After months — for many, more than a year — of finding alternative work solutions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses are opening their doors, manufacturers are recovering, and employees are beginning to come back to work. For those crucial to the supply chain, on-site work is more important than ever.
With the global rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, many are able to resume their previous routines and make up for losses over the last year. In preparation, operations managers and job site leads are now focusing on making their facilities safe for those who return.
Every industry has had to find new ways of operating and communicating in response to the pandemic, and job site managers are no exception. These teams have been working around the clock to provide clean, healthy and safe environments as employees return to work. They’ve also been finding creative solutions and unique offerings to encourage workers to return to the job site. The emphasis here is not only to provide a safe environment for employees to conduct business, but also to avoid any mental turmoil of trying to move past events over the last year. By doing so, you can actually improve workflow productivity.
If you’re opening your facility back up, consider these best cleaning practices to give your workers peace of mind:
Hire professional cleaning and disinfecting services
As a job site manager, you know that the decision to bring employees back to work is not an easy one to make. Most of us also understand how important it is for a company’s success to have employees in a safe and collaborative environment so they can best serve clients and customers.
Since the pandemic, employers are looking for ways to help their employees feel safe coming back to work. One easy way to do this is by ensuring that they will be in a safe and healthy environment, like an office building or job site that has been professionally cleaned and disinfected before employees return.
Take COVID-19 into account when working with your teams after the pandemic. And since disinfecting is stronger than cleaning or sanitizing, it’s important for properties or employers to provide their teams with professional services to ensure every safety measure has been taken, and that disinfection procedures comply with federal guidelines provided by the UK Department of Health and Social Care.
Clean as you go
At your job site — whether it’s a warehouse, a factory, or another space — it’s important to have your entire team trained and versed on regular cleaning protocol. Job sites can get disorganised fast, and with such fast-paced work, it’s easy to overlook mundane tasks like cleaning.
However, now more than ever it’s important for everyone to chip in and do their part by keeping their work station clean and tidy, and picking up the slack for others as needed. It’s the responsibility of each and every employee to maintain a sense of cleanliness at their stations and in areas they work or socialise in, but it couldn’t hurt if management or HR put together a schedule for individuals or departments to do light cleaning every week to minimise risk.
Stock up on supplies
To make it easier on your employees to help keep the job site clean, make sure you’ve ordered plenty of supplies and store them in a safe and accessible location. Make sure you are ordering commercial grade cleaning solutions. You can even look into green cleaning solutions to boost your sustainability initiatives.
In addition to having a well-stocked cleaning supply closet, it’s important to stay organised. This will help give your employees peace of mind as they go to reach for cleaning products. They will know exactly where to look and exactly what they’re using.
Enforce safety protocols
The CDC has stated that the COVID-19 virus can be passed through close contact with droplets that transfer by coughing or sneezing. To help minimise the spread of this virus in your warehouse or job site, make sure you are enforcing safety protocols to reduce these types of exposures. Many companies are still requiring employees to wear a facial covering and practice social distancing while in the workplace, provided it is safe to do so.
Even though vaccines are being rolled out and are free to the public, it’s still important to practice these safety procedures to avoid spreading the disease to others. Site managers and employers should work closely with their employees and local authorities to make sure these protocols are being followed.
Set a maximum occupancy level
While the infection rate is unknown, it’s still important to take every precaution to prevent further transmission of COVID-19. Previous occupancy levels might not allow for social distancing, so it is important that all job site coordinators be aware and comply with decreased maximum occupancy level rules set by company executives.
You should work closely with your team to determine what makes sense for your industry and your needs.
Increase custodial staff
If you have a larger job site, make sure shared areas are kept clean. Smaller warehouses should also be cleaned more regularly. Many companies are increasing custodial staff now that people are coming back to work for a number of reasons:
First and foremost, keeping COVID-19 out of the workplace is the top priority. To do this, job site teams should increase their cleaning frequency, which may result in increased custodial staff. Not only are they disinfecting surfaces with high traffic, but also cleaning floors and door handles as often as every day. They are also using HEPA filters in the air conditioning system to maintain high air quality.
Secondly, COVID-19 can live on surfaces for up to seven days. It is also not eliminated by all disinfectants or dilution. So, it’s important that operations managers hire enough custodial staff to give their entire spaces a deep clean every few weeks.
Invest in high-quality indoor air filtration technology
Most operations managers are still taking precautions to ensure their employees’ safety in the event that COVID-19 has not been eliminated from their job site. One of the most important ways you can do this for your own team is by mitigating exposure to substances like mold, which can cause respiratory problems and other health issues.
In your workplace, focus on creating a good indoor air quality environment in your building. This means sealing off areas that might have been exposed to COVID-19, and making sure to equip all indoor job sites with high-quality air filtration technology, which can help prevent people from getting sick after they return to work.
Utilise touchless technology to enforce safety
To help enforce a safe work environment for their staff, many site managers are making use of touchless technology where they can — such as touchless keypads to enter the building, and touchless doors and hand sanitiser dispensers throughout their site. Touchless technologies allow people to enter and exit buildings without touching any surfaces, reducing the likelihood that they will come into contact with any COVID-19 contamination by touching the same surfaces as everyone else, while also decreasing the risk of transferring it back inside.
While accessing and installing touchless technology is not a quick process for a number of industries, there have been significant developments in technology over the last year alone that could make touchless workplaces a more common and permanent solution.
Supply chain management is a crucial part of our economy, and it’s important that employees feel comfortable going back to work. With a few boosted cleaning practices, your site can be safe and clean for your team, ensuring success and efficiency for your company.