Wash Wisdom: 5 ways to keep workers healthy during cold and flu season

In this week’s edition of Wash Wisdom, we cover how to keep your workplace healthy during cold and flu season and ways to improve training.

How to manage cold and flu season at the workplace

With temperatures dropping, cold and flu season is rapidly approaching, and it’s important to keep workers healthy to stay productive and profitable. This is especially important for carwash employees, many of whom work outdoors.

According to the article “Mills: Cold and flu season tips for the workplace” by contributor Michele Mills on the Longview News-Journal’s website, “The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises the best way to prevent seasonal flu is to get the annual flu vaccine. However, [… the] Better Business Bureau recommends business owners take a few simple steps to prevent illnesses from spreading and foster a successful, healthy work environment.”

Here are the steps that, according to Mills, the Better Business Bureau recommends:

Have plenty of supplies on hand. Three basic must-haves for fighting germs include tissues, hand sanitizers and disinfectants/cleaners for workspace areas. In addition, consider buying no-touch trash cans.
Encourage good hygiene practices. Remind employees that washing their hands and covering their mouths when they sneeze and cough are critical to mitigating the spread of germs. Also urge them to clean common spaces and disinfect shared devices such as phones, computers, controls, etc., after using them. You can post these reminders around the workplace, but remember to write them in languages all employees can easily comprehend.
Bring prevention methods to work. As a matter of convenience in a culture where we’re busier than ever, find out if local hospitals or pharmacies will come to your office to administer on-site flu shots.
Make sure employees stay home when they’re sick. Ill employees may try to be dedicated workers and come in when they can barely stand, but tell them to go home. The reality is that when they come to work sick, they can spread germs to other workers and impact overall productivity. Let employees know they should stay home until 24 hours have passed since their fevers broke or severe symptoms ended.
Set an example. Now that you’ve instituted these policies, make sure to follow them yourself. As a boss, it may seem unthinkable to take a sick day, but keep your employees healthy by staying home.

You can read the full article here.

5 ways to make employee training better (for you and them)

According to the article “5 tips for better training” on Business Management Daily’s website, you can spend unnecessary time and money training employees if the training doesn’t mean anything to them. To make a meaningful training plan, the article provides these five tips:

Write a list. Figure out what you liked and hated about training; whatever you disliked, eliminate it from the next session. If you didn’t like something, your employees probably didn’t either.
Ask employees for their opinions. Ask employees what they want to learn or see in training sessions. Encourage them to give feedback about previous sessions so you can improve them. If they help in the development stage, they’ll be more open to learning in the training stage.
Don’t stick to the hypothetical. The best type of training is one that involves discussing real-life scenarios. Talk about the issues employees come across at work. They’ll have more impact than hypothetical examples.
Share successes and failures. In conjunction with those real-life experiences you’re already talking about, make sure everyone discusses the successes and failures he or she has had concerning them.
Hold a debriefing. According to the article, at the end of the session, you should ask such questions as, “How has your opinion or perception of this topic changed? What is one idea that you will put into practice starting today? How do you think this training will help you going forward?”

Read the article here.