Did you know that the average desk surface is home to about 10 million bacteria? The truth is, your office might be a lot dirtier than you thought it was. Just because you don?t work in an environment where germs are obviously going to be — such as in a dentist?s office, or a doctor?s waiting room — doesn?t mean there aren?t a ton of contaminants arising from daily use. Just the simple act of an employee eating lunch at their desk can ultimately lead to thousands of bacterium growing there.
If you are in charge of an office, you?re going to want to make sure things stay clean. Why? Every year, millions of employees have to call in sick due to illness. Influenza alone causes about 200 million missed days of work every year — and the flu virus can survive on hard surfaces for up to two days. When employees are sick, even if they come into the office they?re ultimately less productive.
Contacting commercial cleaning contractors can be a great way to get your office tidied up. Here?s a few things you should keep in mind.
1. Shop Around
Don?t just pick the first place that comes up in Google, necessarily. Ask around your local area for quotes from different cleaning services, and make sure you understand what each company is offering to provide. Some companies may offer a number of ?basic services,? for example, and then charge extra for everything you want on top of that (like cleaning desk surfaces). You?ll also want to make sure that any company you hire has insurance — if someone is injured while cleaning your office, you don?t want to be the one liable for it!
2. Be Careful About the Contract Terms
Most commercial cleaners are going to want you to sign some sort of contract for their services, so that you agree to keep them on for 6 months, 12 months, etc. While this is usual, see if you can have some sort of trial period first in order to make sure they?re the right fit for you. At the very least, ask to speak to some of their current clients — references can be important for getting a feel for the week-to-week performance of commercial cleaning services.
3. What Sort of Products Do They Use?
Employees are increasingly interested in ?going green,? and this mentality can extend to the type of cleaning products you use as well. In fact, many traditional cleaning products do contain harmful chemicals, so it does make sense to ask about what sort of products your cleaning company will be using. The EPA actually estimates that indoor air quality often is more ?poor? than the outdoors because of the effect of chemical-laden cleaning products that get into the air.
What sort of cleaning service are you looking for in your office? Let us know. Read more blogs like this.