Treat Hygiene as a Priority, Without Sacrificing Productivity

Sponsored Content provided by PLANT partner: Tork North America.

By Jill Henry, Industrial Segment Marketing Manager for Tork North America.

Hygiene has never been more important—it’s also never been more scrutinized. The pandemic has forced manufacturing facilities to heighten their focus on cleaning and hygiene protocols and has introduced new protocols for manufacturing employees.

While health and safety have always been top of mind in manufacturing facilities, hand and surface hygiene have become a required part of maintaining employee wellbeing. Since March, facility managers have been tasked with preparing environments to secure this new hygiene standard.

These are no longer short-term measures. As the pandemic continues, these increased protocols will have meaningful implications on your facility’s productivity. Here are a few considerations for how to best integrate hygiene as part of your employee safety approach, without sacrificing your productivity.

Selecting the Right Hygiene Solutions

Most manufacturing environments are now operating with increased cleaning procedures and encouraging frequent hand hygiene to ensure employee health and minimize disruptions. Selecting the appropriate solutions can play an important role in protecting your employees while maintaining productivity levels. Seek out products that require limited maintenance.  The newly expanded line of Tork PeakServe® Continuous™ Hand Towel dispensers leverage revolutionary continuous towel technology and compressed hand towels, delivering a constant supply of towels and reducing refill frequency. The extended line offers a range of solutions to accommodate the footprint of any high-traffic area. Tork PeakServe is an effective solution to enhance hygiene without affecting continuity.hygiene without affecting continuity.

Proper hygiene must also include thorough surface cleaning procedures to mitigate cross-contamination through high-touch surfaces. The task-based assortment of Tork wipers deliver a safe and efficient solution for your environment. Tork Wipers are delivered through a durable line of Tork Performance® dispensers that feature flexible mounting options, so manufacturers can place supplies where they are most needed. The Tork surface hygiene guide provides tips and product recommendations for proper surface cleaning.

Encouraging Proper Hygiene Among Employees

Nine months into the pandemic, some employees may be experiencing fatigue and as a result may forget or overlook important hygiene protocols, putting others at risk.  Facility managers can play a key role in keeping hygiene top of mind. Thoughtful dispenser placement can improve hand hygiene frequency among your employees. It’s about optimizing the placement of these dispensers—not just increasing the number of dispensers in your environment that study show has the best results. For a guide to optimizing dispenser placement, download the free Tork Dispenser Placement Guide.

Signage can also serve as a powerful reminder to reinforce proper hygiene practices and condition best practices among employees. Visual cues in workstations and high-traffic environments are a proven way to improve hygiene compliance. Tork Healthy Hands is a free online resource that allows you to create signage with customized messaging tailored for your environment.

Over the past year, manufacturers have had to expand and double down on employee health and safety. Introducing new hygiene standards and the appropriate solutions is now a critical component of protecting the wellbeing of those in your facility.

As we all continue to learn and improve our approach to securing this new hygiene standard, it’s important that we continue to share and learn from one another. The Tork Clean Care for Manufacturing is an online resource that offers deeper insights and resources for facilities looking to navigate the latest safety and hygiene considerations.