The UK flu season has officially begun and this year it’s arrived even earlier than usual. We all now face several weeks of dodging colds and avoiding the sniffles whilst at work, and with well over a month left before the Christmas break, now is the time to protect your employees with these office cleaning tips.

Sanitise The Desks

Provide each and every one of your employees with a clean, safe workspace this winter by thoroughly sanitising all desks at least twice a day. The best times to do this are in the mornings before everyone arrives at work and in the evenings once they have all gone home, as this gets rid of any flu germs that have accumulated over the course of the working day or been lingering on the desks overnight.

To make this task easier, encourage your employees to regularly declutter their workstations and to stop papers, reports, and files from piling up. You can also provide your team with sanitising wipes to clean up any spills or dirt themselves, rather than leaving this all day for the office cleaning staff.

Clean All Electronics

It’s not just the surface of a desk that harbours hidden bacteria – it is also all its equipment, including:

A keyboard
A computer mouse
A laptop
A phone

And even pens, planners, and mugs. They all catch germs from busy fingers, stray sneezes, and food particles (if your employees regularly eat at their desks), so get rid of them by frequently wiping down all electronic devices. This is particularly important if your office operates a hot-desking policy or if the office computers are shared, and we also recommend pausing hotdesking until the new year and to encourage employees to eat away from their desks.

Wipe Down Shared Equipment

When we say you need to clean all electronics, we mean ALL electronics – and keeping infection rates down doesn’t just come from cleaning individual workstations.

Shared phones, tablets, printers, projectors, and even coffee machines should all be wiped down as often as possible across the working day. Since these devices are handled by multiple people every day it is advisable to leave sanitising wipes close to them and to remind your team to clean them, along with their hands, after each use.

Tackle High-Touch Areas

High-touch areas are germ hotbeds at all times, but during flu season they pose an even higher risk to employee health. Failing to sanitise key contact points is a guaranteed way to spread infection across the office, and the following high-touch areas should be sprayed down and sanitised at every available opportunity to prevent germs from building up there:

Light switches
Door handles
Lift buttons
Bathroom taps
Toilet cubicle locks

Empty All Bins

It may go without saying that you need to stay on top of your waste disposal commitments throughout the winter, but since it’s flu season you’re not just disposing of the usual shredded documents and waste paper.

Encouraging your employees to catch their sneezes in tissues is one of the most basic infection control measures, but now that the office bins are full of used tissues it’s important to dispose of them safely. So, if you haven’t already done so, now is the time to contact your office cleaning or waste disposal team and check that your bins will be emptied every single day until the end of the year.

Install Hand Sanitiser Dispensers

You are responsible for providing your employees with a safe, infection-free workplace, and part of this means giving them the means to protect their own health whilst at work.

Ideally there should be a hand sanitiser dispenser in every room, but if you don’t quite have the budget for this then make sure there is at least one on every corridor and at every access point. This way employees and visitors alike can sanitise their hands before entering the building and when moving between the different areas of the office.

Hire A Local MCS Team

Do all of these tasks sound like more than your team can handle right now?

Don’t worry – we know how busy the festive period is for businesses like yours, and that’s why we offer our office cleaning services across the UK. So, the final step on your checklist is to contact us and arrange your own cleaning package to suit your operational hours and accommodate your ways of working.

Now your employees can tackle their remaining 2025 projects in a clean, flu-free working environment, and you can start planning for a successful 2026 without any concerns around employee health or infection control.

Our Flu Season Office Cleaning Services

Before you can arrange your end-of-year cleaning (and enjoy a well-earned Christmas holiday), it’s time to prevent the spread of flu across your workplace with our office cleaning services.

Contact your local MCS team today to start putting together your bespoke office cleaning package.