4 Science-backed Reasons a Clean Office Saves You Money & Increases Productivity

If your staff are struggling to concentrate on their work, or promising leads fail to convert after a visit to your premises, your office cleanliness could be to blame. Studies have shown that even superficially clean offices are detrimental to every aspect of an employee’s mental and physical health, happiness, and productivity, if dirt and grime are allowed to accumulate.

Reduce absenteeism through regular office cleaning

One study by San Diego State University found there are more than 500 species of bacteria living in the average office—with men’s workspaces harboring 10 to 20 percent more germs than women’s. In fact, germs are so pervasive in shared working environments that for every cubic meter of air, there are up to a billion bacteria.

When you consider that a quarter of Americans admit to going to work even when they’ve got infectious diseases like the flu, it’s no surprise that employee absenteeism costs the U.S. economy in excess of $40 billion annually.

Absences are a huge drain on company coffers and resources. One key way to reduce illness-related absences is to stop the next office outbreak before it starts. Cold and flu viruses can survive for around 24 hours on non-porous surfaces such as desks, keyboards, and door handles. If your office isn’t being regularly cleaned and sanitized, all those germs are free to spread through your entire workforce.

You can’t stop an employee or visitor coming into the office with a sniffle, but you can mitigate the potential for infection through your workforce by ensuring every area is routinely cleaned and disinfected.

Save time and money by eliminating clutter

While not everyone believes the axiom that “a tidy desk signifies a tidy mind,” studies have shown that tidiness is directly linked with efficiency and improved concentration. According to the National Association of Professional Organizers, the average executive loses six weeks per year to disorganization, and in messy offices, an employee can spend over four hours per week looking for misplaced paperwork.

Lost papers aren’t only a nuisance; they can be a major drain on resources and in sensitive industries, leave a company open to privacy breaches. A single HIPAA violation could cost a disorganized workplace up to $50,000.

All that paper also carries a cost to the company in materials and storage. The EPA estimates the average American office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper each year, and up to 70 percent of office space is dedicated to filing and storage. If you’re looking to cut costs and clear your workplace, consider that 80 percent of filed documents are never looked at again, and one study by Xerox showed that almost half of office papers can be discarded within a day of printing.

Get organized to impress clients and ease conflict

Visitors take note of messy offices. In a study by University of Michigan-Flint, people were asked to rate the perceived personality traits of others based on if they had a clean, cluttered, or messy desk. Untidy people were seen as more neurotic and less caring than their neat counterparts.

While that might seem an unfair assessment, there is a correlation between mess and low productivity. A study by Princeton University found that visual distractions slow cognitive functions, meaning cluttered desks can leave employees feeling tired and worn down. This is true even for other people’s clutter—an employee with a neat desk can still be distracted by an untidy colleague within their line of sight.

Workplace conflicts are a headache for any manager, and a key area where they can be reduced is by eliminating mess in an office environment. A majority of employees — 57 percent — surveyed by staffing firm Adecco admit to judging coworkers based on how clean or dirty their workspace is, with most ascribing messiness to laziness and thinking less of those colleagues overall.

Reap health and safety benefits

Keeping your office clean also has health and safety benefits. Clutter is a big cause of workplace accidents — in one survey of workplace safety professionals, common slips, trips, and falls were ascribed to “housekeeping issues” in 16 percent of cases. Disorganized papers, boxes, and wires can all present trip hazards in an office setting.

In addition, the Office of Compliance cites office clutter as a major fire hazard, both for providing combustible material that makes a fire worse, and blocking exit paths in the case of an emergency.

Ensuring your office is regularly cleaned can prevent against unseen health hazards too. Pests are attracted to food debris that can quickly accumulate in communal areas like kitchens and break rooms. Ants, flies, cockroaches, and worse are all attracted to commercial properties where cleaning isn’t a priority.

While fruit flies are unlikely to make your employees sick, other pests carry bacteria and diseases that can affect your workforce, and an invasion of creepy crawlies will horrify staff and visitors alike.

Delineate cleaning roles for better results

Relying on employees to clean their own workspaces often isn’t enough. Most office workers know to clean their keyboards and wipe down their desks, but the San Diego study found that harmful oral, nasal and intestinal bacteria still exist all over commonly used office furniture and furnishings, especially chairs and phones.

It is rarely cost-efficient to have regular staff cleaning on the company dime, and without a clear delineation of responsibilities, communal spaces like kitchens, bathrooms, waiting rooms, and foyers will often get neglected or overlooked.

When employees are charged with cleaning their offices, they will often do so with whatever’s to hand, rather than whatever’s best for the job. Office workers rarely have access to professional cleaning tools and materials, and don’t always know what to use on each surface. Cleaning a hardwood floor requires different treatment to porcelain tiles or carpet. Poor maintenance and incorrect cleaning can end up costing a company thousands to correct.

Hire a professional cleaning service for best results

Having your offices professionally cleaned can mitigate any number of risks. Clean, fresh offices are a pleasure to visit and work in, meaning you can enhance your company image and improve the health and happiness of your workforce.

Professional companies know the right equipment to use to get the best results in the fastest time, and when you hire a cleaning expert, they remember all the spots office employees typically forget. Hiring specialist cleaners also leaves your staff free to get on with doing their jobs, rather than scrubbing their desks. Keeping your business premises neat and clean can reduce absenteeism, save time, boost productivity, and make your office a safer, more attractive place to work.

Pro Housekeepers are office cleaning specialists. We understand the importance of cleanliness to your company’s image, and to your bottom line. We provide commercial cleaning services in major cities across the United States, offering everything from one-off deep cleaning to moving in/out of premises cleaning and regular janitorial services. Contact us today to see how we can help your business improve.