FOCUS WELLBEING
Research across FM, healthcare, education, manufacturing and food service sectors
into attitudes on going back to the workplace by Kimberly-Clark reveals that when it
comes to wellbeing, infection control remains the number one priority
The Coronavirus pandemic has moved
wellbeing, hygiene and safety to
the top of everyone’s agenda especially
when you consider that COVID restrictions
keep changing and continuing . The
levels of concern about the safety at
work or education, visiting hotels,
using airports, or dining out,
vary considerably and facilities
managers in all sectors need to
learn from this unprecedented
event to design and maintain
premises for the future that
are measurably more hygienic
and safer.
With heightened awareness
around risk, reinforced daily
by the need for social distancing
and the wearing of face coverings,
managing consumer perceptions of
cleanliness and hygiene is key to restoring
and maintaining confidence for employees
and customers across all sectors.
“As the leaders in workplace hygiene,
we commissioned Harris Interactive to
discover how people really felt about
about returning to work during the first
Coronavirus lockdown,” says Olena Neznal,
34 FEBRUARY 2021
Vice President, KimberlyClark
Professional
EMEA. “The survey found that 80 per cent
of people are now more aware of hygiene
practices when outside the home.
The survey also showed that
three out of four people
in the UK do not feel
safe going back to
the workplace,
while 86 per
cent said they
would avoid
a location if
they didn’t
think it was
COVIDsecure.
“Businesses
need to
ensure that their
employees and visitors
feel safe,” adds Neznal.
“Companies need to balance
the responsibilities of keeping everyone
safe and staying up to date with the latest
protocols, whilst getting back on track.
The findings from the survey are crucial in
guiding our ability to ensure we o‹ er the
best advice and solutions.
“Only businesses which win the confidence
of their employees and customers will thrive,
and from this research it is clear that hygiene
is now top of the business agenda. There
are no shortcuts to workplace hygiene – we
need to cover every angle.”
PERCEPTIONS OF CLEANLINESS
AND HYGIENE
The survey looked at various sectors
including o‹ ices, airports, hotels, education
locations, dinein
restaurants, cafés, pubs
and bars, and perceptions about overall
levels of cleanliness and hygiene varied
considerably from sector to sector. Only 18
per cent of respondents were confident with
the overall levels of cleanliness and hygiene
in hotels, while airports were lower at only
16 per cent. For o‹ ices that fell to 13 per
cent, and for dinein
restaurants, cafés, pubs
and bars, confidence was lowest at only 11
per cent. For educational establishments,
the assessment was considerably better at
28 per cent.
The survey asked who would avoid visiting
a location if it wasn’t COVIDsecure,
and
only 35 per cent said they would feel safe
in a public washroom. Meanwhile, only 45
per cent said they would feel safe visiting an
airport, with a similar 46 per cent saying they
would feel safe in dinein
restaurants, cafés,
pubs and bars.
In each sector, washroom hygiene was a
cause for concern. When asked ‘what are the
most important areas to improve hygiene
in an o‹ ice building?’, 89 per cent said the
washroom is a key area where businesses
can do more, suggesting that a great deal
needs to be done to improve facilities.
In public washrooms, the confidence
levels of cleanliness and hygiene was
very low, at an alarming seven per cent.
Eightythree
per cent of respondents said
they were concerned about using toilets,
and the top factors when considering if a
public washroom was safe to return to were
seeing the washroom is clean (76 per cent)
and seeing employees actively cleaning (74
per cent). Asked if a restaurant washroom
was a reflection of the hygiene standards
of the rest of the establishment, 78 per cent
thought it was, while 76 per cent thought
that the condition of the washroom was a
reflection of how much the establishment
cared about its customers.
With safety in mind, the survey asked
which facilities people would prefer to see in
washrooms. In every sector, hand sanitiser
and antibacterial
soap were among the
highest priorities. In airports, touchless taps
were top of the list (71 per cent), followed
by touchless automatic doors (65 per cent).
People had similar views when considering
restaurants and hotels while for the
education sector it was not rated as highly.
TAKING CARE
OF BUSINESS
In each sector, washroom
hygiene was a cause for concern.
When asked ‘what are the most
important areas to improve hygiene in
an offi ce Euilding"Ɗ, per cent Vaid the
washroom is a key area where
EuVineVVeV can do more, VuggeVting
that a great deal needV to Ee
done to improve facilitieV.