Hand Washing & Hand Sanitising Stations For The Workplace
How to set up hand sanitising stations
- Does the alcohol-based hand sanitiser have at least 60% ethanol or 70% isopropanol as the active ingredient as per the manufacturer’s instructions?
- Set up stations at entry and exit points to the workplace
- Entry and entry points to common areas: in areas that have high touchpoints or high traffic flows For example: Around the photocopier, near lifts Put up posters at each station to inform workers and others how to sanitise their hands correctly and when.
- If children may enter the workplace, is hand sanitiser in a position to prevent accidental ingestion?
Are there an adequate number of hand washing and hand sanitising stations to sustain the increase in workers’ practicing good hygiene? Consider.
- The number of workers on site.
- Any shift arrangements.
- Entry and exit points.
- High traffic areas.
- The need for workers to wash their hands before, during or after the completion of a work task.
- The location of the workplace or work tasks. Will workers be located outside away from common facilities such as bathrooms?
Put measures in place that encourage good hygiene in the workplace
- Put processes in place to make sure someone checks all hand washing and hand sanitising stations are adequately stocked.
- Put processes in place to enable workers to efficiently raise issues relating to worker hygiene and hand washing or hand sanitising stations.
- Develop infection control policies in consultation with your workers.
- These policies should outline measures in place to prevent the spread of infectious diseases at the workplace.
Look for signs of ‘presenteeism’
- Are managers and supervisors modelling the correct behaviours or is there a culture of ‘soldiering on’ that needs to be discussed as a team?
- Have you informed workers about the importance of hand washing?
- Have you trained workers on how to wash their hands (with soap and water for at least 20 seconds) and dry them correctly?
- Have you trained workers on how to correctly use alcohol-based hand sanitiser?
- Inform workers and others when they need to wash their hands.
- This includes:
- Before and after eating.
- After coughing or sneezing.
- After going to the toilet.
- After changing tasks.
- After touching potentially.
- Are the hand washing and hand sanitising stations placed in convenient locations to ensure workers and others can access them easily and frequently?
Benefits of Having Sanitizer Dispensers in the Workplace
As important as your hands are in doing work, they also equally contribute to the transmission of many disease-causing pathogens. The fact that most work facilities such as toilets, bathrooms, and even eating places are shared means that there are great chances of disease transmission among the staff, and even with good office cleaning, personal hygiene is important. This can be addressed by having automatic hand sanitizer dispensers in the work place, as they have far reaching benefits which may include the following:
Improved Hygiene
Automated dispensers used in providing sanitizers to workers or staff in the work place are the best option. Unlike manually operated types that require direct contact every time a worker needs to use it, there is no contact with automated dispensers. This prevents or decreases the chances of disease-causing pathogens passing from one staff or worker to the other. In the long run, there will be a decline in infections among the staff, which is likely to increase productivity.
Encourages Usability
With an automated sanitizer dispenser in the work place, many workers will likely take the time to keep their hands clean. This is not true with a manually operated dispenser; because many consider it to be tedious and therefore tend to avoid it. A touch-free sanitizer dispenser encourages use and increases the number of workers who clean their hands, and this will reduce the number of transmissions of infections among staff members.
It Is Enjoyable
Automated soap dispensers are fun to use, luring even those who would not usually clean their hands to use it, and in the process, the level of transmission of pathogens will decline significantly. In the long run, productivity will be enhanced.
Economical
With sanitizer dispensers, the amount of sanitizer that is dispensed is the same every time, unlike manually operated types where there is no uniformity. Because of this, sanitizer which could otherwise be used for a day can be used for two to three days with sanitizer dispensers. This is likely to increase revenues and profits of the company in the long run.
Keeping the workplace clean and healthy is important for all employees and even for the productivity of your company.
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