Cold and Flu Season in the Workplace: How to Reduce Spread Through Better Cleaning
Cold and flu season is a recurring operational challenge for every UK business. Absences increase, productivity drops, and the costs build up quickly and often without any clear strategy in place to reduce them.
The scale of the problem is significant. Research by the Office of Health Economics found that respiratory infections cost UK businesses an estimated £44 billion per year, with a direct cost of around £852 per affected employee, and this figure accounts for sick pay, lost productivity, and the cost of covering absent staff. Separate research by RAND Europe found that around 2.4 million working adults in the UK are infected with influenza each year, leading to approximately 4.8 million lost working days and an estimated £644 million in economic losses.
For most businesses, cold and flu season is treated as something that simply happens, and an unavoidable cost of operating in a shared environment. It does not have to be.
A structured cleaning approach, focused on the surfaces and transmission routes that drive workplace illness spread, can meaningfully reduce the risk to your workforce. This guide explains how the virus spreads in a workplace environment, which surfaces matter most, how to adapt your cleaning schedule and product selection for the colder months, and how to implement a protocol that your team can follow consistently.
How Cold and Flu Viruses Spread in the Workplace
Understanding how the virus spreads is the starting point for any effective prevention strategy. In a workplace environment, transmission occurs through three primary routes:
1. Respiratory droplets
When an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks, they release droplets that contain the virus. These can travel up to two metres and be inhaled directly by anyone nearby.
2. Airborne particles
Smaller particles can remain suspended in the air for longer periods, particularly in poorly ventilated indoor spaces. This is a less dominant route for influenza than for other respiratory viruses, but relevant in enclosed, high-occupancy workspaces.
3. Surface contact
Infected droplets land on surfaces, including desks, keyboards, door handles, lift buttons, and shared equipment, where the virus can survive for several hours. A person who touches a contaminated surface and then touches their face can become infected.
It is the third route, surface transmission, where cleaning has the most direct and measurable impact. The NHS confirms that flu germs can live on hands and surfaces for up to 24 hours, making contaminated surfaces a direct transmission route in any shared environment. When regular disinfection of high-touch surfaces is combined with hand hygiene measures, the effect on transmission risk is significant, particularly in workspaces where multiple people are in contact with the same surfaces throughout the day.
Which Surfaces Matter Most: High-Touch Point Identification
Not all surfaces carry equal risk. During cold and flu season, cleaning effort should be concentrated on the surfaces that are touched most frequently and by the most people; these are what are known as the transmission hotspots where the virus is most likely to move from one person to the next.
In most commercial workplaces, the highest-risk surfaces are:
| Surface | Risk Level | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Door handles (internal and external) | Very high | Touched by every person entering or leaving an area, multiple times per hour |
| Lift buttons and call panels | Very high | Touched by everyone using the lift, with no alternative contact point |
| Shared keyboards and mice | Very High | Used for extended periods, touched without cleaning between users |
| Meeting room tables | High | Multiple people seated at close proximity, frequent hand contact |
| Kitchen surfaces, kettle handles, and microwave controls | High | Touched by most staff at break times, a peak transmission window |
| Toilet and washroom door handles | High | Touched immediately after restroom use, high footfall |
| Telephone handsets | High | Face and hand contact, rarely cleaned between users |
| Shared photocopier and printer controls | High | Touched briefly but by large numbers of staff throughout the day |
| Desk surfaces and workstation equipment | Medium-high | Primary work surface, continuous contact throughout the working day |
| Stair handrails | Medium | Touched by large numbers but less frequently than door handles |
| Reception desk surfaces | Medium | High volume of external visitor contact in addition to staff |
Concentrating your cleaning efforts on these surfaces, particularly during and immediately after peak occupancy periods, will help to deliver a far greater reduction in transmission risk than a general increase in cleaning frequency across less critical areas.
Adapting Your Cleaning Schedule for Cold and Flu Season
Cold and flu season does not require a completely different cleaning approach. It requires a more targeted version of your existing one, with higher frequency on high-touch surfaces, more rigorous disinfection standards, and a clear protocol for responding when illness is confirmed in the workplace.
Our Recommended Frequency Adjustments
During the peak cold and flu period, typically October through to March in the UK, with December to February representing the highest risk window, we recommend the following frequency adjustments suitable for most commercial workplaces:
- High-touch surfaces (door handles, lift buttons, kitchen controls, shared equipment): increase to a minimum of twice daily, with a dedicated midday clean in addition to the end-of-day routine. In high-footfall environments or where confirmed cases have been reported, three times daily is appropriate.
- Meeting rooms: clean and disinfect all surfaces between meetings, not just at the beginning and end of the day. A simple between-meeting wipe-down of table surfaces, door handles, and shared equipment takes two to three minutes and removes the contamination window between users.
- Washrooms: no change in product approach, but consider increasing frequency of touchpoint cleaning, including handles, taps, soap dispensers, and hand dryer controls, during peak occupancy periods.
