The Importance Of Maintaining A Clean Workplace

The workplace environment has a huge influence on the performance, productivity and well-being of your employees - fact. No matter what industry you are in, maintaining a clean workplace is important for keeping your employees safe and healthy and is more important now than ever. However, busy work schedules, production lines and increasing workloads can all cause cleaning standards to slip.

Whilst it can be tempting to just put off the dusting or sweeping for another day or so, but by doing this, you are putting your entire workforce at risk of suffering a workplace injury or becoming unwell. Maintaining a clean workplace is hugely important and, given that most people spend a large proportion of their week in work, the state of your workplace can have a huge impact on your employees.

Employee Safety
If employees are left to work in a messy environment, then they will be more unlikely to notice all of the hazards in the workplace, which then puts them at increased risk of injury. Occupational hazards are common in the workplace and is regarded as anything in the workplace which has the potential to cause harm and is often caused by neglect due to the employer, or a lack of awareness by employees.

If your workplace isn’t clean, then this may increase the risk of hazards going unnoticed by managers or employees. For example, if there is equipment misplaced along an emergency exit route, workers could be injured if they trip during a routine or emergency exit. If boxes aren’t stored properly, then they could fall over and injure someone walking past.

Misplaced Documents
If employees are working in untidy and unclean offices, then it is much easier for them to misplace or lose some form of document or paperwork. Almost every job requires some form of paperwork these days, no matter if you are a solicitor or work in construction. If you need a form of paperwork or documents to finish a job or task, then mislaying these in amongst a messy work environment is not only frustrating, but can result in serious consequences. Whilst it is important to ensure that your employees follow the proper organisational procedures, it is also important that you provide a clean and organised office for employees to work in.

Health and Wellbeing Of Your Employees
In today’s Covid-19 climate, the health and wellbeing of your employees should be high up on your list. Making sure that your workplace is frequently and regularly cleaned is hugely important in keeping your workplace and employees safe and protected against the spread of Covid-19. Identify high touch points in and around the workplace, such as handrails, light switches, buttons and machinery, and ensure that they are disinfected every hour at least.

Introduce social distancing measures in the workplace, if applicable, and look at introducing staggered start and finish times so that employees aren’t all arriving and leaving around the same time. If your workplace is yet to reopen following a closure earlier on in the year, you may want to look at getting a specialist cleaning company in to give the place a full deep-clean and sanitisation.

Increased Productivity
If your employees are frequently misplacing paperwork, then it can be difficult for them to get much accomplished. Working in a clean and organised office environment helps to streamline the work processes and make it much more efficient.

Encourage your employees to keep the top of their desks free of paperwork and offer document trays or a filing cabinet that they can easily access to store paperwork once complete, with things clearly labelled and organised. Simple workplace organisation can make a huge difference when it comes to productivity, and better employee productivity is only a good thing for your workplace.