Offices need to be clean – it doesn’t matter what kind of office you have.  You may be the manager of a small real estate firm, a family medical centre, legal offices, or anything in between.  No matter your business or market, having a clean office tells your employees and your customers that you are professional and organized and ultimately considerate of the health and wellness of the key stakeholders in your business.  So, what should you expect from your office cleaning staff members or contractor?  What is considered standard office cleaning etiquette?  Let’s take a closer look.

Established Schedules

Your office cleaning contractor or professional should follow an agreed-upon schedule.  Regularly scheduled cleaning not only ensures that your offices are well-maintained, but it puts you in the driver’s seat when it comes to quality control.  If your recycling and garbage are always emptied on a Friday afternoon, then you know there is a problem if the job has not be done come Monday morning.  Likewise, regular schedules hold your cleaning professional accountable to your cleaning contract.

Prioritize your Cleaning Requirements

Some jobs need to be done on a daily basis, and some jobs can be done less regularly.  For example, you want to make sure your bathrooms are sanitized every day, whereas the office kitchen’s refrigerator can be cleaned on a less regular schedule.  Carefully consider your priority cleaning needs and make sure you communicate these needs to your cleaning professionals.  When you sign a cleaning contract, you should expect the high priority jobs to be specified along with your scheduling expectations.

Another factor to consider is high-flow areas or common touch points of your office.  Especially if you have a lot of outside visitors or high staffing levels, you want common areas to be regularly disinfected to reduce the spread of germs and ultimately reduce lost productivity due to employee illness.

Identifiable Staff

If your cleaning staff works during regular business hours, you should expect that they are wearing uniforms or other clothing items that makes them easily identifiable.  Nametags, lanyards, or specifically coloured shirts and/or pants will help make them stand out so that they can be held accountable to their work.

Common Consideration

Again, if your cleaning staff works during regular business hours, you should expect that their work tasks to not interfere with business-as-usual.  Running loud cleaning equipment such as vacuum cleaners or buffers should not happen during peak hours.  These activities should be held for hours when your office is closed; or, if you run a 24/7 operation, you should explicitly negotiate a time for these tasks.

Safety First!

Finally, your cleaning staff should demonstrate awareness of standard health and safety protocols.  Non-hazardous cleaning materials or appropriately labeled materials should be used.  Wet floors should be marked to prevent slips and falls.  And cleaners should be aware of the needs and safety of other staff members.