The past year has seen unprecedented change for facilities across all sectors, from ever-evolving safety measures in workplaces and public spaces to higher expectations from your customers and employees when it comes to hygiene.
Now that hand hygiene has a permanent place in the spotlight, the challenge for facility operators is to meet the heightened expectations of their users. If you’re facing this challenge, you’re not alone: our recent Europe-wide ‘Changing Workplaces’ research showed that the number of businesses seeing user expectations as a future challenge for their cleaning and hygiene has doubled compared with before the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a leading international manufacturer of hand hygiene, cleaning, waste and recycling solutions, at Rubbermaid Commercial Products (RCP), we help our partners take control and succeed in an environment where standards and expectations are higher than ever before. Read on for our top tips to get your facility future-fit and meet the new standard.
Be visible to show you care
The days of hand hygiene solutions being discretely confined to the washroom are over. In fact, the more people see it, the more trust you’ll build with your facility users, employees and customers and the more confidence you’ll give them while in your facility. Over 90% of Changing Workplaces respondents said they believe visibility of cleaning and hygiene measures influences how their customers perceive their brand, so ensure your hand hygiene provision is visible to give your users a clear sign that your brand takes take health and safety seriously.
No touch, no compromise
Your facility users are more educated on hand hygiene than ever before. They know sub-standard solutions when they see them, so effective, high-performing solutions are a must. While solutions that kill 99.99% of germs will give confidence in protection, your choice of dispenser also matters. A recent consumer survey* showed that 92% of people prefer touch-free hand hygiene dispensers. No-touch delivery reduces the risk of contact with bacteria, making people feel safer when visiting your premises – it’s therefore not surprising that Changing Workplaces respondents showed a 59% increase in the number of businesses planning to choose touch-free solutions in the future, compared with pre-pandemic.
Choose performance day in, day out
More frequent use of hand hygiene products may be good for building confidence in your facility, but it can also add to your costs, so choosing products that can withstand frequent use over a long period of time is essential.
At the start of the pandemic we witnessed businesses scrambling for whatever products they could get their hands on. Now the dust has settled, reliability and durability must be the key drivers when choosing future solutions. If you want performance day in day out, even in the toughest environments, you need to choose products that will stand the test of time.
Get serious about sustainability
Our research shows that 74% of businesses are concerned of the impact of the pandemic on their company’s sustainability credentials and with this topic high on the public agenda, people want to see evidence that organisations are taking it seriously.
As well as choosing durable products that last longer and reduce waste, removing the need for batteries in your hand hygiene dispensers will lower your costs as well as being good for the environment. For RCP, innovation in this area is critical to providing future-proof solutions. It’s why we looked closer at renewable energy when designing our battery-free LumeCel™ dispenser, which is powered by the light in your facility, eliminating the need to manufacture, use and dispose of alkaline batteries, a clear demonstration that you take sustainability seriously.
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