Have you ever thought about outsourcing your commercial cleaning but thought it to be too expensive? If the answer is yes, keep reading as you may be surprised to learn the true cost of doing it yourself or employing directly.
It may seem like the most cost-effective solution to run your cleaning team in-house but businesses often forget the additional costs involved such as budgeting for sickness, holidays, pension contributions and any staff benefits offered by the company. Plus management time and staff training is often overlooked when setting cleaning budgets.
The average salary for a full-time cleaner (outside London) is £18,000 per annum including holiday pay.
Factor in sick pay (£436.15 roughly one week per year)
Tax, pension and national insurance contributions (£2,700 per year)
Recruitment costs to advertise, interview and hire candidates (approximately £500)
Cleaning materials (£1,500 per annum)
And finally any ongoing management costs (£1,000 per annum).
You’re looking at a cost to your business of roughly £24,136.15 per annum, per employee!
Payroll, HR, staff training costs and absence…
Ask yourself how much time is spent processing payroll and HR for your cleaning team? How much time is spent training new cleaners and carrying out refresher training for any long standing team members? What about the time invested in managing the team, auditing standards and dealing with problems such as absences? Absence alone can take a lot of time to source cover and if you can’t source this in-house it can cost an arm and a leg using agencies for temporary support or worse than that, the cleaning goes amiss. If the cleaning isn’t done because of absence, what is the greater impact on your business and colleagues?
Attrition and recruitment
Another question for you; what is your cleaning staff attrition like? If your attrition levels are high, how much time and money are you spending on advertising cleaning jobs and the recruitment and onboarding process? Who is responsible for this and does it distract from their key responsibilities and best use of time?
All these little things soon start to add up and it’s a lot more than you might initially think.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing your commercial cleaning takes the hassle and associated costs away from you. It can also significantly improve the motivation levels of the cleaning team and the standards of cleanliness. This is due to having the right training, chemicals and equipment, working to checklists and having a regular auditing program and supervisor support. Improved standards of cleanliness have been shown to increase employee productivity and wellbeing in the workplace. Plus it creates great first impressions for your clients and customers.
All of our clients have a dedicated point of contact and regular communication from our head office team. This gives our clients peace of mind that they are in good hands and we pride ourselves on the relationships we build.
Recruitment
We make sure to hire the right people based on our stringent recruitment systems so you know you’re getting high-quality cleaners that share our core company values and deliver consistently. Our supervisors help us ensure that a clean is never missed, regardless of holiday and absence. And we’re pleased to be able to say that our first ever team member still works with us today!
What are you waiting for? Book a quote meeting and see how we can save you time and money and allow you to focus on your business.
Do you know the difference between cleaning, sanitising and disinfecting? Many people confuse them so we thought we’d help you understand the different roles they play in workplace cleaning.
Cleaning
Cleaning removes visible dirt and residue from surfaces and objects using a form of detergent. It’s not to be confused with sanitising as cleaning alone does not effectively remove germs and bacteria.
Sanitising
Sanitising significantly reduces the number of bacteria on surfaces or objects but does not completely kill bacteria.
Disinfecting
Disinfecting destroys bacteria and viruses using medical-grade products.
At Sparkle Cleaning, once we’ve cleaned the surfaces we use a medical-grade broad spectrum surface disinfectant that is BS EN 1276:1997 and BS EN 13704:2002 certified. It is bactericidal, fungicidal, viricidal and sporicidal and is 99.999% effective!
It’s important to use a professional commercial cleaning company that invests in high quality products and knows how to use them effectively. It’s also important to encourage your staff to help keep the workplace clean throughout the day. You can check out some useful posters and resources that we’ve put together HERE.
For more information on the services we provide and how we can help you and your business, get in touch.
Why do particular areas in the workplace get overlooked?
This is generally because of looking up, looking down and checklists. This is what we call selective viewing. It means that people typically only view what is in their direct eye line.
Look up
Most people when they’re walking around a general area, unless specifically looking for something will never look up. A standard duster will only reach 6 – 8 ft so depending on how tall you are, this determines how high you can reach. A lot of people will say that anything above that is too hard to reach so don’t worry about it, but this isn’t necessarily the case. There are tools, equipment and techniques that can be used to make sure these areas aren’t missed, however, that depends on the cleaning contractor you use. If they’re not an efficient cleaning contractor or if they’re a domestic cleaner that has come across to the commercial market they won’t necessarily have the specialist tools, skills and experience to carry out a thorough clean.
