The more employees you have, the greater the risk that someone will carry a cold or the flu into your facility. Once one person is sick, germs spread like wildfire through the office until practically everyone is either home in bed or sitting at their desks, spreading the germs to coworkers. Depending on your business, germs may even be spread to your vendors and customers. If employees take colds or the flu home, it may mean more time off work to care for sick children or family members.

Practicing proper office hygiene helps to combat colds and flu at work, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Teaching your employees proper hygiene etiquette will not only keep everyone healthy and at work, it will help reduce the spread of infectious diseases throughout your community. Although many diseases are spread by dirty hands, hand washing is only one component of keeping germs in check, but the effort must not stop there.  Here are some tips for helping your office keep good hygiene so you can be prepared and hopefully avoid that cold or flu.

Practicing proper office hygiene helps to combat colds and flu at work

Eating at your desk is a hard habit to break, especially if you’re a workaholic.  While this shows your dedication to your job, it also directly increases the level of bacterial contamination at your desk. If you can’t help but eat at your desk, be sure to clean it regularly.

If you have never disinfected your desk, it may be harboring all sorts of germs you came into contact with by touching things in and out of the office. Daily cleaning of computer keyboards, touch screens on copy machines, scanners and vending machines too and telephones, handsets and keypads with a disinfectant will prevent re-infection. Light switches, stair railings, doorknobs and elevator buttons are also teaming with germs, as are buttons and handles on microwaves and refrigerators in common spaces like the office kitchen, break rooms and meeting areas. A great idea would be to install hand sanitizer dispensers throughout the facility and provide each employee with disinfecting wipes for cleaning desks and workstation areas.  Most importantly, no matter how valuable an employee is, working in the office while sick and possibly contagious is counterproductive to workplace health so it would be best if you or coworker is sick, take a sick day.