Case Study – Hygiene

Julie is keen to ensure her four young employees in the Coffee Pod Café in a regional town maintain a high standard of personal hygiene through regular hand washing. Julie considers this is especially important at the moment as there are cases of COVID-19 in the area. 

Julie knows she has a duty of care for the health and safety of her staff and her customers under WHS laws. In running a business preparing and serving food, Julie is very conscious of the need to ensure all her employees wash their hands thoroughly and regularly to avoid contaminating any food products, surfaces, workers or customers. 

Julie discusses worker hygiene and handwashing with her staff regularly and has put posters up at both sinks in the café that set out good hand washing practices, including washing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. However, she’s noticed some of her employees are not washing their hands thoroughly and for much less than 20 seconds. 

Knowing her young employees love their music, Julie introduces a daily ‘tiktok’ challenge. She nominates one employee every day to choose a song that all the employees have to wash their hands to for 20 seconds regularly through the day. It’s a hit! Julie notices an immediate improvement in her employees’ handwashing practices.