity by a Licensed Esthetician that wanted to add an additional layer of protection for her clients and for herself as well.

Stay safe, Stay Healthy, and Stay Beautiful. For Official Advice on your Industry, please check CDC website. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html

ORIGINAL STORY: http://evdayspablog.com/

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The YouProtector Beauty Shield can be installed in seconds, sliding between the client and the bed with no hardware required. Our beauty shield can be used on any regular size treatment bed, it is easy to clean and maintain and it is easily portable.