The Changing Expectations Of Commercial Cleaning Routines

Zac Hemming, Founding Director of ICE Cleaning With the majority of restrictions being removed in England, the vaccination programme continuing to make pace and the government encouraging a gradual return to work, there is much to be positive about following a challenging last 16 months. However, as case numbers continue to rise, employees still feel concerned about their safety and well-being, with over half of British workers stating they would happily never return to the office environment.

Here Zac Hemming, Founding Director of ICE Cleaning, explores the additional measures that facilities managers should be incorporating into their cleaning routines to aid employers in giving their staff the confidence to return to the office, by successfully mitigating against the spread of virus and bacteria.

More than half of British workers would be happy to never return to the office due to fears of germs, a lack of social distancing and being in a room with lots of other people. A study of 1,000 employees who are currently working from home, carried out via OnePoll on behalf of ICE Cleaning, found two thirds would also feel uncomfortable about going back into their workplace full time, with worries such as lack of personal space and not enough communal cleaning.

For many employers, getting their workforce to return to the office environment as soon as possible in a safe and secure way is their main priority. However, with COVID cases rising and the peak of the third wave expected later this summer, facilities managers are playing a vital role in ensuring workplaces present a safe and hygienic space for individuals to work and collaborate.

To ensure business owners fulfil their Duty of Care to employees, in line with government guidance, this has included the implementation of additional considerations, such as dedicated sanitisation stations and temperature scanners, reviews of air quality and ventilation systems, in addition to the directional flow of traffic throughout the building and how this can be successfully managed to accommodate appropriate social distancing.

Here commercial cleaning has taken the most important role of all, as building owners and facilities managers look to work in partnership to ensure their building is consistently safe by undertaking a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to mitigating against the spread of virus and bacteria.



This includes additional measures, such as monthly decontamination and sanitisation plans, which were requested by over half of those surveyed by OnePoll, as well as daily cleaning regimes for communal areas, such as kitchens, bathrooms and lifts.

The rapid advancement in cleaning technologies is supporting facilities managers in successfully fulfilling these aims, with latest chemicals and dispensing systems setting the standard for a new generation of commercial cleaning that is lightyears apart from the cleaning regimes previously delivered and expected.

Whilst some may utilise a traditional fogging machine to apply the relevant chemicals to help mitigate against the spread of bacteria and viruses on surfaces and key touchpoints, latest progressions in electrostatic technology have created a dispensing system, that when combined with best in class chemicals, achieves a longer dwell time on surfaces.

This enables the chemicals to effectively ‘wrap’ around surfaces to guarantee protection against viruses for up to 28 days, eliminating the opportunity for the cleaning chemicals to drip off high frequency touchpoints, such as door handles, which may potentially occur with other methods of application.

The electrostatic technology features positively charged electrostatic particles, which attach themselves to negatively charged particles found on solid surfaces, whilst simultaneously counteracting any negatively charged particles within the atmosphere. This effectively destroys 99.9% of traces of coronavirus and other bacteria and viruses on surfaces within a working environment.

By applying these sanitisation plans on a monthly basis, in addition to established daily and weekly cleaning routines, facilities managers can physically demonstrate to business owners and their employees the measures that are being taken to ensure their safety and wellbeing whilst they are in the office.

As businesses continue to navigate their way through the ‘new normal’ and encourage their employees to return to the workplace, facilities managers have a responsibility to ensure their cleaning routines go above and beyond to deliver the highest standards in hygiene, cleanliness and confidence.

For more information, visit icecleaning.co.uk or call 02039 932940.

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The Changing Expectations Of Commercial Cleaning Routines