9 Steps to Get Employees to Keep Office Clean

How to Get Employees to Keep Office Clean

1. Set expectations early

In many cases, an unclean office is the result of miscommunication. This means that workers are confused about the expectations that they are supposed to meet.

If a clean office is important to you, then emphasize its significance during the hiring process. Make sure cleanliness standards are clearly written inside training manuals. Be sure to use verbal communication as well.

If workers know exactly where you stand on the issue, then they will try their best to cooperate.

Explain the importance of a clean office and describe how workers can contribute to this goal. Also, talk about any penalties that workers may face if they do not live up to expectations.

2. Have cleaning supplies available

You can’t expect your employees to maintain a clean office if they don’t have anything to clean with. It’s time to stock up on supplies.

Get disinfectant wipes, paper towels, brooms, mops, and vacuum cleaners. Make sure everyone knows where these things are stored.

Tell employees to let you know when supplies are running low. You can then reorder.

Sometimes, shipping takes a while. So, you might want to get more supplies a week or two before your current inventory depletes.

3. Talk about the benefits

In general, if you want your employees to do something, then you should talk about the benefits of doing that thing. In this case, explain the benefits of keeping the office clean.

For example, a clean office has health benefits. It helps prevent the spread of disease and other ailments.

This is great because most people don’t want to get sick. It doesn’t feel good. Besides, sickness leads to missed work and possibly, missed paychecks.

In addition, cleanliness makes the office a more comfortable place to stay for long periods. You might as well think of the office as a second home since you spend so much time there. In fact, you might spend more time at the office than at your actual home.

Therefore, keeping the office clean just makes sense. It makes work more bearable and even enjoyable.

4. Think about the customers

Moreover, cleanliness will affect the way customers see the company and its workers.

What do you think goes through customers’ minds when they see a big mess?

Most likely, they will think the clutter represents a mediocre company that creates mediocre products.

They will think, “If they can’t even take care of themselves, then how do they expect to take care of me?”

Some customers will take their business elsewhere. This means fewer sales for the company. if the business downsizes or shuts down because of the decline in revenue, then workers will lose their jobs.

What a sticky situation, right?

This is why keeping the office clean is so important.

5. Use reminders

Many employees want to keep the office clean. They just forget because they are preoccupied with their (often tremendous) workload. Employees might even forget to eat lunch or drink enough water because they’re so busy.

You can send casual reminders to help your team stay on top of things.

You can manually make announcements throughout the week. You can also send automatic emails that pop up on everyone’s computer screen.

Sometimes, a friendly reminder is all it takes for employees to keep the office clean.

6. Put it on the calendar

Here’s another idea:

Make cleaning part of the daily or weekly routine at your company.

Schedule it.

For example, everyone can clean at the same time every day or on the same day every week.

You will take the guesswork out of cleaning if it’s on the calendar. Before, employees might clean whenever they feel like it. Now, there is a system in place. The process is standardized.

You don’t have to do much thinking if something is part of a streamlined system. You can just execute knowing that the task makes sense, and the system works.

7. Call out bad actors

Many people are considerate of others in an office setting. They clean up after themselves, make sure their voice is at a reasonable level, and in general, try their best to not hinder their colleagues’ productivity.

However, some workers are not aware of their environment. They become self-absorbed and struggle to notice the things around them. They might also intentionally disturb the peace because of some reason.

It’s time to call these people out.

First, speak to them one-on-one in a conference room. Casually remind them in passing if they forget this conversation.

Initially, let’s try not to embarrass bad actors by calling them out in front of everybody else. However, you can choose how you want to escalate the situation if you don’t see any improvements.

8. Delegate cleaning duties

Cleanliness shouldn’t be on people’s minds all the time. Currently, some of your workers might be very busy, while others might not be as busy.

In this situation, you can delegate cleaning duties to those workers with relatively open schedules. You can choose another group of workers the following week.

Delegating cleaning duties is a way for you to hold specific employees accountable and let them take ownership. This may be more effective at keeping the office clean than sending out mass reminders to everyone.

9. Hire cleaners

If all else fails, you can hire someone whose sole job is to keep the office clean. They don’t have to be a full-time employee. They can work part-time and come in a few hours each week.

You can also work with a cleaning company that will send in a crew to deep clean the office every month.

If you hire cleaners, then your current employees can think less about maintenance issues. They can focus more on their primary responsibilities instead.