You come into contact with several touch points throughout your day at work. You will touch your desk, doors, elevator buttons and more during the day. Everyone else in the building also handles the same surfaces you come into contact with regularly — this makes them high touch points. These spots also get dirty relatively quickly because of everyone who interacts with them.
These high touch areas must be cleaned correctly to ensure the health and safety of your staff. Touch point cleaning is essential to any facility that wants to limit the spread of illnesses and diseases.
What Are High Touch Points?
The surfaces and areas in your workplace used or handled frequently are known as high touch points. These surfaces get touched repeatedly throughout the day by most of the staff. They are often the dirtiest surfaces in the workplace and are easily contaminated by bacteria, pathogens and other microorganisms. These microorganisms can be easily spread throughout your workplace as employees carry them from high touch points to other surfaces.
Common high touch areas to disinfect include:
Access and Reception Areas
Access and reception areas have some of the most used surfaces in your office or building. The next time you walk
through your facility, note how many times you touch a doorknob or push a door open. High touch points in access areas
include:
- Doors to the office, restrooms, meeting rooms, cafeteria or kitchen
- Handles or push plates
- Elevator and other access buttons
- Waiting room chairs
- Reception desks
- Shared reception stationery
Power and Lights
High touch points in these areas are less of a concern if your workplace has automatic sensors. However, many
facilities still rely on manual switch lights and power. Below are some typical power high touch points:
- Light switches in meeting rooms, kitchens and bathrooms
- Power outlets
- Warehouse light switches
- Thermostats
- Control panels
Appliances and Equipment
Communal areas can be one of the most unhygienic locations in a facility due to how often staff use appliances and
equipment throughout the day. These include:
- Kettles and coffee machines
- Toasters
- Fridge doors and handles
- Kitchen cupboard doors
- Water coolers and fountains
- Microwaves
- Printers and photocopiers
- Binders, guillotines and other shared equipment
- Vending machines
- Coffee or tea supplies, such as sugar tins
- Teleconferencing equipment
- Boardroom chairs
Desks
Even if every employee has their own desk, they are still high touch points. If you have hot desks, they are even more
likely to be high touch surfaces. Some areas to focus on include:
- Monitor screens and buttons
- Keyboards and computer mouses
- Desk surfaces
- Chairs
- Desk dividers
- Track or touchpads
- Phones
- Storage cabinets
Other High Touch Surfaces
Common high touch points you may forget about include:
- Handrails and banisters
- Soap pumps
- Sink taps
- Remote controls
- Bathroom dryers and paper dispensers
- Keys
- Towels in the kitchen or restrooms
Why High Touch Point Cleaning Is Essential
A clean working environment is essential to the health and happiness of your staff and customers. Cleaning frequently touched areas has grown popular among businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A touch point cleaning program is the practice of cleaning, disinfecting and sanitizing high touch point surfaces throughout the day. Implementing a touch point cleaning program can help prevent the spread of common illnesses and limit cross-contamination between surfaces and people.
Your janitorial staff must know which high touch areas to clean and when. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends cleaning high touch surfaces at least once a day for general workplaces. Surfaces that are touched less can be cleaned less often. A ceiling fan will need to be cleaned monthly rather than daily, for example.
You can also educate your staff on how they can protect themselves by sanitizing their workspaces to prevent the spread of bacteria and other pathogens.
Here are a few reasons you should implement high touch point cleaning practices:
Keeps Staff Healthy
Maintaining a clean facility is crucial to ensuring your staff stays healthy by stopping the spread of germs. A minor cold can easily be spread to everyone in the workplace through high touch points. Keeping frequently used surfaces clean and disinfecting them often can kill the bacteria that cause the common cold and flu, as well as more severe conditions, such as COVID-19.
Reduces Absenteeism and Presenteeism
High touch point cleaning can help reduce absenteeism and presenteeism in your company. Presenteeism is when an employee comes into work sick to avoid taking a sick day. This phenomenon comes with risks. Staff might be at work but functioning at lower levels than usual, resulting in lower productivity. The sick employee could also transfer their illness to others in the workplace.
Your employees are less likely to get sick with fewer bacteria and pathogens in the office or building, reducing the overall absenteeism and presenteeism rate throughout your business. A clean work environment can improve the overall productivity of your team.
Reassures Employees
COVID-19 has changed the way everyone views hygiene in the workplace. A study shows that 66% of workers in the United States say that cleaning practices in the office are more significant to them now than pre-COVID-19. The same survey found that nearly two-thirds of employees state that regularly seeing cleaning professionals at their workplace will make them feel better about being in the office.
This is important as more and more people return to the office. Your staff needs to be assured that you are taking the correct preventive measures to keep everyone at your job safe. High touch point cleaning effectively demonstrates that you consider hygiene a top priority. Employees are more willing to work in an environment they know is routinely cleaned and disinfected.
Prevents Cross-Contamination
Cross-contamination is when microorganisms are transferred from one surface or substance to another. High touch points are prime for cross-contamination as many people handle them throughout the day. Disinfecting these surfaces daily can prevent cross-contamination, especially if you encourage your staff to sanitize their hands after touching doors, elevator buttons and other touch points.
Implement High Touch Point Cleaning With National Janitorial Solutions
It may seem daunting to practice high touch point cleaning on your own. Partnering with a professional janitorial service from National Janitorial Solutions can make it more manageable. We offer comprehensive cleaning services, including day-to-day janitorial management across all 50 states.
Our experienced team at NJS can create a customized approach to your unique cleaning needs. By partnering with the NJS team, you will have access to innovative technology that will transform your facility. Contact us today for custom cleaning
solutions for your site.