Once cold and flu viruses enter the workplace, it can be hard to maintain productivity. Having many people working in one space to get their jobs done presents the difficult task of keeping one person's illness from spreading to everyone else that he or she works with. You can slow the spread of these viruses in your workplace if you heed the following advice.

1. Hire a Janitorial Team

Having your workplace cleaned by a professional janitorial cleaning service will help to eliminate some of the viruses that get passed around. These professionals have the equipment, knowledge and experience working in this type of setting and know what needs to be done to keep a workplace healthy.

2. Invest in Air Purifiers

Running quality air purifiers throughout the workplace and reduce the number of airborne viruses. Don't be fooled by the lesser-quality machines that only remove allergens from the air. Look for an air purifying system that utilizes ultra violet light along with HEPA filters. These are the systems that will most effectively remove the bacteria and viruses that are being passed through the air from one employee to another.

3. Boost Preventative Measures

Hand sanitizer, tissues and flu vaccines are all preventative measures that should be taken. Although the flu vaccine isn't completely effective against every strain of the flu, it can help to reduce the number of cases each employee experiences and spreads throughout the office.

Hand sanitizer dispensers should be located throughout the workplace. Think about installing them at each entrance, near the breakroom, outside of the restrooms and anywhere else that the traffic level is high throughout the day.

4. Encourage Sick Days

If employees are sick, they shouldn't feel that they must come to work or face repercussions beyond missing a day of work. The financial burden of missing a day or two of work on top of being sick is already bad enough. Allowing employees to take the much needed time to recover will help decrease the spread of the virus and actually protect the productivity of the workplace rather than hinder it.

Having a lot of people working in one place presents a lot of struggles when it comes to keeping everyone healthy. Taking action now can help you decrease the number of occurrences off call-offs and protect those who are healthy from falling ill and missing a day or two of work. Hopefully, the advice listed above will help you maintain the healthy, efficient workplace you need to succeed.