What does the future of post-pandemic cleaning look like?

As the world begins to return to a new ‘normal’, what will a post-pandemic future mean for cleaning and the measures introduced as a result of the pandemic? 

During the initial stages of the pandemic and throughout the past 12 months, professional cleaning has played an essential role in enabling organisations across sectors including healthcare, manufacturing and education to continue operating. 

Effective and thorough cleaning has been critical in supporting them in maintaining the highest standards of safety and infection control. 

But with restrictions now easing across the country and life looking as though it is set to return to a new ‘normal’, how will this affect the need for conformance cleaning and how organisations approach their cleaning moving forward? 

Tried and Tested Cleaning Methods  

When the pandemic first hit the UK, the cleaning sector quickly adapted to meet the increased demand for services including deep cleans, daily housekeeping and decontamination services. 

Organisations were able to utilise the expertise of cleaning contractors to support them in such an unprecedented and challenging time, working with them to create a new and tailored cleaning strategy that would meet their needs and cover all bases. 

As the UK begins a return to the new normal and we move forward, these methods of cleaning will continue to play a vital role in maintaining safe spaces. 

It is important that businesses take forward with them the lessons learnt in the pandemic and continue integrating tried and tested methods of cleaning within their strategy. A great example of this would be additional housekeeping. 

Through additional housekeeping, organisations will be able to maintain the frequent sanitisation of high touch points in their post-pandemic cleaning strategy.

They can also adjust the services as and when they are needed. For example, they could easily increase the housekeeping services within a certain area of their site if they have safety concerns and then once these risks have been mitigated, they can reduce the level of service needed. 

Preventative Cleaning 

The emergence of the pandemic called for the introduction of new cleaning measures and saw organisations taking a reactive approach with their cleaning, with a huge rush to get these measures in place quickly. 

To prevent this panic and rush in the future, organisations need to look at how they can achieve a more preventative approach. 

Instead of reactive cleaning, organisations should be looking at bolstering their existing cleaning strategies with enhanced regimes, such as the introduction of additional housekeeping and other tried and tested methods. 

Having this level of preparedness, organisations will be able to prevent future surges and effectively manage the risk of the spread of infection.   

Post-pandemic cleaning regimes

Continuing on from the points above, it is clear that post-pandemic cleaning regimes will play a critical role in enabling organisations to be proactive and prepared. 

Here are a few examples of the types of enhanced cleaning that should be considered moving forward: 

  • Additional daily housekeeping to ensure regular cleaning, disinfection and sanitation across your entire site.
  • Regularly scheduled deep cleans and major decontamination. This type of cleaning should be carried out at key periodic times throughout the year or key times within your business calendar, such as factory fortnight shutdown. The combination of additional housekeeping with regular deep cleans will ensure that all areas of your site, including those hard-to-reach areas.  
  • Washroom services and the frequent cleaning of communal spaces. These types of areas are high risk for the spread of infection. The frequent cleaning and decontamination of your washrooms and communal spaces will mitigate these risks and protect your staff. 
  • Putting a plan of action in place. It is critical that your organisation has a plan of action and protocols in place to be followed should there be a surge in Covid-19. This plan of action should cover what steps to follow in regards to cleaning, the processes and procedures to be conducted and in what order and/or what frequency.

Despite taking the right steps towards normality, Covid-19 will not be completely disappearing and therefore, it is critical that organisations across all sectors continue maintaining highest standards and are prepared for whatever the future holds. 

Fidelis are on hand to support you.

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