You come in to work and find the air-con out of order. Time to switch on the trusty old fan which has not been used for ages. BUT, dust gathered on the blades is strewn everywhere. Big mistake!!
You see the cleaning staff hired by your company every day and wonder why the fans have not been cleaned. And that got you thinking if inspections are being carried out on the office cleaning procedures from the contractor that was hired.
If this is a familiar scenario at your workplace then it’s time the Facility Manager or Office Admin carry out an inspection, ensuring that the quality of service rendered out always meets expectations.
While this may seem like a tedious task, quality management is crucial for evaluating the end result of the cleaning service. By keeping a baseline to check against whether service is improving, stagnant or declining, you can then use this information for feedback.
So, here’s the “how to” of office cleaning inspection that can help ensure service quality.
Raising Standards by measuring Cleaning Outcomes and Service Quality
Cleaning outcomes relates to the desired cleaning results whereas Service Quality relates to the response time for a particular task. This shows whether the cleaning contractor is able to meet performance standards set by your company.
An effective method of keeping check would be to create a Performance Inspection Checklist.
While general checklists are easily available for reference, it’s advisable to customise it according to your office layout and requirements.
Before creating checklists, first have a common understanding of the cleaning elements in question. A sample of what cleaning elements would include is shown below –
Cleaning Element Definitions
| Description | Definition | Example |
| Visible Area | Area easily in line of sight | Table tops, floor, wall |
| Non-visible Area | Not within line of sight | Under table, high surfaces |
| Inspection unit | Elements within a given space | Corridor, lobby, stairway |
| Element | Items in a unit | Door, floor, fixtures |
| Dust | Light dust particles | Thin layer of dust |
| Dirt | Dust that has been gathered | Thick layer of dust |
| Dried stains | Stains from spillage | Liquid or beverage |
| Spills | Pool of liquid from spills | Liquid or beverage |
| Litter | Item not disposed correctly | Paper or other waste |
| Fixture | Items secured to wall or ceiling | Basins, switches, AED |
| Signage | Sign for information | Exit, directory |
| Display | Items hung on wall | Notice board, poster |
| Furniture | Movable items | Table, chair, sofa |
| Decoratives | Movable items | Pots, planters |
| Electrical Appliance | Electricity powered appliances | PC, microwave |
How to obtain desirable Cleaning Outcomes
Here are some practices of getting desired cleaning outcomes –
- Categorize the Premises
Decide which areas are high and low priority. High priority sites are to be inspected on a regular basis compared to low priority.
- Identify What Needs to be Inspected
List of items that need to be inspected, frequency of checks and coverage targeted.
- Performance Indicators
Do the cleaners provide a desirable cleaning outcome? Are the areas inspected free of dust? Feedback given by employees or the public on hard to assess areas are another method of linking performance indicators to desired outcomes. These indicators affect hygiene standards in your office premise.
- Availability of Resources
Your company has the flexibility to decide if a comprehensive checklist is to be made for all areas to be inspected or to high priority areas only. A simplified checklist can be made for low priority areas. This is based on available manpower.
- Ratings
If possible a joint inspection with the cleaning company should be carried out. Feedback and customer satisfaction can be shared based on ratings given.
What is Service Quality & how to record it?
How fast does the cleaning contractor response on ad-hoc requests? Are cleaning requests outside service hours entertained? These measures determine service quality. Response time for critical to non-critical requests should be recorded together with time taken to complete the task.
Ad-hoc and regular requests can be recorded in a simple spreadsheet or table of the form given below –
Conclusion
Inspection is recommended to be carried out immediately after a cleaning job. Take into consideration the time lapse between the inspection and the last cleaning for a fair review.
Including the above elements together with others which befit your organisation, your office environment will be clean and conducive to give optimum productivity.
With the professional, trained cleaners from agencies like A1 Cleaning Services, you don’t have to worry about dust flying off the fans should your office air-con be out of order!
