I’m too for this job
Paul Thrupp reflects on how the British Cleaning Council looks to promote the role of the individual throughout the sector.
As the voice of the UK cleaning sector, the BCC is often asked to comment on stories linked to commercial cleaning in publications like this one.
But as the reputation of the BCC continues to grow, more organisations and brands seek our endorsement for more mainstream activities.
For example, we were recently approached for comment about a national survey which had asked 2,000 people what they thought the most ‘unsexy’ job was – and the fact that 28% of respondents said ‘a cleaner’, making it the top answer, narrowly beating ‘plumber’.
At first this seemed to be just another story knocking the cleaning profession, but once we dug a bit deeper we discovered it was linked to a new book called ‘Unsexy Business’ written by the multi-millionaire entrepreneur Jamie Waller.
It turned out Jamie had himself started his business journey as a window cleaner when he was just 17, and he was now looking to champion careers in cleaning (and other ‘unsexy’ occupations), not criticise them, in his new book.
In this context we were happy to provide Jamie with a quote for his press release plus some industry facts and figures. Subsequently some of our contribution appeared in several national publications which covered the story, including the Daily Mail online.
Not long afterwards, Kärcher contacted us to ask if we could get
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behind their ‘Thank Your Cleaner Day’ campaign, an initiative designed to recognise the hard work of those seemingly ‘invisible’ cleaning operatives which make a massive contribution to our society.
Again, due to the fact this activity was designed to help change perceptions of our industry – and recognise operatives as individuals – we were happy to provide Kärcher with some supportive comments to help promote the scheme.
The BCC is also often approached by its members and industry partners to support projects financially, and this year our Finance & Policy committee agreed to be a sponsor for two of our members’ awards programmes.
But like the examples above, the criteria for what we will and won’t support is very much determined by what exactly is being showcased, and whether there is a platform that recognises individual achievement rather than corporate success.
This is why we agreed to be sponsor of the Eric Hill Medal at our member BICSc’s annual awards in September. Eric Hill was the founder of BICSc and the medal which bears his name is awarded to an individual for past service to the Institute who has made a great personal contribution to training and education.
Similarly, we were happy to sponsor the Cleaning Operative of the Year category at the BACHE Awards due to the incredibly high standards required to win it. These included
‘performing their role in an outstanding manner’, ‘promoting a high standard of customer service’ and ‘undertaking activities outside of the normal requirements of the job role’.
We are also delighted that the Kimberly-Clark Professional Golden Service Awards continue to recognise individual achievements through their Supervisor of the Year and Cleaning Operative of the Year accolades, as these chime with our own philosophy regarding the importance of promoting the person rather than the profit margin.
There was also lovely moment on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch show just after the GSA awards, where the awards’ host (and one of the country’s best comedy actors) Sally Phillips was being teased by the C4 presenters about her having ‘done a corporate’ in aid of commercial cleaning.
She responded by saying it had been one the best corporates she had ever hosted, and that it had been especially great to give out awards to individuals who really cared about the work they did and were proud of their profession.
We really couldn’t have said it better ourselves – and we look forward to working with our members and the wider cleaning industry to celebrate the human side what we do whenever we can.
www.britishcleaningcouncil.org
twitter.com/TomoCleaning
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