Office managers and anyone who is involved in facilities management will be responsible for ensuring their workplace is a clean and safe environment to work in. Given that nearly every office-based Australian business outsources their cleaning to a contractor nowadays, managing the cleaning regime usually comes down to reviewing the performance of the current cleaning contractor on a quarterly or bi-annual basis. 

Anyone familiar with a facilities management role will be used to operating in this sort of way. The problem comes when your contractor is underperforming. If you are considering ending your current contract with your cleaning firm and switching to a competitor, then remember to ask these questions before you do. 

Can You Provide Case Studies for Similarly-Sized Offices?

It is always good to know that your would-be cleaning contractor has the capability to provide your business with the level of service it needs. Sometimes, smaller operators can be a bit more responsive, but if you have a large office to take care of, then a more established contractor is likely to offer greater reassurance. Ideally, you want to see case studies which demonstrate the contractor has been successful at managing accounts as large as your one.

What Training Do You Offer?

It is important that the cleaning operatives who will actually be doing the work in your office are trained. Often seen as an unskilled job, people come and go in the cleaning industry. However, more professional firms train their staff to make sure that they really deliver the level of cleaning that their customers expect. By understanding what level of training a contractor offers their cleaners, you will be in a much better position to assess just how professional they really are.

How Do You Screen Employees?

Since cleaners will often have access to your business premises when there is no one else around, there will need to be a degree of trust between you and your contractor. Facilities managers should not be afraid of checking how contractors vet their employees to makes sure that only honest and reliable people are working for them.

What Insurance Do You Have?

Sometimes things get damaged when cleaning is carried out. Then again, people can slip over on recently cleaned floors. It happens. As such, you should always check that any potential cleaning firm you appoint has sufficient insurance to cover these eventualities. This would include public liability and accidental damage insurance policies, for example.