Can you name and describe the most important innovation in a product or service that helps FMs in their jobs with respect to hygiene/cleaning?
One of the most important developments in the industry is the increase and acceptance of daytime cleaning. Whilst not necessarily innovative in itself it has, without doubt, had a major impact in improving standards of hygiene and in making life easier for FMs.
Daytime cleaning has traditionally been used at locations that are open 24/7 and have high foot-falls like hospitals and airports, however it is now being more commonly used in the office sector. At Incentive QAS we believe that switching to daytime cleaning makes good commercial and responsible business sense.
Our experience shows that overall office cleanliness and hygiene is kept to a consistently high level throughout the day and that unexpected spillages and emergencies can be dealt with instantly. This not only demonstrates that FMs are delivering on service levels real time but are also able to prevent permanent damage to carpets and fabrics where the accidents occur.
Furthermore from a corporate social responsibility perspective, cleaning staff benefit health-wise from daytime working as they feel that they are part of the office team and are not isolated by out of hours working. Having healthy and engaged cleaning staff is imperative for successful FM delivery.
From a commercial perspective, this approach also means that expensive premiums for out of office hours cleaning shifts are kept to an absolute minimum. In addition, buildings can be closed earlier and open later so that power and security cost efficiencies are also achieved.
Apart from the cost and CSR benefits, a final key aspect of daytime cleaning, is that cleaning is more closely aligned to clients’ needs. Areas are cleaned as needed not just when scheduled and this leads to an overall increase in general cleaning standards and that has to be good news for clients and the FMs responsible for good service delivery.
Innovation in cleaning equipment has also helped to enable us to successfully deliver daytime cleaning in offices by making the whole proposition more palatable to office workers. For example, microfibre cleaning cloths enable staff to clean surfaces faster and more safely as far less environmentally unfriendly chemical cleaning products are needed. In addition, the new generation cordless vacuum cleaners, with low-noise technology, not only make cleaning quieter and less intrusive but safer (as there are no wires to trip over) and more efficient (as they are light-weight and portable). But the real game changer in my view has to be the return to daytime cleaning.
