Clean desk policy: creating an enjoyable, healthy & secure shared workplace

A clean desk policy (CDP) includes procedures for securing confidential documents, removing cookie crumbs, throwing away tissues, and wiping the table before leaving. Sharing a desk is like sharing a flat. As soon as everyone respects each other and follows the common rules, it has many benefits. 

Are you among the many organizations that have embraced desk sharing and hot desking over the last few years? How do you handle hygiene and tidiness when multiple employees share the same workspace? Implementing a workplace cleanliness policy is a top priority to keep a positive, healthy, and secure work environment. 

As experts in the hybrid workplace experience, we have the following valuable recommendations for ensuring office cleanliness rules are followed in your shared work environment. 

Definition of a clean desk policy

As its name states, the goal of a clean desk policy is to ensure your office environment remains clean. It acts as a beacon for your employees by clarifying the company’s expectations regarding cleanliness and tidiness. These clear rules help maintain hygiene and order on your team members’ desks and add an extra layer of protection for confidential data.

While traditional office setups already highly encourage keeping desks clean, it has become a must for hot desk offices. Leaving a workspace messy and dirty is no longer an option, as somebody else will sit on this chair in the next hours or days.

💜 Start a free trial of the deskbird to level up your hybrid workplace experience!

Why implementing office cleanliness rules is crucial in a shared work environment

Let’s explore this topic further and explain why being clear and strict about desk cleanliness is even more important in a shared workplace than in a traditional office setup.

Sharing workspaces requires being respectful and mindful

Let’s take the example of sharing a flat again. If people disrespect each other, leave dirty dishes in the kitchen sink, and leave hair in the shower, this system does not work. It creates a bad atmosphere, flatmates don’t feel good at home, and conflicts arise among them. It is the same when implementing flexible work arrangements and a hot desking model in your office. A clean desk policy allows you to set rules that are equal for everyone. Non-compliance procedures guarantee the absence of biased behaviors. Employees respect each other and are mindful of leaving the desk spotless for the person who will use it after them.

Leaving desks clean and tidy enhances productivity and creativity

It has been proven that working in a clean and tidy environment increases productivity and creativity.¹ But this is even more important when you share a desk with other people. Who wants to arrive at work and sit at a desk full of colleagues’ belongings or, worse, with empty cups and coffee stains? Experiencing this kind of situation undoubtedly impacts employees’ moods and ability to focus on their tasks effectively. While working from home boosts productivity, applying rules such as keeping the workplace clean and tidy is essential to enhance productivity on-site.

🤩 Learn how to check in to productivity by redesigning your workplace as a hotel!

Keeping workspaces clean keeps microbes away and people healthy

Sharing desks makes it easier for microbes to spread. But, of course, you don’t want your staff to contaminate each other when sick. Ideally, your team members should be on sick notes or work from home when feeling unwell. However, it can happen that they leave their place in the morning feeling perfectly fit and start getting ill throughout the day. For this reason, implementing hygiene rules for your hot desks is crucial to maintaining a healthy work environment and keeping viruses away. So, start making desk cleaning a habit for everyone!

Setting up clear/clean desk policies guarantees higher levels of cybersecurity

Keeping your shared desks clean does not only refer to hygiene. It also means clearing up shared workspaces from all resources and documents to avoid exposing confidential information. This is why it is also called a “clear desk policy.” Employees who share different desks must double their efforts to leave their working stations spotless. From a security point of view, it includes not throwing papers with sensitive material in the trash bins and logging out from the desktop session before leaving. In other words, your clean desk policy must apply as much to the physical environment as to the digital one.

🔐 Share these 19 key cybersecurity awareness tips with your employees to ensure a safe and secure hybrid work environment.

Key elements to include in your clean desk policy

The scope and the purpose of having a CDP

Before introducing new rules and guidelines, you must explain why you set them up, their scope, and their purpose. Understanding the current issues and the benefits your employees will get from applying these measures plays a significant role in successfully implementing your CDP.  

Remind them that those procedures also apply when working outside the office. Of course, remote employees do not have to consider leaving their desks clean and tidy for their colleagues when working from home. Yet, confidentiality must still be their top priority, so keeping their workspace clean and clear from a digital point of view remains paramount.

Clear do’s and don’ts regarding office desk cleanliness

This is the core part of your clean desk policy. Switching from having their private desk to sharing and working from a different workspace daily is quite a change your team members need to adjust to. The do’s and don’ts must clarify all your workforce’s questions regarding this topic and offer a transparent summary of your expectations about office cleanliness.

