Are your employees as productive as they should be? If the answer is no, then you have a problem. Employees are one of the major resources for a business, and if they are not reaching their potential, the business can be in trouble. There are several reasons for reduced productivity (read more at https://smallbusiness.co.uk/does-a-clean-office-improve-productivity-2505666/), but one of the top ones is an unconducive environment, which can be caused by an unclean and untidy office. Below is a look at some of the top ways in which a messy office space can affect your employee’s productivity.
- Increased risk of sickness
Dirty and untidy offices lead to an increased risk of sickness occurs due to the build-up of bacteria and other disease-causing micro-organisms. For example, keyboards, floors, utensils, and toilets are some of the places that can become a breeding ground for bacteria and viruses. Therefore, when they are not cleaned regularly, your employees are at a high risk of getting sick, with the illnesses spreading very quickly.
Having a high number of employees who are out sick means that a good portion of your most important resource is unavailable. As a result, the productivity of your business is greatly affected, and can even come to a standstill. To avoid such a situation, you should ensure that your office is kept clean and tidy. If possible, you should hire a professional office cleaning company (like our current provider https://www.master-cleaners.co.uk/) to ensure the highest hygiene and cleanliness standards.
- Reduced employee focus
Distractions in the office tend to be very distracting, thus leading to greatly reduced productivity. And there is nothing more distracting in the office than having a dirty and disorganised workspace. A cluttered office means that there are several visual stimuli constantly bombarding the employees during the time they are in the office. And since the human brain can only hand so much at each given time, these little distractions lead to a decreased focus on the office tasks. On top of that, the distractions can become emotionally draining, leading to reduced productivity.
Another downside of having a cluttered office is that it leads to lost and/or misplaced documents and equipment. As a result, the employees spend a lot of time searching for these items, when they should, in fact, be focusing on office work. This leads to a massive amount lost time (https://www.cottrillresearch.com/various-survey-statistics-workers-spend-too-much-time-searching-for-information/), which could have been used executing the core tasks of the business.
- Reduced morale to stay in the office and work
The quality of the working environment has a huge effect on employee morale and satisfaction, which consequently affects productivity. Employees who work in dirty and messy office spaces can feel undervalued, thus leading to low morale. On top of that, a cluttered, messy office is like to lead to more work due to the additional tasks of searching for items and documents and cleaning up. And without a dedicated cleaning team, your employees will be left to handle these additional tasks, increasing their workload with no increase in rewards. This can significantly affect their morale, and lead to low productivity even in core business tasks.
A cluttered office is also a safety hazard, where several accidents are injuries are likely to occur. This, combined with the increased risk of office sickness, can greatly affect staff morale. In the worst-case scenario, your employees can even start searching for other jobs, thus causing your business to lose a valuable resource.
- A negative company culture
The cleanliness (or lack therefore) of a business’ working space can create a positive or negative brand image that will have a lasting impression on anyone who visits the office. However, this impression is not only limited to visitors and clients; your employees will also develop a lasting impression of the business’ image, which can greatly affect the productivity.
In an office that is constantly dirty and untidy, the employees will get the impression that the business/company does not care about its image. As a result, they will develop a similar company culture, where they don’t care much about the image they present. Therefore, you are likely to find yourself dealing with unkempt employees, something that will negatively affect their output.
On top of that, employees will not care much about the quality of their work due to the negative company culture. Missed deadlines, little or no attention to details, and execution of tasks in a dispassionate manner are likely to become the norm.
- A lazy, slow attitude
Ever tried clearing up clutter in your home or office? Unless you are a highly motivated person (or suffering from OCD) you will find that most of the times, there is little to no motivation to clean up. This is because clutter is naturally emotionally tiring, and leads to stress and less satisfaction in completing a task. As a result, you keep on procrastinating cleaning, as well as doing other tasks in the vicinity of the clutter.
Having a cluttered office is thus a dangerous move, as it can lead to a lazy attitude at work. Your employees will be less motivated to complete their tasks, and you will usually find them procrastinating important tasks from time to time. This can greatly affect productivity in the workplace, leading to huge losses.
Reclaim productivity in the office with professional cleaning services
A clean space leads to a clean mind. The above disadvantages of dirty, cluttered office are a clear example of how true that statement is. It is thus vital that you maintain the highest standards of cleanliness in the office to ensure that your employees are in an optimal state both physically and mentally. But how can you do that? Well, it is simple! By hiring professional cleaning services from well established cleaning service provider (like https://www.master-cleaners.co.uk/services/).
With a professional office cleaner, you are guaranteed clean offices at all times. And the best part is, you don’t have to direct valuable resources from your business towards the cleaning efforts. Instead, the cleaning company handles all the work, leaving you and your employees with enough time to handle the core business tasks.