ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

How do employees feel about hygiene standards in their workplace? And how far has the Covid-19 pandemic impacted on their perceptions of cleanliness? Essity’s communications director Gareth Lucy shares details of the company’s latest study into workplace hygiene attitudes.

A TOTAL OF 43 PER CENT of workers have now fully returned to the office, according to UK recruitment company Hays. Meanwhile, around 39 per cent of employees are maintaining a hybrid schedule whereby they work at home for at least part of the week. And according to the October 2023 study of nearly 15,000 workers and employers, only 18 per cent of people are now fully working from home - a figure that has fallen by three per cent since 2022.

However, return to work statistics vary significantly across Europe with staff in France and Belgium now spending an average of 3.5 days in the office. A study by global research company JLL also revealed that employees in Germany, Netherlands, Spain and the UK are spending an average of 2.5 days in the workplace.

So, it appears that the days when all our conferences and meetings were conducted via Zoom are behind us. An increasing number of employers now expect - even demand - a physical presence in the office from their employees.

However, not everyone has fully recovered from the traumas of Covid-19 when the fear of being infected by people and contaminated objects was all-pervasive.

A recent UK survey of 2,000 office workers commissioned by Essity revealed that 45 per cent of employees believe their office to be a “breeding ground for bacteria”.

Offensive washrooms

Washrooms were deemed to be particularly offensive by 30 per cent of respondents, withcommon complaints including water and paper towels being left on the floor; soap and paper supplies running out; leaky taps; windows being kept locked shut and toilet rolls left loose near the toilet rather than being placed in a dispenser.

In fact, nearly one in five employees claim they refuse to use the toilets at work at all because of poor hygiene standards. Some are frequenting washroom facilities outside the office while others are even choosing to wait until they get home.

Refraining from visiting the toilet for long periods of time is a bad idea for many reasons. Such a practice could lead to poor concentration, discomfort and health issues on the part of staff, for example. And since most hand hygiene takes place in the washroom it could also result in more office workers contaminating their surroundings with unwashed hands.

General dissatisfaction

The Essity study also showed a general sense of dissatisfaction with workplace hygiene in general, with around 34 per cent of respondents claiming the kitchen also left much to be desired. Issues such as dirty fridges and microwaves, overflowing bins, grimy sinks and mouldy food being left in the fridge topped the list of office kitchen complaints.

Communal areas were another point of contention for 24 per cent, while 57 per cent of respondents said they were irritated by the state of their workplace surroundings overall.
It seems that standards have slipped dramatically since the days of the global pandemic, according to Essity’s communications director Gareth Lucy.

“During the Covid era it felt as though everyone took their personal hygiene and other people’s safety far more seriously,” he said. “At one point, every desk and meeting room in the office had hand sanitisers for staff to use, as well as frequent reminders to wash the hands.

“But oh, how quickly things change. This survey demonstrates a serious drop in office cleanliness at a time when it should still be a number one priority. And employees are understandably frustrated at the conditions in which they are expected to work.”

Neglecting the cleanliness of the workplace makes no sense from a business perspective. Around 60 per cent of those polled said they felt more productive in a clean workspace - though 39 per cent said they regularly had to clean it themselves. However, 70 per cent of respondents felt it should be the responsibility of the hired cleaners to ensure the office environment remained clean. And 22 per cent claimed to have complained to management or HR at one time or another about the state of their surroundings.

Support tools

We at Essity have taken steps to address this situation by launching the Tork Office Hygiene Package. This comprises a raft of support tools for business managers with the aim of improving staff satisfaction with the cleanliness and hygiene of the workplace.

Office complaints need to be avoided at all costs since they engender a general mood of negativity and discontent. The Tork Office Hygiene Package includes the Office Complaints Minimiser, a gamified digital challenge that allows facility managers to test their knowledge against industry data and discover hygiene and cleaning solutions designed to reduce complaints and save time.

Tork Vision Cleaning – Essity’s solution for keeping cleaners informed about washroom needs and dispenser refill requirements – is another of the tools in the Tork Office Hygiene Package.

“If washrooms are run well and efficiently, cleaning teams will have more time to clean the rest of the facility,” said commercial marketing director for Essity’s professional hygiene business Anna Königson Koopmans. “This leads to a reduction in complaints related to cleaning – and our research proves that better cleaning quality builds better employee workplace satisfaction.”

One positive that came out of the study was the revelation that some good post-Covid habits have remained in place, with 36 per cent of workers still claiming to sanitise their hands regularly. Meanwhile, 35 per cent said they habitually made hot drinks for themselves alone for hygiene reasons instead of brewing up for everyone. And 18 per cent of respondents said they changed out of work clothes as soon as they returned home to avoid spreading bacteria.

The Essity study also touched on the issue of sustainability and looked at how employees felt about the environmentally-friendliness of their workplace. A total of 59 per cent felt their employers should be responsible for the eco-friendliness of the workspace.

However, common gripes among employees included buildings being heated at high temperatures; lights being left on unnecessarily and a lack of appropriate recycling bins in place. Others grumbled about the continued use of single-use items such as plastic cups, while some demanded more recyclable items such as paper towels.

Common gripes

However, it was the attitudes towards hygiene which made up the bulk of the results, with some professions showing a higher level of satisfaction with workplace standards than others. When the results were analysed according to profession it emerged that people working in business consulting and IT were among the most satisfied with the cleanliness of their workspace, allocating a score of eight out of 10 for these factors.

On the other hand, employees in the public services and administration sectors were less impressed with the hygiene standards of their offices, giving them a rating of seven out of 10 or below.

“It is the responsibility of everyone to ensure that a workplace is a hygienic, welcoming and clean place for everyone to be,” said Gareth Lucy. “However, workplaces need to provide the right facilities in order to enable high standards of hygiene throughout all areas of the office.”

www.tork.co.uk/office-hygiene