1. Innovation

The business of setting up and managing cleaning operations is not necessarily new or innovative, there are still many areas where companies are investing in research and development to deliver operational improvement. Typically, these fall into three key areas; challenging established thinking about processes and practice, tools and machine’s and new materials and cleaning products. Sometimes finding a tailored solution to your cleaning operations is necessary as often the current solution is not able to be a one size fits all answer. Keeping abreast of industry trends and researching innovative ways to address your cleaning concerns is at the core of improving and evolving your facility’s operations.

  1. The right metrics – “Cost in use”

Measuring the success of your cleaning operations is typically based on two things: the tangible results of your cleaning efforts and the costs involved. Simple enough, however it is important to understand the correct metric to accurately measure the costs of your cleaning operations which can be understood as the ‘cost in use’ model. With that, the overall costs of your inputs is based not only on materials but labour as well. Achieving greater labour efficiency is far more effective for reducing costs than product savings alone. Investing in higher-quality products and harnessing innovative, new technologies may seem counter-productive at first as it is likely to cost you more, however this can result in reduced labour time, ultimately saving you money.

  1. Culture

Staff training is fundamental to the efficiency of your cleaning operations. Ensuring all staff members are shown how to do their job properly is the only way to achieve high-quality results with consistency. Creating conversations and encouraging feedback from staff is also important in understanding the flow of your cleaning operations and identifying areas for improvement. It will also help increase staff morale as they will appreciate the sense of inclusion in the decision making process of your operations and feel their voice is being heard by their peers and management.

  1. Sustainability

Pinpointing ways to minimise the impact of your cleaning operations on the environment, for example your energy or cleaning materials consumption, will not only help to reduce your cleaning operations’ carbon footprint, but can reduce costs as well. This may be in the form of investing in higher-quality cleaning products which will in turn, decrease the frequency with which you complete tasks. This can result in a reduction in water, electricity and gas consumption (depending on what utilities your facility uses). It may also take the form of choosing more eco-friendly products that have less of an impact on the environment.

Focusing on these areas for your strategic plan for 2017 could bring great improvements?