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smartclean · 6 years ago

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7 Questions You Need to Ask a Commercial Cleaning Company before Hiring Them

This Definitive Checklist Makes Finding the Right Cleaning Contractor a Certainty!

According to Cleanlink, the average cleaning company loses up to 55 percent of its customer base every year because of a lack of service quality or simple non-performance.

This implies that over half of all commercial cleaning contracts will be turned over in any given year! That's an extraordinary figure and it means, if you are a Facilities Manager or a business owner, at some time in the near future you are very likely to be interviewing and hiring a commercial cleaner.

But every cleaning company sales rep you talk to will try and convince you that they’re your best choice service provider, so how do you objectively assess the capabilities of all the cleaning companies you talk to, so you don't have to go through this time consuming task every 12 months?

My name is Nicholas Pastras, I'm the CEO of Smart Cleaning Solutions, and I have over 23 years’ experience in the Commercial Cleaning industry, and I can tell you with the authority that comes from experience, the biggest mistake people make when contracting commercial cleaners is not being prepared with the right questions to ask them.

As the incredible statistic from Cleanlink suggests, over half of businesses will be dissatisfied with their cleaner in a given 12 month period, so it's extremely important to prepare for interviewing cleaners by making sure you have a list of the right questions to ask them, otherwise you're likely to hire a dud and find yourself having to go through the whole process again, very quickly.

Below is an overview of my list of the best questions to ask a prospective cleaning company. There are actually 37 questions listed under the 7 topics in this article. Read the article below, and click here to get a pdf with each question along with a tick box so you can print it out and use it when interviewing a cleaner.

1. How Many Years Have You Been Cleaning? Do you have any Clients similar to us?

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking enthusiasm and a good attitude are all that’s needed for a cleaner to be able to do the job. That’s a big mistake. The biggest complaints from people sacking a former cleaner and looking for a new one is “they promised us the world but they just didn’t deliver" and “we kept asking them to fix the same issues over and over but they just didn’t listen". Both these issues are symptoms of using an inexperienced cleaner.

When you’re relying on a cleaning company to deliver day in day out every day of the year, experience really matters, so does communication and good quality management systems. These are the things that give a company the capability to back up their enthusiastic promises with integrity in performance.

So the first things I recommend you ask a potential contractor is “how many years have you been cleaning and how many clients similar to us do you currently clean for.”

Experience is even more critical in industries where regulative requirements around hygiene and cleanliness effect statutory licensing requirements, for instance in infection control. A perfect example of this is in aged care and medical facilities, which are all audited around licensing conditions.

Hygiene is also important in retail settings for example, restaurant cleaning and hotel cleaning, in fact anywhere you interact with clients cleanliness will affect your brand.

2. What Quality Control Processes do you use to Ensure Consistent Cleaning Standards?

Anyone can tell you that they will clean your business reliably day in day out, but it’s much harder to do than say. It’s important that your cleaning requirements are documented and that your cleaner is able to demonstrate systems and processes they have in place to ensure that your cleaning standards are maintained and met consistently.

To get a gauge on how well managed cleaning staff are by the company you are interviewing ask the following questions.

How do you audit cleaning standards once a cleaning contract is started? This is probably the most important question to ask because it really sorts out professional service providers from the rest. If the sales rep you’re asking doesn’t give you an immediate and definitive response to this question, cross their company off your list and interview another one. Note: The best companies will run weekly checks and perform monthly audits.

Ask what is your policy around response times to feedback and requests regarding a problem? In emergencies this should be an immediate response and nothing more than 24 hours in non-urgent situations.

Ask them how they ensure any issues identified in checks or audits are rectified by their cleaners?

Ask them how day to day feedback issues are handled?

Ask them if they actually work on site with the cleaners from time to time to direct them as required?

And finally ask if they have an externally accredited and regularly audited management system like an ISO 9001 endorsement. This is a sign of a real commitment to quality management processes and systems. ISO 9001 management systems are audited yearly by independent auditors and means the company audited has a very high standard of communication and management processes in place.

3. Do you Screen Employees with Police Checks?

Exposure to theft is always a concern when cleaners are operating in your business after hours. So is security. Cleaners need to unlock and lock your premises so it’s critical that they are reliable, responsible and honest. If they aren’t, you unwittingly put your assets, property and even your IP at risk. So don’t be shy. Ask if the cleaning company’s staff has had a police check, and after that, a few more questions you’d be wise to ask about their staff include:

Are all staff trained in the importance of maintaining security on premises?

