‘Hand washing? It’s complete nonsense!'

Hygiene is important, as the managers of any food processing company know. That’s why there are hygiene sluices, jewellery such as rings and watches are forbidden, and employees wear special overalls and hair nets…

But in practice, there can often be disappointing shortcomings in hygiene. Because if employee X goes to the toilet, where do the sleeves of their overall end up? Exactly: on the floor, mixing with the dirt from the soles of their boots...or worse. 

And what should be the policy in terms of headscarves that many women wear – including on the factory floor – for religious reasons? A headscarf is generally tied at home, so the employer can’t be sure where it has been and when it was last washed. What we do know is that the plastic cap that is worn over it serves absolutely no purpose. (One solution is to purchase for this target group corporate headscarves featuring the company logo and/or in the departmental colour. The costs are relatively low in return for significant hygienic benefits.)

Of course everyone understands that it is undesirable for a hair to make its way into the soup, and hence hair nets should be worn. Hand washing is a trickier subject; the consequences of skipping that step are much less visible than a stray hair. If you ask why hand washing is important, the answer is often vague: ‘So as not to spread germs...or something’. Many people don’t know the precise consequences of failing to wash their hands, or how intensively they should do so – and that applies just as much to the director as to the production operative. A lack of knowledge often results in a lack of internal motivation to follow all those time-consuming hygiene procedures. 

In other words, it isn’t enough to simply introduce a rule from above; you’ll also need to explain why it’s so important. 

My motto is: knowledge is the key to motivation! For example, present information in a comic-book style featuring little to no text (in some factories the workforce speaks 21 different languages!) to show the potential consequences of not washing your hands (properly), of allowing an overall to drag on the ground or of dodging a hygiene sluice. Make employees aware.

Herman Bessels is a BNA-affiliated architect at Bessels Architekten & Ingenieurs B.V.

www.bessels.com