What it takes to create a safe and hygienic work environment

We all know better than ever before how important it is for working environments to be clean and hygienic; 2020 has certainly taught us that.

But pandemic or not, once workplaces are fully open again, hygiene, cleanliness and safety should be at the top of your business’s list of priorities. Here’s what that might mean and what it might look like in practice in your place of work.

Carry out regular risk assessments and act on the findings

It’s important to carry out risk assessments in your workplace at regular intervals. Every workplace is unique and you might be surprised by the number of risk factors lurking in yours if you haven’t stopped to check in a while. But, of course, spotting potential risks isn’t enough; they then need to be acted on swifty to mitigate any risk that’s present.

Make safety training mandatory

Safety training is something that all of the members of your team should be required to complete. This should be delivered as soon as a new recruit enters the workplace, and if there are any long-standing employees who haven’t taken safety training that’s relevant to their job role, make sure that you provide that at the soonest possible opportunity.

Doing so will help to reduce the number of employee accidents and mishaps at work.

Declutter and control dust

Decluttering your workplace and getting rid of the excess dust that your clutter generates is a must. Air quality is now a big deal in many entrepreneur circles because poor air quality can not only reduce productivity but also damage the health of everyone spending each working day in that space.

And the last year has also taught us the importance of good ventilation when it comes to stopping the spread of illnesses in an office space.

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Industry-specific hygiene supplies

Each business and the industry in which it operates has its own specific risk factors and hygiene requirements. The cleanliness required in a car manufacturing plant will be very different to the cleanliness required in a dental practice.

Places like Studio Supplies offer industry specific supplies for tattoo parlours, including safety and hygiene equipment that is always needed.

Ensure cleaning routines are habitual and consistent

It’s important to ensure you have a solid cleaning routine in place and that it really is a routine. If you allow yourself to perform cleaning inconsistently, that’ll eventually lead to problems and standards will inevitably slip, which is not what you want.

This applies to both physical and personal hygiene. If you need to be washing your hands at regular intervals, you should ensure you have sufficient stock of paper hand towels at all times. Similarly, if the floors are often being cleaned, make sure there are enough clean mops and an appropriate amount of floor cleaner to do the job. 

So to avoid that, it’s probably a good idea to do what you can to make your routines consistent. The best way to do that is to bring in an external cleaning team who can perform the same tasks day after day.

It’s more important than it’s ever been before to create a work environment that’s safe and clean so that people can have confidence in the place where they work being safe and protective. Be sure to make the most of the ideas discussed above if you want to get on top of these matters.

Photo by Troy Bridges