Did you know that the absence rate across the U.S. last year was 3.1%? The Bureau of Labor Statistics adds that the rate was 0.5% lower than in 2022 and that illness and injury were the leading causes of workers calling in sick.
While employees call in sick for various reasons, the spread of germs leading to illness is a major one. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hand hygiene is one of the key strategies to keep workers from getting ill and spreading germs to other people at work.
Sick workers are not as productive as usual if they show up at the workplace, and they can spread their germs to others if they show up sick rather than staying home until they recover from their ailments.
If you own a business, you need to curb the spread of germs in your workplace to prevent a wave of sickness and mass absenteeism. Here are five ways to stop the spread of germs.
1. Promote Regular Hand Washing
While adults should not need reminders about washing their hands with soap and warm water regularly, the reality is that they do.
Your company should ensure employees know they are expected to wash their hands thoroughly after using the restroom, before eating, and after sneezing or coughing into their hands. When staff and management buy into the importance of regular hand washing, the spread of germs will be lessened, and absenteeism due to illnesses will drop, too.
2. Provide Hand Sanitizers
One way to encourage workers to keep their hands clean–aside from washing them after using the bathroom, before eating, or after coughing or sneezing–is to place hand sanitizers around the workspace.
It’s best to place them in high-traffic areas throughout your business so that workers have easy access to them.
3. Clean High-Touch Surfaces Often
It’s also a good idea to clean high-touch surfaces frequently. That means cleaning tables, counters, desks, door handles, phones, elevator buttons, keyboards, and other surfaces that employees regularly touch.
It might make sense to work with a commercial cleaning company to help with cleaning your workplace’s high-touch surfaces.
4. Ask Sick Workers to Stay Home
Advise workers of the importance of staying home when sick. While some employees might believe that going to work when ill demonstrates commitment, it really doesn’t. Coming to work and spreading illnesses that make other workers sick shouldn’t be celebrated.
It’s essential to establish a workplace culture where people respect others and stay home when sick.
Set up a policy so staff members can call in when they might be contagious. Having one worker stay home until they’re better may lessen productivity–but that’s better than having them come to work and make others sick, which would destroy productivity even more.
5. Use UV Germicidal Lamps
Another option is to invest in UV germicidal lamps. They represent one of the most effective ways to maintain a healthier workplace environment so employees can focus on their jobs without as many sick days.
UV germicidal lamps eradicate fungi, bacteria, and viruses by attacking their RNA or DNA. When you invest in this tech, you can create a healthier workplace environment that reduces the odds of workers getting sick and, even worse, spreading it to the entire workforce.
Using UV germicidal lamps can also reduce the need for chemical cleaners.
These are some ways to slow the spread of germs in your workplace. Failing to plan on this front is like planning to fail. You can’t afford to deal with the efficiency and productivity hits that may come if your workplace isn’t proactive about addressing the spread of germs at work.
Keeping these recommendations in mind will help you develop a strategy that tackles the problem.
