How to reopen your facility as safely as possible during a pandemic

As the country plans to slowly reopen following stay-at-home orders and extreme social distancing, many facility managers rightfully have many questions. After all, the COVID-19 virus is still spreading quickly across our cities and towns.

The goal of every facility manager is to keep their facility safe, clean and well kept. How is that accomplished during a global pandemic? 

Here’s what you need to know about reopening your facility as safely as you can.

Develop a Plan for Safe Behavior Practices

The CDC recommends that each business and facility come up with their own best practices to keep their building’s occupants as safe as possible when reopening. How can you limit exposure or risk of spreading the virus? 

You may need to spread desks or workstations farther apart or remove shared items like coffee creamer in the break-room to make things safer.

Other considerations for safe behavior practices in the workplace suggested by the CDC:

• Leave doors open that do not need to be closed to limit the need for multiple people to touch door handles.
• Open windows to improve ventilation.
• Stagger work schedules, having certain staff members come in on opposite days, and allow for telework when possible.
• Clean high-touch surfaces like phones, desktops, keyboards, staplers and touch screens frequently.
• Decrease social contact (e.g., in-person meetings or lunches) in the workplace.
• Implement non-punitive sick-leave policies and liberal work-from-home policies to allow sick staff members to stay home.

Suggestions for Retail Stores

Logistics can be tricky when planning for how best to invite the public back into your retail stores. Many stores are making aisles one way to help promote social distancing and marking out 6-plus feet in anticipated areas of congestion to remind customers about the need to distance. 

What other kinds of measures are retail stores taking?

• Posting signs at the entrance and throughout the store to remind customers of the need to physically distance
• Implementing curbside pickup and contactless delivery wherever possible, and reminding customers of these options
• Extending space between cashiers and customers
• Not allowing customers to use reusable bags during the pandemic (and communicating this policy at the entrance to the store)

Consider Masks

CDC recommendations state that everyone should wear a cloth face covering of some kind over their mouth and nose when they are around others as COVID-19 can spread even if infected people don’t feel sick. This is meant to protect others from an infected person. 

Some retail stores are requesting or requiring customers to wear face masks while they are shopping. While this is at the discretion of each store, you should decide what your policy on face masks is. Will you require employees to wear masks? What about clients or customers? 

Knowing your stance on face masks can be beneficial as you plan how to reopen your facility.

Utilize Commercial Cleaning Services

Implementing all of these new procedures, staggering work schedules and wiping down high-touch surfaces can take a lot of time and effort. How do you still have time to clean your building? 

One of the best ways you can prepare to safely reopen your facility is to hire a coronavirus cleaning service.

Commercial cleaning services like Cleaning Services Group have been cleaning and sanitizing commercial facilities like yours thoroughly for years. Our standards are high, and we have the skills to clean and sanitize facilities that need exceptional levels of cleanliness, like restaurants and medical centers. 

At CSG, cleaning and sanitizing in detail is what we do best. From hard-floor care to daily janitorial services, we work with facilities across a wide range of industries and can diligently care for your space to mitigate the spread of infection. Our team members are well trained to contain contagions and keep facilities as safe as possible.

What industries do we serve?

• Grocery and retail chains
• Educational facilities
• Office buildings and commercial properties
• Hotels
• Restaurants
• Medical facilities
• Distribution centers
• Municipalities
• Banks and financial institutions

How Long Does the Virus Last on Surfaces?

As you consider the role commercial cleaning services play in disinfecting your facility, you should know how long the COVID-19 virus can be found viable on different surfaces. It can factor into your cleaning routines. You may decide that you need more frequent cleanings to ward off viruses on high-touch surfaces.

Here’s how long the virus has been known to last on different types of surfaces:

• Glass: five days
• Wood: four days
• Plastic: three days
• Stainless steel: three days
• Cardboard: 24 hours
• Fabric: 24 hours
• Copper surfaces: four hours

As time passes, there usually are fewer and fewer instances of live virus found on these surfaces, but they still should be sanitized with an EPA-approved cleaner to reduce the risk of spreading infection.

Make Sanitizing Solutions Available for Occupants

Sanitizing Wipes

Having sanitizing wipes at the ready for employees and customers can help disinfect, sanitize and deodorize surfaces all around your facility. They’re safe for people, and they’re safe for the environment. 

CSG is a proud supplier of sanitizing wipes that can be used in grocery stores, gyms, offices, schools, office buildings, hospitals and anywhere you need regularly to sanitize surfaces in the workplace or where germs are easily transmitted by touch. They can be readily available for employees and guests to wipe down public surfaces before and after they are touched.

These wipes sanitize using the power of benzalkonium chloride (BZK). These antiseptic wipes are alcohol-free and hygienic and can be used to disinfect skin as well as hard surfaces. While there’s no evidence (yet) that BZK is proven to kill the COVID-19 coronavirus, it is a great first line of defense against the spread of germs in your facility.

Don’t rely on lesser janitorial cleaning services to clean and sanitize your business. Now is the time to bring in the professionals at Cleaning Services Group for all of your commercial cleaning services. 

We’re standing at the ready with our industrial cleaning supplies. Request a quote today.