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Study shows that standardized cleaning is more efficient
Dr. Michael A. Berry, author of Protecting the Built Environment: Cleaning for Health, recently completed a study of cleaning at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill conducted April-July 2006.
The study, commissioned by the University and conducted by a committee of housekeepers, students, faculty, environmental, HR, purchasing, facilities and safety experts, evaluated the traditional zone cleaning program currently in use at UNC versus the ManageMen Operating System 1 (OS1).
Berry reported his findings of both the traditional and (OS1) cleaning programs in terms of cleaning and housekeeping effectiveness, training, equipment, ergonomics, quality control, work loading, indoor environmental quality and building health, worker safety, physical security, and environmental sustainability.
The report, Technical Advisor's Findings and Recommendations: A Comparison Between the (OS1) Pilot Program in Carroll Hall and Traditional Housekeeping in Dey Hall, found that a prescriptive, standardized approach to housekeeping affords the highest level of cleaning.
Traditional, non-prescriptive cleaning provides the least consistent results and in most instances leaves an unacceptable level of cleanliness, Berry found. In his final recommendation to the committee, Berry states, "From a technical point of view, the (OS1) housekeeping system is vastly superior to the typical zone cleaning system.
ManageMen is a cleaning industry education firm that has developed a standardized approach to cleaning known as Operating System 1 (OS1). Under the system, the process is workloaded to teams and each worker is trained and certified on specialized tasks. Workers are 'kitted' with specific tools and chemicals for each job function, which have been benchmarked as the best practice by the (OS1) Users. This simplification of the cleaning process results in a safer, healthier and easier working environment, according to the company.
How Cleanable is Your Building?
Press Release from Building Cleanability Awards
Nominations are being sought for the 2007/2008 Building Cleanability Awards throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
The Awards, promoted by the cleaning industry livery Company - the Worshipful Company of Environmental Cleaners - are aimed to draw attention to the increasingly important relationship between good building design and effective cleaning - its `cleanability`.
`The cleaning needs of a building are often addressed after completion of building or refurbishment work` states Awards spokesman Graham Jones. `Given that the ambience of any building depends quite significantly on the level of cleanliness maintained, the subject of cleanability and the early identification of cleaning needs, are issues which require a higher profile at the design and construction stages of building development. Considerable savings in building operational costs can be achieved, where cleanability issues have been properly taken into account.`
The British Cleaning Council is patron of the Awards along with other sponsors. The awards also supported by a number of professional partners including the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
There are ten entry categories, covering commercial, public, education, transport, heritage, retail, health, leisure, hospitality and sports buildings, anywhere in the UK and Ireland. Nominations can be made by building owners, architects, occupiers or contractors, as well as building management or construction companies - up until 31st December 2007.
There are also two Special Awards - one for new build projects and one for refurbishment projects, both completed within twelve months of occupation, as well as an Award for the most `environmentally aware` building.
Last year`s overall winner was The McLaren Technology Centre, near Woking with The Trafford Centre, Manchester and Matthew Boulton College, Birmingham in second and third places.
A prestigious Awards Presentation Luncheon will take place on Monday 30th June 2008, in The Great Hall of London`s famous Guildhall. Nominations can be made on line via the Awards website www.cleanabilityawards.co.uk or via e-mail: information@cleanabilityawards.co.uk
Unite welcomes Barclays living wage pledge 19 Jun 2007
The T&G section of Unite - the union, has welcomed the news that Barclays will pay all its cleaners in the City of London and Canary Wharf £7.50 per hour, and paid tribute to the cleaners and activists who took action to demand a living wage. Last month, Unite, working with community organisation London Citizens, organised a rally and delegation at Canary Wharf to urge Barclays to pay the London living wage to cleaners. The union is demanding that all the financial and legal institutions in the City and the Wharf pay cleaners a London living wage (currently set at £7.20ph), sick pay, a pension, and 28 days holidays.
Cleaners called on to mop up tears
Forget personal tutors - heartbroken, overworked or just generally stressed out students at Sheffield Hallam University are turning to professionally trained cleaners for emotional support, The Times Higher reveals.
Cleaners and other support staff at the university can sign up for training in counselling under an innovative scheme to promote adult learning. Graham Sykes, the training manager who runs the Jump Start programme, said:
"There is a formal counselling service in the university, but when students arrive cleaners and caretakers are often the first people they see. The cleaners in halls of residence are like surrogate mothers. It makes sense for them to be trained informally."
