5 Common Reasons Companies Outsource Their Office Cleaning Service
Office cleaning is one of the services that several successful companies outsource to commercial cleaning contractors. There are many reasons for this and the benefit of professional office cleaning is clean for business owners.
As a business developer and sales specialist in an office cleaning company in London, I decided to get to the bottom of it and find out the most common reasons businesses outsource their office cleaning. Soon after interviewing clients, I found several reasons among which the following are mentioned repeatedly and seemed to be the main reason they partnered with MN Support Services.
Hidden Costs of Dirty Office
Office cleaning and maintenance services come with costs, but it is considerably less if you compare it to the hidden costs of a dirty office. If you don’t keep the office clean, problems will arise, slowly eating up your company’s budget or reducing the business revenue.
For starters, dirty office space hugely impacts employee morale. An unhappy employee with an edgy attitude can’t communicate well with clients. Therefore, client confidence drops and the retention rate decreases, leading to less revenue for the business.
In addition, too much dust results in an unclean office. Dust is the number one enemy to sensitive electronics like computers and servers and too much of it will increase maintenance, repair and replacement costs.
When business managers top up the totals at the end of each year, they realise they are paying a lot more for what could have been easily avoided. Therefore, they choose to pay an office cleaning company when they dig deeper and realise higher cleaning standards can remedy this issue.
Office Hygiene is Out of Hand
Certain signs in the office force office managers to act up and hire cleaning services. The office has a weird, unpleasant odour that drives off clients and frustrates employees. Or pests and insects are everywhere and moulds are beginning to cover the ceiling. There are other signs as well, but these alone are enough for managers to look for a reliable commercial cleaning company to take care of their office cleaning needs.
Employees Started to Clean
Many office managers and facilities coordinators say they quickly got to work to hire an office cleaning company when they witnessed employees cleaning the office themselves. It’s not a good sign at all. While it is good when employees cooperate in keeping the office clean, they should spend more than a few minutes doing that.
Companies pay their employees to run the business, not cleaning the office or washing dishes. So, to stop this issue, companies should hire in-house cleaners or outsource their office cleaning to professional contractors.
Flexible & Cost-Effective Services
One of the reasons many companies decide to go with commercial cleaning companies, especially those that used to have in-house cleaners is the flexibility of commercial cleaning services. Cleaning contractors offer flexible office cleaning services both in terms of time and cost.
It costs companies less to pay contractors to clean the office in two hours. They don’t have to pay a full-time in-house cleaner, deal with the cleaner’s HR matters, train them or find a substitute when they go on holiday. Also, commercial cleaning staff are professional and have been trained to tackle every challenge properly. Therefore, the cleaning the office receives is thorough and proper. This way, companies reduce their cleaning costs and invest in making the business better.
On the other hand, time flexibility also helps business. In-house cleaning is an issue that commercial cleaning contractors solve. Office hour cleaning disrupts employees and business operations. With commercial cleaning services, staff clean the office after or before office hours, so no disruption happens.
Previous Company Wasn’t Doing a Good Job
Among clients, there are always companies who want to review their cleaning arrangements or are unhappy with their current cleaning service. Several companies still suffer from the hidden costs of a dirty office despite having an office cleaning service working in their workplace. The main reason is rooted in prioritising cheap office cleaning contractors over professional cleaning companies.
There are always cleaning contractors with lucrative offers for cleaning offices but it is crucial to avoid cheap office cleaning services. Many issues may not reveal themselves in the first few weeks or months of service, but when they do, it’s a hassle and time-consuming job to communicate concerns with the service provider, terminate the cleaning contract or find another cleaning company.
Final Thoughts
There are several reasons why office managers or facilities coordinators decide to outsource their office cleaning to commercial cleaning companies. Many companies hire cleaning contractors to avoid paying the hidden costs of a dirty office or to control the cleanliness and hygiene in their workspace. Others are hiring cleaning companies after seeing their employees cleaning the office instead of doing what they are hired to do. In addition, businesses want to benefit from the cost and time flexibility that commercial cleaning companies offer or want to change their cleaning contractor due to poor performance and unsatisfactory cleaning quality.
To conclude, outsourcing office cleaning isn’t a choice but a necessity for every successful business. It is a strategic decision that should be made before issues regarding cleaning and hygiene arise in the workspace.
Image: Freepik
Chris Ironside
Chris is a part of the business development and sales team at MN Support Services Ltd with over 20 years of experience in the commercial cleaning industry. He writes guides, reviews and industry news about commercial cleaning.