How to keep a healthier office

When it comes to running an office most of us are aware of the fact that our employees are going to get sick. But the problem that we don't think about is that when one employee gets sick and comes into work they are actually exposing all of us to their germs and before you know it your entire office staff is out sick for at least a week if not more. This can actually be a big problem because of the fact it can effectively shut down your business for a few days which can actually cost you money. So in order to avoid this kind of problem what you are going to want to do is to learn how you can keep a healthier office.

Difficulty rating: Easy to Moderate

Step one:
The first thing that you are going to need to do is to make sure that your phones, computers, keyboards, and other equipment are actually sanitized on a regular basis. The best bet you have is to make sure that they are cleaned thoroughly at least once a week. You can have your employees do this or you can talk to the janitorial company that you use about cleaning this type of equipment. But this is extremely important because these items are shared and many times germs land on them and just spread from one person to the next because of how many people are using that equipment.

Step two:
When cleaning any kind of equipment or surface in your office you should make sure that you are using the proper cleaning chemicals, commercial cleaning chemicals or bleach mixed with water in the proper amount work the best. But you also need to make sure that you are using them in accordance with their directions on the label for maximum effectiveness.

Step three:
The next thing that you need to do is to make sure that disposable tissues are available throughout the workplace. This is great for people who have runny noses or who are sneezing. If a tissue is handy they can simply grab the tissue and cover their nose and mouth while sneezing which will help prevent the spread of germs.

Step four:
You can also place around the office alcohol based hand sanitizer and encourage your employees to use it when appropriate. In fact the best time to use this stuff is when your hands aren't actually dirty, which would be after sneezing, coughing, touching infected objects such as keyboards or telephones. But the hand sanitizer actually kills all germs on your hands which helps prevent the spread of illness.

Step five:
Something else that you can do is to encourage your employees to get flu shots each year. This will help prevent the spread of the flu throughout your office. You can even have a medical team come in and give out flu shots to all of your employees for a low fee or you can even pay for the shot.

Step six:
If your employees are visible sick or you even think that they might have the flu those employees should be encouraged to stay at home so that they don't spread the disease to anybody else in the office.

Step seven:
You should also encourage your sick employees to visit a doctor so that if they can be treated with antibiotics or something similar to help them get better faster they are being treated. This will help them to return to work in a timely manner and if they return to work before being 100% they won't be contagious to other employees.