Hygiene in a pandemic – is your business delivering confidence?

If you took someone from 2019 and dropped them without warning into April 2020, they would arrive in a world hardly recognisable from just months before.

The pandemic has turned hygiene protocols – something people hardly ever thought about – into something critical for their health and safety. Places of business need to be just as vigilant with hygiene as their employees and visitors are – as hygiene protocols are fast becoming a measure of how businesses are judged.

Research done by Rentokil Initial in March 2021 proves that point. It found that 65% of respondents expect the company they work for to provide regular disinfection services. Half believe the office should be cleaned once a day, 40% believe it should be done twice a day.

Research carried out by The Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, “Brand Trust and the Coronavirus Pandemic”, discovered that “78% of people say that businesses have a responsibility to ensure their employees are protected from the virus in the workplace and do not spread the virus into the community”.

People expect their health and safety to be taken seriously by employers. And more than ever, employees are hygiene-savvy and know what provisions should be adopted to keep them safe. Cleanliness is the bare minimum, and the importance of hygiene has been elevated from functionality to a “duty of care” issue.

From the moment a person – employee, visitor or customer – steps onto your premises they should be aware that hygiene is a priority. Rentokil’s recent research recent research showed that 87% of people expect their company to provide them with hand sanitiser and 86% are concerned about the risk of the virus spreading through using door handles. This clearly illustrates that businesses must adopt an integrated approach to hygiene that leaves staff reassured whilst at work.

It’s not just on entry that people expect to have access to hand sanitisers. Everywhere there’s a hotspot, be that door handles, lifts, handrails, or fingerprint scanners, hand sanitisers need to be provided to reduce the risk of spreading germs around the building.

Initial has a range of options to cover all situations, including the SaniGreen hand sanitiser station: an elegant, no-touch hand sanitising station that incorporates the positive impact of plants.

An integrated approach to hygiene, which includes disinfection and sanitising, is recommended.

Finally – possibly most importantly, given what we know about Covid-19 being airborne – what about the quality of the air inside your business? Air purifiers such as VIRUSKILLER remove harmful particles and gases to give a more hygienic experience. VIRUSKILLER units are designed to capture over 99,9999% of airborne particles including the Coronavirus* and clean large spaces in less than 10 minutes.

By positioning hygiene products in appropriate pathogen hotspots throughout your business, you are providing visual reassurance that you are not only reducing the risk of cross-contamination, but also taking hygiene concerns seriously. Initial offers fully serviced hygiene solutions to keep your employees and customers safe.

* When independently tested against Coronavirus DF2 (a surrogate for Coronavirus), Adenovirus, Influenza and Polio, the unit was found to kill 99,9999% of viruses on a single air pass.