The role of a facilities manager encompasses more than process efficiency and the bottom line. You are the gatekeeper of your employees’ environment for a significant amount of their day, meaning you maintain a responsibility to keep staff, visitors, guests and the public safe and healthy each time they enter the property.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that the flu was associated with 9 million illnesses, 4 million visits to doctors and 10,000 hospitalizations during the 2021-2022 flu season. Protecting your people takes collaboration by all management – HR can review sick time off, work-from-home policies and flu vaccine clinic options – while facilities managers can keep an eye on the physical aspects of the building such as airflow, PPC inventory, temperature regulation and more.
The right computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) has features for designed health and safety so you can maintain your facility during cold and flu season and keep germs and bacteria at bay. Cutting down on sickness helps keep your production consistent, influences efficiency and saves on shifting workflows due to employee absences.
Get a demo of Maintenance Care’s CMMS programs and software integrations that keep your team and facilities healthy this winter and beyond.
The best CMMS features for health and safety also help with regulatory compliance, keeping reports and certifications mandated by the government or other regulatory bodies in one place. This ensures that quality standards not only are met but are a regular part of your maintenance process.
Here are the primary functions to keep an eye on with your CMMS program during this winter’s influenza and common cold season.
Airflow Control - Preventive Maintenance CMMS Features
Proper ventilation, air circulation and air filtration is at the forefront of people’s minds since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A recent report shows that nearly 75 percent of Americans who work in an office, health care facility, educational environment or retail building said they are concerned about poor indoor air quality affecting their overall health. Of the 4,000 workers surveyed in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, 85 percent of those ages 18-34 said they are “fairly or very concerned” about indoor air quality and their general health, while 20 percent of U.S. workers do not trust their building’s ventilation systems.
Using a CMMS with preventative maintenance capabilities helps you know when to change your HVAC filters, or when to make sure you clean ducts for proper airflow. A CMMS also tracks your asset lifecycles and spare parts inventory. It can also help you gain better insight into your budget to determine if a high-quality air filtration system is worth the investment. All of this plays into taking measures ahead of time to keep items in your facility clean, healthy and in good working order.
Employee Education
Knowledgeable employees have the tools to make choices to protect their own and their colleagues’ health. The CDC recommends sharing information on actions like respiratory etiquette (e.g. covering coughs and sneezes with tissues), as well as encouraging hand hygiene with signs and reminders about hand washing.
It may benefit you to host a flu vaccine clinic or help employees find places they can get a seasonal flu vaccine in your community. The CDC suggests everyone age six months and older get an annual flu vaccine, especially those at a potentially high risk for serious flu complications. You can use your CMMS to store important documentation on cold and flu facts, ways to avoid getting sick and actions one should take to avoid spreading germs to others.
Inventory Tracking and Asset Management
Teaching employees how to protect themselves loses traction when you don’t provide the means for them to put your resources into practice at work. Make sure to provide supplies and a work environment that promotes preventative actions. Keep items on hand in your facilities, such as:
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Tissues
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No-touch trash cans
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Hand soap
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Hand sanitizer
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Disposable face masks and gloves as needed
Use your CMMS program to track your supplies and stay on top of your stock. It’s easy to create task reminders directly from your CMMS mobile app when stock is running out, or to even run a report that will tell you when inventory is low.
Temperature Regulation
As the Internet of Things (IoT) is mainstreamed into facilities management tools, a connected facility often is a healthy facility. Using sensors in various parts of your building gives you data on temperature, capacity and usage patterns, along with other occupancy information that helps you manage your space. With these CMMS programs in place, you keep spaces such at comfortable temperatures and set schedules based on when people are using specific rooms or areas of your facility.
On the subject of temperatures, if mandates or internal decisions to encourage or require body temperature checks are part of your daily operations, one of the best CMMS features for health and safety is custom entry through an integration like OneAccess. This visitor management and screening tool includes temperature checks and health and safety questionnaires for anyone entering your facility. It also allows for touchless entry via mobile device self-check-in.
Sanitation Procedures
One thing we learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is the reinforced importance of sanitation practices. A CMMS solution allows you to assign protocols to your maintenance crews during each shift to replace filters and refill automatic hand sanitizer dispensers. Use your CMMS program to create tasks that are automatically sent as notifications, keeping your team on track.
Maintenance Care offers a CMMS program with specific safety functions built in that directly link to preventative maintenance. Discover how a CMMS like Maintenance Care can keep your facility healthy and thriving. Schedule a consultation to go over the best CMMS features for health and safety, preventative maintenance, reporting and much more.
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