1. Cleaning frequency
One of the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic is that people have come to understand how often facilities need to be cleaned to put up a fight against the spread of viruses. Previously, it might have been enough to conduct a single daily cleaning of a space and mark it as done on a janitorial inspection checklist. We all hope to get back to that standard one day, but in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, once a day won’t cut it.
Inspections need to track the cleaning frequency of spaces throughout the day. This can be challenging since you likely won’t have cleaning staff on-site all day, and therefore it’s hard to know for sure what’s being cleaned and when. You may have to work closely with school officials and staff to develop a plan that allows for multiple daily cleanings of things like desks and chairs, lunchroom tables, gym equipment, and other high-touch surfaces where a virus can linger and find new hosts. Holding school staff accountable probably won’t fall within the realm of your business’ responsibility. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have a check box for inspection reports that can reasonably assert that rooms get cleaned throughout the day instead of the single cleaning each night that your company likely performs.
2. Separate use of cleaners and disinfectants
You may not have differentiated before between cleaning and disinfecting, but that distinction has become critical with COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other regulatory agencies are very clear about how the two practices work hand-in-hand: Clean surfaces first, then disinfect. In fact, they suggest that disinfecting a surface without cleaning it first won’t work as well, if it works at all. To help ensure your staff takes these additional steps, separate the tasks to be evaluated individually on a janitorial inspection checklist.
3. Note contact time
Another quick tip regarding disinfecting: Each disinfectant has a designated “contact time” from the manufacturer, which indicates how long the chemical needs to be in contact with the surface to effectively disinfect. This is another thing worth noting during inspections. If a surface isn’t first cleaned, and then an approved disinfectant applied for the duration of the contact time mentioned on the label, you can’t be confident that a surface is safe.
4. Required postings
Who is ultimately responsible for required postings may vary significantly from state to state—and in some cases, may not be required at all—but if you’re in a state like New York that will mandate things like "Stop the Spread Signage", make sure you discuss with the school whether they’ll be responsible for that or if they’ll expect it to come from you. If it’s your responsibility, include it on a janitorial inspection checklist for education buildings.
5. Washing stations, soap, and hand sanitizer
Your cleaning staff has probably been refilling soap dispensers and generally keeping up hand-washing stations as part of their routine, but these tasks should now be on an inspection checklist if they weren’t before. Not only should all hand-washing stations be routinely cleaned multiple times a day, but your staff will need to make sure that more than enough soap is provided as well as hand sanitizers, the latter of which may not have been part of your previous responsibilities.
Hand-washing stations should also have appropriate signage for how to effectively wash hands and reduce the risk of spreading germs. With hand-washing being one of our most effective defenses against COVID-19, we suggest including it as part of a janitorial inspection checklist.
6. Cleaning and replacing equipment
At the conclusion of a job, clean and disinfect all your cleaning equipment, and, if applicable, discard it. Except for single-use disposable equipment like protective gloves, clean and disinfect even things you expect to eventually throw out to help reduce cross-contamination.
This may be one of the more significant adjustments for your cleaning teams, so we highly suggest including on your inspection checklist.
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