Use Disinfectants Wisely

The Great Clean Up by zepfanman.com via flickr.com

An extended winter season means concerns about spreading cold and flu in your buildings are higher than ever. This excerpt below is from an article on cleanlink.com about using disinfectants wisely, and with less risk. 

Cold winter weather, now gripping most of North America, usually means cold and flu season is here and likely sticking around for a few months.

Many cleaning professionals may be asked to use disinfectants this time of year more frequently than at other times. While disinfectants can be helpful because of their ability to kill germs and bacteria, they also can pose a risk to cleaning workers, building users, and the environment.

Charlotte Products/Enviro-Solutions, a manufacturer of traditional and green cleaning products, has offered the following tips on how to use disinfectants wisely:

-- Use only disinfectants that have been registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the EPA registration will be clearly printed on the label.

To read the full article, visit cleanlink.com

Caring More Deeply About Safety

Safety Sign by David Person via flickr.com

"How can we get workers to care about safety?" might not be the right question to ask to improve organization safety, says Terry Mathis in an article on EHSToday.com. 

Leaders of organizations constantly are reminded that safety must start at the top. They also have learned that it can't stop there – it must permeate all levels of the organization.

More and more leaders want to know how to do that – how to turn a workforce on to its safety potential. As one executive put it: "What is the key to getting workers to care more deeply about safety?"

This question illustrates the root of the problem: We're asking the wrong question! Why have we assumed that workers don't care enough about safety, and that making them care more is the solution? Of course workers care about safety. They are the ones who get injured when it doesn't work. Their families are the ones who have to learn to live on reduced pay and juggle medical bills while nursing a breadwinner back to health.

Read the full article on EHSToday.com. 

Safety Maturity: Three Crucial Elements of Best-in-Class Safety

Three by Hub via flickr.com

When safety is seen as a pointless expense, instead of how business is done, it can create unnecessary downtime and threats to worker safety. What does it look like when a company excels at both safety and business? Read an excerpt from EHSToday.com on this topic below. 

The human cost of occupational accidents is vast. Worker safety is a fundamental human need and requirement in industrial settings. It protects workers, prevents unnecessary downtime and satisfies standards compliance.

However, plant-floor safety long was viewed as a costly obligation that added little value to operations. Today, best-in-class manufacturers realize that combining employee behavior, procedures and technology enables them to go far beyond simple compliance to deliver improved productivity and dramatically lower injury rates.

Every manufacturer's approach to safety is unique and dependent on factors ranging from vertical market, company size and operations, potential hazards and regional safety standards. Looking beyond the makeup of a company's safety programs and examining the larger trends of the best performers can provide valuable insights into what can be accomplished when safety is implemented holistically, with consideration to a manufacturer's larger operations.

Read the full article on EHSToday.com. 

Good facilities and IT boost employee happiness and productivity

Photo by Ryk Neethling via flickr.com

When it comes to worker morale, the place where they work might matter more than just more money or other factors, according to a survey of office workers in the UK. Read the full story on at FMJ.co.uk. See an excerpt below. 

New research has found that temperature, lighting, noise and quality of IT facilities can affect the happiness and productivity of office workers.

The research* from a UK-based engineering, IT and facilities services firm sought to identify which factors most affect well-being and productivity in the workplace. It found that more than half (59%) of respondents felt that noise, lighting and temperature are key for their happiness in the workplace. In comparison, about a third (31%) believed that the right hardware, software and networking drove satisfaction in the office.

When it comes to productivity, however, over half (53%) of respondents believed having a good IT set-up is crucial, compared to over a third (35%) who thought that having the right bricks and mortar provisions is most important.

Read the full article on Facilities Maintenance Journal.