Keeping the office clean should be a priority for any workplace because of the many effects that it has on employees.

If you have a cluttered and messy workplace it can be much more difficult to focus then usual. Aside from that clutter can be hazardous and can cause workplace-related accidents.

Also, if the office isn’t kept clean, it can foster germs and bacteria that can make people in the office sick more often. Therefore, it is important for any workplace to keep the office as clean as possible on a regular basis.

However, it can be difficult to maintain cleanliness in the office if your employees don’t know how to maintain their own workspace, to begin with. Thus, it would be in the organization’s best interest if employees are taught about the different ways they can keep the office clean.

Here are nine different ways that you can motivate employees to maintain cleanliness in the office:

1. Hire a professional cleaning service

According to Maid Sailors NYC Office Cleaning, hiring a professional cleaning service is ideal if you would like to thoroughly clean the entire office. Meanwhile, you should encourage your employees to clean their space, whether or not it is on their job description.

Hiring a professional cleaning service ensures that all the nooks and crannies in your office will be cleaned. At the same time, professional cleaning service providers can clean up your office in a more efficient and effective manner.

Due to the fact that you are hiring professional office cleaners, your employees should be more conscious of the work that your service providers did in the office. Once they do, they will be more aware of the actions that they need to take to maintain it.

2. Put up friendly signs

Keeping gentle reminders all over the office is always a nice touch to remind your employees to keep the workplace as clean as possible.

These friendly signs worded in a casual and approachable manner can help your employees be more conscious of their cleaning habits while they are in the workplace.

Make sure that you put up these signs in particular places, like inside the bathrooms or where you store office equipment. You should also make sure that you have signs inside the office kitchen or pantry about the appropriate manners when it comes to cleanliness in the kitchen.

For example, you should remind them to throw out any expired food items in the refrigerator regardless of whether or not they were the ones who put the food item in the refrigerator.

3. Use peer pressure

The best way to ensure that your employees keep up the cleanliness in your office is by making it a group activity of sorts.

To do this, you can organize a big meeting regarding office cleanliness. You can then ask everyone to pitch ideas about how to maintain the cleanliness in the office.

Once everyone has pitched their ideas, they can then choose which cleanliness practices they want to apply to the office. This idea will pressure them to apply these practices since they were the ones who recommended it in the first place.

It’s a more positive way to apply peer pressure in the office.

4. Offer rewards and incentives

Since it’s really not in the job description of your employees to clean the office, you can consider incentivizing them to keep it clean at the very least.

You can set up a reward system for the cleanest department in the office. You can also set up a clean streak chart that shows how long a place has kept clean.

Offering rewards and incentives are always a good idea to motivate your employees to be productive, so why not use it to encourage them to clean their workspace?

Of course, you have to make sure that the reward matches the work that they put into it. You don’t have to go too crazy with the rewards since it’s just for keeping the office clean.

5. Assign a resident organizer

For each of the departments in your office, it could be a good idea to assign somebody who is responsible for making sure that everyone is doing their part in keeping the office clean.

Assigning a resident organizer will help everyone have a better sense of responsibility for the cleanliness of their workspace.

Whoever you assign to be the resident organizer will be responsible for the organization of work items in their particular team. If there are any issues of cleanliness, people can bring it up to these organizers.

It is best if the resident organizer is changed every week or so. That way everyone can feel responsible over the cleanliness issue in the office.

6. Set up a cleaning schedule

Setting up a cleaning schedule in the office ensures that everyone knows when they are going to be responsible for the cleanliness of a certain area.

A cleaning schedule helps add a routine and a guideline for people to follow when it comes to maintaining cleanliness in the office.

7. Discuss the importance of a clean workplace

Letting your employees know why they need to keep the office clean in the first place can help motivate them to maintain it.

Knowing that the cleanliness of the office is for them to be productive, this will help make them more conscious of their actions.

8. Make it part of job performance

If there are people who are quite stubborn about how clean or unclean they are in the office, then you can make it reflect under job performance instead.

It can fall under a similar vein as working or showing up to work on time. It might not have a direct connection, but cleanliness has a correlation with their productivity and work performance.

9. Appreciate them

If you notice that your employees are becoming tidier and are keeping up the cleanliness really well, then you should express your appreciation.

Acknowledging a job well done isn’t something to be stingy about. Therefore you should recognize when your employees are doing just what you asked them to do.

Conclusion

Motivating your employees to keep the office clean is not as hard of a challenge as you might think it would be.

As you can see in this article, you will find all the ways with which you can motivate employees to keep the workplace clean.

At the end of the day, it is going to be for their benefit anyway. So you should make sure that you remind them of that fact. That way, they can maintain the cleanliness of the office as much as possible.