The temperatures are swiftly dropping and the days are getting much shorter, which can only mean one thing ─ cold season is upon us. Many offices fall victim to illness each winter, as it takes just one sick employee to spread their symptoms throughout the entire office. However, you can effectively reduce the impact of cold and flu season with a little savvy strategizing.

5 Ways to Keep Your Workplace Healthy

Ready to fight back against the cold and flu this year? Use the following five tips to keep your office healthy throughout the winter season:

Send Sick Employees Home

Many loyal employees believe they’re doing a good thing by coming into the office and working when they’re under the weather. While their intentions may be good, they’re actually exposing your entire team to their illness ─ likely causing others to get sick. Send employees home at the first sign of illness and have them stay there until they’ve recovered.

Distribute Hand Sanitizer

Give every employee a bottle of hand sanitizer to keep on their desk, promoting frequent usage. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends using a hand sanitizer with a 60 to 95 percent alcohol concentration, as they are the most effective at fighting germs. While this alone certainly won’t eliminate illness, every little step counts.

Regularly Clean Common Surfaces

You probably make sure to regularly vacuum the floors, wipe break room tables and clean windows, but don’t forget places like door handles, drawer knobs and copy machine buttons. Regularly sanitizing common surfaces helps to cut down on the number of germs circulating through your office, causing employees to get sick.

Encourage Employees to Disinfect Workspaces

Common spaces aren’t the only areas manifesting germs ─ they’re also harbored in individual work stations. Keep cleaning supplies on-hand for employees to wipe down their desks, keyboards and phones to increase their chances of staying healthy by killing germs on a regular basis.

Promote Good Health

Help your employees boost their immune systems by promoting healthy habits at work. Stock the kitchen and vending machine with healthy snacks, provide lunchtime fitness classes and offer complimentary flu shots to anyone willing to get one.

If you feel like you’re faced with a never-ending to-do list, ECS can help you better manage your workload. Contact us today to learn how we can partner with you to optimize and simplify the hiring and management of your contract workforce.