For example, I was working out on a treadmill at a gym and when I looked up I could clearly see that the vents hadn’t been cleaned in a long time. When I spoke to the gym manager and asked if this was for a particular reason, his response was “My staff can’t reach the vents”. Well, we have a tool that can reach 40ft high, meaning we can easily access difficult to reach areas. That’s the difference between doing the cleaning yourself and using a professional cleaning company like Sparkle Cleaning.
Look down
The same goes for looking down; if you go into the reception area of an office or somewhere similar you’ll typically find leaves and mud especially during winter. A lot of people will say, well it’s winter, they just get blown in through the front door. Yes, they do, but once again there are tools you can use. For example, we have some very public-facing clients where first impressions are really important. We know it’s not convenient to bring out a bulky vacuum cleaner every morning and lunchtime to clean up after heavy footfall when our team aren’t there. That’s why we provide them with a small and efficient handheld unit that they can use throughout the day. That’s the difference between a generic cleaning company and a good commercial cleaning company. The reason we do this is because these standards still represent us even when we’re not on site.
Checklists
When did you last close a fire door and notice some dust and dirt behind it? If cleaning teams aren’t provided with checklists and standard operating procedures to give clarity on what’s expected of them, then things will get missed. It’s also important to make sure that those checklists are being used, so how do we do this? We check standards through regular auditing. When audits take place it’s essential our Supervisors and Managers use the standard operating procedures so they know exactly where to check and what they’re looking for. Our detailed audits generate a pass or a fail score. It’s as simple as that.
Take a look around your workplace…look up, look down, look behind things and ask yourself if the cleaning is a good representation of your business? What message does this communicate to your customers and clients?
If your cleaning isn’t portraying the message you want it to then book a quote with Sparkle Cleaning today.
In view of the Cornovirus pandemic, it’s more important than ever to create a safe and healthy learning environment for our children and education professionals. Even though children have a better immune system response to COVID-19 it’s important to teach them good habits and the best way to do this is from an early age and leading by example.
Shocking facts!
Whilst children may have better immune response to COVID-19 than adults, did you know that on average, students come in contact with about 152,300 germs while they’re at school? One study found that children under two years old bring their fingers to their faces 81 times per hour! Just think about how many germs are being transferred.
As with any commercial cleaning, it’s key to focus on cleaning and disinfecting high usage and high touch areas such as classroom desks, door handles, cafeteria tables and chairs, computer keyboards, water fountains and toilets etc. Using the right cleaning products is also essential; there is a big difference between cleaning and sanitising which is why we clean dirt and grime first before sanitising surfaces with a viricidal disinfectant that is safe for use in schools.
Cleaning is a valuable learning experience
Teaching children how to wash their hands properly is vital from a young age as well as learning the skills on how to clean, tidy and respect their environment. Children learn through play which is why we’ve put together some fun activity packs. You can find them on our client resources page along with other helpful tools and posters such as how to wash and sanitise hands.
With many countries in lockdown during the COVID19 pandemic forcing offices to close and staff to work remotely, you can’t help but wonder what the future of offices will look like? Company culture is changing, so is the office dead?
Remote working
Large companies like Twitter, Unilever and Google have all announced plans to work remotely for the foreseeable future (or forever in some cases) but how does remote working really work?
For a lot of people working from home sounded great until they had to do it for months and months on end. And what happens when you don’t have adequate space for a home office or don’t have the proper DSE requirements to work comfortably and safely?
The home isn’t designed to be an office and it can be hard to separate work from home life and find a healthy balance. How often have you found yourself opening up your laptop to ‘quickly’ do something, then hours later you’re still working and wondering where the time has gone? It can also be much harder to manage your time effectively; distractions are everywhere! Have you been tempted to watch TV, scroll through social media on your phone or go and make snacks when you should be working? Productivity and motivation can be significantly impacted as well as missing out on essential social interaction.
That being said there are some great advantages to home working, utilising technology such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack have made working from home, communication with colleagues and staying organised a lot easier. Plus who misses the commute to and from the office, right? Whilst productivity can decrease at home, it has also been proven to increase. Not only that, there are fewer sick days are taken, employee attrition can improve and remote working can save companies substantial money with a smaller property footprint.
What does the future of offices look like?
There’s a great opportunity to keep the best parts of office culture while getting rid of bad habits, inefficiencies and office politics. While many businesses can work completely remotely, it’s not always in the best interest of employees to do this long term, so to some degree offices will still be an important part of daily life, taking a hybrid approach to office and home working for a proportion of the working week.
Offices will be less densely packed with stricter safety measures in place such as floor signage and markings for one way systems and social distancing. Floor plans will be reimagined with screens to divide workstations, improved air circulation, staggered lunch breaks, hand sanitising stations and no more hotdesking. Technology will likely play an even bigger part in offices with keyless entrances or biometric face scanning and automatic doors. Cleaning, hygiene and sanitisation will also play a much more important role in the office than ever before.
