WORKING AT HEIGHT
REACHING NEW HEIGHTS
Matt Johnson, Managing Director at CAM Specialist Support, the building services company, explains how he is committed to taking steps to make the cleaning industry more attractive to quality candidates and why he is calling on the industry to help attract the next generation of cleaning professionals.
According to Warwick University, the UK market for contract cleaning is estimated to be worth £5.6billion and there are around 448,400 people working in the industry in just over 32,000 companies.
However, the University also says “the cleaning industry continues to suffer from image, recruitment and retention problems” and it claims “skills shortages within the cleaning industry include: management and leadership; technical; and employability skills”.
The cleaning industry is a great place to work and is full of tremendous opportunities for those able to take advantage of them. I started my career as a window cleaner and now run my own diverse company offering a range of specialist services to building owners and managers, including cleaning at height.
However, we have to be honest and say that the cleaning industry is rarely the first choice destination for school, college or university leavers and those seeking work. It is all too often seen as being dirty, monotonous and lowly paid. I’m personally committed to doing something to change that. We need to make the industry more attractive to quality applicants so that our profession gains the credibility it deserves and can recruit and retain quality staff.
The cleaning industry is about so much more than the stereotype of
www.tomorrowscleaning.com
pushing a mop or broom around. It is an industry ripe with opportunities for those with ambition and an entrepreneurial spirit. Far from being mundane, cleaning can be a varied and rewarding career and one that offers plenty of prospects.
THE BENEFITS The importance of the cleaning industry to our health and the economy should not be underestimated. Proper cleaning keeps us healthy by dealing with germs and dust that can spread viruses and bugs. This means staff absenteeism through illness can be kept to a minimum, with associated economic benefits.
A clean workplace also benefits wider well-being and encourages a happy and therefore more productive workplace. A clean environment demonstrates employers’ commitment to their employees’ well-being. It is also good for staff morale and clients’ impressions of a business. That’s an impressive impact for any service industry to have and one that the cleaning industry needs to share more widely.
A FAIR DAY’S PAY A vital early step towards improving the industry’s image and attractiveness is to ensure that people are, at the very minimum, paid a wage that they can actually live on. I know that the tender process for cleaning contracts is almost exclusively driven by price, but it is up
to us as an industry to increase our clients’ understanding of the results of low prices on the frontline workers cleaning their offices, shops, schools and other premises. The current National Minimum Wage is just £6.50 – an amount that results in in-work poverty – and it is unsustainable to maintain the status quo.
Implementing the Living Wage is not going to be easy, but we are one of more than 1,500 accredited Living Wage employers – and pay the Living Wage of at least £9.15 per hour in London – so it can and should be done. There are also 50 accredited service providers helping ensure workers get fair treatment.
Our commitment to our employees goes beyond just pay. We run a support programme, which includes training, investment and personal development. This helps to address skills gaps and develop our employees so that they can grow with the company. Alongside this, we match and exceed local expectations regarding levels of remuneration and pension contributions for staff. Our training arm, CAM Training, offers a range of specialist cleaning, and health and safety courses for internal and external participants.
OFFERING OPPORTUNITIES At CAM Specialist Support we aim to showcase the career prospects available in the sector. We offer
Tomorrow’s Cleaning September 2015 | 57
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
