Facility Cleaning for a Successful Reopening and Recovery
As a business owner, property, or facility manager, planning is probably one of your strong suits. But even the most prepared couldn’t have foreseen the unexpected circumstances that forced one in four American businesses to close temporarily during the coronavirus shutdown. Now, with states cautiously restarting their economies, planning for a safe recovery, and reopening that includes thorough facility cleaning has never been more important.
So how can businesses welcome back employees and customers to a safe, clean facility?
We’re sharing some professional commercial cleaning and disinfecting best practices that can help.
New Standards for Facility Cleaning
The individual circumstances at every business will require careful consideration due to the unique challenges presented by coronavirus. One thing is the same across the board though – the need for steadfast facility cleaning to prevent the spread of pathogens.
The first step in establishing specific cleaning and disinfection practices for your business is to assess your current processes. Next, review the CDC recommendations for workplace preparedness. Compare the two and adjust your standards for COVID-19. For example, if daily cleaning and weekly deep disinfecting are the norms, you should shift to daily disinfection. If you’re already disinfecting daily, then make sweeps multiple times a day to address high touch areas such as light switches, door handles, computer keyboards, and bathroom fixtures.
If you have a facility cleaning team on staff, now is the time to ensure they’re trained in proper disinfecting measures, COVID-19 protocol, and any new requirements you establish as a result of your review. Make sure your cleaning staff has personal protective gear and EPA approved industrial strength cleaning solutions.
If you’re considering hiring a commercial cleaning crew, look for one professionally trained to meet all COVID-19 disinfection standards. Electrostatic disinfection, already in use in medical facilities, is another way your business can combat germs and bacteria.
Protective Measures
There are several other protective measures you can take when reopening your business after COVID-19. Think about how employees interact and the types of visitors that frequent your facility. Review your current floor plan to determine the changes you can make to help with social distancing. You might want to have directives for customers and guests on traffic flow patterns too.
Install physical barriers, if needed, along with hands-free sanitizer stations and trash receptacles. Review your ventilation situation and increase the circulation of fresh, filtered air. Shift cubicles around. Move desks. Adjust the cafeteria seating arrangement if necessary. While you’re experimenting with new ways to address the flow of traffic, it’s also an ideal time to complete a thorough top-to-bottom disinfection and deep clean.
Once open, ensure all employees understand the ways to help prevent the spread, including frequent hand washing for at least 20 seconds, utilizing hand sanitizer that’s at least 75% alcohol when hand washing isn’t feasible and wearing a face covering and/or keeping at least six feet apart from others. You may want to invest in signage to hang throughout your business that lists these guidelines. And of course, remind employees to stay home if they’re sick.
Creating Your Ongoing Plan
Establishing a facility cleaning and safety plan in advance can help everyone remain vigilant. Plus, knowing that you’ve already thought through the risks of exposure and worked hard to mitigate them should help give employees and customers confidence when they return.
Moving forward, you may even want to establish a task force made up of employees from each department to ensure new measures and guidelines are being met and meet regularly to share feedback. Keeping the lines of communication open with your team is another great way to instill confidence in your preparedness.
Hire A Professional
At Jidan Cleaning our commercial cleaning team of experts can help your business reopen safely. Professionally trained in pandemic cleaning best practices, we’re using the most innovative ways to prevent the spread of pathogens at your facility including electrostatic disinfection. Give us a call today or contact us via email to learn more about our services.
609.714.0426
