“We urgently need the Government to help us address staff shortages the sector faces in order to protect our workforce.”
Industry faces burnout crisis
Jim Melvin, Chairman of the British Cleaning Council (BCC), says that personnel shortages could lead to staff burnout.
I recently took part in a Radio 4 news piece focusing on the severe staff shortages in the cleaning and hygiene sector and their possible impact. The report on You and Yours included interviews with two specialist cleaners supplied by an agency to work at a hospital in the West Midlands.
They explained and reiterated to the interviewer about the technical skills needed
for the role and how physically and mentally demanding it was, cleaning hospital spaces of the COVID virus and helping save people’s lives. They worked almost every day of the week due to the pandemic in a demanding, high- pressure role, getting wards and rooms ready for use as quickly as possible, while taking precautions to prevent spreading the infection.
While they spoke, the impact of staff shortages became all too clear. They said colleagues were leaving the job and so their work had to be picked up by others. As a result, people were doing double-shifts and the workforce was becoming tired and stretched.
I wrote about this issue in my last column, describing how many industry colleagues are reporting staff shortages, and how this had been backed up by a recent BCC survey of industry firms representing over 30,000 employees in total, which recorded nearly 2000 vacancies. The estimate from those figures suggested that there could be 90,000 vacancies across the industry.
As we in the industry know, the work of cleaning and hygiene staff is vital to protecting public health and wellbeing, particularly during the current pandemic. Cleaning staff ensure workplaces and public buildings are clean, germ free and safe, and staff are proud of their role.
In the column I outlined my fears that the major recruitment problems our industry faces could dramatically reduce that critical role, at a crucial time in the nation’s fight against the virus, with infection rates high, a new variant and in the depths of winter. What I didn’t mention was the overriding
24 | REGULAR
concerns about the impact that the severe staff shortages could have on cleaning staff themselves.
While there was no indication during their BBC Radio 4 interview that the two healthcare cleaners mentioned above are themselves facing burnout, the situation they describe is being faced by personnel across the sector and I fear for the toll it must be taking on people’s physical, mental and emotional health at a time when, paradoxically, they’re assisting in the mental wellbeing and confidence of others.
Over the course of the pandemic, many industry staff have taken on an extra workload as part of their role preventing the spread of the virus.
Then there are other stresses caused by the pandemic, such as fears for your loved ones or having to unexpectedly look after self-isolating schoolchildren, and the fact that it’s all been dragging on for nearly two years.
Now add in covering for a growing number of vacant positions, just as the two healthcare cleaning operatives described on You and Yours, and it makes for a worrying cocktail which could lead to staff burnout, leaving personnel feeling emotionally and physically exhausted, which may result in staff being absent through illness or leaving the industry altogether.
Reputable employers, like those in the associations which comprise the BCC’s membership, prioritise supporting their staff, but there is only so much that we can do. We urgently need the Government to help us address staff shortages the sector faces in order to protect our workforce, as much as for all the other reasons I’ve already highlighted.
We are now seeking an urgent meeting with the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) to drive home this message to government on both the scale and urgency of the issue. I will keep you informed.
www.britishcleaningcouncil.org twitter.com/TomoCleaning
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
