(And Why We Follow Workplace Safety and Hygiene Procedures)
Some of the biggest questions that get asked around workplace health and safety are ‘Why do we follow workplace safety and hygiene procedures?’, ‘Why do we need them?’, How do we create them?’, and ‘How do we implement them effectively’?
We’ll cover the answers to each of these questions in this guide to workplace hygiene procedures.
Why should we follow workplace hygiene procedures?
The term ‘workplace hygiene procedures’ may seem like corporate jargon, and it kind of is, but it’s also an important component of keeping a healthy and productive workspace.
It’s not just about keeping the business and its facilities clean and practising food safety. It’s really a holistic approach to creating an environment that’s geared for the best, and safest performance.
Not understanding the full importance of workplace hygiene and food safety can lead to poor hygiene practices, health risk and even issues like food contamination, food borne diseases (which no business wants the reputation of). This not only can have an impact on your employee health and wellness, but could also damage your company’s reputation.
So, whatever your business or industry, it’s important to make sure that you have a hygienic workplace where everyone in your team practises good personal hygiene, know to verbally report hygiene hazards and health and safety risks, food safety procedures are known about and followed by your team, and the overall cleanliness and hygiene of the workplace is taken care of.
Want help with your workplace hygiene?
At Excel Hygiene Services, we specialise in helping businesses achieve a hygienic workplace. We can help you maintain hygiene across your business offices and facilities, so that your staff, customers and clients are protected from the risk that bad hygiene practices can result in.
Our business hygiene services are designed to make maintaining a healthy workplace easier for you to maintain.
Our workplace hygiene services include:
- Sanitary bin supply and servicing
- Air freshener dispenser supply, installation and servicing
- Automatic hand sanitiser dispenser supply, installation and servicing
- Soap dispenser supply, installation and replenishment
- Sharps disposal units and sharps disposal bins
- Nappy disposal bin supply and serving
- Pest insecticide dispenser supply, installation and servicing
- Washroom consumables supply
Understanding poor hygiene practices and reducing their impact
Poor hygiene practices in the workplace can invite a huge number of problems. Commonly overlooked areas of hygiene like contaminated work surfaces, shared facilities, or bad waste management, can quickly transform into breeding grounds for harmful germs and bacteria. This can lead to health issues among your staff, which impacts on productivity and disrupts business operations. Your business’s image is of course an important factor, and when hygiene discipline is not up to scratch, it’s quickly noticed by the general public, especially when it comes to service industry operations and food service businesses.
At Excel Hygiene, we offer a range of business hygiene solutions that help make it easier for you to maintain a healthy workplace.
From air freshener dispenser supply, installation and servicing (which provides a pleasant fragrance in the workplace), automatic hand sanitiser dispenser supply, installation and servicing (which makes it easy for your staff and customers to practise personal hygiene) and soap dispenser supply, installation and servicing (also important for personal hygiene), to our sanitary bins, nappy bins and sharps disposal services, we’ve got you covered.
Our ultimate goal is to help make hygiene procedures in the workplace a convenient, seamless, and hassle-free experience for all businesses. Our services help with a huge part of maintaining a hygienic workplace.
What are the most important components of workplace hygiene procedures?
If you’re wondering what your workplace hygiene procedures should entail, you’re not alone. Here are some of the most important things that any workplace hygiene procedures should include.
Food safety practices and food safety procedures
Food safety procedures are a pretty crucial part of workplace hygiene, for any business. This is especially for businesses that involve food handling, but also apply to workplaces that don’t involve food service.
Here are some rules for food safety that you need to consider:
- Food safety standards within your business (you may be liable if your employees get sick due to incorrect food hygiene procedures and food hygiene hazards, even if it’s in your staff lunchroom).
- Food service safety standards if your business has anything to do with food for members of the public, your clients or customers.
- Proper measures to maintain clean spaces around food (eating areas, food storage areas, food preparation areas and more).
