Could poor cleaning be negatively impacting your business?

Your daily clean can affect your workspace in more ways than you realise. The right cleaning company can have a variety of positive effects, so conversely the wrong partner could be a disaster, or might at the very least, be robbing you of potential wins.

Cleaners get on with work with the intention of not being noticed, either after hours or as housekeeping staff during the office day, so it’s understandable if their efforts are overlooked. But have you considered all of the ways in which they can affect your business?

From staff retention and productivity to first impressions, from asset management to compliance, corporate hygiene can have a big impact. Whether the impact is good or bad could be a reflection of your cleaning partner.

Are you tracking the key drains on your organisation?

It might not be immediately obvious, but cleaning has a greater effect on employees than you might first give credit to.

Research by Gartner, discussed in The Harvard Business Review, finds that employees who are satisfied with the quality of their work environment are 16% more productive, 18% more likely to stay, and 30% more attracted to their company over competitors. The HBR’s own research adds to this, suggesting that employees even value their workspace over perks such as gym membership.

Maximising productivity of staff who are present for work is key, but another potential drain is absenteeism. When you are look at the evidence from 2022, when there were 186 million days lost to sickness in the UK (an all-time record).  “There’s lots of evidence that tells us that the UK was on the trajectory of increasing levels of illness long before 2020,” notes an Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) researcher, emphasising that COVID merely exaggerated an existing problem rather than being the starting gun so many have presumed.

Staff wellbeing drives retention, loyalty, productivity and fewer days lost to sickness. A bright, clean, sanitary workspace promotes that wellbeing powerfully. If you hear even good-natured grumbles about your workspace, take it seriously. What outcomes might have been different, if your standards were as high as possible?

Workspaces can have an impact on physical and mental wellbeing so, with this in mind, taking every opportunity to create positive feeling about where you work seems obvious.

Making a good impression

Staff are not the only ones whose opinion matters. Whether you are a first-time visitor or a long-standing client, a poor impression when you walk into the workspace or meeting areas will leave a lingering negative association that can be hard to shift.

The little things all add up; for example a meeting room left with dirty coffee rings from a previous client meeting, the chairs in the reception area missing their cushions or even empty scent diffusers in the bathrooms, all send the wrong signal to the important client or partner you are hoping to impress.

To proactively take control of sending a more positive signal, which is very different from avoiding the negative, your cleaning partner needs to be more than merely adequate. Instead they should be attending to tasks with reliable, professional consistency, and ensuring that you are able to make the most of every opportunity to impress.

Do your front-line cleaning staff display the highest levels of training and attention to detail? Does the shift supervisor check and check again that everything is just as it should be?

The ideal partner will share your values. If you are part of an organisation committed to excellence, you should confidently expect the same from those you rely on to maintain your workspace.

Specialist support for beneficial outcomes

Every day, more and more regulatory obligations come into effect, with your team feeling the burden of not only putting them into place but also keeping on top of the changes. To ensure compliance, and minimise accidents and serious illness, shift the responsibility to a specialist.

Similarly, interruptions to service due to asset management needs are far from desirable. A skilled provider will be able to plan ahead to reduce the disruption that maintenance or repairs can cause.

Avoiding the race-to-the-bottom competition on price is one way to not only ensure that you have well-informed and well-trained partners on hand to prevent any issues from arising, but also to advise on how the services can be provided within your target budget.

The Pyndar difference

If you feel that your current cleaning provider isn’t supporting your wider business goals and objectives, is it time to change?

At Pyndar, our company vision is to create workspaces that inspire and connect, empowering those within to pursue whatever goals they have more quicky and surely. We understand that doing this requires time, patience and attention to detail.

We will take the time to understand your corporate culture, your ways of working, and your priorities, your customers and your people. Armed with that knowledge, we will tailor a facilities management package that works around you day-to-day and supports your wider goals and ambitions. The result – an outstanding workplace where your people can flourish and grow.

It also requires focus and sector-specific expertise on our part. Pyndar offer services ranging from cleaning to maintenance and repair, but only to offices in London.

Many of our clients are in similar sectors, such as financial and other professional services. With each one, we invest the time needed to get to know the new organisation, so that we can offer a true partnership, not just a service.

Christopher Eames, Managing Director at Pyndar explains: “It could be said that the FM industry suffers from a lack of sector focus. Our clients have a clear business focus and they require the same of their FM provider.

“Some FM companies try to fit each contract around their way of doing things – around their way of working and their way of delivering the services. Rather than do lots of things to a satisfactory standard, we choose to do one thing and strive every day to become world-class at it. We want to create and maintain truly outstanding workplaces in which our clients can thrive, grow and make their difference.”

If you need more than the minimum, if you need exceptional commitment and service at all times, Pyndar is ready to be your partner, offering innovation, collaboration and, above all, quiet and consistent professionalism.

5 reasons to choose Pyndar

• We take full ownership of ensuring our clients’ workplaces remain healthy spaces for growth, productivity and creativity.
• We take pride in our proactive approach and are, above all, problem-solvers – working alongside our clients to deliver the FM solutions they need.
• We invest the resources needed to make good on the promises we make. We aim to respond to all client communications within 30 minutes, but in fact, last year, we responded to over three-quarters of requests within 10 minutes.
• Our aim is to reduce the disruption that cleaning and maintenance can cause to our clients. With skilled provision and smartly uniformed workers, we can achieve a high first-time fix rate and keep down-time to a minimum.
• The partnerships that we develop with our clients enable us to provide strategic support to help them achieve their sustainability targets, helping to create environmentally conscious workplaces.

To find out more, please call on 020 3488 1280, or email transform@pyndar.uk or visit our contact page.