Are all staff Vevo checked via immigration to ensure they are allowed to work in the country?

Are all staff trained and vetted to ensure they have the skills to do the job?

Are all staff in uniform when they clean your business?

4. Is Your Company Insured and do you have Work Care Policies in place to Protect our Legal Liability?

When cleaners are on your premises you are exposed to legal liabilities. That’s why, as a minimum, a cleaning company should carry $10,000,000.00 in public liability insurance so if an accident occurs, it’s not your insurance policy that is exposed to a claim You should also ask if they carry a current work care policy for all cleaning staff that work on your site so you aren’t exposed to a personal injury claim.

5. How Do I Communicate Feedback and any Special Needs to Cleaners on a Day to Day Basis?

Your cleaning services provider should have clear, documented communications processes in place so you can be sure they are professional enough to respond to any feedback you give them, as well as any special or unusual circumstances as they arise. This is extremely important and right up front a cleaning company’s sales representative should be able to tell you:

If someone from the company is available to sight a problem in business hours (if the cleaners work at nights)?

The name and number of a specific account manager or contact person available to you during business hours.

Ask the rep how the company communicates issues and requirements to their cleaners?

Ask them what back up procedures they have for when cleaners are sick?

Make sure you are introduced to the cleaners that will be cleaning the site before they commence.

6. How to Specify a Cleaning Schedule and Scope of Works

The cleaning schedule and scope of works is the guts of your agreement with the cleaning contractor and it needs to be clear, written and definitive as this is the documentation that people will go back to if you have disputes or misunderstandings. To ensure you get an adequate schedule and scope of works:

Make sure the salesperson listens to what you want.

Make sure all the areas you want cleaned are detailed in the scope of works and that the detail and frequency of cleaning tasks is in a clearly legible schedule.

Make sure there are no allowances or estimates given, you want all figures clear, specific and in writing.

Make sure any extra non-regular services are clearly stated and charges for these are detailed. o Examples are window cleaning, steam cleaning, floor strip and sealing, polishing etc. o It’s best to get either a fixed quote for these services or as a minimum m2 rates so you can calculate any occasional extra expenses.

Make sure you have time to review the schedule and scope without pressure from the company

Make sure you are given an opportunity to meet with a salesperson and go through the specification together in person.

Make sure you are given the opportunity to question, change, modify, and make inclusions or anything else you feel is necessary to the scope of works and the frequency of cleaning tasks before you sign an agreement.

7. What to Check when Looking Over a Proposed Cleaning Contract

The final step in the process of hiring a cleaning company is entering into a services agreement. A written agreement is desirable as it sets out exactly what is agreed to be cleaned and the price you will pay for the service. But there can be a number of gotcha points in a cleaning contract agreement so when you look over a proposed agreement make sure the contract:

Clearly states the agreed price with GST included.

Clearly lists specifications you’ve agreed to in the scope of works and cleaning schedule with items broken down into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks for the purpose of clarity.

Clearly details an issue resolution process in case of misunderstandings or disagreements.

Make sure there is an option for you to cancel the agreement and a detailed process so you have the ability to legally opt out if the company doesn’t perform.

You should note that most reputable companies will have a clause that allows you to opt out of an agreement by providing written intention to do so 30 days prior to the last clean. If this isn’t in the standard agreement you are presented with alarm bells should be going off.

Make sure the payment terms are clearly stated in the agreement so you are aware of the frequency which they expect payments to be made?

Ask the cleaning company if they will offer you a week’s trial before you sign an agreement to show you what they can deliver before you sign a long term agreement.

If your contract term is greater than 12 months, make sure there isn’t a clause that automatically gives the company the right to increase its charges every year.

So there it is - what I believe to be the most definitive list of questions you should ask a commercial cleaner before hiring them. I think you will agree, this is an extremely detailed check list for business owners and facilities managers going through the task of interviewing cleaning companies. If you are in Australia and would like to inquire about commercial cleaning services, please check our services out, we are a client satisfaction focused cleaning service, and you can find us in all states including: NSW: Smart Cleaning Solutions – Sydney Queensland: Smart Cleaning Solutions – Brisbane South Australia & NT: Smart Cleaning Solutions – Adelaide and in Western Australia: Smart Cleaning Solutions – Perth.

Author Bio: Nicholas Pastras is the CEO of Smart Cleaning Solutions, one of Australia’s fastest growing commercial cleaning companies. At time of writing he has 23 years’ experience in the commercial cleaning industry.