Jump Start is designed to encourage staff who have abandoned education to return to learning. One administrator who trained in counselling through Sheffield Hallam went on to work for the Samaritans. Other course options in Jump Start include driving lessons, IT skills and scuba diving.
Mr Sykes said: "A lot of these people don't work full-time hours, and this initiative makes them feel part of the university community. It makes people more likely to stay. Even those who don't take the courses say they are happy that they are available."
London South Bank University wins Greater London Training Award
After a challenging 13-month programme of staff development, the hard work of London South Bank University’s (LSBU) Building Services Department (BSD) was recognised this week, at this year’s National Training Awards.
The initiative targeted the entire BSD team of seven senior managers and 60 full-time and contract staff. The senior managers attended strategy workshops; frontline managers learnt leadership and coaching skills; frontline staff did customer care training. And, importantly for a department where people had worked in isolated groups and did not know others in the department, all staff attended two team away days.
Among the benefits of the investment in training, the department established a help desk to log and track calls; improved customer service without increasing costs and created a team atmosphere. After BSD gained Investors in People (IiP) accreditation in 2005, the assessors reported on the “transformation of the department”.
Gordon Lacey, Head of Building Services at London South Bank University commented:
“By offering better training and development opportunities to our staff, the culture of the department has improved beyond recognition. Staff feel more valued, motivated and proud to be a member of the team, resulting in an overall improvement in the performance of the department. This award recognises the commitment and hard work of the whole Building Services team.”
Jacqui Henderson, Chief Executive of UK Skills, which runs the awards on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills, acknowledged the winners’ success and commitment.
“These awards have always been about excellence, achievement and improvement. This means bottom-line benefits for employers and significant career development for individuals”.
For further enquiries please contact:
Meera Khanna
020 7815 6717
Self Cleaning Bathroom May 10th 2006 - University of New South Wales
With the development of novel coatings that will disinfect bathroom automatically, cleaning bathrooms may become a thing in the past. Led by Professor Rose Amal and Professor Mike Brungs, a research group is developing coatings for tiles and glass which, when activated by light, will destroy microbes and organic matter on surface.
The particles work by absorbing UV light below a certain wavelength, exciting electrons and giving the particles an oxidising quality stronger than any commercial bleach. The surfaces coated with titanium dioxide also have another property called 'superhydrophilicity' where droplets do not form, instead water runs straight off the surface, washing as it goes.
At present, Titanium-dioxide can only be activated by the UVA present in the sunlight, but the research group is working on ways to activate this TiO2 with indoor light.
Is it time to help cleaners brush up their English?
Traditonally low paid jobs - catering and hospitality included - are often the most accessible to migrant workers, and cleaning is certainly no exception. After all, with the Pound so strong against other currencies, the minimum wage does little to deter a migrant worker, since a day's wages here could go a long way for their families overseas. And as there's usually precious little contact between the cleaner and the occupants of the area being cleaned, there is likewise little need to communicate with or understand anyone. Or is there?
Actually, yes. As today's cleaners increasingly operate complicated equipment, work during daytime hours and need to comprehend strict health & safety procedures, there is every need for employers to ensure cleaning staff can communicate in and understand the English language to a certain level of competence.
"In London and the south east, the need for English classes among cleaners is enormous," believes Mary Schramm, Head of Vocational Outreach at Surrey-based Merton College, who estimates that as many as 90% or more cleaners working in this region do not speak English as their first language.
With its 'Clean Start' project -supported by the European Social Fund and the Learning Skills Council - Merton is currently the only college offering training in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) training specifically to cleaning operatives. As Schramm points out: "Since most cleaners are paid no more than the minimum wage, many work up to three different jobs in order to make ends meet and therefore have little time or money to attend college off their own bat. They also lack confidence to do
Teachers delivered to your door
On-site classes, which involve the ESOL teacher travelling to a client's premises (ie. the location being cleaned), could present a solution. "Between 2002-2004 we provided training for 200 cleaning operatives. These courses consisted of two 2-3 hour sessions per week for groups of 15 in a room provided by the client," says Schramm. All students ended the courses with City & Guilds certificates.
Aside from enabling effective communications between different hierarchies of cleaning staff and other benefits, it is argued that learning English may also help operatives to feel a greater sense of worth and motivation.
