Having a clean office is an important part of a productive workplace.
This involves keeping desks tidy, dishes and kitchens sparkling, gleaming conference rooms, clean floors, empty wastebaskets, and even disinfected phones.
It is easy to forget phones despite the fact that they are a widely used tool in the workplace.
Most companies still use the standard, cord telephone in most cubicles, however some have opted for wireless headsets. In either case, hands are needed to make calls, place callers on hold, transfer calls, and much more.
And do you know what else hands are for? That’s right, spreading germs.
The obvious answer as to why it is so important to clean office telephones will come in a minute, but first, let’s look at some other reasons your office should have clean phones.
Frequently Used
Office telephones are used on a daily basis, multiple times a day. Some people such as receptionists seem to never put down their phone.
This is the same for salesmen, customer service centers, and many other professions. Sure email has eliminated a lot of the rudimentary day-to-day communication away, but for the most part, offices still need a phone line in order to do business.
When an office tool is used this frequently, you are going to want to keep it clean. If you hire a cleaning company to service the rest of your office, you can probably work out a deal with them to also clean your office phones on a scheduled basis.
Motivation
Having a clean office telephone can actually help to improve employee motivation. This is very similar to clean workplace in general.
Walking into a filthy office and having to work in their for a full day could drive a person crazy.
Having a clean and organized office promotes productivity because no one needs to rummage through the clutter.
The same principle holds true for a clean office telephone. Crumbs, caked on grease and smudges, and sticky buttons will drive any high volume phone user crazy.
It is just not inviting to pick up a phone that you feel disgusted to touch.
A shining, glistening phone on the other hand has a much more inviting aura about it.
Your receptionist will want to answer the incoming calls and your salespeople will have a much less disgusted feeling when making their sales calls.
Health and Sanitation
We have reached the obvious answer as to why it is so important to have a clean office telephone. The health of your employees should be of paramount importance to you.
In general you should want your employees to be healthy. No one enjoys hearing or seeing a person who is miserable with a cold or flu.
However, you should also want them healthy because it will be less of a burden on your business. If your employees are ill, they are not working, or at least working productively, for your company.
Your company likely provides some amount of paid sick days. For every day they are out sick, your company spends payroll on a non-working employee.
It may sound harsh from an employee perspective, but as a business owner the bottom line is that it essentially is costing you twice as much.
Germs are spread through touching, coughing, sneezing and more. All of those transference opportunities are directly in contact with an office telephone. The employee needs to touch the phone in order to answer or pick up the receiver.
They also need to place their mouth relatively close to the speaking end in order communicate. But you know how a phone works.
Without sanitizing and cleaning your office phones, these germs are left to sit on the phone and spread around the desk.
If you manage a call center, multiple people may be using the same phone with a twenty-four hour period.
Not sanitizing your phone is a great way to be working at less than full capacity.
Company Appearance
Finally, it is important to have your office telephones cleaned because your company’s appearance matters.
Potential clients will have a hard time taking you seriously if your office is an absolute wreck.
It isn’t the most inspiring atmosphere to walk into if there are piles of papers, cubicles filled with leftover equipment, overflowing trash cans, or greasy, smudgy phones.
This filthy appearance may give off the impression that your company is disorganized, unprofessional, and doesn’t take pride in its own work.
Cleanliness is vital. Office, home and personal appearance. Your level of cleanliness will reflect on what kind of person you are. Thus, cleanliness is so important to have a clean office, not just telephones.
Here in this article, it’s clear why telephones should be sanitized/cleaned on a daily basis due to the numbers of people that use it and the usage frequency.
This will result a healthier working environment, I must say!
When I worked in an office, the first thing I did when I started the job was to take an alcohol swab and cleaning the phone completely. You can image the dirt and grim there was. I also cleaned my computer and keyboard, yuck!