Should you be concerned with your office cleanliness?  Absolutely!  Walking into a clean office each day has many proven benefits.  Conversely, walking into a less than clean office can cause unwanted impact.  Perception, health, productivity, brand image and more can be directly affected by the cleanliness of your work environment.   If you are a company employee – what should you expect as to office cleanliness?  If you are in charge of your office cleaning program, what success factors might you consider?  This article will address these questions and more.

Your Health Is Involved – Offices Have Germs!

Have you ever considered how an office space might affect your health?  Industry research consistently reveals that office environments can be breeding grounds for germs.  Notice these statistics:

• The average desk harbors about 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat, with some of these bacteria types being incredibly harmful and contributing to the spread of disease.
• Office phones have been found to harbor 25,127 germs per square inch.  And, these germs can be different types of bacteria – everything from Helicobacter pylori, to E- Coli.
• Office kitchenettes can be heavy ‘sickness-inducing’ germ offenders.  For example, refrigerator handles, cabinet tops, water coolers and the like can host a heavy concentration of germs.  Research showed one office water cooler to house 7 million germs per square inch!  
• A survey of 1,000 office workers found that over two-thirds of workers put themselves at risk by not following recommended guidelines for how often to clean your workspace.

Thus, the cleanliness of your office can directly affect the health of office employees and customers.  Cold and flu season can greatly exacerbate the risk.  Your Facility Manager and Cleaning Company should be concerned with your office cleanliness to reduce harmful germs and bacteria.

Brand Reputation – “Word Gets Around”

Have you ever been to a restaurant or retail store and observed, to your disappointment, how dirty it was?  Maybe the floors were visibly dirty.  Possibly the main entrance glass was extremely smudged.  Or even worse, a stale, unfresh odor was present.  How long did it take you to realize your experience was not good?  What opinion did your form?  Indeed, your own opinion of the experience was less than good.  But it doesn’t end there.

This type of impact is far-reaching.  Did you by chance relay the bad experience to friends are family?  Is it possible they relayed it to others as well?  Negative feedback often travels much quicker than positive feedback.  It’s human nature.

What experience do you observe as an employee in your office space?  What experience do visitors and customers observe when entering or meeting in your office building?  Is the initial impact clean, tidy, and ‘ready for business?’  Or might improvement be needed to ensure your brand reputation is not negatively affected?

Here are a few reminders of high impact office cleaning tasks:

• Keep entrance glass spotless.  Smudges and a ‘greasy look’ will generate an immediate negative perception.
• Foyer and lobby floors should be well maintained. Even small amounts of debris and dirt can give the impression the ‘whole office must be dirty.’
• What about odors when entering your office suite?  Does it smell clean and fresh?  Or possibly stale or ‘slightly off’?  Often, carpets can be the culprit in office odor.  Regular professional carpet cleaning is highly recommended.
• Dirty HVAC vents and returnswill quickly relay an unclean environment.  Use a HEPA vacuum to thoroughly clean vents without dust reintroduction.
• Water fountains and water coolers that reflect stains, debris, and standing water are off-putting and unsanitary.  Often daily sanitizing is necessary to maintain a clean look and healthy use.  Also, take note of carpet stains or wet areas caused by leaking fountains.

Thus, a clean office will assuredly enhance your brand reputation.  However, a dirty one will drive opinions to the negative, and this can indeed spread quickly via word-of-mouth, social media, and online reviews.  Ensure you have a strong commercial cleaning program.  Foot traffic, geography, industry and the like play an important role in cleaning tasks and frequency.

JanMasters – Office Cleaning Specialists

JanMasters is a trusted office cleaning company.  We have experience cleaning offices in most industries and settings.  We’re here to build a custom cleaning program for your exact needs and specifications.  Don’t hesitate to Contact Us for more information.  Finally, we thank you for reading our blog article and glad you are concerned with your office cleanliness!

Source: Germs In Your Firm