feature contract cleaning
Important labour trends in commercial cleaning International reports indicate tremendous opportunity in the commercial cleaning industry – some projections peg it at $175 billion in annual US revenues. As a result, commercial cleaning firms are investing in employees in a big way to improve retention and quality of service.
Here are four employee-related cleaning-services trends that any firm can profit from, according to Tork USA’s better business portal.
Trend #1: Training turns commercial cleaning employees from workers into competitive assets
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here are, however, enormous challenges, too. Cleaning companies lose, on average, 55 percent of their business base each and every year, largely due to low customer satisfaction. While some of that may be due to pricing or inadequate relationship management, employee-driven factors – poor performance and low quality of cleaning – are key drivers of customer defections. One important factor is the annual high rate of employee turnover, ranging anywhere from 200 percent to as much as 400 percent. This deprives customers of the familiar faces, employee experience, and consistency they value, and costs employers an average of US$3 300 per employee replacement.
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African Cleaning Review January/February 2020
There is a persistent but inaccurate impression that because cleaning requires no special education, new employees can be expected to simply show up and do satisfactory work. In fact, the lack of training in cleaning companies produces dissatisfaction for customers and employees alike. Poorly trained workers are slower, less thorough and more likely to make errors or have accidents. They experience less job satisfaction, more stress, and are more likely to leave sooner than their better-trained and equipped counterparts. (Note: The quality of cleaning products and equipment is also key to the quality of an employee’s work and the ease with which they can do it.) Managers require training, too – on how to train, motivate and monitor employees. Every reduction in errors or improvement in accuracy improves efficiency, customer retention and, ultimately, profitability. Also, when you have a reliably efficient, consistent, cleaning crew, you can more confidently create highly competitive bids, bringing in more business. The increased recognition of the business-building value of effective training has led to a wealth of training options, from pre-packaged courses for employee onboarding, to specialised ‘green cleaning’ instruction, to continuing education offerings for managers.
Trend #2: Employee incentives perk up retention rates in cleaning services Education gets you started down the right path, but it takes motivation to keep your employees going, especially in an era when it’s relatively easy to switch jobs. Pay is, as ever, the biggest source of employee motivation, but hardly the only one. Cleaning contractors should be offering employee benefits that range from practical life enhancements to on-the-job morale boosting. Paid time off, health insurance, individual employee recognition awards and even oldfashioned company team-building exercises are all on the ‘employee perks’ menu now.
Trend #3: New IoT technology gives cleaning teams ‘superpowers’ The terms ‘cleaning’ or ‘janitorial services’ may not instantly suggest innovative technology, but these days it really should. Phone-based apps allow a manager to monitor use levels, equipment locations and employee progress in large facilities. Smart washrooms feature paper dispensers that notify you when supplies run low. Floor-cleaning robots relieve employees of mundane, timeconsuming labour, freeing them up for higher-value tasks. Today’s ultraconnected technology is transforming the way commercial cleaning services work, with the potential to make employees much more efficient and effective. continues on page 10 >>