- Communal kitchen areas: add a targeted midday clean of all frequently handled surfaces, including the kettle handle, microwave controls, fridge handle, and any shared utensils.
- Workstations and desks: encourage or implement a daily desk wipe-down as part of end-of-day routines. Where hot-desking or shared workstations are in use, disinfect between each user.
Reactive deep clean protocol
When a confirmed case of the flu is reported in the workplace, a targeted reactive clean should be conducted as soon as reasonably practicable. This is not a full deep clean of the entire premises, but rather a focused disinfection of the areas the affected individual used during the period they may have been infectious.
Product Selection: What to Use and Why
During cold and flu season, product selection matters more than at other times of the year. Not all cleaning products are effective against the flu, and using the wrong product or using a product correctly labelled as a disinfectant but not validated against viruses is a common and costly mistake.
The key product categories for an effective cold and flu season cleaning protocol are:
Virucidal disinfectants (EN 14476 certified)
This is the most important product specification for cold and flu season. EN 14476 is the European Standard for chemical disinfectants with virucidal activity; you can be assured that cleaning products certified to this standard have been validated to kill enveloped viruses, including the flu, influenza and coronaviruses. A disinfectant that is certified to EN 1276 (bactericidal) but not EN 14476 will be effective against bacteria but may not be reliably effective against the influenza virus.
For all high-touch surface disinfection during cold and flu season, choose a product carrying EN 14476 certification. Check the product label or Safety Data Sheet (SDS) to confirm this; it should be clearly stated in the product claims.
Surface disinfectant sprays and wipes
A fast-acting surface disinfectant in spray or ready-to-use wipe format is the most practical product for between-booking meeting room cleans and midday high-touch disinfection rounds. Look for products with a short contact time, around 30 seconds to 1 minute, to support a fast, efficient cleaning protocol that does not slow operations.
Microfibre cloths (colour-coded and managed correctly)
Microfibre cloths used for surface disinfection must be changed or laundered regularly to avoid re-depositing contamination. During cold and flu season, increase the frequency with which cloths are changed and ensure colour-coding protocols are strictly followed to prevent cross-contamination between washrooms, kitchens, and general office surfaces.
Hand hygiene products
Surface cleaning is one part of the transmission reduction picture. Hand hygiene is the other. During cold and flu season, hand sanitiser dispensers should be visible and stocked at all building entry and exit points, at meeting room entrances, and in communal kitchen areas. Refill stock should be monitored as part of the weekly cleaning supply check; sanitiser dispenser outages during peak illness periods are a straightforward failure to avoid.
Hand soap at all washroom sinks should be a bactericidal formulation rather than a standard cosmetic hand wash. The act of handwashing removes surface contamination regardless of formulation, but a bactericidal soap provides an additional layer of protection.
A Practical Cold and Flu Season Cleaning Protocol
The following protocol provides a structured daily framework that can be adapted for most commercial workplaces. It does not require additional staff or significant additional time, rather simply requiring cleaning product reordering priorities and ensuring the right products are consistently available.
Morning clean (before staff arrive or at opening)
- Full surface wipe-down of all high-touch points: door handles throughout the building, lift controls, kitchen surfaces and equipment handles, toilet and washroom touchpoints
- Meeting rooms: clean and disinfect all surfaces
- Workstations and desks where hot-desking is in use: disinfect surfaces and shared equipment
- Restock hand sanitiser dispensers at all points and check soap levels in all washrooms
- Check paper towel or hand dryer provision in all washrooms
Midday clean (during or immediately after the main break period)
- Kitchen: wipe down kettle handle, microwave controls, fridge handle, and sink area
- Door handles on high-footfall routes: spot disinfect
- Communal touchpoints in reception or main circulation areas: wipe down
- Check and restock hand sanitiser dispensers
End-of-day clean (after main occupancy)
- Full surface wipe-down of all high-touch points as per morning clean
- Meeting rooms: full disinfection of all surfaces
- Washrooms: full clean including all touchpoints, floors, and fixtures
- Workstations: encourage staff to disinfect their own desk surface and shared equipment as part of end-of-day routine
- Collect and replace all microfibre cloths for laundering
When a confirmed case is reported
- Identify and clean all areas used by the individual during the potential infectious period
- Disinfect all surfaces in those areas with an EN 14476 certified virucidal product
- Increase high-touch cleaning frequency across the affected area to three times daily for a minimum of 48 hours following the report
- Communicate the reactive clean to the facilities team without naming the affected individual
Communicating the Protocol to Your Cleaning Team
A cleaning protocol is only effective if it is consistently followed. During cold and flu season, two practical steps will significantly improve compliance:
First, brief your cleaning team specifically on the cold and flu season adjustments. Rather than expecting staff to infer changes from a general cleaning schedule, a short written briefing that covers which surfaces are now prioritised, how frequently, and with which products will help to remove any ambiguity and create a clear reference point.
