How to reopen your workplace after COVID-19

Cleaning up the confusion about Coronavirus cleaning

What type of clean do you need to reopen your workplace safely for employees?

Misinformation can spread even faster than a virus. It’s fair to say that misuse, or a simple lack of understanding, of cleaning industry terminology by official bodies has created considerable confusion for many customers seeking professional cleaning services.

For example, at Monthind we have recently been fielding enquiries for a host of different services, including:

• • Deep cleans
  • Hazard cleans
  • Emergency cleans
  • Sanitisation cleans
  • Pandemic cleans

Despite the variety of these requests, many of these customers actually required very similar services. But how can they be expected to know everything about cleaning terminology? That’s our job.

So, to help you understand what you need from a cleaning company in order to safely reopen your workplace your employees, we wanted to provide some clarity. With 45 years’ experience in the cleaning industry, at Monthind Clean we feel well placed to deliver clear definitions for some of our industry’s most important terminology.

Cleaning: The removal of soiling, both visible and invisible, from a surface. The cleaning process prepares a surface for disinfection.

Sanitising: A less aggressive process than disinfection, sanitising reduces the level of germs and bacteria to a level considered safe. NB: It is worth noting that, at the time of writing, a safe sanitation level for COVID-19 is yet to be established, therefore disinfection is required for areas or surfaces affected by the Coronavirus.

Disinfecting: The removal of bacteria and germs, except bacterial spores, from a surface or object.

In the current situation many workplaces, in particular non-healthcare facilities or those not occupied by high-risk citizens, require an increased frequency of cleaning, with the potential addition of disinfecting.

Guidance for Getting Back to Work in a Clean and Safe Environment

On 11^th May, the UK Government launched five steps to get British workers back to work, of which Step Five is “Reinforcing cleaning processes.” The new guidance includes cleaning your workplace more frequently, installing hand sanitising or washing facilities at entries and exits, and taking extra care in the cleaning of high-contact areas (such as handrails, door handles, kitchen facilities such as fridges, drinks machines and kettles) and IT equipment.

250 industry leaders and stakeholders were consulted to assist the government in the development of the new ‘COVID-19 secure’ guidelines. Further guidelines regarding the cleaning of workplaces include:

• Before the reopening of any workplace that has been either closed or partially operated, an assessment should be conducted and all necessary cleaning and hygiene procedures should be carried out, including the provision of required levels of hand sanitiser, to ensure the workplace is clean and ready to restart.
• To ensure the clean condition of the workplace is maintained, frequent cleaning should be undertaken between uses, and of regularly touched surfaces, to prevent transmission. Adequate disposal arrangements should also be in place.
• Steps should be taken to educate about, encourage and enable good hygiene, such as effective handwashing technique and how best to avoid transmission. These steps include installing additional hand sanitising points beyond those in washrooms, increasing rubbish and waste collections, ensuring sanitary hand drying facilities are always available in washrooms, whether electrical hand driers or paper towels, and following social distancing rules in bathroom and toilet areas.
• Where changing rooms and showers are present, regular, enhanced cleaning of these facilities throughout the day should be introduced, in addition to at the end of each day. Click here to read the full government advice

 

Find out more about our Office and Workplace Cleaning Services after COVID-19

 

Monthind Clean is here to help you deliver a clean, safe, virus-free working environment. To talk to an expert about how to make your premises safe for your employees to return to work, get in touch with us today on 01206 215 300 or email sales@monthindclean.co.uk.