Checklist: How to Open Workplace Safely after COVID-19

starteam | Posted on June 24, 2020 |

How to Open Workplace safely after Covid-19, steps must be taken to protect staff, visitors and customers. Implementing rules for handwashing and providing personal protective equipment is a start, but a professional cleaning service will be vital at this time.

Regular disinfection is imperative to prevent the spread of the virus. The professional commercial cleaning services of Star Team Cleaning will help you prepare for reopening. We’ve prepared a checklist to help your business open safely after COVID-19.

Schedule a Deep Cleaning Before Opening Workplace

Prior to reopening, it’s important to schedule a deep cleaning. If your facility has been closed and empty for weeks or months, there’s little risk of the virus still being on any surfaces. If you had cleaning staff or people in the building, there is a risk of potential contamination.

Schedule a deep cleaning before reopening to ensure that all surfaces are clean and properly disinfected.
A deep cleaning should include a disinfecting of hard surfaces in addition to the usual cleaning tasks. Proper disinfection will kill germs, including viruses.
We also provide 360 degrees electrostatic disinfection system to eliminate about 40 different viruses and bacteria.

Star Team Cleaning’s deep cleaning services will ensure that your business is prepared for reopening. But we can also provide deep cleaning on a regular basis to ensure that your facility stays clean and free of germs.

Provide Personal Protective Equipment

When staff return to work, it is important to make sure that they are protected. Providing personal protective equipment will make your workers feel safe and also help prevent the spread of illness.

Requiring employees to wear face masks and gloves is a start, but if you want workers to comply with these rules, you must provide the equipment you require.
Additionally, you want to ensure that any outside help, such as the cleaning crew, also comply with these rules.
If customers are entering your facility, you must also have enough protective equipment to provide to them as well.
Have designated areas for personal protective equipment to be disposed.

Clean Touch Points More Frequently

Commercial businesses have multiple employees all sharing the same space. Naturally, there are surfaces that are touched frequently: office and common areas, chairs, light switches, doorknobs, desks, countertops, kitchen appliances handles, coffee makers, microwaves, wending machines, drinking fountains, cabinet handles, drawers, shared electronic devises (such as printers, remote controls etc.), all manual dispensers, washroom fixtures, elevator/escalator touch points, conference/meeting rooms, etc. These high-touch surfaces may increase the risk of transmission, so it’s important to have these surfaces cleaned regularly.

Depending on how many employees you have, you may need to have these surfaces cleaned daily or even multiple times per day.
For retailers and restaurants, surfaces may need to be disinfected on an hourly basis or every few hours.
Creating a cleaning schedule for these surfaces can help ensure that surfaces stay clean.

Star Team Cleaning can help you create a schedule or plan for disinfecting high-touch surfaces, and help you carry out that plan.

Reconfigure Working Spaces

When creating your reopening plan, it’s important to consider your space and how it’s laid out. The positioning of workstations, furniture and other items may need to be changed.

Do employees share workspaces, or do they normally work in close spaces? If so, you may need to reconfigure your space to keep employees at a distance.
Reorganize your floor plan to maintain 6-foot distances between workers, visitors and customers.
Common gathering areas can be arranged to maximize safe distances.
Breakrooms can be reorganized to ensure safe distance.
Occupant rules can be applied to breakrooms and other areas to ensure everyone can maintain social distancing rules.

Ensure the Breakroom is Cleaned Regularly

The breakroom is a common gathering area for employees. While you may adjust your rules to maximize distance and limit the number of people in the room, breakrooms will still receive a lot of traffic and must be cleaned regularly.

A cleaning schedule must also be created for breakrooms to ensure that all high-touch surfaces are disinfected regularly.
Rooms may need to be cleaned more than once a day.
Cleaning supplies should be provided to ensure staff keep the area clean.

Clean Electronics Regularly

All electronics should be cleaned regularly, or multiple times per day.

Electronics, such as keyboards, touchscreens, remote controls, ATMs and other devices, should be cleaned regularly. These devices are touched often, and the virus can live on these surfaces for several hours.
Regular cleaning and disinfecting will kill the virus (and other germs) to help prevent or slow the spread.
Provide alcohol-based wipes or sprays that contain at least 70% alcohol, and ensure that all of electronics are cleaned daily.
Make disinfecting items easily accessible and near workstations so employees use them regularly.

The Star Team Cleaning staff will wipe down all of these surfaces for you as part of your cleaning service. Our team can clean your electronics after employees have left the building to ensure a thorough, deep cleaning before staff returns in the morning.

Provide Hand Sanitizer and Cleaning Supplies

Professional cleaning services will play an important role in your reopening process, but it’s also important for you to take supplemental measures to prevent the spread. Providing some cleaning supplies can help achieve this goal.

Providing access to hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies to employees will add an extra layer of protection and encourage healthy habits among employees.
Make these supplies easily accessible to anyone who may need it.
Ensure that cleaning staff also has access to hand sanitizer and hand soap for regular handwashing and to prevent contamination.
Remember to check the List of hand sanitizers authorized by Health Canada to make sure you get the right one.

Create an Office Safety Plan Before Opening Workplace

An office safety plan should be created to ensure that hotspots are cleaned regularly. This plan should outline:

Rules for employees regarding cleaning and hygiene,
How often high-touch surfaces should be cleaned and by whom.
How each area should be cleaned or which items should be disinfected in each area.

Employees should get into the habit of cleaning their workstations regularly. This cleaning should be in addition to your professional cleaning services to ensure that surfaces are thoroughly disinfected.

Whether your business is opening now or in the near future, it’s important to have a reopening plan in place. Star Team Cleaning can help you develop a plan while taking care of the vital cleaning tasks that will help stop the spread of illness.