See more here: 7 Questions You Need to Ask a Commercial Cleaning Company before Hiring Them

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smartclean · 6 years ago

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The Relationship between Cleanliness & Customer Satisfaction (Part 1)

Understanding customer satisfaction is something critical for any business, because a customer’s sense of satisfaction is a significant predictor of behavioural intentions, in other words, what they are most likely to do when they buy.

Today I am taking my efforts to write a truly useful commercial cleaning blog to the next level, by looking at academic studies done by social scientists around customer satisfaction.

Now as a bit of a precursor to this article, I don’t mind telling you, academic writing is really dry. It took something for me to stay focused and sift through all the jargon. But when I did, I found some really interesting findings that I’m sure most people don’t get to read about, and over the next few months, I’ll be sharing and discussing some of the findings I came across that I think are interesting to anyone who owns or manages a business.

The first study I’m looking at is called:

Perceptions of Chinese restaurants in the U.S.: What affects customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions? By Yinghua Liu and Soo Cheong Jang of Purdue University. The article was first published in the “International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management in 2009 on pages 338–348. You can find the entire paper online here.

Ok, in a nutshell here's what I found most interesting about this article:

1. First, this study used one of the most widely accepted theories of Customer satisfaction, the expectancy – disconfirmation theory.

The expectancy - dis-confirmation theory in an interesting concept. According to this theory, a customers’ satisfaction is the result of comparisons between the customers’ expectations and the perceived performance of the supplied goods or services.

Boiled down into layman's terms, this theory asserts that if the perceived performance of goods or services exceeds the customer’s expectation - the customer will be satisfied, but on the contrary, if the perceived performance falls short of the customer’s expectation - the customer will be dissatisfied.

2. In this study of Chinese restaurants, the authors surveyed 287 people to identify the attributes that influenced their opinion of their dining experience.

The attributes surveyed were designed to shed light on how the physical environment, food and service combined to create a customer’s overall experience of value, and even more importantly, the impacts that their perceptions of value have on their habits around dining out, i.e. the choices they are likely to make in the future when going out to dinner.

3. Twenty-four attributes were studied, and they are listed in the table below:

Highlighted attributes my emphasis – Nicholas Pastras

The study found that the top four attributes that influenced and inform someone’s experience of satisfaction in a Chinese restaurant are taste, food safety, food freshness and environmental cleanliness.

Now here are three very important things that I take away from these findings

There are a lot of attributes in their list, including fair price, food authenticity, food presentation and a variety of aspects about customer service – all of which you’d think would be extremely important when it came to rating client satisfaction in a Chinese restaurant, but they all came in well below environmental cleanliness!

When you consider what the study found to be the four most significant attributes influencing a customer’s sense of satisfaction, the quality of cleaning in the restaurant is relevant to two of them, food safety and environmental cleanliness.

By reasonable implication and extrapolation, this suggests that how clean any restaurant is, is going to have a significant bearing on how satisfied their clients are likely to be.

Now I realise I am a cleaning company CEO researching and writing about client satisfaction, but even I am surprised at how highly aspects of cleanliness correlated with customer satisfaction ratings, and how important they were to the customers in this survey.

This certainly makes a strong case to owners of any food business that customer perceptions of hygiene and cleanliness are extremely important to your success.

Over the next few months, I intend to look at similar studies like this one, done in other commercial environments. I’ll force myself to struggle through the dry scientific preamble and get to the bottom of what scientists think drives satisfaction in business, and share the results with you.

What I hope You Get From This Article

I hope you found this article more interesting than the typical lightweight rubbish you find in cleaning blogs online, and if you do, I’d like you to appreciate that my efforts to put something more interesting and significant into our blog, is a reflection of our entire approach at Smart Cleaning Solutions.

When I started Smart Cleaning Solutions, I wanted to bring a standard of excellence to a cleaning service, beyond what other cleaning companies were doing, because I truly believe in doing things better, and that the quality of what you do makes a difference to customer satisfaction.

As a CEO, that’s what I stand for in our business, and so does the entire team here at Smart Cleaning Solutions. From the cleaners at the coal face cleaning your business, right through to the account management, office staff and senior management; everyone embraces and shares these same values.

That’s how we engineer our efforts to stand out in our industry, by doing things better!

