How much money could an office cleaner save you?

Germs are everywhere in the office. Recent studies showed that the average work desk can be up to 100 times less hygienic than your kitchen table, and 400 times dirtier than the average toilet seat. Combine this with working in close proximity with other colleagues, it’s no wonder that germs and illnesses can spread so quickly, leading to several employees needing sick days away from the office.

Many bosses believe that hiring an office cleaner is another unnecessary expense that can be avoided. However, industrial cleaning company, DCS Multiserve investigate why keeping your office clean could actually save you money. In a recent report, it was revealed that sickness absences cost employers on average around £29 billion per annum. Here, we discuss the cost of sick days versus the cost of keeping your workplace clean and germ free. Could a clean office save you money in sickness pay-outs?

Illnesses and the office

The main cleanliness problem in the workplace is dirty equipment – the average keyboard is home to approximately 16 million microbes alone – that’s around 3,295 microbes per square inch of your keyboard. Compare this to the fact there’s only around 49 microbes per square inch of a toilet seat, and it suddenly becomes apparent how dirty our keyboards are. And that’s no surprise when only 3% of offices are said to sufficiently clean their equipment – and 11% of employees never clean their keyboards.

Many germs, such as the ones that cause the common cold, can survive up to three days on office equipment. This means that you could pick up the illness more than two days after somewhere has been infected. Even more worrying is that more serious microbes such as MRSA can last anywhere between six weeks to seven months, highlighting how important it is to regularly clean work surfaces and equipment.

It appears that employees themselves are not helping the situation either. 32% of individuals admitted to not washing their hands after visiting the bathroom, and a further 30% confessed that they only used water to clean their hands. From this information, it comes with no surprise that 24% of us have faecal bacteria on our hands, which is then transferred onto the surfaces which we touch. One single person carrying a virus will infect 50% of all equipment and fellow employees in the same vicinity within four hours. Killing germs sooner rather than later will reduce and prevent future contamination and the spread of infections around the office.

Sick days and higher costs

In an investigation into sickness absence rates and costs which surveyed 670 organisations and just under two million employees, the link between sick days and higher costs were examined. It was revealed that during 2014, sickness absence averaged at 2.8% of working time per annum – that equates to 6.5 sick days per employee. In total, this cost employers an estimated £29 billion a year.

This high rate of absences has not slowed in the past three years either. So far in 2017, public sector organisations have witnessed a median of 3.5% of working time lost due to illness (8.1 days per employee) and 2.2% in private-sector organisations (5.1 days per employee). Without your employees, your company’s production rate is limited.

As many as 80% of infections are spread through contact with infected surfaces and equipment. Your workplace could be the reason why your staff are picking up illnesses and infections – leading to several sick days. Allowing germs to spread around the office can leave employers short staffed and out of pocket, so maybe it’s time to invest in an office cleaner?

Cleaning costs

There are many actions that can be taken within the workplace to keep up hygiene levels. You could invest in industrial cleaning or carry out more regular actions such as using hand sanitising wipes and gel, cleaning desks and keyboards regularly and implementing a no food at your desk rule. However, you can’t expect your staff to clean the entire workplace on a daily basis to kill any germs that have set up home around the office. Hiring a cleaner, or cleaning company to clean your workplace is an investment which will in turn help to save you money in sick days.

Many businesses already pay for office cleaning and generally spend around £13 per hour, per cleaner. However, prices can vary on the size of your premises and what you require the cleaner to do. Quotes are unique to each business. It’s likely that you will not need your cleaner to work every hour of the working day – in most cases, a few hours are sufficient — that’s if the company you employ provides a reliable and quality service.

To fully evaluate the expense, if you were to hire a cleaner for two hours, each working day, it would cost an estimated £130 per week to keep your office clean. Presuming you require a cleaner for 50 weeks of the year, with two weeks off to account for Christmas and any office closures, it would cost approximately £6,760 per year, which is a worthwhile investment to prevent the spread of infections around the office, and save you money in staff sick pay.

Sources

https://www.bhf.org.uk/-/media/files/health-at-work/health_at_work_economic_evidence_report_2016.pdf

http://www.1stcompucare.co.uk/facts/

http://www.personneltoday.com/hr/sickness-absence-rates-and-costs-revealed-in-uks-largest-survey/

https://www.cleaningservicesgroup.co.uk/5/about-us/5/news/452/how-clean-is-your-office/