How to Create a Workplace Personal Hygiene Policy

Imagine that you are an office manager overseeing a department of 25 employees and one of the employees complains about his co-worker's body odor.

How would you address complaints about workers who affect the working environment?

This happens a lot in overcrowded offices which have no hygiene and cleanliness guidelines for employees. They share the same office facilities without cleaning after themselves.

This increases the working environment dissatisfaction among other employees what stimulates them to start looking for better jobs.

But what if your employees would be required to follow certain hygiene guidelines you would be able to control the health and safety of the working environment.

The question is how to create such a workplace hygiene policy? And what cleanliness and hygiene standards this policy needs to include?

Bellow, you’ll find steps to create a hygiene policy at work.

Why is hygiene and cleanliness important in the workplace

By following personal hygiene standards, each employee helps in maintaining a safe and healthy environment in the office.

A comfortable working environment is part of one of the two motivational factors that keep employees satisfied at work according to Herzberg’s Two-Theory of Motivation.

In 1959, Frederick Herzberg, a behavioral scientist, proposed a two-factor theory or also known as the motivator-hygiene theory. This motivator-hygiene theory states that some factors at work contribute to the general satisfaction of the employee while other work factors prevent the employee’s dissatisfaction at work.

According to Herzberg, the opposite of “Satisfaction” is “No satisfaction” and the opposite of “Dissatisfaction” is “No Dissatisfaction”.

Herzberg basically meant that job factors can be classified into two categories:

Hygiene factors - reduce the employee's pain and friction in the workplace environment which keeps the dissatisfaction level at work low.

For example, working in a safe and healthy environment among well-groomed is one of those hygiene factors that prevent employee dissatisfaction.

Motivational factors - are those factors at work that promote superior performance achievement.

For example, earning a better salary, promotion, status, etc.

The importance of cleanliness and personal hygiene in the workplace is also supported by showerstoyou.co.uk.

They conducted a survey that received 932 responses from office workers in a range of professions to find out the biggest personal hygiene issue they faced in their workplace.

The findings from the survey revealed that unpleasant body odor was the biggest personal hygiene issue that employees face in their workplace at 70%.

Now when you are hopefully convinced that it's easier to approach employees with hygiene issues basing your arguments on the company hygiene policy rather on your subjective opinion.

So, what a company hygiene and cleanliness policy should include?

Elements of a workplace hygiene policy

An effective workplace hygiene policy should include hygiene, cleanliness, and appearance rules that every employee must follow during their employment in the company.

1. Personal hygiene guidelines:

All employees are expected to follow proper hygiene in the workplace.

bath daily to maintain your body clean and healthy.
brush your teeth to avoid bad breath.
use a deodorant or an antiperspirant to prevent releasing unpleasant body odors.
don't use heavily scented perfumes, colognes, and lotions. These can cause allergic reactions, migraines and respiratory difficulty for some employees.
trim your nails and maintain them clean.
wash your hands regularly.

2. Dress code and uniform guidelines:

The staff that maintains regular in-person contact with the customers are required to wear appropriate business attire.

men - dress shoes, jackets, shirts, ties, slacks, sweaters.
women - dress tops, pants, dresses, skirts, sweaters, pant-suites, shoes/sandals.
staff that is not direct contact with customers are allowed to wear business casual attire.
sales employees are encouraged to wear company-branded or colored shirts.

3. Grooming and facial hair guidelines:

clothing must be clean, pressed, in good condition, and fit appropriately.
maintain neat and well-groomed facial hair like mustaches, sideburns, and beards. (no artificial colors e.g. pink, green, etc. that is deemed unprofessional).
wear moderate make-up
tattoos that are perceived as offensive, hostile or that diminishes the employee's professionalism must be covered so that they are not visible to staff or customers.

4. Cleanliness guidelines

employees must clean after themselves after using the restroom.
employees must maintain their workstation clean and uncluttered.
employees maintain the cleanliness in the kitchen.

Over to you

Once everybody in the office follows the cleanliness and hygiene rules, it’s much easier to handle personal hygiene complaints because, in this case, you can this a company requirement mentioned in the policy.