Hygiene and cleanliness
Employees will play a vital role in keeping the workplace clean throughout the day with hand sanitising and handwashing stations dotted around the office and antibacterial sprays to keep surfaces clean after use. Professional cleaning companies like Sparkle Cleaning will help reduce the risk of COVID-19 within the workplace by using medical-grade viricidal cleaning products to effectively sanitise touch points and high usage areas.
Cleaning can be performed out of hours to suit the needs of the business and to reduce unnecessary contact with people from outside your organisation. Where office cleaning isn’t possible outside of working hours, full PPE is provided to ensure the safe delivery of cleaning services and best practice followed by Sparkle Cleaning team members.
It’s essential that cleaning staff are trained to a high standard and follow checklists to ensure nothing is missed. It’s also important to have a trusted cleaning partner so that if you do have an outbreak within your workplace it can be dealt with quickly and efficiently by a professional and certified service provider.
If you’d like to find out more about how Sparkle Cleaning can help assist your return to the workplace and create a clean and safe environment for your staff, get in touch today.
Sparkle Cleaning was invited to quote for an independent gym that had been doing their cleaning in-house since opening in 2015. Fast forward to 2020; a global pandemic, national and local lockdowns, accompanied by social distancing measures and an increased need for high levels of cleanliness, Sparkle Cleaning came highly recommended from a neighbouring business.
The client knew they needed to step up their current cleaning service by working with a professional cleaning company but had concerns about the cost of outsourcing. Sparkle Cleaning was able to provide a quick and easy quote based on the needs of the business and at times that worked around their operating hours. Not only that, Sparkle Cleaning was able to provide a broad spectrum medical grade surface disinfectant that is BS EN 1276 and BS EN 13704 certified, which could also be used by their members throughout the day to keep the equipment clean and sanitised. This combined with professional daily cleaning, a routine deep cleaning schedule and regular auditing was a worthwhile investment for the client.
After working with Sparkle Cleaning for a couple of weeks the client had already noticed significant improvements in the quality and standard of cleaning. It made a huge difference in having a professional cleaning company do the cleaning instead of the in-house gym staff. Plus the gym staff were more productive as it freed up their time to focus on the sales, customer experience and personal training, which in turn generated the client more revenue and completely justified the outsourced cleaning budget.
Feedback from gym members has been really positive regarding the standard of cleanliness and how safe they feel using the facilities with the extra cleaning measures in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sparkle Cleaning has now been working with the client for several months and has become part of their extended team.
Working with them as part of the team, the client now has a set structure in place to make sure that both their staff and gym-goers are safe and have peace of mind that their facilities are always cleaned to the highest of standards.
Our clients’ facilities are our priority.
When redundancy happens it can feel like the worst thing in the world – you might be embarrassed to speak with your loved ones, or feel anger towards your previous employers.
Firstly, remember; this isn’t personal. When a company has to make teams redundant, it’s usually done with great thought and reluctance. The good news is that it can turn into a great positive, if handled in the right way.
Be very open and honest with yourself – what were your feelings towards your previous role?
Is this a door being closed, or another being opened? It can be a great time to retrain. What is that dream you’ve always had… is now the right time to start pursuing that?
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In this guide we’ll be looking at things you can do to maintain and improve your mind, body, soul and wallet. By keeping on top of these 4 things, you’ll be primed to live a fulfilled life, and turn this redundancy into a huge opportunity for you to improve things.
Simply enter your details below, and we’ll send your Redundancy Survival Guide straight over to you:
It’s now more important than ever to know what cleaning service you are getting from your cleaning provider.
When did your cleaning provider last reach out to you? If you haven’t heard from them a while, give them a ring, pick up the phone, talk to them.
Make sure you know what service you’re getting. Are they just coming in, emptying the bins and wiping over the desks? Or are they doing the phones? Are they doing the touchpoints? Are they doing the keyboards? What chemicals are they using? Are they going down to the local supermarket to buy things? Or are they using a medical-grade antibacterial disinfectant that’s used for medical theaters? Are the chemicals that they’re using strong enough to kill COVID?
A standard disinfectant isn’t really enough anymore – you should make sure that your cleaning company is using a broad-spectrum disease disinfectant.
At Sparkle Cleaning, we use a product called Versan. Versan is BS EN 1276 and BS EN 13704 rated. This means that it’s a medical standard, and has undergone European standard testing. We’ve rolled this out to all of our sites, and made sure our clients that they have a bottle of this product under their shelves so that they can clean down between our visits, too.
