Our professional cleaning blog

The average desktop harbours 20,961 germs per square inch. And that’s before you get into the IT on the desk: a phone, keyboard, mouse and printer. From coffee cups to office biscuits to tissues, a desk is a breeding ground for bacteria. As staff spend more time at their desk each day, working longer hours and choosing to eat at their workstation, it is ever more vital to maintain hygiene in these areas.

Your office desk profile

So where are the main offenders in harbouring bacteria? Items of technology are real magnets for germs. Of course, users touch these items most often so they come into contact with hands, ears, and mouths. Not only this, but the buttons, hinges and tiny crevices of these pieces of technology are particularly difficult to clean. 

Phone

Unsurprisingly, this is the most unhygienic item in an average office. It comes into direct contact with your hands, mouth, ears, and hair. So it follows that on average 25,000 bacteria are found here. Not only this, but since phones are used by numerous people (when did you last answer a colleague’s phone when they were in a meeting?) germs are easily passed between people.

Keyboard

Although it is just your fingertips that contact your keyboard, all those buttons are perfect hiding places for germs to take refuge! Add to dust and skin particles all those custard cream crumbs and drips of coffee and there’s quite a collection of muck under your QWERTY. An average keyboard plays host to around 3,500 bacteria. Despite this, these pieces of equipment are tricky to clean and often neglected. 

Mouse

All that endless scrolling and clicking results in around 1,500 bacteria existing happily on an average mouse. This is another item of an office desk which is frequently touched my multiple people, so it only takes one unwashed hand to transmit all manner of germs around the office.

Personal Responsibility?

In a recent survey, sales and marketing departments were declared the worst for desk hygiene. Over a fifth of workers in this field admitted to only cleaning their desk once a month. However, to what extent should office desk cleanliness be a personal responsibility? For sales driven employees, pressure is high to win business so it’s not surprising that desk cleaning drops off to-do lists! For business owners who wish to allow their staff to focus on their roles, a professional cleaning contract is key. This removes the need for personal responsibility and increases office hygeine.

What can the individual do?

This is not to say that all staff should take the cleanliness of their desk for granted. Daily habits are key in maintaining basic hygiene levels. Regular hand washing will prevent the transmission of germs around a space. We mean before and after eating and after coming in from outside, not just on using the loo! If you do need to eat at your desk, lay a cloth napkin under your food to prevent direct contact and collect crumbs.

Professional cleaning

Office Cleaning

General office cleaning will ensure that your the desk surfaces in your office maintain a high level of hygiene. From daily to weekly cleaning, the build up of bacteria on both the desk and the equipment on that desk will be managed. Your contract will ensure that standards remain constant across the whole office so the passing of germs from person to person is decreased.

IT specific focus

Required less regularly, consistent IT focussed cleaning is a detail that marks the difference in overall office desk hygiene. With specialist equipment to disinfect even the tiniest crevices in your IT kit, a good cleaning contractor like CJH Cleaning will not just aid the health of your desk workers, but also the equipment itself!

Staff ‘Perks’

By removing the ‘personal responsibility’ of desk cleaning, a business manager or owner essentially gives their staff an added ‘perk’ to their employment. Office workers enjoy the comfort of working in a clean and maintained environment, while enjoying the space to focus on their roles and business. 

Staff Wellbeing

Health

Every year, staff absence through sickness costs the British economy nearly £12 billion in lost revenues. Added to this, a survey reported that one in ten workers believes that they have experienced bad health due to poor workplace hygiene. In this way, regular and structured professional cleaning contracts can play a vital role in reducing this waste.

Productivity

A dirty office environment can also affect the psychological wellbeing of employees. We’ve all heard of the concept of a clear desk enabling a clear mind. Indeed, some research shows a direct connection between a clean working environment and increased productivity. So in this way, your professional desk cleaning commitment allows your staff to work more efficiently and achieve more.

Happiness

When health and productivity are combined, happiness lies. This is a bold statement, but put in real terms; if business owners and leaders commit to improving the direct working environment of their staff, those staff are less likely to become disaffected. It then follows that an organisation is less likely to experience a high staff turnover.  Employing a structured and regular professional cleaning contract for your office is an action that can radically improve your business. Office workers are under increasing pressure to achieve quantifiable results in this fluctuating economic environment. Conversely, businesses are under pressure to offer a balanced working environment which considers staff wellbeing. Professional office, and specifically desk and IT cleaning, is a great way to reconcile these two pressures. You will ensure your staff are productive at their desk, while being allowed to feel more focussed.    As for the office kitchen, though… well that’s a whole other blog!

