Digitalization how will it change the sector?

edited by Simone Ciapparelli

Like in most other industries and in every single aspect of our lives, also in the professional cleaning industry digitalization and the use of technological means are also taking on an increasingly important role. In order to identify the perceived effects of digitalisation on skills and training in the European cleaning sector, EFCI (European Cleaning and Facility Services Industry, which brings together 14 associations representing the industry at national level) had planned to conduct a dedicated survey implemented between February 2020 and April 2022 and called “SK-Clean. Digitalisation in the Cleaning Sector: supporting the skills transition for cleaning agents”. The main data source foreseen by EFCI to conduct the survey was an extensive online questionnaire. In most cases, the questionnaire contained multiple choice questions and answers. In order to increase the number of conclusions to be drawn, the latter could be weight- ed, and often provided rated responses to predetermined sets of statements. The gathering of responses to the online questionnaire was conducted between September 2020 and February 2021. The number of respondents via the online questionnaire was 42, coming from different areas of the industrial cleaning sector, and from 14 different European jurisdictions.

Main drivers and degree of impact

The first question regarded the key factors which, in the opinion of the respondents, drive digitalisation in the cleaning sector. The top three key drivers resulted in: chance to increase productivity (32 respondents out of 42), customer demand (27), easing of workflows from employees (19). The aim is not only to describe the current status-quo of the impacts of digitalisation on the cleaning sector, but also to anticipate possible future developments. Furthermore, EFCI wanted to understand how digitalisation manifests itself in different areas within the cleaning business, such as production and core cleaning activities, sales, marketing, logistics. Survey respondents were asked to individually rate the degree of impact digitalisation in their view had on the different areas within the cleaning business for the past three years (2018 to 2020), as well as the anticipated de - gree of impact for the coming three years (2022 to 2024): the past and future impact of digitalisation on the production and core cleaning activities is seen to be relatively low, and the same is true for vocational education and training. However, while it is true that the impact of digitalisation on production and core cleaning activities as well as vocational education and training is considered to be comparatively low, it would be false to conclude from this that the consequences of digitalisation for these two aspects would hardly be noticeable. In fact, the respondents expect the greatest transformation caused by digitalisation in precisely these two areas. The conclusions on this part of the survey are the following: the impact of digitalisation on all areas of the cleaning business is expected to grow significantly over the next years; The strongest increase of impact is expected on production and core cleaning activities and on vocational education and training.

Need for better training

The first set of statements voiced possible points of view regarding the impact of digitalisation on job-profiles in the cleaning industry in general, while the second set formulates a range of conceivable opinions on the relevance of vocational education and training for digital skills to master the chal- lenges of digitalisation. The results showed that respondents clearly do not believe that applicants for cleaning jobs today have sufficient skills to meet the future challenges digitalisation will bring to the industry. Furthermore, the responses strongly indicate that job profiles and associated skills and competences will become more specialized, especially with view to digital skills. The cleaning industry is aware that better trainings for digital skills need to be developed, not least since there is doubt that the specialized skills demanded by the industry can be picked up by employees simply through everyday use of IT devices. Even though a focus on vocational education and training in digital skills is seen as a priority, respondents seem to be uncertain about the question as to whether it is the industry’s responsibility to provide appropriate trainings, or whether the responsibility lies somewhere else.

Impact on specific job types

Given the feedback on the increased impact of digitalisation on the different business areas in the cleaning industry in the future and on job profiles in general, it is important to find out if specific job types will be affected by digitalisation, and if so, how and to which degree. These job types and roles, identified by the SK-Clean Expert Group are: cleaning agents; administrators; machine operators/cleaning specialists; team leaders; managers. Further to the question of how these job types and roles are affected by digitalisation, it is of equal interest to ascertain which of these job types and roles in the respondents’ opinion have the greatest need for further vocational training and education. The responses show that for team leaders both the impact of digitalisation on their job type and role as well as their need for further vocational training and education in the next years is expected to be the highest among the job

2. Impact on cleaning

In