Flu season is here again. So, to help you prepare, we’re reposting this article by Holly Borrego, our senior director of cleaning services, about how our team goes the extra mile to keep your facility clean and healthy. And remember, flu shots are available starting in September and that the CDC recommends that everyone older than six months get vaccinated, unless they have a health condition that would prevent it.

Follow these steps to maintain the health of your team and your clients.

By Holly Borrego, senior director of cleaning services

The days are getting shorter, the leaves are changing color, and that means that flu and cold season is upon us. Disinfecting and hand-washing are important in all aspects of life, but in the facilities services industry, they are vital. As those tasked with keeping facilities clean, we must do our part to ensure our clients stay healthy so they can continue their outstanding work.

Below are three tips for keeping your facility thoroughly disinfected:

  • Hand-washing“This may strike some as obvious, but hand washing is a vital part of maintaining a healthy work environment. Training, reminding, and reinforcing good hand washing practices help reduce the spread of illness. We’ve created this easy-to-follow guide for you to print and post at your site so that you can develop a culture of healthy hand washing. A quick reminder about the most effective way to wash your hands: first, wet your hands with running water—either hot or cold. Apply soap and lather, and make sure you wash your hands for at least 20 seconds. Finally, dry your hands and try to turn off the faucet and open the door with a paper towel. This is an easy yet effective technique to keep your employees from spreading germs around the office.
  • Workplace Touchpoint Program“All workplaces contain objects that are frequently touched by a large number of people—light switches, door push bars, hand railings, telephones, elevator buttons, kitchen fixtures, and more. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that adults touch their own faces an average of 18.5 times per hour, presenting hundreds of opportunities each day to transfer illness-causing germs into their bodies. Fortunately, knowing what surfaces hold the greatest risk for disease transmission enables us to implement effective cleaning practices. Dwell time—the number of minutes a product must be in contact with the surface and remain wet to ensure maximum cleaning effectiveness—varies from one to 10 minutes. Given this, we recommend using Oxivir TB wipes, which require keeping a surface wet for 60 seconds while cleaning. This is a change from the typical spray-and-wipe-style cleaning we often see.
  • Desk Kit“Create small desk kits that employees can keep at their workstations or take around with them. These kits need to include a box of Kleenex and hand sanitizer products. Providing employees with their own kits decreases the amount of potential germs people can pick up from a shared Kleenex box.

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As your facilities teams we work tirelessly to prevent the spread of illness every season by implementing strong cleaning programs. The work we deliver on the front lines is so important—not just for the work sites but also for the people who work in them. Keeping workers safe, productive, and healthy is important to us and your employer.