ROCK STEADY APPROACH TO TRAINING
Those who dismiss the sector as ‘just cleaning’ may assume that training is of little importance as ‘anyone can use a mop’. However, they are
underestimating the importance of professional cleaning and the skills and knowledge required to ensure premises are kept clean and hygienic. Jan-
Hein Hemke, Managing Director of Facilicom UK says that, like the writing in a stick of seaside rock, training should run throughout an operative’s career.
The obvious place to start with training is at the beginning. Whether the person being hired is highly experienced or starting their first job, as an employer you need to ensure they can carry out their role effectively and safely.
An induction programme should cover the ins and outs of the new role, but is also the opportunity to introduce new colleagues to the expected ways of working and to the company culture. A structured programme helps new colleagues to settle in to both their immediate and wider teams. For instance, group inductions provide people with an unofficial ‘buddy’ system as they can get to know people in a similar situation to them.
The overall aim should be to help new starters become productive more quickly and make them want to stay for the longer term.
No matter how thorough and in-depth induction training is, it cannot be the end of an operative’s training. Over the course of their career rules and regulations will change, new equipment becomes available and people forget things.
It is vital that there is an ongoing educational programme and that operatives aren’t able to do things in a certain way because ‘that’s how they’ve always been done’.
CAREER PROGRESSION People’s route into the cleaning industry can be very varied, as can their progression within it. We don’t believe there is such a thing as ‘just a cleaner’. We know people have many different reasons for working in the industry, and different aspirations for what they hope to get out of it. One young operative was working in the cleaning sector to finance his place at college so that he could set up his own plumbing business. We did what we could to help make that happen and even though he’s now successfully established his company, he still chooses to work some shifts with us.
Others will want to stay in the industry full-time, but work their way up the ladder and training will play an important role in making this happen.
48 | TRAINING & EDUCATION
It will also help ensure these talented people stay working for your company rather than transferring to a rival which is offering better opportunities.
Formal management training and mentoring programmes are key to structured career progression. We run these across the Facilicom Group, and I have been involved in mentoring several people on our ‘Potentials Programme’. People not involved in such programmes should not be excluded from climbing the career ladder and management should always be on the lookout for those with the attitude and attributes to develop.
TECHNOLOGY HASN’T
TAKEN OVER YET While automation, robotics and the Internet of Things are the buzz words of the day in many industries, including cleaning, the industry remains very much people focused. Talk of operatives being replaced by robots is somewhat premature. In fact, often cleaning robots need a human operative to ensure they are in the right place and that they don’t run out of water or the like.
There is a short-term educational need to ensure operatives understand how to use new technology as it is introduced. Longer-term, if technology is seen as an opportunity rather than a threat, then operatives may require training to take on new more challenging tasks while robots deal with the more mundane ones.
DIFFERENT METHODS Making training more widely available and flexible is important if people are to be able to access it widely throughout their career. Classroom education is not always the most effective option – for time, cost or learning purposes – which is why we’ve introduced our electronic learning system. This online learning facility means operatives can learn at their own pace, and concentrate on the areas they need to. The system also records their achievements so there is a record of their continued education.
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