Do you want to be more eco-friendly? Yes? Pretty much everyone will do what they can to make a small difference in their surrounding environment or the wider world. Sustainability is a massive buzzword in commercial business. Organisations large and small are paying more focus to their environmental responsibilities. Indeed, changing regulations are demanding more and more that corporations are explicit in their environmental policies. Your commercial cleaning contracts are no different and are actually a very significant way that your business can demonstrate your green policies.

Eco Products

The products that a commercial cleaning contractor uses are central in whether they support your green policies. So ensure that you appoint a cleaning organisation who uses eco-friendly products. It may seem small but it’s a huge step towards supporting green policies that exist elsewhere in your organisation. Your office may be large or small but with regular daily or weekly cleaning, this one act reduces the amount of chemical residue hitting the sewage system. At CJH Cleaning, we only ever use eco-friendly cleaning products. This is great for our cleaners, great for your building and great for the environment!

Building Health

Of course, an environment means more than the global impact of products and processes. Your workers’ immediate environment can directly impact their health and productivity. Dust and bacteria ingrained on office desks and office IT equipment can spread infections and inflame allergies. So don’t let these parts of your space become neglected. With regular office cleaning and IT deep cleansing, you will see the benefits in your staff health. 

Equipment Maintenance

Scheduling a deep cleanse of communication and IT equipment can even mean that these items last longer. Months and years of grime are often the root cause of ‘gremlins’ in the system. So you can play your part in reducing large items hitting landfill by consciously maintaining them with regular cleaning. 

Washrooms

Manage your washrooms and kitchens in a sustainable way. With sanitary disposal, air freshening, vending machines and cleansing systems to consider, these spaces are key in operating sustainably. Have you invested in energy efficient hand dryers? How about your waste disposal? The most simple solution is to outsource the management of your washrooms to an eco-friendly contractor. In this way, you can easily and quickly ensure that products are promptly refreshed, sustainable options sourced, and waste disposed of responsibly. 

The Three R’s

A popular mantra for sustainable living is to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. You can apply these principles to any aspect of daily life and the commercial building or office is no different. These are the ways that your commercial cleaning contract should support your green responsibilities. 

Reduce

It’s so important to reduce the number of products and chemicals used in commercial cleaning. Eco-friendly products will not increase your bill. They are less abrasive on your fixtures and fittings and great for your working environment. For external building cleaning, harness the power of water.  Jet wash technology is hugely effective and even removes graffiti and gum. So your external signage, walls, car parks and flooring will look like new without any artificial products.

Reuse

Through regular and managed commercial cleaning programmes, your business can prevent the need for refits of the space. And this stops all the old furnishings ending up in landfill. Breathe a new lease of life to your office carpets and floors through specialist carpet and intensive steam cleaning. Invest in stain prevention coatings so that any incidents are not catastrophic! You can even upcycle your space through the restoration of original wood or stone flooring.

Recycle

How easy is it for your staff to recycle? Invest in multiple clearly labelled recycling bins that separate paper, plastics and metals. As well as placing paper recycling by printers and photocopiers, how about adding a space for incorrectly printed sheets to be placed so they can be reused as scrap paper before finally reaching the recycling? But it’s not just about where staff place their waste. What happens next? Can you trust your waste disposal contracts to check recycling waste and responsibly dispose of both recycled and general waste? At CJH cleaning we check waste to ensure that it is separated correctly, and then efficiently move the waste on to the correct disposal processes.

Sustainable Energy

Part of your commercial sustainability policies will no doubt cover energy. You may have replaced your lighting with LED bulbs to reduce the energy consumed and increase the lifespan of each product. Many organisations have gone still further to install solar panels to generate energy from the building itself. However, the efficiency of your solar panels is directly related to how clean the panels are. With dust, pollen, sand and bird droppings to contend with, sunlight can struggle to permeate the glass. The Solar Energy Power Association claims that dirty solar panels can lose around 20% of their energy output. So ensuring that your solar panels are regularly cleaned by a specialist contractor, like us here at CJH Cleaning, will optimise your panels.

Individuality

The source of much waste and excess often comes from organisations taking a ‘one size fits all’ approach. What works for one building may not be appropriate for another. Businesses all have different scales of workforce, and different corporate needs. At CJH Cleaning we take the time to put together tailored cleaning packages that are individual to a business. In this way we are able to eradicate wasted products and time, which keeps our services both sustainable and affordable.  To find out how your business can benefit from a more sustainable approach to cleaning, just get in touch and find out how we can help.

