Staff toilet upkeep memo

Our staff toilet upkeep memo includes basic rules reminding staff of their personal duty to keep toilet and washroom facilities clean and tidy, covering everything from proper use of the toilet to replenishing loo roll supplies. You have health and safety obligations to provide clean and orderly sanitary conveniences and washing facilities, so keep a watchful eye on the state of your toilets.

Client impressions

Whilst you might have a cleaner who cleans the toilets and washrooms on a daily basis, between cleans the facilities can often get into a filthy and untidy state, particularly if they’re subject to heavy use. If your clients also use those toilets when they visit you, it’s not going to reflect well on your business for them to find rubbish all over the floor, open sanitary bins, dirty toilets and no loo roll or hand towels.

Clean and orderly condition

In addition, the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 state that you must provide “suitable and sufficient” sanitary conveniences and washing facilities which, along with the rooms containing them, must be kept in a “clean and orderly condition”. You also need to provide a supply of clean hot and cold, or warm, water, soap (or other suitable means of cleaning) and towels (or other suitable means of drying) and the rooms need to be adequately ventilated and lit. So in between your cleaner coming you still need to ensure that you’re complying with these strict legal requirements. This means not allowing the facilities to get dirty or messy and ensuring soap, loo roll and other essentials are replenished when they run out.

Toilet standards

Our Staff Toilet Upkeep Memo sets down a series of rules for employees to comply with. Many of these should be obvious health and hygiene standards for most people, but our memo serves as a gentle reminder that it’s employees’ personal responsibility to keep your toilet and washroom facilities clean and tidy when they use them; this isn’t just down to your cleaning staff. Our memo includes rules about the correct disposal of sanitary and other non-toilet paper products, proper use of the toilet, the removal of rubbish, the replacement of finished loo rolls, liquid soap and hand towels, hand washing requirements, maintenance of the sink basin areas in a clean and dry condition and how to report any problems, for example if toilets, toilet door locks, taps, lights or hand dryers aren’t working properly. If any of the facilities aren’t working, attend to the problem as soon as possible (it may involve having to get a plumber, electrician or other repairer in) and, in the meantime, put an “Out of order - do not use” sign on the facility if necessary. It’s also worth carrying out your own toilet and washroom check at least once a day, say in the middle of the working day, and in advance of important client visits. That way, you can spot regular problems, and tackle the culprit(s) if you can work out who they are.

Finally, our memo provides that any employee caught wilfully misusing or abusing the toilet and washroom facilities will be subject to disciplinary action. It’s quite acceptable to institute disciplinary proceedings where an employee has left your facilities in a clearly appalling state. Serious damage to company property may justify summary dismissal for gross misconduct.