In today’s world, business owners and employees alike have become more conscious about office hygiene. And when it comes to stopping the spread of harmful viruses and bacteria throughout the office, few places are more important than the bathroom.
The restroom is a high-traffic area that nearly everyone in your office will enter at some point during the day. Because of this frequent traffic, if the bathroom is not properly sterilized and disinfected, anyone using it could inadvertently become infected and spread germs or illnesses. Fortunately, there are proven methods to ensure your bathroom stays clean and germ-free. To learn more, read on to discover seven ways to improve your office bathroom’s hygiene and cleanliness.
1. A Basic Checklist
The cleanliness of your restroom can leave a lasting impression on both new employees and customers. Whether the impression is positive or negative depends on how clean your restroom appears.
Imagine that you work for a company that doesn’t take pride in the appearance of its restroom. How would you feel when you entered and saw water all over the sink, handprints on the soap dispenser, and soggy paper towels on the floor? Would this feeling inspire confidence or disappointment in your employer?
To ensure your restroom looks visibly clean, make sure someone is taking care of the following tasks:
- Mopping up spills
- Cleaning soap dispensers
- Wiping up the sink
- Emptying trash bins
- Removing trash from the floor
While keeping your restroom visually clean is essential for making a good impression, it is no substitute for thorough cleaning and disinfection. Regular surface cleaning should occur throughout the day; however, you should also do deep cleans weekly or biweekly to add sparkle and shine to your bathroom.
2. Make Sure the Bathroom Smells Pleasant
The human brain instinctively associates unpleasant odors with dirty spaces. If you are trying to make a good impression on your employees and customers, you’ll want to ensure your restroom smells nice throughout the day. This will require adequate ventilation and a little outside help.
In addition to proper ventilation, you can install some air fresheners, air diffusers, or a combination of the two. When selecting a scent, opt for something unobtrusive to cover unpleasant smells.
It is a good idea to consult your employees and see if they have any preferences on what scents you should use. After all, they are the ones who will be using the restroom most of the time. Additionally, if your restroom has urinals, you can purchase urinal deodorizers to cover up any unwanted odors.
And, of course, the best way to keep your bathroom smelling pleasant is to clean it regularly.
3. Ensure the Hand Soap Is Stocked and Ready
One of the key takeaways from recent years is the central importance of hand soap to societal well-being. This is why it is crucial to ensure you have enough hand soap in your bathroom so employees can adequately wash their hands. After all, if visitors walk into your restroom and the soap dispenser is empty, they will assume that you probably haven’t washed your hands all day either.
When selecting a hand soap, make sure you choose something that is calibrated to your specific industry. For example, some hand soaps are specifically designed for the food industry, and others are designed for regular office spaces. Always check the label to make sure the soap is designed to suit your needs.
In addition to keeping the soap stocked, you should ensure your employees understand how to wash their hands properly. If that seems obvious, you would probably be surprised to learn that many people are unaware of proper handwashing techniques. As a result, it’s common to rush, cut corners, or not wash hands at all. The easiest solution is to hang a sign near the bathroom sink that highlights the proper steps for cleaning your hands.
Aside from soap, hand sanitizing stations should be placed throughout the office, so employees and customers can sanitize their hands as needed. However, everyone in your office must understand that sanitizing their hands is not a substitute for thoroughly washing them with soap and water.
4. Keep Supplies Stocked and Easy to Access
A well-stocked bathroom means all supplies should be abundant and easy to access. In addition, guests should be able to access what they want without creating a mess. After all, how many times have you dropped a toilet paper roll only to helplessly watch it roll across the floor into the neighboring stall? This situation is suboptimal.
Some of the most crucial supplies to have on hand include all of the following:
- Toilet paper
- Disposable paper towels
- Hand soap
- Air fresheners
- Disposable toilet covers
Ensuring your bathrooms are adequately stocked will allow employees to kill any lingering germs before returning to the office. As with hand washing, ensure your employees understand how to properly use the supplies and set expectations regarding proper office hygiene. The last thing you want is people cutting corners and getting others sick due to negligence.
