Is your office full of allergens? Allergies can cut down on productivity and attendance! If your employees have allergies, choose high quality Houston office cleaning services to help control allergens in your work environment.
How Do Houston Office Cleaning Services Help Employees with Allergies?
Why might you need to get more frequent Houston office cleaning services if you have employees with allergies? Cleaning helps remove allergens from your workplace. This can help reduce reactions and symptoms.
How Allergies Affect Your Employees
According to a study from Pfizer on allergies in the workplace, allergic rhinitis may be one of the most common allergies for employees. Allergic rhinitis is an inflammation of the nasal passages when you breathe in allergens. It can cause symptoms like runny nose, stuffy nose, and sneezing.
In the study, they surveyed 8,267 people across about 40 different workplaces. The results were that about half of the participants said they had symptoms.
So, allergies in the office are definitely a problem. If you’ve ever suffered from allergies yourself, you know how miserable it can be. Mild allergy symptoms can include things like the dreaded stuffy nose and headaches. However, serious allergic reactions can be life-threatening, which is why you may need extra Houston office cleaning services to reduce the risk of allergens in your workplace.
In addition, allergens in your office could have a major effect on your bottom line!
Productivity
Naturally, if you think of some of the most common symptoms of allergies, it’s not hard to see how an employee’s productivity might go down. From dealing with nasal congestion and headaches to coughing and itchy eyes, it can be hard to focus on work! Therefore, if you have a lot of allergens in your workplace, your employees’ productivity may suffer.
Here are some interesting findings from the Pfizer study we mentioned above:
- Those who had allergy symptoms reported suffering an average of 52.5 days of the year, but on average they only took 3.56 days off for their symptoms.
- On average, employees with allergies lost about 2.3 hours of productivity each day because of their symptoms, which shakes out to be about 113 hours each year per employee.
So, your employees may be not only suffering through the workday with allergy symptoms, but also may not be working as efficiently or effectively as they could be due to their allergies. Also known as presenteeism, even if your employees are in their chair, they might not be helping the bottom line as much as they would without their symptoms.
Reducing allergens with regular Houston janitorial services may help increase productivity and, by association, your bottom line.
Absenteeism
Now, we mentioned that the study found most of the employees surveyed only missed around three and a half days of work due to their allergy symptoms. However, that’s three and a half days for about half of the employees! For an average eight hour workday, that’s approximately 114,800 hours of lost work time for the year for those in the study.
Also, other studies have found that allergies are in the top three reasons people miss work. Absenteeism can have major financial impacts for your business. This isn’t just in payroll costs for paid sick leave, but there are indirect costs as well. For example, lower productivity, lower quality service due to understaffing, and more.
Reducing the risk of allergies in the workplace can help, in turn, reduce absenteeism. Cleaning services help get rid of things that can make your employees sick, such as allergens, bacteria, and viruses.
Common Types of Allergens in the Workplace
Minimizing common allergens in your workplace is a great place to start to help accommodate your employees that suffer from allergies. While a person can be allergic to virtually anything, there are several common ones you might find in your office. Luckily, regular Houston office cleaning services can help limit these allergens to promote healthy, happy, and productive employees.
Now, when you think of allergies, you might think of seasonal allergens like pollen. While these may well be present in your workplace, there are so many other allergens that can cause year-round symptoms. For example, some common office allergens include:
- Dust
- Dust mites
- Volatile organic compounds
- Mold
- Mildew
- Cockroaches
- Pet dander
Many of these common workplace allergens can be transferred from home. For instance, your pet-owning employees can give their dog or cat a cuddle before work and bring the pet fur and dander with them on their clothes. Dirt and dust get tracked in from outside, increasing the risk for allergies in the workplace.
So, since it’s almost impossible to stop allergens from entering your facility, you’ll need to take steps to remove them from your workplace. Janitorial services can help with this.
Houston Office Cleaning Services Schedule for Removing Allergens
Houston office cleaning services help trap and remove allergens from your work environment. However, the key is frequent, consistent cleaning to help reduce the risk of an allergy flare up for employees in your office. That’s why it’s important to have a schedule to help keep your workplace allergy-friendly.
Frequent dusting and vacuuming are important, as these help remove a lot of the particles from your office. For example, dusting surfaces and blinds with a microfiber cloth and vacuuming carpets, upholstery, and curtains can all help trap dust, dust mites, and other small particles that can wreak havoc on your employees’ allergies.
Daily trash removal can also help reduce the risk of pests like cockroaches and mice that can cause allergic reactions for your employees.
In addition, regular upholstery and carpet cleaning can help clean allergens out of textile fibers. While we generally recommend these services at least twice a year, if you have allergy sufferers in your workplace, you may need to schedule these Houston office cleaning services once a quarter to help control allergens.
Green Houston Office Cleaning Services for No Chemical Fumes
Another important thing to keep in mind is that even some cleaning products can cause allergies. For instance, many cleaning agents and air fresheners contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can lead to allergy-like symptoms. Also, many of the fumes from common cleaning chemicals have also been linked with similar symptoms.
For example, ammonia fumes increase the risk of asthma and rhinitis, bleach can lead to asthma-like symptoms such as chronic cough, and formaldehyde (commonly found in things like wood cleaner and dish soap) can cause skin rashes and lung irritation.
If you have employees that suffer from allergies or sensitivities to these chemicals, or if you have employees who have severe asthma, it may be time to switch to green Houston office cleaning services.
Green cleaning involves using products that are better for the environment and for human health, and use alternatives to many of these harsh chemicals. This can help reduce allergy symptoms caused by cleaning chemicals in the workplace.
Many Houston commercial cleaning companies may not offer green cleaning services, or they may mislabel their cleaning services as “green,” so it’s important to work with a crew you trust. We’re always available to talk about the products we’re using in your facility and help find alternatives if need be. We also provide green cleaning services with carefully selected cleaning solutions, equipment, and methods.
Quality Houston Janitorial Services from Our Team
Looking for cost-effective, high quality cleaning services? Choose our team at Accredited Building Services! When you work with us, we create a custom cleaning contract based on your facility and your goals. We’ve been helping businesses just like yours since 1980 keep work environments clean and sanitary. When you choose us for your Houston office cleaning services, you get a high quality clean every single time. We never subcontract our work and we provide our team with comprehensive training so you get peace of mind that your facility is in good hands. Call us now at (281) 578-2296 to learn more and get a quote for your building!