- Food safety practices for food preparation.
- Anyone handling food that is served to others needs to maintain good personal hygiene and needs to be trained in food safety and must follow the correct food hygiene procedures when it comes to food.
- Food contamination needs to be considered for all food handling activities.
Pest control
Pest insecticides that are safe for humans can help keep your business safe and hygienic. They can dramatically reduce the number of flies, mosquitoes, cockroaches, moths, and ants in your business facilities.
We use a safe, all-natural Pyrethrum Insecticide, that will help you maintain a clean, pest-free environment in all of your business facilities and areas.
Educating staff on, and prioritising, personal hygiene
Personal hygiene is an important part of workplace hygiene. It involves each employee taking responsibility for their own hygiene and personal health and safety. This is a crucial component of preventing the spread of disease-causing germs and bacteria.
Policies around washing and sanitising hands, and educating team members on the importance of this, is a good measure to add to your workplace hygiene practices.
To encourage and support good hygiene practices among your employees, we offer a range of services that makes personal hygiene easier for your team.
Our automatic soap dispenser supply and servicing, air freshener dispenser supply and servicing, and hand sanitiser supply and servicing help in this area. We also can supply you with washroom consumables when your supplies run low. Making sure you never run out of hand towels and toilet paper is an important step to help empower your employees to keep your workplace a hygienic workplace.
Personal protective equipment
Personal protective equipment is important for safety, as well as for hygiene. Supply your staff with the correct PPE, and the correct hygiene items, like face masks, gloves, and other basic hygiene items and you’ll find your business hygiene measures improve as a result.
Ensure your business stays clean
An important part of keeping your workplace healthier and more hygienic is keeping it clean. Not only are clean workplaces more hygienic, but a clean environment is also much more inspiring and empowering for your team when it comes to keeping things safe and hygienic. Hiring an external cleaning service is highly recommended.
Making sure your business stays clean, from the public areas to the staff-only areas is a big step towards a healthier workplace.
Clean businesses encourage hygienic practices
Air fresheners are a good way to help promote cleanliness and hygiene within your workplace, as a fresh, clean fragrance in the air helps a space feel cleaner. Our automatic air freshener dispensers help in this area. It’s also important to maintain your bathroom cleanliness, and our sanitary bins supply and servicing helps keep your restrooms looking and smelling fresh.
Ensure the appropriate training in hygiene practices
It’s important to make sure that your employees understand how to practise good hygiene, food safety, and correct hand-washing procedures. The way that you can ensure this is by conducting the appropriate training, either in person, through written information, or via online policies that employees must read and sign off on.
Create and promote a workplace hygiene policy
A workplace hygiene policy sets out the rules for good hygiene practices within your business and sets these as a standard. Your hygiene policy should include all of your business’s hygiene rules, and set these out as a standard.
They should include things like:
- Hand washing procedures
- Requirements for food handlers (per food standards Australia)
- Hygiene rules
- Any required personal protective clothing or equipment
- Business cleaning requirements – rules around surfaces, facilities, desks and more
- Internal communication procedures should employees notice anything needs actioning.
After you have created a workplace hygiene policy, it’s important to promote it within your team. Many businesses ensure that employees understand this by conducting regular training on the workplace hygiene policies, or by making employees sign to say they understand these policies.
We’re here to help you maintain a hygienic workplace
At Excel Hygiene services, we are passionate about helping businesses to improve their workplace hygiene, to promote good health, safety and productivity.
We offer a range of hygiene solutions for workplace that assist in this area, including the supply, installation and servicing of sanitary bins, automatic hand sanitisers, air fresheners, soap dispensers, sharps disposal bins, nappy bins, and the replenishment of washroom consumables. When you choose Excel Hygiene Services, you get the same dedicated person assisting your business each time, on a four weekly service schedule. We’re dedicated to providing the highest-quality service, while making your life easier. Let Excel Hygiene Services be your partner in building a better workplace today.