These days, more offices are adopting open office layouts with minimal interior walls and more communal-style bench seating to facilitate spontaneous brainstorming and idea-sharing. Such open spaces may seem easy to maintain at first glance, but they actually require more frequent office cleaning than regular offices. If you’re hiring an office business cleaning services team to maintain the cleanliness of your open office, make sure to point out these five tips to ensure your office is always spick and span. 

1. An open office needs to be cleaned more frequently than a traditional office. 

Some people may think that open offices require less frequent office cleaning since there are fewer pieces of furniture and surfaces to clean. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Sadly, such a setup requires even more help from corporate office cleaning services than you think. Open offices tend to invite higher traffic of employees in one space, and these folks tend to collaborate more, socialise frequently and even share common objects more readily. The lack of barriers also means more bacteria and germs can gather in one place without being obstructed. The result? Increased hygiene and health risks that lead to more employees falling sick and passing on their fellow colleagues who are seated in close proximity.

2. Identify high-touch points that require more cleaning.

Start your office cleaning process by hiring office deep cleaning services that truly understand how to maintain an open office environment. Then, evaluate and identify high-touch points that require thorough cleaning to ensure your employees have a hygienic workplace that keeps them safe and productive. Areas like shared work desks, door handles, light switches and frequently used office equipment like phones, computers, stationeries must be cleaned with a complete wipe down. When it comes to the pantry, pay specific attention to cleaning appliance handles, cabinet handles, and door pulls that have heavy bacteria build-ups and regular contact with employees.   

3. Don’t overlook collaborative spaces. 

Make sure your office business cleaning services team is giving deep cleaning to collaborative spaces like conference rooms, town halls and meeting pods. These spaces can easily collect millions of germs because they are heavy traffic zones where groups of employees regularly gather. By maintaining the cleanliness of these spaces, you can easily prevent health hazards from spreading around the office and even reduce the number of sick leaves. Also, advise your corporate office cleaning services team to place a bottle of hand sanitiser in each of these rooms too. This way, employees will be encouraged to sanitise their hands before and after using the rooms to ensure an even higher level of hygiene. 

4. Monitor indoor air quality and ventilation. 

According to a Harvard study, good ventilation can positively impact creativity and cognitive processes.  Safe to say, this means ensuring the best air quality in the open office is one great way to maintain optimum productivity in the workplace too. To upkeep the air quality, advise your office deep cleaning services team to prevent particulates from entering your workspaces with entryway mats and periodically clean and maintain the air-conditioning systems to ensure they are free from microbial contaminants and all the air filters are in place.  Remember that your air-conditioning system should be serviced at least once a year to ensure it is running at optimal condition. A well-maintained system also tends to last longer hence saving major repair and replacement costs in the long run.

5. Get employees to clean and declutter their desks regularly.

Encouraging your employees to take ownership of their workspace and maintain the highest level of cleanliness is the best way to keep a safe and healthy open office. Because such an office layout grants a full view to everyone’s work desk, it becomes even more paramount for every individual to declutter and prevent a build-up of messy documents, food crumbs or unwashed mugs.  Just imagine what a walk-in customer might think of your company if they witnessed such an unsightly pile-up? Keeping things neat at all times is probably the only way to project a professional image in an open office.  

Nimbus provides professional office cleaning services for workspaces in Singapore. Contact us to find out more about our comprehensive range of services.