Flu season has a tendency to creep up on you in a commercial or facility setting. A few staff members will be sick, and it won’t take long for them to gather together at the same break room counter or conference room table. Before long, there are several absentee slips piled on the admin desk in the break room.
It is no secret that flu season sees a spike in the number of people getting sick. In a workplace, people can carry diseases as they touch the same door knobs, elevator buttons and break room appliances throughout the day.
While daily cleaning goes a long way, it is impossible to disinfect everything on a consistent basis, which is why flu season cleaning should be focused on the high-touch areas instead. By focusing on these high touch areas, businesses can keep their commercial and facility surfaces as germ free as possible during the busiest illness season.
Focus on the High-Touch Surfaces
There are multiple surfaces that get touched several times throughout the course of the workday.
Door handles seem to get the majority of the attention, but other things like light switches, elevator buttons, shared phones, fridge handles, office coffee makers, copier controls, conference room machines, and more are all touched repeatedly. In fact, there are some places you might not even consider that are very high-touch.
Not only that, any surface can require disinfecting in addition to cleaning even if it looks nice, which is part of why flu cleaning measures are so important.
High touch areas should be a big part of flu season cleaning. Instead of waiting for a sick person to report a mess or a contaminated surface, you might want to start incorporating these often-overlooked commercial and facility surfaces into your cleaning and disinfecting regular cleaning routine. In a large building with tons of visitors and staff, that might mean several passes through the high traffic areas to disinfect and clean.
Cleaning and Disinfecting Are Two Different Things
It is easy to think cleaning and disinfecting are basically the same thing. They are not. Cleaning gets rid of the dirt and grime you can see, while disinfecting deals with germs that may still be sitting on the surface.
Cleaning will remove dirt and other substances from a surface, while disinfecting will kill germs on a surface when the product is applied correctly. Often, surfaces need to be cleaned before they can be properly disinfected, especially if there are germs hiding underneath grime
Disinfecting products should only be used on surfaces they are recommended for as well. Using the same cleaning product on everything, especially delicate surfaces, could cause more harm than good.
Shared Surfaces in Places with Lots of Foot Traffic
Break rooms, conference rooms, reception desks, and other similar shared surfaces should get extra attention if any place in your facility is prone to lots of foot traffic. Think about the average break room, for example. Many different staff members will enter and exit during the workday. At lunch, one worker might open the fridge, get something out, heat it up in the microwave, and take a sip of coffee from the office coffee maker. Several minutes later, another worker may follow the same steps and unknowingly come into contact with germs on all of the same surfaces.
The same goes for the conference rooms. During a meeting, many of the tables, chair arms, remotes, phones, and other shared equipment can come into contact with germs.
These areas shouldn’t be seen as places only cleaned at the end of the day for messes either. At least once per day, or even multiple times if possible depending on the traffic level, areas in a break room or conference room should be disinfected.
The Flu Season Cleaning Checklist for Your Facility!
Every facility is different, which is why a general checklist is useful in figuring out which surfaces need more focus during flu season. The most important places for thorough disinfection are the ones that people touch most throughout the day.
Things to disinfect on all workspaces:
Entrances and common areas
– Door handles
– Elevator buttons
– Counters or touchscreens at a reception desk
– Light switches
Break rooms
– Handles on fridges and microwaves
– Coffee makers and other small appliances
– Tables, chairs and counters
– Sink faucets and cabinet handles
Workstations and meeting rooms
– Shared phones and other equipment
– Desks and tables
– Keyboards and mice should be cleaned according to their manufacturer’s guidelines
– Chair handles and other shared workspace objects
Restrooms
– Faucet handles, door handles and stall latches
– Counters and dispensers that are touched frequently
– Make sure the soap and paper towel dispensers are stocked
– Extra emphasis should be placed on restroom door handles
Flu season cleaning checklists for workspaces and commercial buildings are not hard to follow. The main thing is to keep an eye on the areas people are using all day. If the break room gets busier around lunch or the front entrance sees a steady flow of people, those areas may need another cleaning instead of waiting until the end of the day!
Partner With a Professional Facility Cleaning Company!
You do not need someone walking around the building wiping down every surface every few minutes. Focus on what people actually touch. Door handles, counters, shared phones, break room appliances and equipment used by several employees are good places to start. Some areas will need cleaning more often than others and that can change depending on how busy the building is that day. All these things matter in addition to using the proper products and not neglecting areas such as the restrooms and break rooms unless they are visibly dirty.
A professional commercial cleaning company knows the importance of these things, and they can form the best cleaning schedule based on what’s most important for your business needs. They can also provide disinfecting and germ-control solutions without putting the same schedule in place year-round.
At AmeriStar Facility Solutions, we help commercial and industrial settings tailor their cleaning needs based on a variety of factors such as seasonal trends, foot traffic and more. Flu season is a good time to pay a little more attention to the spots around the building that people are constantly using and touching. Keeping up with high touch surfaces and busy areas helps your building stay clean and ready for the people who use it every day!
Call: (570) 675-5525
Visit our website: www.ameristarfacilitysolutions.com