I love that the British Institute of Cleaning Science and the Cleaning & Support Services Association (both long-term members of the British Cleaning Council if you’re a non-Brit) have worked together on an extensive project at the University of Surrey to assess ‘the future of cleaning’. Detailed information on this collaboration is below. Please be sure to click through and read the report authored by Professor Andrew Kemp, regarding two new technologies trialled: one a persistent disinfectant and the other an air cleansing system, since the knowledge gained could impact on the choices you make about the way buildings you’re responsible for are cleaned – or, if you’re a contractor, how one or the other might help secure new business or enable you to retain current contracts. 

  

I’ve been in the industry for donkey’s years and these days often find myself wondering just how our industry copes with all the new technology that’s being presented and the speed at which it’s all changing. Embracing new technology can come at enormous cost and for some companies, be simply unaffordable, but without it, how do you compete? Where do you draw the line when it comes to investment? And what about the staff? How do you get them to onboard when it comes to what they could well feel are too many changes in working procedures which may be difficult for them to get their heads around? I’d love to know… 

  

I had to have a chuckle – as you may too - at some of the quotes regarding the collaboration, with everyone admitting that unless you get the cleaning team to thoroughly engage with what you’re introducing, you could well be on a hiding to nothing however good the technology might be: “Success lies not just in product performance but in the readiness of people and processes to adopt it,” and “Where staff are not engaged in the process, the installation of new equipment or processes is doomed to failure,” reflect what I learned in my very early days in the industry that’s been continually backed up since... I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve interviewed and facilities I’ve visited, where managers are complaining that they’ve spent a small fortune on new equipment that’s sat in the cleaning cupboard since the cleaners are refusing to use it. I was about to say: “Some things then, never change,” but when you consider the cost of new technology compared to what something as seemingly futuristic will have cost 30-odd years ago, we must ensure that wherever we go, we take the cleaning teams with us, (or perhaps even make them feel that they’re leading the way).