Flu season can wreak havoc on businesses and the CDC even estimates that nearly 17 million workdays are missed each year due to the flu, resulting in a cost of $7 billion in lost productivity and sick days. Typically, flu cases start to rise in late October, peaking between December and February. During this time it’s important to know how to prepare your office to prevent infection and spread.
1. Keep Cleaning and Sanitation Supplies Well Stocked
Having easy access to soap and sanitizer is one of the best ways to ensure that the spread of germs is mitigated. Handwashing is one of the best ways to stem the spread of germs and all employees should be able to sanitize their hands multiple times throughout the day. Ensure that all restrooms are stocked with soap, and consider installing hand sanitizer stations throughout your office for on-the-go sanitation.
2. Encourage Sick Employees to Stay Home or Work From Home
Although people may try to work through their illnesses, this shouldn’t be encouraged as it can cause illnesses to spread through the entire workplace. Instead, you should try to offer the option to have employees work from home if they are sick and encourage people to stay home if they aren’t feeling well. This could be the difference between having one person call off and having multiple people end up needing to take sick days.
3. Deep Clean Your Office
To prepare for flu season, you should consider having a cleaning service deep clean your entire office to ensure that you have a clean and sanitized space right off the bat. You may even consider having a cleaning service come in bi-weekly or monthly for regular cleanings to ensure that your office stays cleaner all flu season.
4. Sanitize Your Workspaces
According to Healthline, a single sneeze or cough can carry over 100,000 contagious germs at speeds up to 100 mph. Because of how easy it is to spread germs, you should encourage each employee to sanitize their workspaces daily to kill as many germs as possible. Keep a stock of disinfectant wipes available so everyone can wipe down their desks, keyboards, and phones at the end of every workday.
It’s also very important to keep high traffic areas in the workspace sanitized such as break rooms, conference rooms, and kitchens. Millions of germs can be found in these areas and if employees want to continue using these spaces, it’s important that they do so in a safe manner. Germs spread quickly in these areas and if one person gets sick because of these germs and the workspaces are continuously used, you can expect many more employees to call out sick.
Flu season is getting closer quickly, but there are things that you can do to prepare your office. If you haven’t already, consider stocking up on supplies and calling in a cleaning service to help get your office as sanitized as possible so that everyone can stay healthy.