Although perhaps appearing clean on the surface, the average office is teeming with bacteria. Office furniture supplier DBI Furniture Solutions looks under the microscope to discover what germs lurk within our beloved offices and the scary effect they can have on our bodies.

They argue that if kitchens have to show their hygiene rating, why not our offices? Especially in a post-Covid world. 

With this in mind, could ‘office hygiene ratings’ be the route to a safer working environment? Food Hygiene Ratings evaluate restaurants focusing on three key areas.

• How hygienically the food is handled – how it is prepared, cooked, re-heated, cooled and stored.
• The physical condition of the business – including cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation, pest control and other facilities.
• How the business manages ways of keeping food safe – looking at processes, training and systems to ensure good hygiene is maintained. 

The establishment will then receive an overall rating of five to indicate cleanliness. 

How would the office hygiene ratings work?

Based on the Food Hygiene Rating model, the overall hygiene rating awarded to an office could be determined by similar key areas: 

• Office equipment – Is office furniture clean, upgraded regularly, and how frequently is it maintained?
• Office design/layout – How much space is available per person? Are desks shared or individual?
• Kitchen hygiene – Does the office have a kitchen? Is it shared? How is it maintained and cleaned?
• Toilets – Does the office have toilets? Are they shared? How frequently are they cleaned?
• Promoting employee hygiene – Is there a sanitisation offering? Has staff safety training been provided? 

So, could office hygiene ratings be the future? It would certainly make for a much safer, healthier environment, and DBI Furniture Solutions encourages business owners to start making their offices as hygienic as they can now.

This could mean providing staff with relevant health and safety training to warn them about the risks that bacteria build-up can cause, making it a rule to sanitise before and after entering the workplace.

Regular checks should also be carried out to keep high-risk areas as clean as possible. Business owners should consider how their office layout will affect safety when embarking on an office redesign.