Best Practices for Effective Office Cleaning

Just because an office looks clean doesn’t mean it is. When it comes to effective and efficient office cleaning services, there are a few industry best practices that should be followed on a daily basis to ensure that cleaning is performed to the highest industry and regulatory standards.

The “three P’s,” which are people, processes, and products, are especially important in the service business world. This concept extends to office cleaning as well. From hiring the right people to providing the right training and equipping them with the right tools, it’s important for any professional full-service cleaning company to use best practices.

In general, effective office cleaning best practices should:

• Abide by regulatory requirements and accredited management standards, such as ISSA’s Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS). CIMS and CIMS-GB (green building) are divided into six areas of management best practices:
  
  • Quality systems
  • Service delivery
  • Human resources
  • Health, safety, and environmental stewardship
  • Management commitment
  • Green Building (for CIMS-GB)
• Identify and implement effective cleaning methods; and
• Follow an Operating System 1 (OS1) approach to comprehensive cleaning that cleans with health first in mind, not just “cleaning for appearance.”

Keeping these things in mind, what does it actually mean to have a “clean” environment? Public health experts define cleaning in three levels:

• Sterile: This means that the environment is 100% free of contamination. This level is extremely difficult to achieve and requires highly-controlled steps that are not conducive or applicable to an office environment.
• Disinfected: This means that the pathogens that are most threatening to humans are removed. A disinfected environment means about 95% of the harmful substances have been removed.
• Sanitary: This means that some contamination and risk of disease still exists. However, general employee health is protected.

At Pro Clean, we’re proud to say that our highly-trained and qualified employees provide a minimum of the “Disinfected” level of cleaning to all of our clients.

So, how do we reliably achieve “Disinfected” results? By following some basic best practices, of course! Our Pro Clean team of experts has put together a list of some of the top 10 best practices that should be used by a cleaning company for effective and efficient office cleaning.

Office Cleaning Best Practices Every Company Should Use

1. Use environmentally-friendly or green cleaning and finishing products as much as possible. This not only reduces the environmental impact of the cleaning services, it also contributes to a healthier work environment for employees in the facility being cleaned by reducing toxic emissions from chemicals.
2. Use pre-measured products (such as packets) to prevent overuse of products. An added bonus is that by limiting overuse, you’ll be able to help keep product costs down.
3. Block off areas where spills have taken place as soon as possible. This will prevent anyone from walking through it, which reduces the risk of someone slipping and falling, or tracking the spilled item to other areas via shoes.
4. Cross-train cleaning staff to effectively perform different functions. Every person on the cleaning team should be able to complete several different functions. That way, there’s less chance of a task going unfinished because someone is out sick or on vacation.
5. Don’t reuse cloths to clean multiple areas. While using one cloth may save cleaning staff time, it also increases the spread of germs and other health hazards that can increase employee absenteeism in the office due to illness.
6. Go beyond the basics. Don’t just stop after cleaning floors and other standard items. A quality full-service cleaning company will also steam clean fabric sofas, chairs, and partitions. This will keep your property looking nice longer and also will significantly reduce airborne allergens and pollutants.
7. Provide consistent, reliable cleaning services. When companies are unresponsive or aren’t providing the highest quality service, it means that you’re not getting the service that you’re likely paying a lot of money for. To combat these issues, top-tier cleaning companies will be transparent about the costs and services that are included and use regular inspections and communication to ensure that their high levels of service are maintained.
8. Don’t use a mop: Use a machine and germicide to scrub and refinish floors. This is the only way to truly ensure that floors, such as tile, are clean.
9. Use a backpack vacuum. By keeping the vacuum off the ground, cleaning staff can increase productivity while also reducing the spread of contaminants, dust, and dirt on the floor. At Pro Clean, we manufacture the signature backpack vacuum cleaners our employees use. These machines use a four-filter system that captures and contains up to 99% of all dust, dirt, and bacteria.
10. Ensure employee safety and awareness. Highly-trained and experienced cleaning staff will use proper equipment, gear, and processes to ensure safety while cleaning and to reduce the spread of germs, dust, dirt, and other contaminants.

Why You Should Hire a CIMS-Certified Cleaning Company

The cleaning industry gold standard is the CIMS Green Building Certification, which certifies that a company employs environmentally-responsible equipment, products, and procedures. Not all businesses have achieved this certification, and we’re proud to say that Pro Clean was the first company in Florida to receive the coveted certification (with honors) for responsible cleaning.

When you’re looking to hire a full-service company to perform office cleaning at your facility, there are many reasons why you’ll want to consider looking at ones who have received CIMS certifications. ISSA hosted a video interview with Steve Spencer, who served as State Farm Insurance’s specialist in cleaning and interior facility maintenance for many years and remains one of the leading authorities on health, safety, and hygiene in the United States. With more than 30 years of experience in the JanSan industry, Spencer is a nationally recognized author, speaker, and consultant.

During the interview, Spencer points out the benefits of specifically looking at companies with CIMS certifications:

“The CIMS certification lets us know that we have a certified organization that we know is going to be able to do the job and we don’t have to do a lot of contract qualification. If I see CIMS or CIMS GB after the name of the company, I know that they’re going to have a service delivery program; I know they’re going to have a quality control program; they’re going to have a good HR and training program that they’re going to use. They’re also going to have management support and they’re going to be very much aware of environmental health and safety issues when it comes to chemicals.”

At Pro Clean, our full-service cleaning team adheres to environmentally-safe industry practices to reduce the environmental impact of our work. An additional benefit of partnering with us for your facility maintenance and cleaning needs is that you can enjoy the convenience of making just one call to one vendor, and not have to waste time seeking out quotes for multiple vendors for each function.

Contact Pro Clean today to speak with one of our cleaning and facility maintenance experts about how we can meet your company’s needs or to get a quote.