Often, businesses realize the importance of clean, hygienic spaces for their guests, citing lasting impressions, customer experience, and consistent branding as priorities, but what about the restroom experience for your staff?

As staffing conversations often now include company culture, work-life balance, and team building, your teams’ impressions and experiences around cleanliness factor into their satisfaction, productivity, and retention. Research shows that 74 per cent of employees have avoided a workplace restroom because it was dirty, more than four in 10 have cleaned their own desk or workspace because they did not trust the cleaning crew, and nearly one in four said they have little or no trust that their workplace cleaning crew does a thorough job.

Keeping your employees happy and satisfied translates to better productivity and increased retention, but 46 per cent of workers say workplace cleanliness affects their ability to focus, and 69 per cent say workplace cleanliness would affect whether they stay at a job or leave one. Pay special attention to the areas where employees spend the most time: workspaces and common areas like lunchrooms, restrooms, or meeting spaces.

But paying attention to regular cleaning is not enough, you need to listen to your employees, too.  24 per cent of people have complained to a boss or HR about cleanliness, and for nearly half of them, nothing changed. If there is an area that’s not receiving the proper attention, rely on your teams – who frequent those areas – to let you know so you can address any issues.

You want your employees to know that you care about their health and wellbeing, and that means providing a clean and safe space for them to occupy. And what about prospective employees? Prospects who hear about negative experiences, read negative reviews from employees, or participate in on-boarding may very well be turned off by your company – and turnover is expensive.

Keeping your business clean can mean focusing on outward facing spaces, but your staff’s experience is just as important as the people who visit your business. Unclean conditions can affect employee satisfaction, health, productivity, and retention, so ensuring that all areas of your business are clean will help drive your business forward.