Our aim here, during COVID and beyond, is to make sure that we’re keeping you safe, making sure that we’re keeping your family safe, and making sure we all work together to help beat COVID.
We’re now in a situation where we’re not just trying to keep our team safe in the office with us, but it’s also about keeping our team’s family safe, too.
It’s now more important than ever to make sure that you know exactly what you’re getting from your cleaning provider.
If you have any doubts, reach out to Sparkle Cleaning. We use the same medical-grade sanitizers and antibacterials as medical theaters. We’ve upgraded all of our PPE for our teams to medical-grade PPE. We’re here to not just keep you safe, but also to keep your offices safe, and keep your family safe.
As a business, the safety of your staff and customers is paramount, and in these uncertain times, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your offices are cleaned to the highest standard. Our clients can rely on us to communicate with them openly and clearly, so they have knowledge of everything that’s been cleaned and when. Our robust systems ensure that our cleans are always conducted to the same high-quality standard every single time, which means you won’t have to worry about consistency, and our reliable teams deliver the best results every time, on time. That means you have peace of mind knowing that you’re working in a safe and hygienic environment.
The cleanliness of your office space has never been so important. Join hundreds of businesses across the UK that trust Sparkle Cleaning and get your free quote booked in today.
Sparkle Cleaning had been working with a large serviced office cleaning the communal areas for a couple of years when the client recommended them to another branch and made an introduction. The other branch had become increasingly frustrated with their current cleaning provider who hadn’t been spending the correct amount of time on-site, but claimed that they had and continued to invoice for the full amount of time. This resulted in hours and hours of the client’s time wasted on searching through security reports and extracting swipe card access information in order to review the actual time spent on site. Despite the evidence, their existing provider insisted it was wrong and refused to compensate the client, which damaged the relationship beyond repair. It was at this moment that the client knew they needed to make a change and invest in a company that not only care but could also deliver.
In the initial meeting with the client, they were obviously quite apprehensive given their previous experience but Sparkle Cleaning were able to provide a simple and effective solution by implementing a time management system with GPS tracking.
The existing team were TUPED over from the previous supplier and introduced to The Sparkle Way. They instantly felt welcomed to the family and commented on how nice it was to see the management team in person and the support received from day one. Sparkle Cleaning worked closely with the team to make the transition as smooth as possible as a change of employer can be unsettling if not done in the right way. The team were really receptive to the new way of working using a simple time management app which has enabled us to rebuild the clients’ confidence in their cleaning provision.
Once the team had been with us for 3 months they were gifted annual passes to the local zoo. The team feel recognised and valued for their hard work and the results of feeling this way speak volumes on the client site. The team are more engaged and motivated and the standards have improved significantly.
As a direct result of the positive steps we have taken, Sparkle Cleaning has been awarded more business cleaning individual units within the serviced offices and are currently in discussion about taking on more regional branches to deliver the same results across the board.
“Having worked with many different cleaning companies, it is sometimes better the devil you know. However, from the first contact with Jaclyn, we were blown away from the service Sparkle Cleaning delivered.”
Sparkle Cleaning was approached by the London Head Office of a Finance Company during the planning stages of a large office move from Bath to Bristol. At that time they were working with a large national company and saw lots of change of staff both within the team and management, meaning it was getting harder and harder to communicate with them. The client had been operating in Bath for a number of years and had become very unhappy with the poor standards of their existing cleaning company. Staff were fed up with things regularly being missed and no communication from their cleaning company so when the opportunity came up to move to a bigger office, it was a no brainer to change cleaning providers at the same time.
Initially, the client was concerned about changing as it can be a lot of hassle and doesn’t always improve the situation but Sparkle Cleaning was right beside them every step of the way to make the transition smooth and easy, setting their mind at rest from day one.
The move-in date was delayed and pushed back slightly but Sparkle Cleaning was able to flex with their needs to ensure a thorough deep clean took place on the weekend of the move. The office facilities were absolutely sparkling and ready for the client to move into their new home for business as usual on the Monday morning and a dedicated DBS checked Sparkle Cleaning team member was trained and ready to go from day one to facilitate the regular office cleaning.
Sparkle Cleaning formed a fantastic relationship with the client, leaving them with total peace of mind that the work is consistently being carried out to a very high standard thanks to our simple checklists and they love knowing that their customers are wowed each and every time they set foot in the office.
The client was so happy with the service and professionalism they received that they referred Sparkle Cleaning to a partner company and have also entrusted us to source and supply their consumable items on a monthly basis. The relationship has gone from strength to strength and we’re really pleased to say that Sparkle Cleaning changed the way the client feels about cleaning contractors for the better which isn’t an easy feat.
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