Charlotte Parr from Portfolio explains how a science-led, pandemic-level approach to hygiene standards is vital to protect workers.
Poor air quality and inadequate cleaning practices lead to “Sick Building Syndrome” – where employees experience headaches, dry throat and sore eyes, increasing in severity with more time spent in buildings. This poses a major challenge for businesses, especially during colder months – people may avoid the office or grow ill because of it.
Employee sickness cost the economy £103 billion in 2023, but healthy buildings give employees a boost of morale, motivation, and as 69 per cent of owners report, higher employee satisfaction. Businesses need to implement tailored, measurable hygiene strategies that go beyond surface-level cleaning with a science-led approach in order to keep all building occupants health and safe.
Data-driven methods
The surfaces employees touch and indoor air they breathe can harbour pathogens, such as cold and flu viruses. Workplaces with heavy footfall are even more susceptible to these contaminants – requiring frequent and scientifically informed cleaning programmes.
To implement such a strategy, organisations need to understand the type, locations and levels of microbial presence on surfaces. These can be tackled with Total Viable Count (TVC) swabbing, which can gather bacterial data across high-contact areas and provide a precise view of which harmful pathogens are most likely to pose a risk. The swabs test for bacteria and potential hazards, building a real-time understanding of contamination levels.
TVC swabbing is used within services like our PRISM programme and is logged in Portfolio’s digital dashboard, where patterns of contamination are analysed, allowing for scheduled cleaning in high-priority areas. The results provide crucial insight into workplace health risks and serve as a hygiene marker for microbial contamination levels.
Through implementing proactive measures with data-led tools like PRISM, winter pathogen levels can be reduced by tackling the root cause of contamination, rather than reacting to its symptoms.
Technology integration
Workplace hygiene programmes need to integrate with technology to ensure precision and consistency. For example, automated alerts and QR-coded task logs enable real-time monitoring and response for FM teams. QR codes can be placed in high-contact areas, so operatives log their tasks and create an audit trail for hygiene actions.
This system confirms task completion and provides insight into the flow of cleaning activities, to adjust cleaning frequency and focus based on illness spikes, occupancy trends and microbial data. With continuous monitoring tools, FM teams can respond proactively and make sure areas are cleaned and disinfected as frequently as needed to keep people safe throughout the year.
Cleaning operative protection
Office workers aren’t the only people at risk of illness; the frontline cleaning operatives are arguably more exposed to an increased risk. Employers have a duty of care to ensure that operatives have the tools and support they need to operate safely.
We are exploring how cross-referencing absenteeism with hygiene levels can detect a correlation between illness rates and specific contamination points. Monitoring these trends lets us pinpoint whether illness spikes correspond with microbial contamination. That can provide actionable insights to modify cleaning routines or deploy additional protective measures, supporting a safer workplace for all building occupants, including frontline workers.
Comprehensive workplace hygiene programmes can equip cleaning operatives with technology that enhances their efficiency. When elevated microbial readings are found, operatives know which high-contact areas to prioritise. A science-led approach optimises effectiveness and reduces workers’ unnecessary exposure to contaminants, reinforcing the safety of operatives too.
The future of workplace healthcare
A science-led cleaning and hygiene programme provides an effective strategy for reducing the number of pathogens and invests in employee wellbeing, productivity, and organisational resilience.
This method has already proven effective – we implemented PRISM at a busy London workplace, designing a custom cleaning programme for its unique needs. We analysed swab results and occupancy patterns for high-traffic areas contamination points such as door handles, lift buttons, and shared kitchen spaces.
By gathering hygiene data over just a few weeks, managers could make informed adjustments to cleaning schedules, resulting in a measurable drop in bacterial counts. All high-risk areas reported TVC levels well below the threshold for safe hygiene. Together, we developed a shared sense of responsibility for workplace cleanliness.
Continuous monitoring can confidently meet seasonal demands, protect employees and cleaning operatives, and build trust between businesses and their FM teams.
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