COVID-19 update: Changing attitudes to cleaning operatives and cleaning - comment

Fear of COVID-19 and a shift in attitude regarding office health and hygiene are changing the way cleaning operatives and cleaning are viewed and employed by business leaders. And the need for offices not just to be clean, but deep cleaned to give employees a news sense of safety and reassurance, has confirmed operatives’ status as ‘essential workers’ according to Simon Giles, chief operating officer at Axis Cleaning & Support Services. They have also led to the use of new chemicals and cleaning techniques, and a more consultative and collaborative approach to office hygiene.

Giles said: “Businesses now want to see their cleaning teams in operation, during the day. Far from being something in the background, some cleaners are even being asked to wear high-visibility jackets so that customers know exactly who they are…They want to be able to visibly demonstrate their investment in a more hygienically cleaner and safer working environment for a returning workforce.”

This has led to the wider use of specialist chemicals and products such as Zoono and other anti-microbial shield sanitisers: “Such chemicals, of course, are not a panacea,” continued Giles, “but they are part of a changing regime that is seeing cleaning companies promote different ‘layers’ of cleaning with strategies and cleaning programmes that move beyond a one-off office ‘deep clean’ into something more meaningful and ongoing, and that maintains a higher level of ‘clean’ on a more consistent basis.”

Simon Giles also says that new technology is coming on stream to help operatives in logging their tasks to provide an audit trail of cleaning completed and protect businesses against accidents and fraudulent insurance claims from spillages: “We can use tracking technology based on near field communications (NFC) to prove where and at what time a spillage was cleaned up versus the time and location of a claim,” he said.

www.axis-css.co.uk