We need to cut back drastically on our business costs! Don’t you know the world is facing a credit crunch? I need to chop some expenses from our budget!
One of the ways some are looking at is to do their own office cleaning in Aberdeen using existing office based staff. This seems at first a logical method of saving the overheads of the professional office cleaning company but would it work in practice?
Staff morale would be one important issue to be considered. How are they going to be feeling when they have this extra task dropped on them when they may have enough to do already? Even if they did not start looking for other work straight away are there any other issues we need to look at?
Firstly you will need to start buying a number of different cleaning chemicals and some equipment on a fairly regular basis and hope you don’t run out if people are using too much. That brings up the issue that someone will have to take responsibility for monitoring stock levels and take time to purchase more stock as needed and you may be surprised just how fast some cleaning products get used. All professional cleaning service in Aberdeen will have their own preferred cleaning chemicals which their staff will have trained in using. This means they will have access to all associated safety data sheets etc from their usual chemical supplier.
You may decide to employ an extra person to do the cleaning thus doing away with some of the savings but if you are considering using your existing staff you need to calculate into the process the lost opportunities for staff doing their “normal job”. Will that suffer if they are asked to do these extras and at what cost to your business?
The job may even need doing twice if the person is not shown exactly the right way to do the task. You also need to consider whether using an existing staff member is the best use of their time. They definitely will not be using the expertise that caused you to initially select them at the interview or spent time since developing their new skills for the job. How much did it cost you to train that person in real terms not just the cost of the training programme?
Consider the cost of mistakes when untrained people are cleaning your premises. Will someone try to remove a mark from a painted wall and remove the paint as well. Additional cost of repainting the wall! I heard about a receptionist /admin person who poured concentrated bleach on a floor to clean it and burnt off the top surface. That was a very expensive mistake to make. Will you be budgeting for additional repairs caused by trying to save money? There is also the danger of mixing cleaning chemicals e.g. some toilet cleaners when mixed together generate considerable amounts of heat and poisonous gases.
• Have you all the skills in house to develop all the health and safety guidance in-house? Or will you to pay to outsource it?
• Who would do the required risk assessment for each and every cleaning task being performed? Not Necessary… just wait and see what the Health and Safety Inspector has to say after an accident on your premises!
• Do you have copies of the COSHH data sheets for every single cleaning product your staff purchase in the event of an incident? Your local superstore will not supply them for the general household products they sell!| Can you be certain that you have the required COSSH safety data sheets for every single cleaning product your staff purchase? Your local supermarket or corner store will not be able to supply these legal documents and you will need them on site in case of an safety incident.}
To sum up you need to be asking yourself some important questions such as
• “Are the extra costs of employing professional office cleaning cheaper than the risk of staff not focussing on my business and losing more money?”
• “What is the cost of not doing the job properly and having to repeat the work, do expensive repairs or facing legal issues over health and safety? ”
Personally I would come to the conclusion in most places that it would be better to hire a professional cleaning company in Coatbridge rather than take the risk of letting untrained people make mistakes. I believe it works out cheaper that way in the longer term.
