This month’s topic is how to evaluate the performance of cleaning staff.
- Do your cleaners review their own performance against a checklist?
- Are they clear about your priorities?
- Do you provide feedback on a regular basis?
- What about complaints, is there a clear system for reporting issues or dissatisfaction with the quality of work supplied?
Yes, a lot of questions, but you should seriously think about the answers!
If you have cleaners on your premises, it is crucial that they fulfil their duties consistently and to a high standard.
How to evaluate the performance of cleaning staff
Whether employing cleaners yourself, or hiring a commercial cleaning service for your business, the first thing is to be clear about your priorities and expectations.
Every business has different requirements according to:
- Business type: Offices, retail, healthcare, education, etc.
- Site size
- Number of employees
- Kitchen facilities?
- Whether the site open to the public?
- Health and safety requirements
- Confidentiality obligations
- Healthcare protocols
And the list goes on…….
In the Crystal Clean blog “The advantages of hiring a commercial cleaner,” we outlined the benefits of hiring a commercial cleaning company (rather than self-employed cleaners.)
We explained in detail how the higher standards of a professional cleaning service can positively impact your business, including:
- Cleaning schedules
- Colour coding
- Safety compliance
- Monitoring the quality of the cleaning service
- Complaints procedure
- Staff training
- Hazardous product training
This also applies to how to evaluate the performance of cleaning staff.
There should be a system in place to make sure that cleaners are performing their duties consistently and to the highest standards.
How do you evaluate the performance of cleaning staff
On a basic level, cleaners are only as good as their last clean.
Cleaning can be a thankless task, so it is important that teams are motivated, efficient, and have the training and experience to tailor cleaning solutions to clients’ requirements.
If your cleaners are on site more than three times per week, their employer (commercial cleaning company), should be on site at least once per month, in order to:
- Replenish cleaning supplies
- Evaluate the standard of cleaning on your premises
- Communicate with their staff
- Maintain the relationship with you, the client
- Resolve issues promptly
For larger sites, or those with complicated requirements, it may be necessary for a site supervisor or team leader to oversee operations, provide feedback to cleaning teams and the client, and resolve any on-site issues promptly.
Monitoring the quality of a cleaning service
When deciding how to evaluate the performance of cleaning staff, there are a number of methods commercial cleaning services can implement to ensure a consistently high standard of cleaning on your premises.
Detailed checklist
Following an initial discussion with clients, a comprehensive checklist will be developed, tailored specifically to the needs of each individual client and their site.
The checklist covers every aspect of the cleaning process to form a cleaning schedule staff can work to, which details what should be cleaned with what chemicals/equipment, and how often each task should be completed.
The checklist can be updated or amended as required by evolving business demands or to encompass new industry regulations or requirements.
Regular inspections
How to evaluate the performance of cleaning staff? As we noted above, inspections should be scheduled at least monthly against the checklist to assess the quality of cleaning against client/company/industry standards and to ensure staff are using cleaning equipment and chemicals safely and being compliant with regulations.
Regular inspections should include safety protocols and procedures, especially in environments where there may be specific requirements, such as healthcare, food service, and tech industries.
Some inspections should be unannounced ‘spot checks’, to ensure that cleaning and hygiene standards are met consistently, and not just when regular, expected checks take place.
Client Feedback
It is important that clients know the company representative, supervisor, or team leader and that they invite your feedback on the cleaning service.
As well as face-to-face contact, pre-inspection satisfaction surveys can be sent to the client in advance, to ascertain any issues for double-checking during scheduled inspections or spot checks.
At Crystal Clean Service, we are committed to customer service and understand that a quick response and a timely resolution to issues raised by customers, is a crucial aspect of good customer service.
We always have supervisors on hand to discuss any issues raised by customers and we go even further to make sure our customers are happy with the cleaning service we provide.
It is our policy to resolve all issues raised within a 24 hour window, whenever possible.
Employee Feedback
Managing teams of cleaners is difficult, but it is very important that they receive regular feedback on the quality of their work and that they feel confident in the training they have received.
Managing staff is the responsibility of the commercial cleaning company, not the client.
Remember that you are paying for a cleaning service, so you should not be managing teams of cleaners!
However, if you directly employ cleaners in your business, regular feedback, quality auditing and training are essential to make sure high standards are maintained.
Staff Training and Development
At Crystal Clean Service, we implement rigorous training programmes to make sure our commitment to quality shines through in every cleaning contract.
We adhere to industry-best practices and instil a culture of precision cleaning in our staff members.
Moreover, we ensure continuous training so that our employees are aware of the latest cleaning techniques, how to use state-of-the-art equipment and updates in health and safety.
If you hire a cleaning service, our advice is to check on their standards of practice and training programmes for your own peace of mind.
At Crystal Clean Service, our people look after your people.
We know that we cannot offer you the quality of service we are renowned for if we do not look after our staff!
So, we provide:
- Comprehensive training programmes
- Support
- A safe and inclusive work environment
We prioritise creating a nurturing and positive atmosphere, so our cleaning teams are motivated and care about providing a high quality service to their clients.
How to evaluate the performance of cleaning staff in Summary
Quite often, when new businesses contact us for a quote, they are looking elsewhere because the current cleaning standards are falling short.
We find that this is simply because management, support, and feedback is either lacking, or in some cases non-existent.
When assessing how to evaluate the performance of cleaning staff, commercial cleaning companies can utilise the methods we have discussed in this blog to effectively:
- Monitor the quality of a cleaning service
- Identify areas for improvement
- Verify cleaning methods and protocols
- Ensure compliance with industry standards/regulations
- Take on board client concerns
- Train and motivate staff
If your business is in South Yorkshire or North Derbyshire and you currently employ cleaners directly but feel you don’t have enough time or experience to manage them, there is a better way!
