When employees become ill and need to stay home from work, there are obviously major costs incurred by employers. Recent figures show that the loss of productivity due to sick days is approximately 54%. Furthermore, productivity linked to absenteeism costs United States’ employers $225.8 billion a year. This constitutes roughly $1,685 for every employee.

Many employees may not be aware that they’re sick. As a result, they are spreading germs throughout the work environment. Depending on a workplace’s sick leave policy, or due to an individual employee’s work ethic, they may still go to work when they’re sick.

Flu is a common workplace ailment. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), between 5%-to-20% of Americans contract the flu on an annual basis. The flu virus can be spread throughout the workplace by touching contaminated surfaces as well as through coming into contact with others that have the flu. The CDC estimates that 80% of infections, including the flu, are spread in this manner.

The Minnesota Department of Health reports that germs are transferred to humans in the following ways:

Touching someone else after touching ones nose, mouth, and/or eyes

Touching food

Touching food that has been touched and then touching other food

Infected children touching each other

Touching animals

While various work surfaces, such as desks, may appear clean, they tend to house roughly ten million bacteria. A computer mouse, keyboard, and desk chair can also have 21,000 germs per square inch.

Some workplaces continue the practice of having multiple employees use the same phone. These phones may have over 25,000 germs for every square inch.

In order to improve a workplace environment, it’s important to have it professionally cleaned on a regular basis. There are several benefits to hiring clean companies rather than allowing germs to build up and spread, thus potentially creating more employee absenteeism and loss of productivity.

Many businesses choose to employ green cleaning services to address this situation. Green cleaning services use non-toxic substances that are safer for the environment as well as the individuals that work there.

An outsourced cleaning service has experience with proper and thorough cleaning methods. When a professional cleaning service is used, it can make a major difference in the level of cleanliness in the workplace environment. While employees may do their best to clean up after themselves, unless they, too, are professional cleaners, chances are that there will still be germs and other residue left behind.