Winter can be a messy time for facilities. Excess moisture, salt, sand, and debris, combined with an uptick in contagious germs, can feel daunting for any business. However, it’s critical that facilities focus extra attention on winter cleaning for both appearance and health.
A recent study revealed that 88 per cent of Americans plan to be extra cautious regarding germs even after being fully vaccinated against COVID-19. As cleaning expectations continue to evolve, businesses must clean correctly – and often – to stop the spread of germs and protect building patrons.
To keep up with these winter challenges, it’s important to review and potentially modify cleaning procedures to continue to maintain a clean, safe facility throughout the season and into spring.
Increase daytime cleaning for infection prevention
Cleaning only at night isn’t ideal anymore. Busy facilities need to be cleaned more often during the day to help stop the spread of germs. Everyday items collect more germs than many realize. In fact, a study revealed that desks can harbour 10 million bacteria – 400 times more than germs found on a toilet seat. With the pandemic still ongoing and cold and flu season at its peak during the winter months, regular cleaning is crucial.
Increased daytime cleaning allows time for more infection control and prevention, especially on high-touch surfaces. Create a daily disinfectant schedule for winter that focuses on cleaning and disinfecting common touchpoints such as doorknobs, light switches, elevator buttons, and kitchen areas consistently throughout the day. Review disinfectant instructions and dwell times with staff to ensure products are being used properly to meet virus kill claims.
Focus resources on floors
Moisture, salt, and sand can damage floors if left unattended. On top of that, dirty floors can also negatively impact the image of your business. To protect floor finish and the life of carpet and tile, it’s important to clean these surfaces regularly, especially during the winter months when contaminants and moisture are frequently tracked inside. Update your floor cleaning schedule and assign staff to monitor entrances to address any messes or pools of water immediately. Installing walk-off indoor and outdoor matting and vacuuming it regularly can also keep floors cleaner and safer by collecting soils and moisture as people enter your facility.
Cleaning floors is a time-consuming task for many facilities, and in the winter, it can feel impossible to keep up with increased demand. Consider the use of robotic floor care equipment to help ease the burden. Robotic machines work by cleaning pre-determined routes while avoiding obstacles like people and walls. This helps ease the repetitive motion and strain on employees and frees up time for them to focus on other important cleaning tasks such as infection control. These collaborative robots – often referred to as “cobots” – do not replace the need for human cleaning professionals. The machines still require supervision and setup for their routes. However, they deliver consistent, reliable results, which can be an advantage for facilities with floor that requires extra attention during winter.
Improve indoor air quality
Monitoring indoor air quality (IAQ) is an essential factor to help keep your facility clean and safe. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoor air can contain two to five times more concentrations of pollutants than outdoor air. More time spent indoors combined with cold, dry winter air also gives viruses room to spread.
Cleaning has a huge impact on IAQ in a facility. Untrained cleaning staff may push dust and dirt around, making air quality worse. Revisit proper dust removal procedures with employees to ensure they clean properly from the highest surface and work their way down, and implement vacuums with HEPA filters to thoroughly capture air pollutants.
Additionally, consider using sustainable chemicals that won’t release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air. Electrochemically activated solutions (ECAS), which are cleaners and disinfectants created using salt, water, and electricity and an on-site generator, are becoming increasingly popular. This is because facilities can generate their own products using safe ingredients, while eliminating issues with supply shortages. Other tips to improve IAQ include making sure the HVAC system is bringing in fresh, outdoor air and using vacuums with HEPA filters to capture dust and debris, rather than re-polluting indoor air.
Provide ongoing training
Training is essential for professional cleaners year-round to help keep them safe and ensure tasks are completed correctly, but winter is an excellent time to review procedures and protocol. Even the most seasoned cleaning professionals can benefit from tool, chemical, and procedural reviews. Hands-on training combined with occasional shadowing ensures that employees follow protocol and it gives them the confidence required to perform tasks properly and consistently. Empowering and investing in staff creates a positive work atmosphere and helps everyone achieve their goals to provide a safe, clean environment held to the highest cleaning standards.
Keeping up with increased winter cleaning can be a challenge, but it’s not impossible. By proactively updating the cleaning schedule, training staff, and providing advanced technologies, cleaning chemicals, and equipment, you will be armed to tackle the season’s specific cleaning needs with ease. The result is a facility that prioritizes health, safety, and appearance.
Kurt Kuempel is the vice president of GSF USA, a leading provider of cleaning services. For more information, visit www.gsf-usa.com or contact Kuempel at kkuempel@GSF-usa.com
