Hygiene in the office is an integral part of its professionalism. On one end, it gives an image of responsibility and smartness, arousing more trust and faith in clients and potential clients as well. Furthermore, general hygiene is vital for good health and optimum production. As such, employees and anyone visiting the office are assured of health and comfort, consequently motivating employees to be more productive to the business’ convenience.
To this end, it is vital that the office always be comprehensively clean. Unfortunately, most office owners in Singapore lack the time to perform cleaning tasks, let alone identify the different areas that require cleaning.
Here is a comprehensive office cleaning checklist to kick start 2015 with optimum hygiene and comfort at the workplace:
• Keep the floor clean
The floor can harbour a lot of dust and germs, which are potentially harmful when airborne. Furthermore, the floor is very prominent and bare, and as such, its cleanliness is vital for forming a good first impression to clients.
As such, ensure that the floor covering the area in the office, the entrance and the surroundings is always clean and dust free. Depending on the type of your floor and whether its carpeted or not, you can easily arrange regular mopping or vacuuming to make sure that dirt particles and germs do not accumulate by the day.
• Windows and doors
Singapore’s skyscrapers hosting most of the offices in the country gain much of their elegance from the shinning, crystal-clear windows. As such, ensuring that the windows in your office are always spotless clean goes a long way in adding a touch of elegance to the office’s appearance and general feel. Furthermore, it ensures maximum light penetration, allowing employees to enjoy the vast benefits of natural light.
The doors, walls and frames for windows should also be added to your office cleaning checklist for 2015, and wiped frequently to avoid dust build-up. Attention should especially be given to name plates on the doors to ensure that they are always sparkling clean and easy to read for simple client navigation
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• Tables and chairs
These are some of the most utilized elements in the office, supporting employees when working all day. They are also vital to the staff’s perception of their duties and responsibility. To this end, organized, neat and clean working desks have been shown to support neatness in work, increasing productivity in the long-term.
As such, make sure that the desks, chairs and any other stationary and equipment in the office are wiped and polished every day before office hours.
• Trophies
Everyone deserves some appreciation for the effort put into their jobs. For outstanding offices and businesses, different trophies awarded under diverse Singapore business awarding and recognition programs symbolize this. Consequently, this should be among the most valued elements in the office, as well prominent for clients to reassure themselves of the office’s reputation.
Consequently, trophies should also be maintained impeccably taking care to ensure no damage comes to them. Furthermore, they should be polished frequently to avoid dust build-up, which may make them seem outdated or even worse, inauthentic.
• The pantry
The pantry is especially vital as it hosts the employees’ foods and drinks. To this end, dirt and germs may get in the foods and drinks, causing food poisoning, which can be lethal in extreme cases. In addition to inconveniencing the employees, this can come with additional implications to the management. Among other things, affected staff members and employees may decide to file lawsuits, leaving you with legal hurdles to beat and huge expenses in terms of compensation for negligence.
As such, the pantry should be among the first elements to consider when making your office cleaning checklist. It should be cleaned as frequently as employees use it, preferably before meals are prepared and served. It should also be disinfected with detergents and certified disinfectants to ensure bacteria do not collect and grow owing to the presence of food.
• Bathroom
While it is an integral part of every premise, the bathroom can make working in the office unbearable if left without constant cleaning and maintenance. The foul smell that sometimes emerges from the bathroom may also cause nausea and other negative health effects to the employees.
To avoid this, the bathroom should be cleaned several times a day; most offices schedule bathroom cleaning for the evening and lunch break. Furthermore, the toilets should be disinfected and freshened constantly using air fresheners to help mask the foul smell and add a sweet scent to the whole bathroom in general.
• Trash cans
Trash cans can fill up fast in an office environment owing to the numerous people using them. Furthermore, failing to empty these bins may cause disorder in the office owing to lack of rubbish storage facilities. As such, trash cans should be emptied at the end of every day and cleaned and disinfected to ensure germs, which may have been deposited by the waste are eliminated.
Bins storing organic waste from food remains should also be emptied regularly to avoid collection of the foul stench. They should also be cleaned regularly as dirt in the bins may contribute to the growth of moulds, which may lead to food poisoning should the spread in the pantry.
• Soliciting quality office cleaning services
It is just as important to solicit quality office cleaning services as it is to include all the elements in your office cleaning checklist if you want comprehensive hygiene. However, choosing the ideal cleaning company can be hard considering all the companies that have set up shop online.
As such, make sure you observe certain factors when making your choice. For starters, check the company’s reputation from past clients’ opinions as this is an honest testimony of the quality of their services. Also, check to see that the company hires only professional and experienced cleaners as the bulk of the work lies with them. Additionally, ensure that they have ample workers, cleaning equipment and safe and effective disinfectants and detergents.
Most importantly, the company should be reliable, ensuring that they conduct the cleaning services at the right hours to avoid delays when office hours commence.
Conclusion
To ensure that your office is always clean and conducive for optimum productivity, include all the above elements in your office cleaning checklist, as well as additional features that may be unique to your particular office.
This will go a long way in kick starting your 2015 positively and with focused purpose.
