The global healthcare emergency that followed the Covid-19 outbreak caused many forms of disruption for businesses everywhere. In the case of office-based companies, large numbers of workers who had previously been used to turning up to work at the same place every day suddenly found themselves at home. Although logging in from a remote terminal certainly suits some people, it is not a long-term solution to the needs of many modern enterprises. Put simply, numerous office workers need to be face-to-face to discuss problems, resolve operational issues, work out how to cooperate better between teams and – when all is said and done – to enjoy working in a convivial atmosphere.
Therefore, providing some socially distanced office workstations is important. As restrictions in the UK start to become more relaxed as 2021 proceeds, so more and more people will begin returning to work in offices. That’s a good thing but it also presents certain challenges. Fortunately, many of these issues can be overcome if a high-quality office cleaning programme is put in place that focuses greatly on communal areas. How does this work?
The importance of communal areas
Firstly, when people are at their workstations, perhaps with a physical barrier as well as sufficient space between them and others in the same office, the risks of Covid-19 being transmitted from one person to another are relatively low. Most people now understand that wandering up to another person’s desk or using the same equipment as then, such as their desk phone, without sanitising it first would be a mistake.
However, the lines are blurred when it comes to shared spaces. Think about your break out areas, your office kitchen, the drinks station, the toilet facilities and even the place where people use the photocopier or printer. All these places may see a greater footfall of office workers even if they take it in turns to enter them. As such, professional cleaning that takes place every day – and even more frequently, in some cases – will help to ensure that the spread of disease is minimised.
Shred office spaces
Of course, it is not just within your office that you may find people come into contact with one another, touch the same surfaces or breathe the same air. Many offices in London and the South-East of England, for example, a part of large office blocks. These buildings will often share communal entrances, stairwells, lifts and even escalators, in some cases. Your office might even share its toilet block with another business on the same floor, too. You cannot control the cleanliness of what goes on in neighbouring offices, but you will be able to ensure that all these shared spaces are properly sanitised.
Of course, office block landlords and service companies may already provide cleaning within such locations, but there is often nothing to stop office managers from beefing up the cleaning regime that is already in place. Why leave it to chance and risk someone in your workforce becoming infected and potentially passing it on to other people? It could potentially lead to a huge drop in productivity. Turn to an experienced office cleaning firm instead.
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