Chris Cracknell, CEO of OCS, whose staff have taken part in Merton's Clean Start project, agrees that improving their language skills "makes operatives feel more valued and an integral part of the workforce, which on a wider note is consistent with Corporate Social Responsibility."
"Although health and safety is one of the most important issues that can arise from a lack of fluency in English, as we move towards day cleaning where the operative comes into more contact with clients, language can obviously become a problem."
By providing on-site classes, 100% class attendance is more likely since the operative will already be in the building and working. As Cracknell points out: "This makes it easier for the cleaner to attend, does not interfere with their home life and makes them feel relaxed if they are already in an environment that they know."
One stumbling block that contractors may face is in persuading clients to release cleaners for their lessons, hence the need to make clear the value such training will ultimately bring to them (lower staff turnover, better motivation and performance, communication during daytime cleaning, as well as being good CSR). After all, courses bear no financial cost to the client, contractor or the cleaner, yet all three parties gain. So who stumps up the cash?
"Funding comes from the local skills council, directly from the Government," explains Mary Schramm. For basic skills - literacy, numeracy and communication - training pro-viders are actually not allowed to charge fees, but money for each student from the Government."
At present, it appears few contractors provide - or see the need to provide - English lessons to their employees. Reasons for this could be lack of awareness of what is available and the fact that it will cost them nothing financially, or perhaps because they get round the language problem in other ways. One practice popular among cleaning employers is, if a supervisor is Spanish, to let him or her recruit the rest of their team from Spanish speaking countries
Firms at bird flu summit are urged to plan for the worst By Tracey Boles TimesOnline
The World Health Organisation says that the threat is imminent and we must all prepare.
PORTAKABINS for stranded staff to sleep in, the closure of canteens and workplace gyms, and setting up employees so they can work from home are some of the emergency measures British companies would have to take in an outbreak of bird flu. It could even become a disciplinary offence to come into work once infected with the deadly bug. The first human case of H5N1 avian flu was reported in 1997 but many businesses are only now starting to plan how they would cope with a pandemic that could result in 30% of their staff being off work sick for six months.
British Airways, which began studying the effects of a pandemic in April last year, is ahead of many other companies. But the airline is still working out how it would keep flying with a quarter of its staff struck down by flu. A spokeswoman said: “We are looking at what it means and how we would use our resources.” Glaxo Smith Kline says it is making preparations but has “no grand plan” yet. Last week, the Royal College of Surgeons hosted an “avian flu summit” designed to shock business into action. Delegates from 300 firms in the financial, transport, retail and manufacturing sectors heard what they should be including in their “disaster plans”. The keynote speaker, David Salisbury, head of immunisation at the Department of Health, said businesses should be planning for the “worst case scenario” in which 25% of the population, or 14.6m people, would come down with the flu. Judging by previous influenza pandemics, between 0.2% and 2% of the population would die, according to the World Health Organisation.
Small firms could be particularly hard hit as workers fall ill or stay off to look after sick relatives, scientific models by the independent Health Protection Agency show.
Firms would have to act swiftly to halt the spread of the disease if they wanted to keep trading. But many have yet to put contingency measures in place, and are hungry for guidance. Thursday’s conference — called Pre-Pandemic Planning, Preparation & Policy for Business — sold out so quickly that another one is planned for the end of February by the organiser, the risk-management training group Business Forums International (BFI).
Elizabeth Smith at BFI said most firms’ bird-flu action plans were “at the embryonic stage”. But many of the delegates she saw last week were from companies with developed plans ensuring that they were on the right track, as well as those that wanted to update their information on the virus.
STREET CLEANERS SUFFERING ABUSE
OVER TWO THIRDS of the UK’s street cleaners have been physically and verbally abused while on the job – including attacks with guns, knives and drug needles.
So says cleaning industry voice, the British Cleaning Council (BCC), who today (Monday 1st August) revealed figures showing that assaults are taking place at all times of the day anywhere from residential areas to bus stations.
Judith West, Chair of BCC said: “We are outraged to hear of the cowardly behaviour and mentality of those prepared to harass our street cleaners. What is even more devastating is that many cleaners believe that being assaulted is all part and parcel of the job!”
Today’s research, published in conjunction with anti-litter charity Keep Britain Tidy, found that a shocking one in five cleaners are injured in violent physical assaults – rising to more than a third in Wales. At one council in the Midlands, two refuse collectors were shot at with guns on two separate occasions (see vox pops for more examples of horrific attacks).
