Every year, employee absenteeism from injury or illness costs American employers a significant sum of money in lost productivity and wages paid. Yahoo Finance estimates that unscheduled absenteeism costs the employer roughly $3,600 per year for each hourly employee on the payroll and $2,650 for each salaried staff member. This equates to approximately $24 billion dollars a year in lost productivity in the U.S. alone.
One sick employee can infect an entire department or, in the case of a small business, literally the entire organization. If an unwell employee reports to work and subsequently tends to customers, the spread of illness may increase many times over. And while there are some types of disease the spread of which cannot be reasonably controlled in the workplace, there are many things a business can do to help reduce absenteeism as the result of illness.
Kimberly-Clark conducted a hands-on experiment, visiting and swabbing manufacturing facilities, law firms, insurance companies, healthcare companies, and call centers, then testing the samples for germs and contamination. Their findings? Most offices are an incubator for the germs that make us sick.
Certainly, business owners and managers can compel employees to stay home when sick and encourage healthy behaviors like hand washing. And if you really want a proactive approach to promote healthy employees, provide them with a clean office.
Commercial cleaning services devote the required level of attention and care to cleaning those surfaces that are known to cause illness. Take office carpet, for example. Dirty carpet degrades office air quality, potentially causing a variety of symptoms including nausea, respiratory illness, asthma, allergies, and headache. Dust mites, mold spores, and a host of other allergens can live in office carpet and on other surfaces. Other sources of heavy contamination include door knobs, light switches, the office kitchen sink faucet, the microwave door, drinking fountain push buttons, and vending machine controls.
Providing employees with hand sanitizing stations and encouraging them to observe health-conscious behaviors (including hand washing and covering coughs and sneezes) will help. In fact, Town and Country Office Cleaning offers these dispensers for free and provides the sanitizing liquid for a discounted price to their clients.
The services of a commercial cleaning service provide the best defense against germs and other harmful contaminants that can make your employees sick and absent from work. Professional janitorial service companies will ensure that your workplace is thoroughly and regularly cleaned, ultimately ensuring a healthier environment for you, your staff, and your customers.
