Cleaning staff and housekeepers play a crucial in your company, but what would happen if they quit or are taken sick, which can happen on short notice?
Why is having an operations manual important?
Organisations rely so heavily on particular cleaning staff that when staff changes occur the cleaning operations are often severely disrupted. It is vital that you don’t become dependent on particular people. Even during short term staff absences there could be a skills shortage resulting in a loss or reduced service. Cleaning documentation helps the organisation to provide the right cleaning skills and knowledge to the right people, at the right time to ensure a reliable and continuous service.
Cleaning documentation comes is many different forms, from written cleaning checklists to full company-wide cleaning operations manual, including training manuals, and serves to protect your company from relying on the knowledge and skills of particular people. The idea is to document all the relevant cleaning procedures, standards, essential knowledge, and instructions – fundamentally documenting all cleaning operations. This provides an essential guide for all cleaning staff, including new staff – in all areas – effectively allowing greater freedom should key staff leave.
In summary
- Consistent and reliable cleaning operations improve reputation
- Cleaning staff know what they have to do, how to do it, and what standards to achieve
- Everyone is accountable
- Reduces wasted time and effort
Are you relying too heavily on particular individuals to maintain cleaning operations?
Keep reading to see how we can help you with cleaning documentation and manuals
Cleaning Operations Manual
A cleaning operations manual is a written manual that contains all the information cleaning staff and supervisors need in order to perform the jobs effectively and efficiently. It contains
all the cleaning procedures (also called checklists, standard operating procedures, or method statements), cleaning standards to achieve, descriptions of cleaning chemicals and equipment, health and safety information, and any other pertinent information they need.
Cleaning operations manuals provide thorough guidance for all cleaning staff – existing and new staff, to ensure a consistent outcome.
Key Benefits:
Ensuring consistent and reliable cleaning operations every time
Ensuring predictable cleaning standards
Reducing new staff onboard training time
Increase the skills and knowledge base across cleaning staff
Making staff rotation and delegation easy
Cleaning Training Manual
A cleaning training manual differs from an operations manual in that it is designed to provide internal training materials and guidance for internal trainers to deliver internal training to cleaning staff. The training manual contains all the cleaning skills and knowledge and guidance for a trainer in how to deliver practical training sessions.
Key Benefits:
Ensure the right people have the right skills when needed
Training content designed to the exact needs of the organisation
Ensure new staff get up to speed quickly
Provide back-up skills to cover staff absences
Ensure consistent training content across the organisation, even around the world
Reduce staff dissatisfaction and increase staff engagement
Cleaner’s Guidance
Whereas a cleaning operations manual and a training manual are very much oriented towards the organisation, cleaner’s guidance documentation is solely designed to provide essential skills and knowledge directly to cleaning and housekeeping staff. This is guidance that the staff own and is ideal as a go-to reference for cleaning procedures, important health and safety information, and to supplement staff training.
Key Benefits:
Easy and instant reference for staff to find the required cleaning procedures for specific tasks
Easy and instant reference for staff to find the required cleaning standards to achieve
Ideal to support staff after training to help enhance accurate recall of training materials
Ideal to communicate specific information needed in specific areas
Support
Everything we do in documentation is completely customised to your exact requirements and needs. This ensures you have documentation that works and is relevant to you and to your staff. You may have existing documentation which we can review and update as necessary, to create a unified and consistent documentation and manuals.
We don’t stop once the work has been completed, we like to ensure the cleaning documentation is kept up to date with changes in the working environment.
We can:
Review all existing documentation and make recommendations for improvement
Make improvement recommendations for cleaning procedures, health and safety guidance and other guidance information
Provide long term support to internal trainers for the training manuals
Provide initial roll-out support
Provide long term management support and routine assessments