Flu Season Prep: Getting Your Workplace Ready

You can't flu-proof an office, a store or a school. But you can make the right habits easier than the wrong ones. When soap is always stocked, sanitizer is where people need it and sick employees feel free to stay home, fewer germs get passed around.

Everything below follows guidance from the CDC. Most of it takes an afternoon to set up.

How flu spreads at work

According to the CDC, flu viruses spread mainly through droplets when people who have flu cough, sneeze or talk. Less often, someone picks it up by touching a surface with flu virus on it and then touching their mouth, nose or eyes. People are most contagious in the first three days of their illness.

That's why a good plan covers three things at once: clean hands, clean high-touch surfaces, and keeping sick people from spreading it in the first place.

1. Make handwashing easy everywhere

The CDC calls handwashing with soap and water the best way to get rid of germs in most situations. Its workplace guidance is simple: provide soap, water and a way to dry hands at every sink. That covers restrooms, break rooms and kitchenettes.

• Check every dispenser before flu season starts. A broken soap pump or jammed towel dispenser is an open invitation to skip washing.
• Keep supplies ahead of demand. If your handwashing push works, you'll go through soap and paper towels faster. Plan for it.
• Put up reminders. The CDC suggests signs or posters in bathrooms and kitchen areas to remind employees to wash their hands.
• Either towels or dryers are fine. The CDC says there isn't enough evidence to say which is better. What matters is drying hands completely.

The CDC's own method: wet, lather (backs of hands, between fingers, under nails), scrub for at least 20 seconds, rinse, dry. Humming "Happy Birthday" twice gets you to 20 seconds.

2. Put hand sanitizer where there's no sink

Sanitizer doesn't replace handwashing, but it fills the gaps. The CDC recommends placing hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol near frequently touched surfaces and where soap and water aren't easy to reach, such as:

• Building entrances and exits
• Near elevators
• Beside shared equipment, like copiers, time clocks and shared workstations

Reception desks and conference rooms are good spots too.

One caveat from the CDC: sanitizer may not work as well when hands are visibly dirty or greasy. In a kitchen, shop or warehouse, a nearby sink still matters.

3. Stock tissues and no-touch trash cans

Covering coughs and sneezes only helps if there's somewhere to put the tissue. The CDC recommends making sure your workplace has an adequate supply of tissues, soap, paper towels, alcohol-based hand rubs and disposable wipes. It also suggests no-touch or foot-pedal trash cans.

Put tissue boxes where people actually sit: desks, conference rooms, the reception counter and the break room, with a trash can close by.

4. Clean the surfaces everyone touches

The CDC's facility cleaning guidance is reassuringly practical. Cleaning with a soap- or detergent-based cleaner removes most germs from surfaces, and in most situations regular cleaning is enough. When you do disinfect, clean first, because dirt makes disinfectants less effective.

Focus on high-touch surfaces:

• Doorknobs, push plates and handrails
• Keyboards, phones and shared devices
• Countertops and break-room tables
• Restroom fixtures: faucet handles, flush handles, stall locks and dispenser levers

Keep disposable wipes where people can clean their own shared equipment between uses.

5. Make it easy to stay home when sick

This step doesn't involve a single product. The CDC advises staying home from work when you're sick. You can go back once, for at least 24 hours, your symptoms are getting better overall and you haven't had a fever without using fever-reducing medication. Not everyone with flu gets a fever: the CDC says people with suspected or confirmed flu who don't have one should stay home from work at least 5 days after symptoms start. After going back, the CDC suggests added precautions for the next 5 days, such as extra hand hygiene, cleaner air or a mask around others. And if someone starts feeling sick at work, the CDC says to go home as soon as possible.

If your policies or culture push people to come in sick, no amount of sanitizer will make up for it. Say it plainly before the season starts: if you're sick, stay home.

6. Encourage flu shots early

The CDC calls a yearly flu vaccine the single best way to reduce the risk of flu and its serious complications, and recommends one every season for everyone 6 months and older, with rare exceptions. For most people, September and October are good times to get vaccinated, ideally by the end of October. It takes about two weeks for protection to build. Sharing where employees can get vaccinated, or hosting a clinic, makes it easy.

Your flu-season checklist

1. Every sink has soap, water and a way to dry hands, and every dispenser works
2. Handwashing reminders are posted in restrooms and break areas
3. Sanitizer (at least 60% alcohol) is at entrances, elevators and shared equipment
4. Tissues and no-touch trash cans are where people sit
5. High-touch surfaces are on a regular cleaning schedule, with wipes available
6. Your sick-day policy is clear, and people know to stay home
7. Employees know where to get a flu shot
8. Your supply deliveries are set to keep pace with higher use

How Loyal helps

Most of this checklist comes down to supplies being there when people need them. Loyal delivers hand soap, paper towels, tissue and facial tissue and facility supplies on a fixed route schedule, and adjusts quantities as your usage changes through the season. We install dispensers free and fix them at no charge, so a broken pump never becomes a reason to skip washing.

If you want your restrooms and break rooms ready before the season peaks, now is the time to call.

Related reading: The True Cost of Running Out of Restroom Supplies

This article summarizes public CDC guidance for general information. It isn't medical advice. For health questions, talk to a healthcare provider or your local health department.

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