Welcome back to office concept

Contributed by Grupo EULEN 

Five years ago, mopping the floors and cleaning the restrooms of corporate buildings used to be the standard of a “clean office space.” As pandemic protocols are left behind and employees begin to reimagine life at the office, many questions come to mind, including “how clean will my office space be?”

This is a question and concern for many today, but there are a few things to take into consideration, especially as we continue to deal with Covid-19 cases and other viruses on a daily basis.

“As they contemplate returning to the office, the American worker’s expectations have shifted from visibly clean to microscopically safe,” says Dija Ziane, head of Facility Services Division at Grupo EULEN. “We are living in a world where there is a war for talent and corporations are investing in amenitizing their office spaces and offering employees perks to lure them back into the office — a high level of cleanliness should be one of them.”

According to Harvard Business Review, with the U.S. turnover rate projected to jump nearly 20 percent in 2022 over the pre-pandemic average, according to Gartner, and 31 percent of American workers actively thinking about or looking to leave their organization, according to KPMG, companies that don’t adapt risk losing their employees to the competition.

“As we head into a recession, corporations need partners that will not cut costs but that will leverage innovations and deliver tailored solutions,” she added.

Clean does not mean pristine white anymore — the pandemic taught people much more. The industry of facility services is ramping up and gearing towards an awakening where employees expect the grade of cleanliness seen in hospitals. If employees do not feel comfortable at their workspace or coming into work five days a week because they don’t feel safe, chances are they will leave to another working environment.

The facility services industry offers technologies that will help make sure that the office and public spaces are safe and clean focusing on cleaning with process optimization. These processes usually include sanitizing and electrostatic Spraying technology and registered Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Chemicals, providing clean, disinfected, and sanitized facilities in compliance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) recommendations.

COVID-19 is not the only virus that haunts us. According to the CDC, the overall burden of influenza (flu) for the 2021-2022 season was an estimated 9 million flu illnesses, 4 million flu-related medical visits, 100,000 flu-related hospitalizations, and 5,000 flu deaths.