02 Dec Facilities Management And Trained Cleaners
A facility management requirement should be all about utilising properly trained cleaners, to minimise the possibility of surface damage.
But there’s more.
If you are going to use a cleaning company it is your responsibility to get the tender absolutely correct so that the cleaner gets a proper wage for the work within the bounds of the contract and to ensure that trained cleaners only are used. And respect those cleaners!
Health and safety training only or fully trained cleaners?
There is a big distinction between cleaners who know what do and what to use in their work and the ones who are trained in health and safety procedures – and nothing else. This is often the only training they will get (“toolbox talks”).
Now you need to ask yourself if this is all they need to know. The cleaning industry has some of the highest injury statistics of any industry anywhere and this is reflected in the higher insurance rates and personal claims that the industry suffers, so obviously something is amiss somewhere.
Here’s a true story:
A company trained its cleaners through the toolbox talks health and safety scenario and then – nothing more. Everything was – “here is the equipment, here’s how to use it, put this sachet of product in here and wash the floor. That is your job”.
That’s it – except that the wet floor registered an off the scale slip alert (a standard slip test in UK) reading which was off the scale – and someone slipped on it. Despite the high incidence of slips, no-one thought to question the reason why the floors were so slippery but no-one thought that the equipment wasn’t suitable, that the floor with a coating on it could have been damp cleaned easily, that the act of removing some of the layers of detergent build-up by rinsing with clean water occasionally was the way to go and prevent a million pound plus claim for personal injuries.
No, the cleaner had had his tool box talks on health and safety and he was trained. If the cleaner had been correctly trained in cleaning procedures he would have known all the sensible safe procedures to use to avoid the above situation. But he was told what to do by his manager who was answerable to the housekeeper who was answerable to the facilities management. So who really was to blame for this? Answer: not the cleaner.
A trained cleaner is proactive in cleaning procedures and because of that can make their own decisions. A trained cleaner has the health and safety risks built in to the training so that they should know, without toolbox talks, exactly what to do and how to avoid problems. And that is the essence of good cleaning practice. It would be good to have all facilities managers fully trained in good cleaning practice and cleaning quality assurance. Then you will know exactly what to do and what to look for. Wont you?
Train with the Cleaning Masterclass
We offer on-line training courses for cleaners on correct cleaning procedures, and good cleaning practice. These are unique to us. We developed these over many years of cleaning in industrial and construction cleaning and consultancy, as we have for quality assured cleaning systems – which we guarantee satisfaction.
Contact us today, because we have a cleaning management course almost ready