5 Reasons Why Keeping a Clean Workplace Will Increase Your Business
5 Reasons Why Keeping a Clean Workplace Will Increase Your Business
Underperforming employees, poor employee retention, and zero innovation are just three of the common reasons why small businesses fail. Surprisingly recent study shows that maintaining a clean and healthy working environment for your staff and patrons can solve all of these.
Before the long days and warm weather send your employees into an emotional tailspin, and they start filing workers compensation claims, make sure you’ve got your workplace clean and tidy! Not only that, cleaning up your business premises will not only prevent the spread of infection and keep your employees healthy, it has real benefits for your business. Here are five reasons why keeping your workplace clean is a no-brainer when it comes to making your business more successful.
It strengthens your brand. What’s the first thing that a client or customer notices when they pop inside your office? Is it your top-notch customer service or the stinky smell? Since you only have one shot at making a first impression, make positive first. This is especially true for those who maintain physical stores. If your customers can’t find your merchandise, keep on knocking things over and sneeze through the dust mites, you can’t expect referrals.
The cleanliness of your workplace paints the image of your company, employees and your standard of business practice. If you want to portray to your potential clients or customers and business partners that you have high standards, and that you care about your employees as much as your brand; implement good hygiene practices. Cleanliness is often correlated with work performance and quality. A clean working environment will affirm to potential clients and your employees that you company can deliver exactly what you promised.
It increases productivity. Absenteeism is killing productivity. While you may expect your employees to miss a few work days each year, excessive absences due to illness puts a burden on other employees and carry hidden costs that have a huge impact on the company finances and overall organizational performance.
If you want to be more productive at work, declutter and make your workspace sparkly clean! It keeps the viruses and bacteria off your desks, floors and work surfaces and saves your employees from filing sick leaves.
A clean workspace also boosts your concentration. We’re not just saying that; a research conducted by the Princeton University found that clutter decreases a person’s ability to focus. When your office is a mess and dirty, your thoughts are occupied with objects and concerns that are irrelevant to your project. Although some people are really good at multi-tasking, it is still important to focus on one task at a time, to get more things done within the allocated time. Your team can also feel more engaged and spend less time feeling jumpy worrying that they did their tasks poorly.
It alleviates stress. While a little bit of stress isn’t that bad because it can help you stay energetic and focused to meet the challenges at work, excessive stress at work could be costly. Perhaps tight deadlines, heavy workloads or personal issues are bogging your team down, but walking into a clean, fresh-smelling and tidy workstation can bring instant relief.
The state of the workplace can definitely have an effect on your mental health. Your office is an extension of yourself, and wouldn’t it be nice to spend most of your waking hours in a place that is clean and organized?
Stress at work can spark up employees’ resentment toward the company as well as negatively influence their relationship with their co-employees. While it is normal for organizations to experience turnover, why lose a hardworking employee?
It increases employee satisfaction.
When your office is clean, you are creating a healthy, happy and productive team. Remember that each business has intangible assets, and that include the employee’s good health and morale. Having a strong company culture that considers the health and well-being of its employees can help workers feel more focused and devoted to their work. They also become more engaged and loyal to the company.
Companies work hard on improving employee retention rate because it saves them time, money and effort in training new ones. The good news is that you can start where you are right now. Just implement strict hygiene practices in your company and see the difference in your employee’s attitude.
It ignites your creative flame.
Some people work best in a cluttered space, but only very few could concentrate in a place that is clearly dirty and stinky. A clean surrounding encourages you to let go of the usual, and try out something new because it fosters a feeling of safety. And people who feel safe are most likely to voice out their creative ideas.
Creative thinking is one of the keys to success. Business leaders and employees need to be creative in order to achieve their goals. Creativity is important for businesses processes especially when generating ideas and brainstorming, making powerful presentations and creating training modules. It often leads to better results for crowdsourcing and problem solving processes and drives innovation. So, if you want to help your employees think differently, and to create powerful sale pitches and products or services that would add value to your clients, make sure that your workplace is clean.
Maintaining a clean workplace is everyone’s responsibility
All staff must be made responsible for the cleanliness of the office premises, from regular cleaning of washroom and other communal areas to proper waste disposal of wastes. It is easy to get everyone on board when they understand that the strict guidelines on maintaining cleanliness and hygiene at your workplace would benefit not only the company but everyone spending their long hours inside the office premises. It could be as simple as requiring everyone to use Tiger Effects Reusable Indoor Shoe Covers to prevent the transfer of bacteria and viruses from the shoe to office floors, and shield the floor from being contaminated by dirt, toxins that the shoe owner may have stepped on.