Try to think about all the interrogations your staff might have to provide a resource that puts everyone on the same page and removes all doubts and uncertainty. The best way to do so is to collect feedback about the issues they experience with desk sharing cleanliness.

Clean desk policy checklist

A checklist is a quick and easy resource to refer to in case of doubt. They summarize what your staff should do to maintain a clean and tidy work environment where everybody feels comfortable.

Make this checklist downloadable so employees can have it on their desktops or phones. Before they call it a day and head home, they can simply go through it to ensure they leave a spotless and ready-to-use desk for their colleagues.

You can also create several checklists, one for each type of workspace (single desks, meeting rooms, huddle rooms, etc.).

Procedures in case of non-compliance

Here comes the non-funny but unavoidable part. What happens if your employees keep getting hot desks with remaining cookie crumbs and confidential documents from the person who used them before them?

Your clean desk policy must state non-compliance protocols, although we hope you don’t have to enforce them. As explained, ensuring a clear and clean office environment goes beyond hygiene. It is also a matter of security and privacy. So, this part of the policy must explicitly state the applicable measures in case the office cleanliness rules are not respected.

🧐 Read our European desk sharing index to know more about current office trends!

Best practices to implement your clean desk policy successfully

Analyze the current shared office cleanliness issues

The first step is to analyze the current situation regarding this topic. What do your employees complain the most about regarding cleanliness in a hot desk environment? You might have noticed some issues yourself while walking into the office.

The best approach is to tackle this collectively. Involve your team members by asking them for feedback. What do they think the main issues are, and how do they believe it could be solved?

Introduce it verbally, communicate about it virtually, and share it physically

Once you’ve pinpointed all the issues and found solutions, it’s time to share your clean desk policy. However, sending an e-mail like, “Hey, here is our new workplace cleanliness policy! Please apply it from now on.” is not going to do the job. Here is how you should do it.

Communicate it properly to ensure all your employees read it and put it into practice. This means introducing it verbally (in person or digitally), making it accessible virtually (e-mail, resource platform…, etc.), and making it visible physically—place reminder signage in some critical spots in your office. For example, you can stick a clean desk policy poster or checklist on every desk so your team members cannot forget about it.

Refer to it in other of your official documents

If you’ve adopted a hot desking approach for your office space, you probably have a hybrid work policy (if not, you should). This is where your clean desk policy should also be mentioned.

What about desk sharing etiquette? Have you set up an official guideline regarding this? One of the most essential desk-sharing etiquette is leaving desks clean and tidy, so your CDP should appear there, too.

In other words, this policy should be mentioned in any documents related to hybrid work management and employee experience.

Make printing the last option

“Does it need to be printed, or will it be thrown in the trash soon after?”

Before starting a print, this question should always pop up in everyone’s head. Trying to become a paperless office as much as possible is not just an easy step to promote sustainability in the workplace. It also reduces the chances of papers lying around and confidentiality issues. The fewer documents are printed, the less risk of clutter and confidential information lying around.

👉 Check out our report about reducing carbon footprint with deskbird!

Provide resources to enable tidiness and cleanliness in the office

The theory is the easiest part when setting up a new policy. Practice is often another story. Your part of the job doesn’t end once you’ve shared your brand new clean desk policy with your workforce. You also need to ensure they have the resources to apply those rules.

The goal is for the office to remain tidy. Yet, does your staff have individual lockers to stow their belongings when they are not using them or working from home?

The priority is to avoid disallowed access to confidential information and documents. However, have your staff been trained in data security and privacy? 

The objective is for each desk to be cleaned before the next team member arrives. But, have you placed a cleaning cloth and spray at every workstation so people can wipe the area before leaving? 

🌿 PS: We recommend avoiding disposable cleaning wipes if you aim to be a sustainable workplace.

Apply your clean desk policy to everyone in the company

As they say, “Lead by example.”

A clean desk policy benefits everyone by creating a more enjoyable work environment, boosting creativity and productivity, and preventing microbes and viruses. There is no reason to apply those rules to only a few people.

On top of being unfair and unequal, it impacts its efficiency. So, from the C-Suite members to interns and management teams, ensure everyone knows and applies the new rules thoroughly.

Policies act as beacons for everyone in the workplace and keep your work environment positive, organized, and efficient. A clean desk policy is one of the key documents you must set up when working hybrid and turning your office into a shared workplace. Cleanliness and tidiness are crucial to avoid conflicts and ensure your employees enjoy coming to the office and get the most out of it.

Request a free demo of the deskbird app to see how we can help you manage your hybrid workplace and boost employee experience! 

‍

Sources:

¹ The Case for Finally Cleaning Your Desk, Harvard Business Review.