Second, ensure product availability matches the protocol. A midday high-touch disinfection round cannot happen if the spray and cloths are stored in a locked cleaning cupboard on another floor. During cold and flu season, consider providing a small, labelled cleaning kit in the kitchen area and near the main building entrance, as this will then allow for targeted spot cleans to be carried out quickly and without retrieving equipment from a central storage point.
The Business Case for Investing in Seasonal Cleaning
The return on investment for a more structured cold and flu season cleaning approach is straightforward to calculate. With average absence costs of £852 per affected employee and typical flu season infection rates affecting a meaningful proportion of any workforce, even a modest reduction in transmission risk translates into a material financial saving.
The additional product cost for a cold and flu season cleaning protocol, primarily the switch to EN 14476 certified disinfectants and an increased volume of disinfectant wipes and hand sanitiser refills, is modest relative to the cost of even one or two additional days of staff absence per employee across the workforce.
For operations that already hold a trade account with a specialist cleaning products supplier, this is also a natural point to review your current product range. Confirming that your disinfectants carry EN 14476 certification, stocking adequate hand sanitiser and refills ahead of the peak season, and ensuring your cleaning team has sufficient microfibre cloth stock to support increased replacement frequency are all practical steps that a specialist supplier can support with appropriate product guidance.
Conclusion: Seasonal Adjustment, Measurable Impact
Cold and flu season affects every workplace. The question is whether it is managed reactively, accepting increased absence as an inevitable seasonal cost, or proactively, through a structured cleaning protocol that targets the transmission routes and surfaces where the virus actually spreads.
The evidence is clear that surface hygiene interventions reduce workplace transmission. The approach is not complex. It requires the right products certified to the right standard, a cleaning schedule adjusted for the colder months, and a team briefed and equipped to follow it consistently.
The businesses that come through cold and flu season with the lowest absence rates are rarely the ones that got lucky. They are the ones with a cleaning operation that was ready for it.
Apply for a Power Hygiene trade account today to access EN 14476-certified disinfectants, hand sanitiser refills, microfibre cloths, and the full range of professional cleaning products your operation needs for cold and flu season, with expert guidance, consistent availability, and fast UK delivery designed for businesses that cannot afford supply gaps when they matter most.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. How does cleaning help reduce cold and flu spread in the workplace?
Cold and flu viruses can survive on surfaces for several hours. When an infected person touches a surface such as a door handle, a keyboard, or a kitchen tap, they leave behind viral particles that can be picked up by the next person who touches that surface. The UKHSA identifies surface contamination as a key influenza transmission pathway and recommends regular disinfection of high-touch surfaces as a frontline intervention.
Disinfecting those surfaces with a virucidal product certified to EN 14476 removes those particles and breaks the transmission chain, making targeted cleaning one of the most effective tools available to reduce workplace illness spread.
2. What cleaning products are most effective against the flu virus?
For effective protection against the influenza virus, surface disinfectants should carry EN 14476 certification, which is the European Standard for virucidal activity. Products certified only to EN 1276 (antibacterial) may not be reliably effective against enveloped viruses, including flu. During cold and flu season, review your disinfectant range and confirm that the products used on high-touch surfaces carry EN 14476 certification. Fast-acting formulations with a contact time of 30 seconds to 1 minute are the most practical for frequent use throughout the working day.
3. Which surfaces in an office are most likely to spread cold and flu viruses?
The highest-risk surfaces are those touched most frequently and by the most people: door handles, lift buttons, shared keyboards and mice, meeting room table surfaces, kitchen handles and controls, and toilet and washroom touchpoints. These surfaces should be the focus of increased cleaning frequency during cold and flu season, at a minimum twice daily, with a midday clean in addition to the standard morning and end-of-day routines.
4. How often should offices be disinfected during cold and flu season?
High-touch surfaces should be disinfected at least twice daily during peak cold and flu season, which is October to March in the UK, with December through February representing the highest risk period. In high-footfall environments, or when a confirmed case has been reported in the workplace, increase to three times daily for the affected areas. Meeting rooms should be cleaned between bookings rather than relying solely on start-of-day and end-of-day cleans.
5. Should hand sanitiser be part of a workplace cold and flu cleaning strategy?
Yes. Hand sanitiser is a complement to surface disinfection, not a replacement for it. Providing visible, well-stocked hand sanitiser dispensers at building entry and exit points, meeting room entrances, and communal kitchen areas reduces the risk of hand-to-face transmission, the route by which surface contamination leads to infection. Ensure sanitiser dispensers are monitored as part of the daily cleaning check during peak season, and hold adequate refill stock so dispensers are never empty during the period when they are most needed.
Power Hygiene Expert Insights Team
Power Hygiene has been a trusted name in commercial cleaning and hygiene supply for over 40 years, supporting organisations across the UK with reliable products, expert advice, and sustainable solutions.
Our Expert Insights Team brings together industry knowledge from across cleaning, procurement, and facilities management to share practical, real-world guidance that helps businesses maintain safer, cleaner, and more efficient environments.
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