Page 80 - OHS, July/August 2020

FACILITY SAFETY
Quick Fixes for a Safe and Healthy Facility
Navigating the “new normal” in the midst of the pandemic goes beyond cleaning and disinfecting: you need to instill trust and peace of mind in your employees and guests.
BY ADRIAN COOK
As COVID-19 continues to be top of mind globally, making our way back to some- thing that loosely resembles “normal” brings anxiety and uncertainty to the vast majority of consumers. Facility managers and their staff are not immune to these feelings and stand on the front lines as they welcome guests back. Navi- gating the changes that have been brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic goes beyond implementing new cleaning products and procedures. It is your job to focus on the cleanliness, health and safety of your facilities so you can instill the confidence and peace of mind your employees need in this new world.
There are three top concerns that facility managers and their teams should continually address as stay at home orders relax and businesses reopen.
1. What products, tools, and processes should be used to keep a space clean and safe?
2. How do I implement and adhere to social dis- tancing guidelines and health and safety best practices? 3. How do I assure my employees that we are doing
all we can to keep them safe?
These questions are on everyone’s minds and can
feel overwhelming; however, with careful consider- ation they can bring about safer practices and peace of mind for your employees.
A Shift in Process and Protocol
Existing cleaning and disinfecting protocols vary greatly across organizations. A small local shop may
have taken the time to sweep out their facility before reopening the next day, whereas a medical clinic may have already had a robust daily cleaning and disinfec- tion regimen in place before the pandemic. If CO- VID-19 has taught us anything however, it’s that it doesn’t matter the type or size of your organization— cleanliness, and disinfection efforts are critical.
In response to the pandemic, suddenly the respon- sibility to maintain a clean and disinfected space ex- tends beyond that of the custodial team. Entry-level employees through C-suite executives are being asked to disinfect their spaces and areas of guest interaction. It’s an all-hands-on-deck approach, which can be ex- tremely helpful as facility managers find their to-do lists increasing. But, all of these additional hands can prove ineffective if the proper tools, products and training are not in place. This is where facility manag- ers can help lead the charge.
Before going back to business, all cleaning and disinfection protocols should be audited or created if they didn’t already exist before the pandemic. Creat- ing a cleaning checklist can be helpful for your team to run through each day, but before that checklist is created, it is helpful to take a step back and evaluate your cleanliness indicators.
Measuring Cleanliness Indicators
Cleanliness indicators provide an assessment of what a customer, employee or supervisor perceives to be clean versus not clean. It requires looking at all physi- cal aspects of your facility including floors, counters and tables as well as assessing things such as hand sanitizer availability, use of disposable wipes and ease of wayfinding directions.
To understand cleanliness indicators, talk to your employees to determine what is most important to them. Learn about their pain points or what they are most worried about. Including them in the process will prove valuable and also help you to build brand loyalty and trust. Once you have an understanding of your cleanliness indicators, you can:
1. Rate them by importance.
2. Grade your current facility on each of the indicators.
3. Compare grading to the relative importance giv- en by customers to understand and uncover disparities. 4. Create a roadmap to first address all high im- portance and low graded indicators followed by estab- lishing a plan for ongoing cleaning efforts to address
lower priority indicators.
74 Occupational Health & Safety | JULY/AUGUST 2020
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