This week we are discussing the potential of Returning to the Workplace and how to develop the ultimate hygiene strategy for your workplace to ensure the safety of yourself and everyone around you.

 

Birkin Head of Sales, Jamie Hall recently spoke on the Habit Action webinar series on Returning to the work place and we are sharing the key points and recommendations below:  

“It is through the brave work in particular of our NHS and key workers that we are seeing confidence build in the start of the journey back to work. However, we recognise that for this to happen in the first place and for us to continue the progress made against COVID 19, we need to be able to show that have the plans and processes in place to affect this return.

There is great work being done in workplace space redesign and Birkin and the cleaning industry as a whole recognise the key part that we will play in supporting this journey through support, advice and effective cleaning strategies."

 

Using our experience at Birkin and how we are successfully supporting our clients in the journey back to the workplace, I am going to discuss 3 key topics.

Firstly, this is the first step of the initial deep clean and what to think about.

It begins with your business plan, the How, where you set the approach you will take for the first steps of reintroducing your teams to the workplace considering the space planning, movement and flow of your teams and staggered starts, rotating shifts etc. With the plan defined you can then deal with the “Who?”

It is key to engage with a specialist cleaning provider to ensure that you get the deep clean is delivered in a safe and effective manner. Our specialist deep cleaning division within Birkin has teams of specially trained personnel planning and completing preparatory deep cleans using the latest fogging and treatment equipment.    

Also, a specialist provider will have the knowledge and expertise to design a deep cleaning plan to work in parallel with your business plan and enable the return of your teams to the workplace.

With the initial deep cleans organised, you then move to building the plan to keep a deep clean status all day every day.

At Birkin we can use the expertise of our specialist deep cleaning division to guide and support the plans we are preparing for our core daily cleaning services which we deliver to our client portfolio across the UK. This planning is based on:

Minimise – Working to the key aim of initially minimising the team members that need to be reintroduced into the workspace utilising the progress made in effective remote working and flexible working and then the effect this will have on the use of the workplace and in turn the cleaning requirements

Engage – For the ongoing strategy you need to engage with your cleaning provider to review the specification as it will not be fit for purpose for the new way of working and to combat COVID 19 

Reallocate – To always begin with a best value position of looking to reallocate time from some non-essential tasks to increasing frequencies on hotpot areas of the common areas of receptions, meeting rooms, washroom and kitchen and break out areas. 

Enhance – Also look to review you periodic cleaning programme to include specialist deep cleaning to provide robust prevention and also look at the cleaning equipment that the teams are using as there this new equipment coming to market that can support the core cleaning teams in enhancing the sanitization tasks with their daily duties

Supply – Move to add to the standard office supplies hand sanitiser, disinfectant wipes and tissues as your teams play a key role in maintaining a deep clean status

Support – Giving clear guidance on the return to the workplace with an induction process that makes clear the new way of working in the workplace and is the start of building a hygiene culture with your teams which is the final topic:

We recognise that one of the most important weapons at our disposal in the combat against COVID 19 in the workplace is ensuring our teams maintain a high level of hygiene. 

Your teams will be returning with a heightened sense of understanding on the importance of hygiene gained during the lock down period, but this will need maintained at we continue the journey back to the new normality.

This is built from the induction and guidance given, supported with the supply of sanitising products and maintained through the use of awareness aids that can be placed in the key hotspot areas such as reception matting, branded floor stickers, and posters in the washrooms and kitchen/breakout areas and meeting rooms as well as installing additional Sanitisation stations.

I hope I have provided some useful points to take away and through our membership of key industry association such as the CSSA, ISSA, IWFM and British Institute of Cleaning Science we are updating and developing our strategies as we all learn more about COVID 19 and we would welcome the opportunity to support you further.