Can You Improve Your Workplace Bathrooms?
You may have considered all sorts of things when it comes to office design and layout. Perhaps you’ve tried different desk configurations and layouts (open plan offices? cubicles? hot desking?). However, a critical area of any workplace may not have really entered your mind as an area that could do with a revamp or a makeover: the bathroom and washroom areas.
When you think about it, ignoring the bathroom areas and their design is a bit silly. After all, all humans need to go to the loo several times during the workday, especially if they’re staying properly hydrated to remain alert and thinking clearly. Moreover, everybody needs to wash their hands, not only after using the loo but also before eating. You’ve probably put a poster or two up in the canteen or morning tea areas to this effect to improve health and safety and reduce time off work on sick leave. So if the bathrooms are poorly designed or a bit on the shabby side, then this will affect morale and your team members’ attitude towards your organisation.
The importance of good bathroom design doubles if you have customers and clients that also use the lavatory. If your toilets are open for customers to use, which is often the case in retail outlets, especially food and drink establishments, a bad bathroom will put people off. Conversely, a good toilet can be a fundamental feature of the place. I can think of at least four or five places that I’ve come across where the design and décor of the toilet facilities were a feature – and they’ve got extra business from me precisely because I’ve ducked in there to use their super-clean toilets and decided to linger in the retail area a bit longer. I’m probably not the only one!
But how do you go about improving your workplace bathroom facilities? Will it involve complete remodelling? What about showers in the workplace? How does one make an office bathroom more hygienic? The whole issue is big, so hopefully, these tips will help.
To Shower Or Not To Shower?
Providing a workplace shower is only compulsory if the nature of your business involves dirty work and your team members really need to get clean before heading home on the bus. In other words, showers aren’t compulsory for an accounting firm, but they probably will be for a butcher’s shop where the workers have to handle bloody carcasses.
However, providing a shower can be a real perk for your workers and be a different reason why they like working for you (which means you’ll have less staff turnover in the long run). What’s more, if people feel like they can go out and hit the gym or go for a run during their lunch break but still be able to shower off the sweat afterwards, they are likely to be more productive, as there’s nothing like getting the blood flowing to increase levels of productivity and focus. Fit employees who have the chance to work out are also more likely to be healthy employees.
If you put showers in, you will need separate facilities for guys and girls and ensure the doors are lockable so people can change in private without rude interruptions. They also have to be well ventilated and cleaned regularly.
Easy Office Bathroom Tweaks
Sometimes, improving your office bathroom facilities might not be as extreme as installing new showers or a complete makeover. Some other easy ideas won’t break your budget. Here’s a selection:
Fluorescent Lighting
Get rid of the fluorescent lighting and go for something softer. There’s something about fluorescent lights that makes everybody look horrible in the mirror. Suppose your team members see themselves looking washed out and ghostly every time they see themselves in the mirror while washing their hands. In that case, it’s not going to lift their mood or feelings of confidence, which is likely to translate to how they perform and interact once they get out of the bathroom. Softer lighting, however, is kinder – you never know; if your sales rep knows that they look good before heading out, they will have that extra bit of confidence that makes all the difference!
Go for Natural Scents
Yes, we know that toilets can smell horrible because of what goes on there. However, those artificial air freshener sprays smell pretty awful. They also give some people headaches. As for their environmental impact… well, they’re pretty bad news. The good news is that better ventilation does a great job removing pongs, and natural scents also do a good cover-up. Reed diffusers tend to be a lot nicer smelling and easier on the environment – and they don’t need to be replaced quite often, so that makes things easier for the janitor.
Rethink Your Soaps
There’s nothing worse than a clunky soap dispenser that produces something that smells, looks and feels like dishwashing liquid. Look for more moisturising products that are kinder to the skin or even go the more environmentally friendly by using bar soap in a cute dish (it’s not that hard to clean up, honestly). If liquid soap suits the way you do things best, it can be a nice touch to have hand lotion provided as well, as some people’s skin reacts to the chemicals in liquid soaps (that’s why janitors and office cleaners wear rubber gloves to do their job).
Provide a Seat Spray
You know that outlet I said I popped into (and shopped at) just because it had great clean toilets? This is its little secret that makes the difference. It probably makes a big difference to your customers and your workers, especially if they’re the sort who gets nervous about hygiene. Moreover, having a seat spray so that people can clean the loo seat before and after doing what they need to will make your office toilets more hygienic and will be good for reducing rates of work-related sickness.
Do Your Maintenance
Wonky toilet seats, dripping taps, peeling paint, malfunctioning hand driers and broken tiles all lend seedy air to any bathroom and make it harder to clean. Your janitor will probably inform you about this issue, or at least they should, so be prompt about repairing anything that needs it, even if the bathroom is still workable with the dripping tap or whatever it is.
Make it Fun
Injecting a bit of humour always lightens things up for your team members (which has knock-on effects of better mood and morale, etc.), and it’s easy to do in the bathrooms; we all know our essential bodily functions have their funny side. Humour also goes down well with clients and customers who use the loos. This can be as simple as something quirkier than your classic silhouettes for male, female and disabled toilet labels. The same goes for those posters reminding users about bathroom etiquette or the importance of washing hands properly. If they’re funny or at least light-hearted, they’re more likely to comply with rather than complain about. They’re cheap enough, so why not? Other ways to make your office bathrooms a bit more fun or quirky can include interesting posters with infographics or jokes. Anything that lifts the décor from sterile and boring will be an improvement. Make sure that any posters that you add to the bathroom are laminated or otherwise easy to clean – your janitor will thank you.