The office break room. Its unsuspecting enough but it is a breeding ground for illness causing bacteria and germs like e coli, flu and the common cold. The break room contains plenty of high touch surfaces. Think of how many times the handles to the microwave and refrigerator are touched during a work day. Add to this surfaces like counter tops, faucets and vending machines its almost impossible not to pick up more than your morning coffee or lunch when visiting the office break room.
At best, if your company uses a professional commercial cleaning service, the break room will be sanitized one time per day. That is if the commercial cleaning service contracted has an effective sanitation and disinfection program. But that once per day cleaning doesn't help you after the break room has been used by several employees during the day. So how can you decrease your chances of picking up something icky in the break room? A few easy tips can help keep you healthy.
0 Comments
Spring has sprung! And even though here in Northeast Florida we didn't get much of a winter, now is still a good time to start getting your office ready for the warmer months ahead. Winter can be hard on facilities. From the tracking in of dirt on boots to the carpet stains left over from the holiday potlucks, there are usually quite a few tasks that need to be caught up on to freshen up an office space. Also, maintenance is the easiest way to freshen up any commercial office and improve the appearance of the facility without doing any redecorating or renovations. You may agree that some maintenance could improve things around the office, but you may also be wondering where to start. As with anything, budgets aren't unlimited so it's always important to focus on the most critical items or things that will get the most bang for the buck. That's why we've complied a list to ten spring maintenance tasks that are worth the investment. Every item may not apply to you situation, but this list a great place to start in deciding which maintenance tasks to tackle this spring. The tasks are not listed in any particular order of importance but all will give you significant return on your investment. Our Suggestions for Spring Facility Maintenance Tasks1. Get the carpets cleaned. Carpets take a beating year round but the business of the winter holidays can easily cause maintenance like carpet cleaning to get swept under the rug. Not to mention that lack of cleaning can cause carpets to harbor smells, allergens and other irritants. Carpet cleaning is an easy way to freshen up your office while improving the overall appearance of the facility by removing unsightly stains. 2. Touch up paint walls. Dings and scuff marks happen. From people in general just touching wall areas like light switches and door frames to walls being run into with chairs ladders or other items, walls will periodically need to be touched up or repainted to ensure that your office looks it’s best. 3. Patch holes and dings.
Right along with touch up paint sometimes walls in commercial office building get dings and holes. It’s easy to open a door too hard or have a delivery person bump a dolly into a wall and there you have it, a nice hole in your wall. Depending on where these accidents happen, a hole in a wall can really take away from the overall first impression a visitor has of the office or business. Patching up these holes, especially those in areas frequented by guests is an easy maintenance task that will improve the appearance of your facility. 4. Strip and wax tile or machine scrub ceramic tile. Daily mopping of vinyl and ceramic tile is a basic maintenance activity. It’s great for removing simple, daily surface stains like coffee or soda spills. However, daily mopping does not shine tile, protect tile or clean deep down below the surface of the tile. So that dirt that is visible on the tile will not come up with a mop. It’s time for a maintenance machine cleaning. Machine cleaning removes the dirt that mopping can’t. It is also required to maintain the life and desirable appearance of these types of floors. Spring is a good time to schedule these services if you aren’t on a normal maintenance schedule. If you had to grade the smell in your office, what grade would it receive? You don’t have to answer that question, but if there is room for improvement your office isn’t alone. There are many opportunities for foul odors to make their way into your office and stay there for longer than anyone would like. The first response may be to tackle the stench with air freshener or deodorizer. But at best that may only temporarily mask the smells that you want to get rid of for good. A comprehensive approach that tackles the odor at the source is the best way to permanently freshen the air in your office. Here’s how to start. How to Freshen Up a Stinky OfficeTake out the trash. Simply taking out the trash every day will help keep the odor down in the office. This is especially true in break rooms and cafeterias where people heat and discard food. If employees are allowed to eat at their desks, then trash all over the office should be taken out every day. Trash cans can be stinky all by themselves. Liquids from food and drinks can leak inside from the trash bag in to the trash can. If no one cleans out the trash can, it can smell awful. Washing out trash is a great periodic task to add to your janitorial service. If that is out of the budget, what can you do? Simply pouring in a cap full of bleach in the bottom of or spraying the inside of trash cans that are in break rooms is an easy way to kill the germs that accumulate and cause odors. Another alternative would be to encourage employees not pour liquids into the trash can or over stuff trash cans. An over filled can liner is sure to rip and leak the contents into the trash can. Always double bag heavier items that must be thrown out. Limit eating areas. One person eating fish for lunch at their desk can leave the air less than fresh for days. Now imagine this employee drops the fish on the carpet. That odor is in the carpet until the next carpet cleaning. When possible, only allow employees to heat, eat and discard food in designated areas such as break rooms, cafeterias or outdoor eating areas. Encourage employees to eat lunch away from their desks by creating relaxing and pleasant areas for meal breaks. Offering a variety of comfortable indoor and outdoor areas can lure employees (and food smells) away from work areas. Also talk to employees about being mindful of the things that they bring for lunch and to be considerate with their selections. While that seafood platter may taste good, it may be a smell annoyance to everyone else. Clean up. There are a few areas in offices that are breeding grounds for odors. If you have a cleaning service, the cleaning of these areas may not be included in your janitorial service contract. This leaves your office staff to clean these areas to not only keep them sanitized but to prevent them from stinking up the office. Wash dishes daily. Throw away old food from the refrigerator weekly. Clean the inside of the refrigerator with a cleaning solution monthly. And don’t forget to clean the inside of the microwave at the end of the week. Keeping these areas clean will do wonders for keeping your office smelling fresh. Dust regularly. A dusty office smells dusty. If you have a cleaning service, make sure that they dust at least three times per week and wipe down desks. Ask that your employees leave their desks uncluttered enough so that the majority of their works pace can be dusted and wiped down. If you do not have a janitorial service, set a standard that your employees dust and wipe down their desks before leaving work each day. And don’t forget the periodic detail dusting for areas such as baseboard and window blinds. These areas can hold dust and cause that dusty smell as well. Carpets. Dust, dirt and smells can liner in carpet until they are removed. Daily vacuuming helps keep dust and dirt under control. But regular carpet cleaning will remove smells from the carpet which will help your office smell fresh. These tips will get you well on the way to an office that not only smells clean but that is clean! Whatever you do, make sure to tackle the problem directly for long lasting results.
