Today is World Hand Hygiene Day, a vital reminder that clean hands save lives — and protect businesses, teams, and guests. For those of us working to uphold the highest standards of safety, hand hygiene is not just a box-ticking exercise; it’s a core behaviour that needs to be embedded into the culture of every workplace.
Yet despite widespread awareness, hand hygiene compliance is often far from perfect. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), only around 40% of workers wash their hands when they should — even in healthcare environments. In hospitality and retail, where the guest experience is paramount, failing at hand hygiene doesn’t just pose a health risk; it damages reputation, trust, and loyalty.
Why Do People Fail at Hand Hygiene?
Understanding the barriers is the first step toward driving better behaviour:
- Practical obstacles: Water that is too hot or cold, no plugs to mix water to a comfortable temperature, or a simple lack of soap or paper towels can all discourage proper handwashing.
- Time pressures: In fast-paced environments, employees may feel they don’t have time to wash their hands thoroughly.
- Training gaps: Staff may not be fully trained on when and how to wash their hands properly.
- Lack of supplies: A shortage of essentials like soap, sanitiser, or towels can immediately undermine good hygiene habits.
- Poor monitoring: Without regular checks, standards can slip unnoticed.
At Shield Safety, we believe these are not individual failings, but systemic opportunities for improvement.
The Impact on Team and Guest Experience
Guests notice more than we sometimes think. The cleanliness of toilets — including the availability of soap, warm water, and hand towels — leaves a lasting impression and can significantly influence whether guests choose to return.
A toilet without soap, poor handwashing facilities, or signs of neglect sends a strong message: “We don’t care.” That perception can extend to concerns about food safety, especially in hospitality settings, where poor hand hygiene remains the leading cause of foodborne illnesses.
Empowering your team to follow correct hand hygiene practices is therefore not just about compliance — it’s about creating positive, lasting impressions on guests, protecting brand reputation, and fostering a culture of care.
Changing Behaviour to Make Hand Hygiene a Habit
Changing behaviour is about making the right action the easy, automatic choice — and reinforcing it until it becomes second nature.
Here’s how businesses can enable better hand hygiene behaviours every day:
- Ensure access to comfortable handwashing stations: Water should be at a safe, comfortable temperature, with functioning taps and plugs.
- Use the right products: Provide liquid soap rather than bar soap to prevent cross-contamination. In most workplaces, plain liquid soap is sufficient — antibacterial soap is not necessary for effective hand hygiene and can sometimes cause skin irritation or contribute to antimicrobial resistance.
- Keep supplies stocked: Ensure soap, hand sanitiser, and hand drying facilities are always available and easy to access.
- Make drying easy and hygienic: Provide enough paper towels or working hand dryers. Ensure bins are easily accessible and regularly emptied.
- Deliver targeted training: Explain not just what to do, but why it matters. Regular refreshers and inductions for new starters help keep standards high.
- Use visual reminders: Posters and signs in key locations reinforce good practice at the point of action.
- Monitor and act daily: Conduct simple hygiene spot checks at the start and during each shift — making hand hygiene part of the everyday operational routine, not just periodic audits.
Daily checks help keep facilities ready, spot small issues before they become problems, and reinforce that good hygiene is a core business standard, not optional.
Building lasting behaviour change requires ease, repetition, and positive reinforcement. The more normal and expected the behaviour becomes — through the right environment, regular checks, and consistent leadership — the stronger and more resilient the culture of safety will be.
Staff should be encouraged to wash their hands at critical points during their workday — including before preparing or serving food, after using the toilet, after handling waste, after touching shared surfaces, and after coughing or sneezing.
Understanding the Risks: Why Hand Hygiene Matters for Everyone
Hand hygiene is not just about keeping up appearances — it’s a frontline defence against real health risks.
Poor hand hygiene among staff can lead to serious consequences, including:
- Foodborne illnesses: Bacteria like norovirus, salmonella, and E. coli are easily transmitted through contaminated hands.
- Customer illnesses: A single incident of food poisoning linked to an establishment can result in reputational damage, legal action, and financial loss.
- Reputational damage: News of hygiene failures travels fast — both through word-of-mouth and online reviews.
- Legal liability: Businesses can face costly claims, compensation payouts, and regulatory penalties due to poor hygiene standards.
- Staff sickness: Infections can easily spread among employees, reducing workforce availability and impacting service quality.
When teams fully understand the personal, financial, and operational risks, it becomes easier to drive behaviour change.
Handwashing isn’t just a task — it’s a vital habit that protects everyone: guests, colleagues, the business, and the individual themselves.
Management’s Role: Setting the Standard
Ultimately, leadership sets the tone. Managers play a critical role in:
- Ensuring the right resources are always available — including soap, sanitiser, hand drying, and waste facilities.
- Explaining the “why” behind hand hygiene expectations, so teams understand the real risks and responsibilities.
- Reinforcing standards in the moment — by role modelling good practice, addressing poor behaviours immediately, and keeping hygiene front of mind in daily routines.
When managers are visible, consistent, and clear, it signals that hand hygiene isn’t just policy — it’s part of how the team protects each other and delivers safe, high-quality service.
This year’s WHO World Hand Hygiene Day campaign reinforces the need for stronger monitoring and leadership in hand hygiene.
The global goal is for hand hygiene compliance and feedback systems to be established at all national reference hospitals by 2026 — and while this target focuses on healthcare, the same principle applies across all workplaces.
Investing in hand hygiene is not only a matter of compliance — it’s about building resilience, trust, and quality for the future.
Resources to Support Best Practice
Embedding hand hygiene into daily culture takes more than posters and reminders — but having clear, accessible resources can help reinforce good habits.
For practical guidance, you can download the Food Standards Agency (FSA) official handwashing guide here: FSA: Handwashing Guide (PDF)
Tip: Display handwashing posters near all sinks and handwashing stations to keep best practice visible and top of mind.
Key Takeaways for World Hand Hygiene Day
- Check your facilities: Are they truly handwashing- and drying-friendly?
- Equip your teams: Do they have the soap, sanitiser, towels, bins, and training they need?
- Monitor regularly: Catch small slip-ups before they become bigger problems.
- Lead by example: Clean hands start at the top.
Hand hygiene is simple, but powerful.
This World Hand Hygiene Day, let’s commit to turning handwashing into a habit that protects everyone — guests, staff, and businesses alike.
