Combatting the UK Recruitment Crisis in the Cleaning Industry
The Covid-19 pandemic taught us many things, but the importance of cleaning was a major one. It will be a long time before any of us forget the 'hands-face-space' campaign of 2020/21! It seems ironic therefore that we are now experiencing a severe shortage of cleaning staff here in the UK.
UK at Risk of not Meeting Adequate Cleanliness Standards
The pandemic led to a sharp rise in requests for deep cleans, particularly in schools, as well as the daily cleaning of touch points. Rightly so, these demands have not gone away. However, with this current recruitment crisis, our country is at risk of not reaching the cleanliness standards required for fighting infection.
There are many reasons for this staff shortage, the key ones being:
- reduced migration post Brexit;
- UK workforce has reduced by 245,000 post pandemic as people are not returning to work;
- competing industries are offering more attractive pay and training opportunities.
Attracting the Best Cleaners
We receive daily calls from organisations that have historically employed cleaners in-house, unable to recruit effectively. As an established organisation, we are better-placed to find cleaners than an individual company looking to employ direct and we work hard to ensure that our cleaners are well looked after meaning that our retention rates are much higher than the industry average.
However, everyone in the cleaning industry is currently being impacted by this national shortage, so what are we doing at Rapid Clean to combat this problem? Primarily, we are working hard to attract the best cleaners. A few ways we are doing this include:
1. Generous Pay
The current cost of living crisis makes it vital that we remain competitive and pay our staff fairly for the role. In an ideal world we would match what other industries are offering in terms of a pay incentive but as with everything, there is a cap which is usually driven by how much our customers are prepared to pay. That said, where possible we do pay above average for this industry. Our aim is to meet the Living Wage amount and in certain areas, we go well beyond this.
2. Flexibility on Cleaning Times
A job will be more attractive to a cleaner if the times of clean are not fixed and being trusted with the keys to a site is even better! This widens our pool of potential cleaners to someone who may already work during the day but would like to supplement their income outside of regular hours.
3. Location Matters
The recruitment crisis in this industry means that we are sometimes having to turn away business. This is not a decision that we take lightly but we are acutely aware that putting our operations team under increasing pressure is unsustainable and ultimately will result in unhappy customers. It's therefore crucial that we consider where a site is, before providing a cleaning quote.
When visiting a potential new site, all three of these elements are considered before providing a quote e.g. if the site is in a rural location, the cleaner pay exceeds the living wage for that area, if we don't have keys to the site and are unable to be flexible on timings, we need to ensure there are good public transport links and the rate of pay is generous.
This could mean that our cleaning quotes to newer customers will seem higher than they are used to. Experience tells us that we will not be able to fulfill a contract unless two out of three goals are met.
If you're currently struggling to recruit cleaners and are looking for a fair quote from an organisation that knows what they are doing, please get in contact.
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