Work environments can be a breeding ground for plenty of infectious diseases. It’s easy for sickness to thrive in conditions where stressed employees are confined in a small space. Thankfully, there are plenty of preventative measures you can take to stop the spread of workplace illness in its tracks. Here are some practical tips for maintaining a safe and healthy work environment:
Consult a nutritionist
A natural therapist with a diploma in nutrition can help you implement an efficient workplace wellness program to guide your employees into making the best nutritional choices for them. Their practice stresses the importance of adding organic and whole foods into people’s diets and the balancing of physiological and biochemical processes.
Encourage proper hygiene etiquette
Place visible reminders that prompts people to either sneeze or cough into a tissue or into their elbow. You should also provide easy access to trash cans and tissues. Furthermore, there should be a proactive hand hygiene culture that stresses the importance of washing hands. Make sure that your employees have access to clean running water and soap or alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Ask sick employees to stay home
Encourage your sick employees to stay home when they’re sick without any penalties. If you notice that one of your employees is exhibiting visible flu symptoms, make sure to immediately separate them from the rest of your employees and send them home. You should also develop other policies that allow employees not to miss out on work such as allowing work-from-home or teleworking set-ups.
Provide opportunities for vaccination
Host regular flu vaccine clinics at your workplace whenever possible. You should encourage your workforce to get seasonal flu vaccines, especially during flu season. If you can’t host your own vaccine clinics, try to collect information that would help your employees locate health facilities where they can get vaccinated. CDC recommends that anyone who is six months and older get vaccinated annually.
Regularly disinfect workspaces
Ensure that your cleaning staff is routinely and thoroughly disinfecting all areas of your work environment. This is especially important for common areas that are frequently touched such as doorknobs, computer keyboards, water fountains, countertops, and telephones.
Offer access to healthy food
Furnish your office with free vegetables, fruits, vitamins, supplements, as well as an adequate drinking water supply. Employees might not be able to bring in their own healthy lunch, so it’s always a good idea to help them out by providing them with these snacks so they can get at least a small dose of vitamins and minerals throughout the day.
Promote good air quality and ventilation
Poor air quality and ventilation can lead to a host of illnesses such as headaches, respiratory illnesses, and allergies. You should make sure that your HVAC is well-maintained regularly and that its filter is swapped out at least twice a year. This also helps you prevent any spikes in your energy bill since it ensures that your HVAC system is operating as efficiently as possible. If you can, try to open your windows to air out your work environments every so often.
These tips will help keep your workers healthy and safe. Protecting your employees’ health is guaranteed to boost your business’ overall productivity and efficiency.