Fall Maintenance Tasks for Your OfficeFall is the perfect time to catch up on facility maintenance tasks and prepare your office for winter. You can save time and money by hiring a handy man to complete your to-do list. A handyman in a great option because you generally pay by the hour to have a wide range of maintenance tasks completed without having to contact or work with several different contractors. A handyman is usually a more affordable option for maintenance work and are very knowledgeable about many facility maintenance trades. Consider hiring a handyman to tackle these fall tasks at your office:1. Gutter cleaning Gutter cleaning for most buildings should be done at least twice per year and scheduling around the change of seasons is optimal timing. Gutters are a frequently forgotten, until a problem occurs. However, getting those gutters cleaned is an important part of taking care of your property. Any property, commercial or residential needs regularly scheduled gutter cleaning services. 2. Change light bulbs and ballast Is it a little dark around the office? Chances are there is at least one light bulb in your facility that is out or flickering its way to burn out. Fall is a great time to have the light bulbs in your office replaced. Its also a good time to replace the ballast in fluorescent lights. 3. Touch up paint Everyday wear and tear can leave the paint on office walls with scuff marks or other damage. From dirty hand prints (everyone loves to put their hand on the walls) to scuff marks from things being ran into the walls, walls can easily become dirty looking and damaged. This takes away from the overall appearance of your office. Fall is a perfect time to have have holes patched and painted or the paint touched up to cover marks and stains. 4. Hang pictures, white boards etc Have a picture or white board that has be waiting to be mounted on the wall? Or have you wanted to change out the art in your office. A handy man can expertly hang these items and make any necessary wall repairs. 5. Replace carpet squares Carpet squares are a great flooring option. Unfortunately with foot traffic and other general use carpet squares can become loose. This creates a safety hazard for possible trips and falls. A handyman either secure the carpet square with glue or replace the section with a new carpet square. 6. Heating System Inspection The first hard freeze of the season is not the time to realize that there is a problem with the heating system. A handyman skilled in HVAC (like ours) can perform a perform a preventative maintenance inspection to identify any possible problems with the system. Of course of handyman can assist with these and many more facility maintenance tasks. But as the seasons change these are a great place to start to refresh your office and make sure that you're ready for the colder months a head.
Don't be fooled by low janitorial franchise bidsIn part one, we covered the beginning steps of investigating the prices quoted in Janitorial service bids. (Read it here) In this article we'll tackle the next few steps of that process. Now that we know what the base payable wages are, we need to factor in general estimates for other expenses that are necessary to maintain your account. Why? Because if there is no margin after all expenses then the company is not earning money. If your account will not be profitable it will clearly reflect in the level of service that you receive. The operational costsSo the base payroll amount is just the hourly rate multiplied by the working hours. As you know, much more goes into employee expenses and operational expenses than just that. Lets take a look in more detail. Both companies will have to pay the costs of equipment, chemicals used to clean your office. Also, they have the expense for liability insurance and worker's compensation insurance. Each account has to handle their fair share of this expense. Usually this amount can be estimated at 20%. The next factor are payroll taxes. Any business that has employees must pay payroll taxes including unemployment taxes. This is usually around 15% of the payroll amount. For both companies this amount works out to be an additional $203.80 per month. Now here comes the real difference. The independently owned We Clean Janitorial walks away with a profit of around $200 per month or $2400 annually. It appears that the franchise owner will make $76 per month. While that is still something, how hard to you think the franchise owner is going to work to keep your building clean when they are earning less than $1000 per year on your account?
However that would be the best case scenario, the franchise owner won’t even make the $76 per month. There are a few more monthly expenses for the franchise owner. To start they must pay for the account. No, that slick looking sales person that came by your office is not representing the actual “owner” who will be responsible for your account. |
Looking for something? |