From new buildings to old, industrial spaces to open plan offices, the health of a commercial building has very real implications on the health of a business. The key to optimising this lies in the repair of the building. A building owner or business manager will dread learning that a major structural refurbishment is required. The only way to avoid this huge cost outlay is by looking after your building day-to-day.

Planning

To achieve real cost savings through commercial cleaning and maintenance, it is vital that work is planned. Even seemingly minor areas of regular cleaning can help to prevent serious disrepair from occurring.

Seasonal Tasks

Draw up a detailed plan of seasonal maintenance to be undertaken. This may include the cleaning of fascias and cladding or the jet washing of exterior walls. Through planning, you will benefit from work being undertaken efficiently during periods of dryer weather.

Regular Cleaning

From waste management to office cleaning, regular activity ensures that there is no build up of detritus and decay that can contribute to major building issues. Again, regularity is key. Maintain constant levels of care within your cleaning plan and you will avoid the huge cost outlays that occur with a major overhaul.

Preventative Maintenance

From high impact floor cleaning to the high level window and solar panel cleaning, a commercial building can delay the need for building maintenance. While some structural problems cannot be avoided, the health of a building can be prolonged through regular upkeep. This is especially true for the exterior of a building which endures the elements!

Work Environment

A clean environment enables those working within a building to operate more productively. Although the cost savings achieved in this way are often not quantifiable, they are nonetheless very real. 

Enabling Best Practice

How can office workers be expected to work productively in a space that is cluttered and grimy? A clean space allows for clear thinking, so your regular cleaning contracts can actually be paramount in building the kind of innovative space that moves your business forward. 

Health Considerations

The physical and mental health of staff is considered more and more by employers. Access to natural light is key when it comes to this. There’s no point in an office space benefiting from huge glass frontages if light can’t effectively permeate the grime. So regularly cleaned windows can have an impact on the health of those staff within.  

Staff Appreciation

Cost savings are not just about the daily productivity of your staff, though. Forward-thinking business owners consider headcount and staff turnover too. The costs of replacing and training new staff are considerable for any business. So it pays to ensure your staff feel appreciated as they’re more likely to stick around! What more fundamental way to appreciate staff than to ensure their immediate working environment is clean and hygienic? Achieve this through IT cleaning, and your staff will know that you are doing your best to maintain their workspace. 

Keeping Up Appearances

Of course, in business so much comes down to appearance. A bad impression can impact whether you win or lose a contract, or even damage your entire brand. A building has a role to play in the appearance that your business projects. So taking care of it plays a part in enabling your business to thrive.

First Impressions

Potential clients may visit your office building to discuss a pitch for new work. Or a potential buyer may visit your industrial space prior to placing a major order. So in these cases, first impressions have very real power. But it’s not just about contracts. How about the impression that your building has on its wider environment? For larger commercial buildings, a jet washed exterior has the power to make a whole area appear not just clean, but prosperous. 

Winning Business

So, it is clear that the impression that your building makes and the productivity of workers within it both have an impact. In this way, the health of your commercial building has the power to win or lose new business. In this way, the true value of your comparatively small cleaning budget is revealed!

Policies and Legal Requirements

Keeping the health of your commercial building within legal requirements is vital for building owners. Allowing a building to fall into disrepair can mean that you could be breaching legislative guidelines. You could not only face fines but also shoulder the cost of a large scale repair on top.

Lease Legislation

A lease document will set out which aspect of a building should be the responsibility of the landlord and which fall to the tenant. For buildings leased to multiple tenants, external repair is likely to fall to the landlord and internal to the tenant. Ensuring compliance with legislative requirements is a key aspect of cost control as it avoids the large bills that come with reparative work. 

Sustainability

The ecological obligations of a business fall both to legal duties and to the voluntary commitments that may be set out in a mission statement or policy. Your recycling and waste management contracts are key ways in which your business can fulfil a green policy. So, ensure that your service supplier follows stringent processes that reflect your business values.  The cleaning and maintenance contracts that your business employs have the power to send ripples of effect throughout the business. From directly impacting the appearance and hygiene of a space to influencing the health and power of the business that occurs within, your financial outlay stands to benefit from the ongoing investment. And where better to look than an experienced firm like CJH Cleaning, who manage all aspects of commercial cleaning under one roof.