Office Sanitization: Reopening Checklist For Your Workplace

Vaccinated or not, the average office-going employee will likely be returning to the office with their own sanitary care package. From travel-sized hand sanitizer tubes to latex gloves, a mask, and a small pack of disinfecting wipes, you don’t need to be a germaphobe to be cautious as you get back to your workplace or office. 

From the micro level to, more broadly, your overall office sanitization policies, including your routine janitorial services provider, it may be a good idea to review everything sanitation-related. Doing so, though, is no easy task. That’s what checklists are for, no? There’s no shortage of office sanitization reopening checklists available online (thanks COVID), but we’ve condensed much of that for you. Here’s your office sanitization reopening checklist:

Make a Plan Before You Make a Checklist

The CDC, or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has developed and released many useful guides and resources since the start of the pandemic, including, specifically, everything you need to know about cleaning and disinfecting a commercial space. The first step in office sanitization? Create a plan. Jumping straight to a checklist means you may be ignoring some before-and-after steps, and that can hinder your efforts.

Existing Guides & What to Pull From Them

Many states have developed their own guides to reopening office workspaces, such as the California Department of Public Health. Their guide includes planning, topics for worker training, individual measures and screening, cleaning and disinfecting protocols, and other guidelines. Being that California was domestically one of the most contentious states during COVID-19, especially in and concerning Los Angeles, their guide may be a useful tool for you as you put your checklist together.

Your Checklist

Alas, your own checklist! There should be several parts to your checklist. It should be separated between personal hygiene protocols and general sanitary protocols. For your general sanitary protocols, you should distinguish between the routine service that is provided through your contract with a professional janitorial services provider (which you may want to beef up), and your in-house sanitary efforts. Concerning both, however, your checklist should separate sanitary routines between daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. Now fill in your checklist accordingly!

Beyond Sanitary Measures

Even after creating a comprehensive office sanitization reopening checklist, you may find that there are a number of remaining concerns or issues. A reopening office has, from a sanitization perspective, certain elements that are tied to other operational matters. SHRM, or The Society for Human Resource Management, lists ten key issues in office reopening, including (but not limited to):

• Workplace safety
• Recall procedures
• Remote work
• Communications
• Policy changes
• Business continuity plans

These key issues, you may find, include or are closely tied to the best sanitization checklists that reopening office managers are using. In short, from a sanitization perspective, reopening your office is more deeply tied to the DNA of your company and its operations than you may think!