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Yes we know as employers we are responsible for the health and safety of their people at work – however there is one major danger to staff health that often gets overlooked in risk assessments – the often neglected workplace kitchen.

With the variety of activities involved in the kitchen and the different types of items and appliances needed, kitchens are naturally full of health and safety hazards anyway, leading NHS Direct to advise that ‘kitchen sinks often carry 100,000 times more bacteria than your toilet seat’.

However, workplace kitchens bring these dangers to a whole new level.

Considering the number of people that use a workplace kitchen and the fact that nobody cares for it near as much as they would their personal space, it is not rare to find a completely neglected workplace kitchen with stacks of unwashed crockery, a variety of long forgotten lunches in the fridge and half cleaned surfaces.

So how do you keep it tidy?  Other than employing someone to clean up after every which is very expensive we wish we had the answer.  Here are some suggestions

• Highlight to employees how quickly bacteria can spread when it is not clean.
• Provide clean clothes on a regular basis
• Introduce a rota per team or person
• Not just threaten but actually throw the food out at the end of the week

We know it is drastic but we have known someone put the dirty plates back on the employees’ desks or throw their cups away.

We know we have joked about some solutions but you need to create an environment where everyone respects each other and so this situation doesn’t occur.  This has to be part of your culture and one everyone has to work on.

If you need help with getting to know your culture then contact us on enquiries@HRBusCons.co.uk

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