The research found that workers are often abused for street untidiness while enduring the rants of drivers on the road complaining that their refuse wagons or mechanical sweepers are getting in the way of traffic.
Over half the cleaners questioned reported ongoing verbal assaults from members of the public. It is believed that the real figure is much higher as many incidents go unreported.
Continued Judith West: “Cleaners deserve our utmost respect. They work in our neighbourhoods in all sorts of weather, despite many being undervalued and untrained. It is simply not good enough that this is happening. While we welcome the news that 93% of the councils questioned have a procedure in place for reports of assaults, more action needs to be taken to stamp out this idiotic behaviour.”
Alan Woods, Chief Executive of Keep Britain Tidy said: “Street cleaners are national heroes, braving all kinds of conditions to shift other people’s rubbish. Those who abuse them ought to consider that the person they are attacking is someone’s mother, brother or even grandparent.
“I want every council to adopt a procedure to record complaints and ensure every one of their cleaners is trained in dealing with conflict and how to stay safe on the street. But above all else, I, like many members of the British public, long for an end to yobbish, anti-social behaviour.”
Assorted Assaults
Some of the things street cleaners suffer
“Two refuse collectors were shot at with guns on two separate occasions. Nearly all staff including cleaners have been abused by members of the public.” Midlands (England)
“Two lads were assaulted by a drunk. One of them was hit on his hand with a shovel and pushed around. Injury needed stitches.” North East England
“Verbal abuse is quite frequent but doesn’t tend to get reported. In one incident a cleaner was punched.” North East England
“There is sometimes verbal abuse from councillors; threats with physical abuse from the public and irate motorists because of slow vehicles. Street cleaners get a lot of complaints from the public about state of streets including swearing and shouting.” North West England
“One cleaner had a hypodermic needle thrown at him.” North West England
“One cleaner was threatened by a man with a knife.” South East England
“A drug addict attacked one of the cleaners for no apparent reason. Police were called and CCTV checked but no one was caught.” South West England
“There was a serious argument with a member of the public. The worker was moved to another depot for 12 months because of the incident and took three days off due to stress.” North Wales
“We get lots of rude comments on a regular basis. It goes with the territory.” South Wales
“One cleaner was pushed against a wall and grabbed by the throat. We also have lots of incidents of bottles and other items being thrown at vehicles.” South Wales
Passport into the cleaning industry
BCC Asset Skills BICSc CSSA and Unison have combined to set up an employer working group to develop an agreed induction programme for all those entering the cleaning industry.
A draft programme of the initiative which enjoys the full support of BCC organisations such as ADM and ABCD was reviewed and approved by employers and trade unions at a meeting on 7th March hosted by Asset Skills and major employers from the cleaning sector.
Progress was made in defining the key content of an induction programme which guarantees familiarity with basic health and safety together with the key cleaning skills needed as well as a full induction on employment rights and responsibilities. Asset Skills has been remitted to take this programme out for consultation with employers to seek endorsement and to pilot its use across the cleaning industry.
The employer group has also reviewed a possible web-based recording system as the basis of a Cleaning Industry Passport using the Purple Passport platform. The passport will include both induction programmes and provide a central record of achievement covering all forms of training and certification linked to a personal development plan.
Asset Skills which welcomes further involvement from interested employers says a critical mass of support exists from employers to develop a practical pilot programme to take the initiative forward over the coming months.
Anyone interested in further information should contact David Bell in the Northampton office of Asset Skills on 01604 233 336.
Health and Safety Information
HSE is now issuing several of it's latest publications in translation. In fact 19 different languages are covered. The documents can be downloaded at
http://www.hse.gov.uk/languages/index.htm. English versions can be found at the same address.
Compliance: An evidence based evaluation of how best to secure compliance with health and safety law.
Published 4.3.2005
This research builds on previous studies by delineating companies into discrete groups and mapping onto each type of organisation “levers” which influence compliance with health and safety law. It also acquires evidence about the likely degree of influence that each lever might have. It provides conclusions on the targeting of interventions and the potential role of new levers to motivate compliance with health and safety law.
Summary report: An evidence based evaluation of how best to secure compliance with health and safety law.
Published 4.3.2005
This report summarises the findings of RR334 relating to organisation “levers” which influence compliance with health and safety law.
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