Skincare in workplace is usually overlooked by management and employees. According to recent studies, occupational skin disorders are one of the most common workplace illnesses and up to 40% of workers undergo skin issues in their working life.
Skincare in the workplace is not simply protecting your workers from chapped and dry hands in winter, it is more about workplace safety to protect your employees from infections, physical contaminant absorption into the body and saving a lot of costs from workers’ lack of productivity due to problems caused by occupational skin disorders.
Health and Safety Managers in industries that require workers to perform their job under special conditions such as construction, chemicals, and manufacturing can consider skin care products in workplace to be a part of their industrial supplies.
Skincare in the Workplace Starts from Skin care Education
It is crucial that employees are aware of the issues of skin disorders because they are the ones who are exposed to weather conditions and physical contaminants (if any). This requires effort from management to focus on more than just holding a massive banner about how important their skin and hygiene are.
Weekly staff meetings should preserve one part for the “Skincare in Workplace” topic on spreading awareness and response to their current issues with their skin, introduction of new protect creams, hand and body wash, lotion, sanitisers and restorative products that are accessible at the company’s common areas or restrooms. Moreover, for specific industries such as manufacturing, specialist creams, restorative products, handwashing cleansers are specially-formulated industrial supplies for specific needs of the skin and body to avoid severe skin disorders such as dermatitis. It is not just manufacturing, but also the building and transport industries that need to care for their employees skin due to their workers having a great deal of exposure to the sun, and create awareness about problems caused by it. Schools, kindergartens and healthcare are also sectors that have people out in the sun, and are a good place for awareness mechanisms to be put into place.
Accessibility to Workplace Skincare Products
Strange as it may sound, but sometimes after a one-time effort focusing on workplace skincare by inviting experts to discuss the seriousness of the problem and providing products for skincare at the workplace, the skincare program is neglected. It may not even receive much attention from workers.
As mentioned, workplace skincare requires ongoing effort and patience from the management. Experts on workplace skincare in the industrial supplies field can advise with industry-specific products and encourage staff evaluations of products as well as increase their frequent usage by staff. By initiating change of habits and following up on usage by checking products weekly or fortnightly, once the habit has changed and employees have influenced other colleagues by using skincare products, such thing will become routine. More importantly, all industrial skin care supplies should be accessible at the workplace to support this.
Finding Reliable Sources of Industrial Supplies for Workplace Skincare Products
With appropriate industrial supplies for workplace skincare, workers are protected with industry-specific products from weather conditions. Skincare programs are tailored differently in summer and winter. In hot weather, hand cleanser is essential to prevent the spread of germs, bacteria and infections. In winter, specialist creams or oil-extracted cleansers which contain moisturizer are more effective for protecting exposed skin from getting dry, preventing softening skin under gloves and reducing irritation.
It is important that managers find a reliable source of industrial supplies for skincare products such as protective creams, specialist creams, restorative products, hand washing cleansers, etc. Known brands such as Deb/STOKO Skincare, which is known as the world leading manufacturer of skincare systems for occupational use, should be considered by users. Also, installation of workplace skincare cartridge dispensers is strongly advised. This lowers the risk of cross-infection from workers using skincare products from an open and communal container.
To protect your workers’ health, workplace skincare products is a simple solution for the prevention of most occupational skin disorders. In the short term, it helps to decrease irritation and improve workers’ productivity with fewer skin problems. In the long run, it plays a key role in reducing common work-related health problems which saves businesses significant costs on skin-related issues.
Overall benefits from sound skincare in the workplace needs to cover hygiene, prevent the spread of illness and protect against skin disorders arising from exposure to the sun. As such, a 4-Step Skin Care Product System should be adopted: Protect, Cleanse, Sanitize and Restore. And finally, this should be supported by 2 important support steps:
- Educate: staff training and communication to increase awareness and encourage compliance
- Audit: ongoing monitoring and review of skin care