In addition to setting expectations for workplace hygiene, it is helpful to show your employees how to restock supplies. For example, if an employee uses the last of the toilet paper or paper towels, they should know how to retrieve new rolls from the supply closet. This will help automate the cleaning process and make your office safer.
5. Make Sure the Bathroom Is Equipped with a Hand Drying Station
Many people are unaware that illnesses often spread faster from wet hands than from dry hands. Luckily, the solution is simple: take the time to dry your hands thoroughly. It doesn’t matter whether you have a mechanical hand dryer or paper towels as long as you have a method where employees can safely dry their hands without getting water all over the room.
When selecting a hand-drying method, avoid traditional towels. While paper towels can be discarded, traditional towels can quickly become a breeding ground for viruses and bacteria when used by multiple people. But if you have no option aside from using traditional towels, ensure they are replaced regularly throughout the day and cleaned by a professional cleaning service. Additionally, they should be placed into a bin after a single use.
If you opt to use mechanical hand dryers, make sure to clean and disinfect them throughout the day. Suppose they go too long without being cleaned. In that case, they can spread bacteria throughout the restroom, which runs counter to the goal of minimizing the spread of harmful viruses and bacteria.
6. Incorporate New Technologies
Recent years have been a huge wake-up call to the sanitization industry, resulting in many innovators creating new, more effective technology for eliminating viruses and bacteria. For example, the availability of touchless equipment has increased throughout the country. That’s because one of the main ways germs spread is by touching the same surface that an infected person has touched. In a restroom, this could apply to any of the following:
- Door knobs and handles
- Toilet paper dispensers
- Toilet seats
- Faucets
- Dryer buttons
- Paper towel dispenser handles
- Light switches
- Fan switches
As you can see, most of these high-touch surfaces could be avoided by simple automation, and that is precisely what the latest restroom technologies aim to do. Here are some examples of the latest touch-free restroom technology:
- Automated doors
- Automated soap dispensers
- Motion-activated lights
- Automatic toilet flushing
- Automatic dryers
- Automatic paper towel dispensers
If you can, it is highly recommended to implement touch-free technology into your office restroom for optimal hygiene.
7. Clean Your Restrooms Frequently and Efficiently
Even if you follow each of these tips, the chances of viruses and bacteria spreading throughout your office will not be lessened without regular cleaning. But you can stop viruses in their tracks by instituting a regular restroom cleaning schedule
Of course, a regular cleaning schedule will incorporate surface cleaning alongside deep cleaning and disinfecting. Try cleaning a few times throughout the day and once more after everyone has gone home for the evening. Even if employees work after hours, you should still aim for one deep cleaning per night.
In addition to minimizing the spread of viruses and bacteria, you are communicating a positive message to your employees and customers that will improve your public image and inspire higher morale around the office.
Regular cleaning is also crucial from a customer standpoint. If you have a customer-facing business, you’ll want to ensure their experience throughout your building is undeniably positive. There’s no better way to do that than by providing a clean restroom for them to use.
Keep Your Office at Its Best with 360clean
We hope you enjoyed this guide on office bathroom hygiene and cleanliness! As you can see, at 360clean, commercial office cleaning is nothing new to us.
For nearly two decades, we have offered health-focused office cleaning services for businesses throughout the United States. In that time, we think we’ve perfected the art of keeping businesses looking their best.
We understand that safeguarding your employees’ and customers’ health and well-being is your top priority. That’s why we deploy our proven JaniMed® system, which consists of specialized training, hospital-grade disinfectants, touch surface disinfection, and state-of-the-art equipment, like micro-fiber technology and HEPA Vacuums.
The best part is that we can often implement our JaniMed® system at the same price or even less than your current commercial cleaning service.
To learn more about our commercial cleaning services, contact us today for a free quote. Thanks for stopping by our blog; we hope to help you soon!