The Top Five Cleaning Pain Points for Facilities Managers

Ask most people “What are the responsibilities of a Facilities Manager?” and many wouldn’t be able to give a definitive answer. While other positions, such as Sales Executive or Administrative Assistant, have a clear-cut focus, a Facilities Manager is a much more elusive role. However, take away the Facilities Manager and you’ll soon find out the integral part played by this sometimes-enigmatic employee in the smooth running of a company.

With the overall responsibility being to ensure productivity, the Facilities Manager must organise, integrate and deploy a company’s people, place and processes. In some senses, the role may seem straightforward as, once processes have been established, it would then consist of overseeing the workings of the company. However, business rarely stands still and, as new developments occur, Facilities Managers are responsible for continuously revising processes to ensure continued productivity in a changing environment.

A major challenge in facilities management is keeping working environments clean and hygienic. Besides the obvious necessity in industries such as food production, hygienic conditions are also extremely important for any customer-facing or office-based businesses. Failure in this regard can cause more than just company image to suffer. Providing the correct working environment can also prevent the spread of bacteria or viruses and reduce workplace accidents.

Using the extensive cleaning and FM support experience within the Monthind Clean team, we have put together just five of the biggest cleaning pain points for Facilities Managers.

Longer Hours, Shorter Cleaning Window

Don’t tell Dolly, but 8 to 6 has replaced 9 to 5 as the norm for many companies, and some would still count that as a short day, as employees in a variety of industries are working longer hours to achieve more demanding targets. Earlier starts and later finishes are great for business performance, but they reduce the available window to have facilities professionally cleaned. This is even more of an issue for offices spaces that provide hot desking. Multiple people sharing the same desk spaces can be prone to working unusual hours, and, be honest, would you leave a temporary desk as tidy as your own?

Heavier Traffic

Businesses, such as airports, train stations and schools regularly receive heavy foot traffic, resulting in a marathon maintenance effort to avoid litter, dirty floors and unclean toilets. Similarly, as a business grows, heavier foot traffic from both customers and staff leads to similar cleaning challenges. Having a cleaner standing by to clean any mess immediately is unlikely to be the most logical or cost-effective option. Therefore, analysing factors such as peak business times, and quieter non-peak times, is vital when creating an efficient cleaning schedule.

Cost Cutting

As businesses look for ways to improve efficiency and increase revenue in search of growth, Facilities Managers are consistently asked to meet unrealistic goals. For example, an employee paid the minimum is likely to move on at first available opportunity. A higher staff turnover will mean higher costs on areas such as training, including in the cleaning and hygiene areas of the company. Additionally, attempts to cut costs on specialist cleaning equipment can prove a false economy when cleaning standards decline, and times increase.

Increased Safety Standards

Increased safety standards are extremely beneficial to society as a whole. Customers receive a safer and cleaner experience, and businesses owners are far less likely to suffer accidents or issues on their premises. However, every new piece of safety standard policy can put a strain on Facilities Managers, as they may have to invest in new equipment, completely reorganise company processes and even retrain staff to ensure new standards are upheld.

Integration of New Technology

Previously, we’ve touched on the effect on facility management of cost-cutting businesses.

However, how does investment in new technology with the long-term of lower costs and increased efficiency affect the people who knit the company together? A new machine in the facility often requires a specialised cleaning procedure, especially a sophisticated addition. Additionally, if a new piece of technology requires lengthy offline cleaning, it is the responsibility of the Facilities Manager to plan around such demands to ensure the business does not grind to a halt.

Let Monthind Clean help…

If such challenges seem familiar, contact the team at Monthind Clean who can take care of everything from daily cleaning to seasonal, specialist and emergency cleaning, including window cleaning, gutter and fascia cleaning, floor refinishing, carpet cleaning and biohazard cleaning.

Regardless of the size or complexity of the site, Monthind Clean provides the cleaning team, on-site specialists, equipment and consumables and seamlessly manages the whole process in partnership with clients.

Monthind Clean has offices in Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester and Cambridge.