by Neal S. Duffy — While facility managers spend a considerable amount of time developing emergency preparedness strategies to deal with unforeseen circumstances, they often overlook the significance of incorporating workplace wellness into their strategies. Recent outbreaks show that the spread of germs can be just as dangerous to a workplace as a natural disaster.
Illness impacts office productivity
Illness in the workplace, such as the flu, can become a major issue for businesses and seriously impact productivity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the flu costs the United States more than US $87 billion each year and close to 17 million missed workdays each flu season. Maintaining a healthy work environment has clear bottom-line benefits, in addition to keeping employees happy and productive.
It’s important for facility managers to understand the significance of preventing the spread of germs, especially when sick employees show up at work. According to a recent Staples survey of 1,500 U.S. office workers, 60 percent show up at work in spite of having the flu. While the vast majority of managers encourage employees to stay home to treat their illness, employees still come in for a variety of reasons, whether it’s high volume of work (40 percent), pleasing the boss (31 percent) or feeling pressure to tough it out (48 percent). The problem is that when people come to work sick, it makes an FM’s job even more difficult, especially during the peak of flu season.
Based on the survey results, it’s clear that employees are coming to work sick, despite being encouraged to stay home. This leads to the problem of “presenteeism,” which essentially refers to people going into the office while sick and not fully functioning. According to the survey, employees work at less than 50 percent of their usual productivity level when they come to work with the flu.
Absenteeism (when people don’t show up at work) presents its own challenges — transitioning work unexpectedly is difficult and can result in missed deadlines, lost opportunities, customer dissatisfaction and loss of revenue. Therefore, it’s important to contain the spread of germs in the first place.
Educating building occupants on the significance of flu prevention
While FMs can’t force people to stay home when they’re sick, they can encourage them to take precautions to prevent spreading germs to other employees.
Building occupants need to know how germs spread and what steps they can take to break the chain. A good starting point would be a training session on the process of germ transmission — how a simple sneeze or cough can contaminate hands and nearby surfaces. For example, a common culprit for spreading germs is face touching, which adults do as often as 16 times per hour; doing so with contaminated hands enables germs to enter the body. Addressing how germs spread can lead to increased awareness, while also making occupants feel that facility managers have their best interests in mind.
Encouraging frequent hand washing is essential. Not only should hand washing be encouraged, compliance can be increased by providing quality foam soap in sealed, sanitary cartridges that don’t allow for possible contamination.
Simple techniques such as placing posters in restrooms and kitchens to provide a friendly reminder to occupants that washing their hands is the number one precaution against germs are easy to implement. The use of signage should not end there — FMs should consider installing posters around the building that incorporate flu education, such as how long flu victims are contagious for, symptoms to be aware of and knowing when to stay home. (Note: Posters are available to download from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website).
For any safety and wellness program to achieve its greatest success, the active engagement of participants is critical. It’s worthwhile for facility managers to designate leaders and advocates who can actively support and promote wellness programs and get other employees excited and involved in disease prevention.
Re-evaluating the cleaning program
In order to create a strategy for preventing the spread of germs, FMs need to take time to research and examine their facilities. This will help determine the areas with the highest levels of contamination and germ hot spots of which many people might be unaware. High-traffic areas including breakrooms, restrooms, employee desks and door handles should be cleaned thoroughly multiple times during the flu season. Increased cleaning frequency with a quality microfiber cloth and disinfection with a hospital-grade disinfectant will help keep these touch surfaces as germ-free as possible.
Additionally, some people use their elbows to avoid touching anything in the restroom with their hands. Features including automated, hands-free towels, soap, sanitizer dispensers and touch-free fixtures such as automatic flushers can help. Similarly, touchless restrooms can help minimize labor costs and germ transmission in common high-traffic zones.
The touchless restroom is not a new concept, but it’s one that many facility managers shy away from in an age of doing more with less. Switching to touchless technology in the restroom can actually minimize labor hours, increasing overall staff productivity and decreasing labor costs.
Viruses and bacteria such as staphylococcus, E. coli, hepatitis A, the flu and the common cold lurk on bathroom surfaces like door knobs, counter tops, soap pumps and toilet seats, which is why touchless fixtures are so beneficial — especially during flu season. These fixtures also control the amount of product used, which reduces waste.
Empowering employees with the necessary tools to stay healthy
It’s important for facility managers to consider a wide array of products that custodial staff can use when cleaning the office. Industrial-sized hand sanitizers in hallways, paper towels near door handles and tissues in common areas help employees stay healthy. Soap dispensers must always be filled, and hand sanitizers and tissues should be at every desk. Essentially, the more high-traffic the area, the better equipped it should be against the spread of germs.
The good news is that employees today are taking charge of their own health and wellness; the Staples survey shows that even as flu vaccinations are more readily available in the workplace, employees take more responsibility for their personal health during flu season. In fact, 70 percent of respondents are directly involved in cleaning their workspaces. This affords facility managers the opportunity to promote workplace wellness in simple ways, such as providing cleaning supplies so employees can keep their personal workspaces clean.
Recent virus outbreaks are also positively affecting reactive behavior, as the majority of employees (53 percent) said they will take extra precautions to protect themselves against the flu and other illness this winter.
Because people want to be especially prepared to avoid illness, it’s important for FMs to provide them with the means to do so. Facility managers should continue to play an active role in supporting the wellness program by sending out emails periodically to building occupants to reinforce taking extra caution during flu season. The small investment in time and cleaning supplies will pay off in more employees at work and increased productivity.
There are many different components for facility managers to prepare their facilities for flu season, but if they take the right precautions, they’ll be able to ensure a more productive, healthy and happy staff during peak flu season.
Neal S. Duffy is senior manager of facilities solutions technical training with Staples, Inc. He is a more than 35-year veteran of the janitorial/ sanitary maintenance industry with extensive industry experience on both the manufacturing and distribution sides of the business. His background includes consulting with facility managers on custodial best practices as well as healthy, sustainable and high-performance cleaning techniques and concepts.
Duffy has practiced as a registered Environmental Health Specialist, Registered Sanitarian and is an ISSA Certified Expert in Cleaning Industry Management Standards — Green Buildings. He is a past board member of and is currently on the advisory panel for the U.S. Green Building Council Upstate New York Chapter, and has completed the Ashkin Group’s Green Cleaning University.