Spread of infection in the workplace - expanded cleaning and cleanliness control

Many businesses have just like last year taken a pending position on how to manage the workplace and many have set September as the month in which to start taking a stand.

We have noticed that some people are starting to come back to the workplace and with that, new questions and things to take a position on have also emerged.

For us it's nothing new, it's kind of like what it looked like last year; a waiting period before the summer with the hope of being able to know more and be able to make more informed decisions after the summer.

Many of the questions we are asked have to do with measures to reduce the spread of infection in the workplace and that is what we will try to answer here.

The series of articles is divided into parts because there are different ways to customize the solutions, if there is something we have noticed, it is that the customer benefits from customizing the solution, especially considering that many businesses have a dedicated budget for Corona and then it is important to look at the big picture.

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Extended cleaning and cleaning of contact surfaces

For natural reasons, our customers often fall into one of two categories;

Everyone works from home and the office is more or less empty and cleaning has been slowed down.

The business is up and running and because of that, it wants to make sure to have extended cleaning and cleaning to limit the risk according to Safety and Health Administration's Action Staircase

What does extended cleaning and cleaning of contact surfaces mean?

It may seem obvious to those of us who work on it and simply put it is exactly what it sounds like; the cleaning frequency is expanded because you start to make higher demands and understand that it takes more time to achieve a higher demand picture.

Normally (before Corona), only those companies that have previously wanted similar measures to reduce the spread of common influenza have requested this.

This is absolutely one of the most important measures; that it is clean and clean, the requirement for cleanliness is not normally imposed on office workplaces, which are the majority of our clients' workplaces.

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What used to be the industry standard is no longer enough

The quality and in this case the cleaning quality is something that is extremely important to us, it is part of what we stand for; high quality.

In our industry, there is something called INSTA-800 which is the Nordic industry standard for cleaning quality which is the system used for quality control.

These are key indicators that we follow closely and it is a good method to assess how cleaning is perceived and can give us an idea of what our customers think because they are almost always on board with them.

However, it is a visual assessment or visual inspection that becomes subjective, it may not matter much if the customer is satisfied, the purpose of the inspection is to ensure that we maintain a high quality of cleaning and that this is how it is perceived by our customers.

However, the quality control cannot tell how clean it is on surfaces if we are talking about dirt, bacteria, etc. that are not visible to the naked eye which the extended cleaning should take care of as well as disinfection (disinfection/sanitization) of course.

It is no wonder that customer demands are increasing, they want safe workplaces and because it is not always a visual check enough to be able to give them an answer on how clean it is, because it is needed special measuring tools.

It is not a new method, but the scope of office workplaces is new to us and we also enlisted the help of an external consultant for appropriate levels and a validation of the process of disinfection among other things. We went to Frank Axelsson who we found when we did research because he has long been a figure in various materials on ATP measurements and as an expert in, for example, the procurement of cleaning machines, in order to provide their expert opinion as a third party.

ATP measurement is primarily used in businesses where there are higher requirements and standards for cleanliness and cleanliness, such as healthcare and food production.

It is done by selecting several different areas and testing with a swab that, then measures how much bacterial food there is; the higher the ATP value, the more human biological material there is where bacteria thrive and can grow - says Frank Axelsson who work with measurements of, among other things, health care hygiene.

By continuously measuring the cleanliness of different contact surfaces and keeping the levels below recommended levels for an office workplace, we can objectively measure how clean it is and whether it is affected when more and more people return to the workplace or if there are other areas that should be cleaned more often.

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Different ways to do it

No employees in the workplace, but a gradual return to the workplace is planned.

1. Perform a major cleaning of the premises if you have not had cleaning there for a long time and reset the room.

2. Adjust the cleaning hours so that they are enough to clean and keep clean i.e. mainly invisible dirt, bacteria and the like on contact surfaces that are touched frequently.

Very few people in the workplace - less to clean.

1. Allocate hours to maintain a high standard of hygiene by continuously cleaning frequently touched contact surfaces.

2. All employees in the workplace also receive their own hygiene kits, so that they can wipe off before and after, which we know that many people want to be able to do.

Many people are starting to return to the workplace - cleaning and cleanliness need to be adapted in order to maintain a high standard of hygiene.

1. Cleaning with extended resources to keep contact surfaces clean.

2. Own hygiene kits for employees so that they can wipe their own surface and disinfect, e.g. their own desk.

High requirements for cleanliness, cleanliness and follow-up of results.

1. Expanded cleaning and resources to keep contact surfaces clean.
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2. Monitoring and control of cleaning with higher frequency and cleanliness by objective measurement with measuring tools.
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3. Hygiene kits for all employees to allow them to wipe surfaces themselves if they feel unsafe.
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In addition to this, there are a variety of variants that we work on based on the type of activity carried out: it can range from split operations to disinfection between shifts, zoning, etc., but the above measures are something that the vast majority of people do.