Covid-19 | Hygiene Concept for Building Cleaners

Implement hygiene concept for building cleaners with checklists

In the fight against the containment of the coronavirus, the building cleaning trade is facing special challenges. Cleaning and disinfection are more important than ever. At the same time, official regulations and special hygienic requirements complicate the work processes. However, they are necessary: Employees in building cleaning expose themselves to a higher risk of infection at work than in other industries.

Many employees are currently on the front line in the fight against the further spread of the virus. It is therefore important for all employers to comply with the requirements for providing suitable and sufficient protective equipment on site in the buildings. Besides, employees must be informed about the increased risk and trained in the use of PPE. A hygiene concept for building cleaners facilitates the implementation of the measures and ensures that all hygiene and protection specifications are adhered to during work.

With checklists employers can ensure that all necessary measures in this context have been implemented. They can also be used to monitor that the hygiene concept is continuously implemented. Checklists can also be used to monitor or carry out employee health and training courses, for example in hand hygiene.

This article deals with the following topics:

1. aspects of building cleaning in the Corona pandemic

2. best practices for building cleaners in the Corona pandemic

3. use mobile app for on-site inspections

aspects of building cleaning in the Corona pandemic

Hygiene has the highest priority in the corona pandemic. This is especially true for building cleaners, as they are usually the ones who ensure clean and hygienic conditions from the office to the hospital to the airport. The basic rule "Wiping instead of spraying" applies to all cleaning work to prevent the virus from spreading unnecessarily in the air. Besides, suitable gloves must be worn for all wet cleaning and disinfection work that does not work without touching, to prevent hands from coming into contact with the cleaning fluid.

For several hours, building cleaners must wear disposable gloves to protect against coronavirus or other infections. However, these can lead to skin problems such as reddening of the skin or eczema. Under glove made of cotton help to counteract this. Smartphones, tablets, touch screens, or input fields of electronic devices can still be operated if the fingertip on the index finger of the cotton glove is removed. Employers may also consider providing main care products in addition to skin protection products, but these should be compatible with each other.

The most important aspect in building cleaning, however, is to adapt the risk assessment in the current pandemic situation. The existing measures for occupational health and safety must be supplemented by those against the risk of the coronavirus. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, companies are obliged to use risk assessments to determine and assess the hazards in the workplace, to define measures for prevention or minimization, and to document the whole process.

aspects of building cleaning in the Corona pandemic

Hygiene has the highest priority in the corona pandemic. This is especially true for building cleaners, as they are usually the ones who ensure clean and hygienic conditions from the office to the hospital to the airport. The basic rule "Wiping instead of spraying" applies to all cleaning work to prevent the virus from spreading unnecessarily in the air. Besides, suitable gloves must be worn for all wet cleaning and disinfection work that does not work without touching, to prevent hands from coming into contact with the cleaning fluid.

For several hours, building cleaners must wear disposable gloves to protect against coronavirus or other infections. However, these can lead to skin problems such as reddening of the skin or eczema. Under glove made of cotton help to counteract this. Smartphones, tablets, touch screens, or input fields of electronic devices can still be operated if the fingertip on the index finger of the cotton glove is removed. Employers may also consider providing main care products in addition to skin protection products, but these should be compatible with each other.

The most important aspect in building cleaning, however, is to adapt the risk assessment in the current pandemic situation. The existing measures for occupational health and safety must be supplemented by those against the risk of the coronavirus. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, companies are obliged to use risk assessments to determine and assess the hazards in the workplace, to define measures for prevention or minimization, and to document the whole process.

Best Practices for building cleaners in the Corona Pandemic

Adapting the current work processes to the new circumstances is the most important task for the cleaning industry. Procedures and strategies must be developed to protect the health and safety of employees, customers, and business partners. At the same time, efficient and reliable work should remain possible.

The following are some of the best practices currently used to prevent the spread of coronavirus among cleaning company employees.

1. on-site risk assessments

Building cleaners are used in different places, so it is important to correctly assess the work situation on-site in order to identify local hazards at an early stage. Companies need to carry out a risk assessment for each location. The constant change between locations involves risks. A comprehensive risk assessment helps to immediately plan risk reduction measures for all sites.

2. social distancing measures

Social distancing is an effective means of minimising the risk of infection. Some of the most important measures are:

• The cleaning staff should maintain a minimum distance of 1.5 meters between themselves and others during work.
• At the site, contact with other people should be kept to a minimum.
• The daily break times are to be taken at the site so that nobody outside the workplace is exposed to a risk of infection.
• Sufficient space is provided in the changing rooms so that the employees can keep their social distance from one another.
• If social distancing is not possible, appropriate protective clothing is worn.

3. strict monitoring and logging procedures

A well-documented monitoring process helps to easily identify the causes in case of a new Covid-19 outbreak and to strengthen compliance with the corona guidelines. The following monitoring and logging procedures are useful in the cleaning industry:

• The regular completion of a health questionnaire for each cleaner and other employees.
• To carry out temperature checks for everyone before starting work. The measured values are documented.
• The keeping of location logs for all employees who are on duty daily at several locations.

4. cleaning and disinfection in the company

In the cleaning industry, people know best how important thorough cleaning and disinfection is - after all, it is their daily business. In the Corona pandemic, you should not forget to clean your work areas in the office, break rooms, and sanitary areas regularly. It has been proven that the virus can survive for days on surfaces such as cardboard, plastic, and stainless steel. Therefore, contact-intensive contact surfaces such as handrails, desks, elevators, etc. should be cleaned and disinfected frequently.

5. use of machines

In many areas of cleaning, machines were already being used before the pandemic to make work easier and more efficient. Wherever possible, this should now be intensified. It is important to clean and disinfect the machines thoroughly before and after use, if they are used by more than one employee.

6. monitoring of the hygiene concept

Companies should routinely check the hygiene and safety measures taken to ensure that they are being observed. Regular inspections and audits help to achieve this. However, other methods, such as video surveillance or real-time location, can also be used. However, the employees must agree to this.

Use lumiform for on-site inspections

During the Corona pandemic, the cleaning industry must make some changes in hygiene and safety measures aimed at protecting the health and safety of employees and customers. At the same time, the efficiency and reliability of work must be maintained.

Digital checklists facilitate the implementation and monitoring of the measures. Lumiform's mobile app offers the advantage that all quality and safety inspections, can be easily performed by tablet or smartphone - online or offline. All data is immediately available to the entire occupational safety team. Problems can be detected and solved immediately.

Lumiform offers companies in the cleaning industry the following advantages:

• With the flexible modular form system, adaptable checklists can be created for all hygiene and safety measures.
• The digital platform enables collaboration with other stakeholders to develop the best strategy.
• Real-time data about the implementation of the measures. This makes security measurable and processes can be continuously optimized on the basis of data.
• Share automatically generated reports with the responsible persons and save the complete time for post-processing.

We have put together some checklists with the help of which the hygiene and safety measures in the cleaning industry can be implemented and monitored. All templates can be adapted to internal company requirements and regional guidelines of state authorities.