Resolving our problems
Looking to the year ahead, James White of Denis Rawlins Ltd suggests six New Year’s Resolutions for the cleaning industry.
Every new year brings with it the hope and opportunity for renewal, starting afresh, doing things better. Hence the tradition of making resolutions, and – you’re probably thinking – breaking them.
Let’s not be too cynical. By definition, a resolution requires the resolve to overcome a challenge and make a change. Resolutions aren’t easy, that’s what makes them worth the effort. So here are six resolutions for the cleaning industry in 2019:
• Start at the top. Large parts of our industry suffer from short-termism, cut-throat competition, high labour turnover, and a poor image. Our trade associations and training bodies need to come together and thrash out an agenda for changing this. First priority should be to devise a strategy to re-position cleaning as a professional service that’s essential for the health, safety and wellbeing of our ultimate customers. No single committee or working group can bring this about. It would require commitment across the industry, but we need leadership to set the direction.
• Business and policy decisions are best based on data and evidence, but not so often in cleaning. Cleaning costs per metre are a useful measure of efficiency, but the results of cleaning can still be left out of the equation. Let’s revise our industry guidance and make it standard practice to measure actual cleanliness scientifically (with ATP meters). Then supervisors and our clients could know they were achieving high standards of cleanliness as well as value for money.
• If our services are to be seen to be professional, the industry needs to raise its game when it comes to training. Not just in cleaning techniques; the ways we measure and manage cleaning performance need to be put on a professional footing too. We find that managers and supervisors are sometimes too busy to participate in equipment training sessions. Everyone involved in the cleaning service needs to be committed if we are to achieve and maintain high standards across the industry.
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• High staff turnover and low wages reflect the harsh reality of the cut-price competitive tendering that prevails in much of the industry. It is a deep-seated problem that cannot be resolved overnight. But growing pressure for a living wage and any clampdown on migration of low- skilled labour post-Brexit will challenge that business model. Professionalisation of cleaning could be part of the solution as better-paid and -trained staff should be more motivated and productive. Employers would also save from lower churn and recruitment costs.
• Even if well trained, cleaning staff will struggle to achieve high productivity unless they are properly equipped. Labour costs already account for the lion’s share of cleaning budgets. Failing to make productive use of that resource is wasteful financially as well as demotivating for operatives. A new calendar year is as good a time as any to review ‘the way we’ve always done things’ and consider whether other methods would be more cost- effective. This does not mean embracing innovation for the sake of having the latest technology. Instead think in terms of ‘return on innovation’ – consistently high cleaning results, greater efficiency, resulting in lower overall operational costs and a clear return on investment.
• The last resolution I’d suggest is not an afterthought – it’s fundamental to the others. Increasingly our clients are striving to make their businesses more sustainable, and they expect the same of us: better energy efficiency, minimising chemicals and eliminating those that are potentially harmful, and generally making best use of resources, while being socially responsible. As with the business case for innovation, more sustainable practice is often more efficient and effective too.
Sometimes the most daunting thing is change itself. Let’s make some changes for the better in 2019.
www.rawlins.co.uk twitter.com/TomoCleaning
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