Maintaining a clean and hygienic workplace is essential throughout your office, workshop, factory or commercial facility. But the washroom is of particular importance for ensuring the health, wellbeing and safety of employees, visitors, clients and customers, and yourself.
It can be challenging to enforce compliance of high quality washroom hygiene, but the importance of doing so is no less pertinent. To help you, we have put together this compliance checklist to improve your workplace’s washroom hygiene practices and habits.
The Importance of Washroom Hygiene Compliance
Of course, it goes without saying that hygienic practices in a commercial setting is of the utmost importance. Due to the often confined nature of such workplaces, the significant amount of activity, and close proximity of team members, visitors and clients, the risk of spreading bacteria, viruses and other diseases is heightened.
This is not only a threat to the physical health and wellbeing of workers and visitors, but it also presents a risk to the productivity and efficiency of the workplace. Reputationally, it is also far from ideal to have guests, whether clients or other stakeholders, experiencing anything less than stellar hygiene in your office.
There are also various legal and regulatory requirements that need to be taken into account. Employers are required to maintain a safe and healthy work environment, and this extends to hygienic practice.
As mentioned above, the washroom presents a unique challenge on this front. It is both a frequently used facility in the workplace, and prone to an even higher degree of infection and bacteria spread. Whilst regular, professional and effective cleaning is essential, obviously, it is not quite enough to maintain overall employee wellbeing.
This is where general, as well as regulatory, compliance comes in. Hygiene is a team effort, just as it is a team risk. So, how can you encourage and enforce compliance of washroom hygiene in your workspace?
The Ultimate Washroom Hygiene Compliance Checklist
1. Have you communicated best hygiene practice?
Changing the behaviour of your washroom users starts with communication. Apart from providing regular training and reminders of best hygiene practice, putting up signs, information and educational resources in the washroom itself is important. Try and place them in relevant spots, for example: Include graphical instructions for best hand washing techniques on the mirror above the sink.
2. Does your washroom get regularly cleaned?
Frequent, professional cleans – courtesy of a team such as HCS Cleaning solutions – is an absolute must. How frequent your specific washroom should be cleaned will depend on how many people use it throughout the day but at a bare minimum it should be cleaned at least once a day. Of course, certain high-touch points, such as door handles and sinks should be cleaned even more regularly. It is good practice to have some sort of communication or chart showing when the last clean took place and reinforcing the importance of regular cleaning to all washroom users.
3. Do you have sufficient sanitisation stations?
Placing more hand sanitisers in more locations is a subtle but effective way of encouraging hygiene compliance. It makes regular sanitisation easy and accessible and reinforces a strong hygiene habit. If possible, try and place sanitisers strategically near entrances or by faucets, i.e., the aforementioned high-touch areas.
4. Is your hygiene products stock well maintained?
Washrooms must always have sufficient stock of toilet paper, hand sanitisers, soaps, paper towels and the like. Nothing discourages good hygiene practice and undermines commitment to employee health and wellbeing than not having enough hygiene products. Your regular cleans should include stock replenishment to ensure they never run out.
5. Is your waste disposed of regularly?
Waste is a breeding ground of bacteria and disease. That is why all rubbish and sanitary bins should be regularly disposed of in a safe and hygienic way. Maintaining empty waste receptacles and ensuring there is never overflowing waste not only leaves all washroom users with a good impression but reinforces good hygiene practice.
6. Do you have an inspection routine?
Regular inspections can help you identify potential hygiene-related issues before they become a problem. Apart from checking the various items on this checklist, you should also pay attention to things such as equipment malfunctioning, soap dispenser functionality, floor cleanliness, mirror cleanliness and the like.
7. Is there a clear communication channel for any problems?
The more pairs of eyes you have on the hygiene status of your washroom the better. Make sure that all team members, and visitors, to your washroom have a clear understanding of how to communicate any issues they have noticed. Whether a toilet is malfunctioning or paper towel is running low, if there is a clear feedback or notification system, you can avoid as many issues as possible.
8. Do you have an odour control system?
Washrooms are subject to activity that tends to result in unpleasant odours. It is important not just for the experience of users but also for their hygiene and wellbeing to maintain a fresh and odour-free environment. This requires some structural considerations, for example sufficient ventilation and air flow. But there are also more manageable strategies, such as automatic air fresheners. Plus, regular cleaning and early attention to potential toilet or sink-related malfunctions will prevent significant odour-related issues as much as possible.
HCS Cleaning Solutions – here to solve your commercial washroom cleaning needs
Encouraging strong hygiene compliance requires a proactive approach. By following the above checklist, you can ensure that both you and your team are walking the walk and not just talking the talk when it comes to workplace health and wellbeing. Whilst there is a lot that you can do as a workplace – from ensuring sufficient stock to providing hand-sanitisers – ultimately, you need a reliable, professional and thorough commercial cleaning team to keep your businesses hygiene complaint effortlessly.
The team at HCE Cleaning Solutions doesn’t just offer comprehensive office washroom cleaning services. We also offer those same high quality services on a flexible schedule to suit your needs and minimise office disruption.
If you would like to find out more about how we can help you with your washroom hygiene needs, or if you would like a tailored quote to help keep your business clean, contact our team today.
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