5 Reasons to Clean Your Office in The New Year
The new year brings with it a fresh start – a blank canvas to enable everyone, everywhere to start afresh and feel revitalised.
In the workplace especially, revitalised employees can make a big difference to the overall productivity so it’s important for employers to sit up and utilise this changing mood. Working in a clean office environment can further add to the overall level of productivity, increasing employee engagement and ensuring workers remain in good health over the coming year.
While it may seem like a no-brainer to maintain a clean and hygienic office, have you ever actually stopped to think about why exactly it’s so important? In this article, we not only take a look at some of the key reasons why maintaining a clean office is important, but also why the new year is the perfect time for a refresh.
1. Illness.
One of the more obvious reasons for keeping an office clean is simply because it reduces the risk of illness in the workplace. Whether it be the office phone, computer keyboard or bathroom toilet, the workplace features a number of hotspots where germs and bacteria can build up. In fact, some research has even shown that office printer buttons can harbour more bacteria than a dog’s bowl.
Therefore, keeping on top of these germ hotspots and cleaning them regularly will keep employees happier and in good health. Plus, it’ll limit the number of days they’ll need to take off sick throughout the year which, in turn, should increase productivity and work ethic.
2. Safety.
Depending on the weather outside, the workplace can become a much more dangerous place to work when insufficiently maintained.
Over the winter months especially, when the weather turns nasty and it becomes much windier and rainier outside, water, mud and dirt can easily transport into the workplace via workers’ feet and clothing.
In turn, this not only makes the office look dirty, it also makes floors slipperier as well, posing a potential health risk to employees. Therefore, commercial matting should be used to trap dirt and moisture before it can hit the workplace.
3. Impression.
If you work in an office space where you frequently have clients coming in and out of your doors, then you’re going to want to make a good impression. By having a dirty office on show, you will give anything but; why would a client want to work with you if you appear unable to look after yourself?
By keeping your office clean, it will keep it feeling safe and inviting for both employees and any potential guests you might have. Even basic tasks like cleaning the windows, vacuuming the floors and taking the rubbish out can make a huge difference to the overall impression. The last thing you want is for them to become ill or appear appalled by the conditions you work in.
4. Comfort.
Working in an environment where random documents are strewn across the tables, bins are overflowing with rubbish and packaging material are left for someone else to clear up is no fun at all. In fact, it can make employees feel very uncomfortable and even claustrophobic, substantially affecting their engagement with their work.
By keeping offices clear of clutter, you remove this possibility and create a working environment that is much more comfortable for employees to work in.
5. Organisation.
One of, if not, the best reasons to keep offices clean and tidy is because it helps it stay organised. It’s all to easy to overlook how time consuming it can be having to constantly search through piles of papers and archives for specific documents.
By ensuring each employee tidies their desk on a regular basis, this could make a big difference to the overall look and feel of the office. Going one step further, entirely paperless offices are becoming more and more popular, where documents and data are stored on cloud-based systems rather than printed out and kept on desks all the time.
By creating this type of workspace, the office not only becomes more environmentally friendly, but it also becomes a lot less cluttered, saves money on overhead costs and is a much more relaxed place to work as a result.