How often does an office get cleaned? This article looks at what you should expect from a professional office cleaning service.
Office cleaning is essential for health and safety reasons, but how often should your office be cleaned to keep employees safe?
How often should you get your office cleaned?
Frequent cleaning is the best way to remove nasty smells and keep busy offices sanitary. Commercial cleaning services provide office deep cleaning, with professional cleaners using industry equipment and chemicals to ensure your workspace is immaculate.
To keep your office clean, there are three periods of cleaning you should follow.
Everyday Tasks
While you may not require a professional cleaning service on a daily basis, there are things you should be completing each day in your office space. Regardless of how many employees you employ, daily cleaning tasks can involve:
All spillages mopped and cleaned up
Sanitisation of high touch surfaces such as worktops, handrails and doorknobs
Dishwasher filled, run and emptied, with kitchen sides wiped down
Toilets cleaned and restocked for the following workday
Any coffee machines emptied and cleaned
Of course, daily cleaning can still involve professional cleaners, depending on the size of your firm. If you are based in a smaller office, you may be able to clean it yourself each day.
Regular Cleaning Tasks
Moving away from daily cleaning tasks, there are some regular office cleaning tasks to complete a few times a week to avoid dirt buildup. Weekly cleaning is important, especially in high traffic areas in small offices. You can hire commercial cleaners to complete such weekly jobs while employees help to ensure they leave a clean office on a daily basis.
Regular cleaning tasks include:
Mopping hard floors
Clean skirting boards
Wipe desktops
Vacuuming of floors
Wipe cupboard doors
Cleaning inside and outside of microwave
Remove limescale from drains and other areas
Busy offices will require more regular cleaning than others, with cleaning staff perhaps allocated to ensure offices spaces are deep cleaned regularly. While this should be done on a frequent basis, smaller office cleaning tasks should fall to staff members to clean their own mess.
Deep Cleaning Tasks
Of course, hiring a cleaning company to visit your business on a weekly basis will never be enough to keep a 100% sanitary work environment, and some deep cleaning work will need to happen from time to time.
Whether we like it or not, our business buildings receive a lot of grime, dirt and dust over time, with places of general footfall (like reception areas) receiving the most. Workplaces must look good to make a good first impression on customers and guests, so a proper cleaning schedule is of the utmost importance.
How often your office needs deep cleaning depends on the size, location, and the number of employees, but getting deep cleaning services 2-3 times a year is recommended.
Such deep cleans will involve a focus on removing bacteria and germs from bathroom and kitchen areas, ensuring neglected areas are given a good clean for a healthy workplace.
The benefits of a clean office
Ensuring your office is regularly cleaned is more than prioritising the health and safety of employees and visitors, though. While you want as few people to take sick days as possible, there are more benefits to hiring a cleaning team.
Productivity Levels have been noted to be higher in employees who work in a clean and welcoming environment, meaning more work is completed daily. A clean environment means more people are happy to work there, improving success rates. Provides a fantastic first impression to customers and visitors.
Overall, taking time to ensure desks and rooms are clean and mess-free will improve the mood and workflow of all people at the premises. Businesses with a good level of cleanliness look professional, attracting future employees and boosting focus. We're sure you've visited business buildings where the toilets were messy, the carpet needing vacuuming and the windows were covered in bird droppings - which doesn't present a healthy workplace and definitely isn't somewhere you'd want to revisit.
What effects the frequency of office cleaning?
The frequency of how often you clean your office does determine on some factors:
People
How many people do you employ? How many visitors, clients and guests do your building experience on a daily basis? While your business should be cleaned daily and weekly, even if you have only three employees, the more people turn up, the more frequently you should dedicate cleaning time. The focus should be on the kitchen and bathroom spaces, ensuring bins are emptied, and door handles wiped down.
Type of business
Businesses that trade in food or catering will always require more cleaning than other companies. The same goes for schools, as health and safety reasons mean you should be prioritising guests and children.
Maintaining a clean environment for such places is vital as their nature lends themselves to more regular guests. Industrial businesses will not require as often cleaning, but a leading manager should still enforce the minimum.
Resourcing or budget
Of course, hiring a commercial cleaning company can get expensive, especially when using them multiple times a week.
Janitorial staff on-hand can clean smaller spillages and keep office spaces clean during the day, but a professional team will be required for deep cleans and weekly cleaning sessions. If you have the budget for more frequent cleaning, you should accommodate for it to keep staff members happy.
Which staff and client areas need to be cleaned?
While all areas should receive semi-regular vacuuming and wiping, certain business regions should receive extra care and attention to avoid illnesses and germs spreading.
Bathrooms
As a minimum, bathrooms must be cleaned every day. Illnesses can quickly spread when they are not cleaned. Beyond that, bathrooms should be a pleasant place to be (so invest in air fresheners and ensure inventory is restocked as often as possible). Sanitise surfaces, clear rubbish and empty bins and wipe all door handles on the daily.
Reception or lobby
Reception areas are more than likely the most visited area by visitors and should be the best first impression of your business. Due to this, you should dust and vacuum every couple of days, ensuring everything is in line, and all rubbish is thrown away. A healthy workspace is attractive to visitors.
Kitchens and break rooms
If staff members bring their own lunches in, you should be wiping down all food preparation areas at the end of each day (and perhaps throughout the working day).
Sinks, taps, microwaves, cupboard handles and worktops can easily house harmful bacteria, spreading throughout the office space before you realise. Encouraging employees to wipe down their surfaces after preparing food can also help to keep harmful germs at bay.
Floors
It's inevitable that debris, food crumbs and dust will collect on the floor, especially in carpets. Staff rooms and reception where high traffic is expected is common. In areas of regular rainfall, floors can get wet and become a slip hazard. Vacuuming these carpets regularly and ensuring floors are mopped weekly will prevent stains and keep them looking fresh.
Windows
We don't realise how important clean windows are until they become incredibly dirty. While you don't need to clean your windows on a weekly basis, it's good practice to hire a window cleaning service to ensure bird droppings and other stains are removed.
Your building can look more presentable when your windows have been cleaned, but only worry about doing this throughout the summer months (depending on how dusty and pollen-prone your surroundings are).
Are you looking for office cleaning services in Caernarfon, Anglesey and Gwynedd? For more information on how to keep your office spaces cleaned or to hire a professional service, be sure to contact our team.