Keep your workforce healthy this winter

Despite the uncharacteristic October sun earlier this month, winter is sadly approaching and with it comes the inevitable illnesses among UK workers. But medical experts are advising employers to make sure staff desks are clean this winter to combat absenteeism.

Experts working on behalf of office supplies firm Viking UK found that germs harboured in messy and dirty workplace desks could contribute to winter illness.

Of the employees surveyed, 56% said they had a colleague with a "really messy" desk, with accountants (64%) identified as being the worst culprits, followed by lawyers (61%). Bankers (33%) and estate agents (35%) were rated the tidiest.

Researchers then took swabs from 300 messy desks and found that many of them were hiding swarms of common bacteria, all of which can cause sickness. And among the worst examples, some desks even harboured mould under the keyboard.

With the majority of UK workers eating lunch at their desks daily, researchers warned that leaving traces of food was one of the key causes of the high bacterial content of desks. According to Viking, it's ''staggering'' that two-thirds of office workers who eat lunch at their desks do not clean afterwards.

"This research has shown that there are some very unhygienic desks right now in the UK, which is very worrying those who work in open plan offices tend to starting coming down with illnesses this time of year," said Dr Lisa Ackerley, Hygiene Expert at Viking and a chartered environmental health practitioner.

"Keeping equipment such as keyboards, phones and desks as germ free as possible is even more important during the cold and flu season."