Post source here: The Relationship between Cleanliness & Customer Satisfaction (Part 1)

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smartclean · 7 years ago

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Link Between Dust and Fat Proven

Research Shows a Link Between Dust & Increased Production of Fat Cells

Tiny dust particles visible in light floating in the air are small molecules of aerosols, dust, viruses or microbes and among other health hazards, can cause you to gain weight.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that dust commonly found in indoor environments could be making you gain weight? Neither did I until I heard about this study done at Duke University. The study shows that common compounds found in dust may be increasing the production of fat cells in your body, making you gain weight! According to the findings, diet and exercise are not be the only factors that make your body store fat, the hygienic state of your environment, where you live, work and exercise, may also have a big bearing on how much you weigh.

How the Study was Carried Out

Recently, some scientists have been focusing their attention on figuring out if environmental contaminants have the capacity to disrupt the metabolism of humans and other animals. In the study carried out at Duke University, scientists sought to assess the ability of extracts from indoor dust and other semi-volatile organic chemicals commonly found in indoor environments, to affect fat cells.

During the study, samples of common household dust were taken from 11 different homes in North Carolina, and they were tested for contaminants. Across all the samples, 44 separate types of contaminants were discovered. The scientists then went ahead to test the effect of each type of contaminant on mouse cells that are meant to store energy in form of fat (the cells used in the study are known as 3T3-L1 cells, and they usually form adipose tissue in mice). This is a significant finding because mouse cells function similarly to human cells, which is why they are commonly used in scientific studies to model the reaction of human cells.

What the Researchers Found

Of all the contaminants that were tested, 3 were found to cause the biggest reactions on the fat cells in subject mice. The three compounds are:

tertbutyl-phenyl phosphate, which is a commonly used agricultural pesticide,

pyraclostrobin which is a flame retardant that’s used in the manufacture of carpets, sofa sets and other household fabrics, and

dibutyl phthalate, a plasticiser that’s commonly found in floor sealants, plastics, and some cosmetics (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.7b01788).

These compounds are now known as endocrine disruptors because of their ability to interfere with the metabolic function of cells. Some people also refer to them as “obesogens” because of their ability to cause weight gain.

Apart from causing weight gain or obesity, endocrine disruptors are also thought to cause immune disorders, fertility issues, some forms of cancer, as well as neurological issues and premature puberty in children. The study also found.

10 out of the 11 samples of dust that were collected caused a significant increase of fat on the cells.

7 samples caused cells that were previously undifferentiated to grow into mature fat cells and to accumulate more fat.

Contaminants found in 9 of the samples caused the multiplication of undifferentiated cells (which are precursor fat cells).

Only 1 of the 11 samples didn’t create weight gaining conditions in the cells!

Conclusions from the Research

The scientists at Duke University concluded:

Chemicals that cause weight gain are prevalent in most households and indoor environments (10 out of 11 houses had “obesogens”).

They also concluded that it doesn't require much dust for weight gain to be triggered (only 3 micrograms of dust were enough to trigger the reaction, which is alarming because it's estimated that children are exposed to about 50,000 micrograms of dust on a daily basis)

The findings of the study are clear and quite conclusive, dust can indeed cause weight gain and is a significant health hazard. If you live, work, study or exercise in a dusty environment, the “obesogens” can enter your body in a number of ways. They can get in your system through the air that you breathe in, or they could land on your food or drinks and you could ingest them.

So What Can We all Do?

Well, for starters you should try and keep your environment as dust free as possible. This applies both at home and in the workplace. At home, ensure that you frequently vacuum your carpet or hard floor to keep off the dust. In the workplace, you should hire a professional commercial cleaning company like Smart Cleaning Solutions to make sure that you and your employees work in clean surroundings every day. Also, on a personal note, don’t tolerate dusty, untidy schools, kindergartens or exercise facilities because the compounds attached to dust floating in the air may indeed be a health hazard.

Who’d have ever thought that being clean could help you stay lean?

Read Full Article here: Link Between Dust and Fat Proven

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smartclean · 7 years ago

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The Ugly Truth about Sanitation in Gyms

The amount of pathogens that end up on common items in the gym is a shock to most people, and recently researchers were astonished to discover that free weights used in the gym can contain over 360 times more pathogens and bacteria than the seat on a public toilet, treadmills can contain over 70 times more bacteria than bathroom taps, and exercise bikes can carry close to 40 times more bacteria than dirty dishes in a cafeteria. Check out the infographic presenting details of findings based on an average of all like samples collected from three different gym locations, which is credited at the bottom of our post.

Highlighting the problem further, another study found that even when workout equipment is sanitised using common household disinfectants, close to 2 thirds of them still contain traces of rhinovirus, which causes colds. Gym goers can do their best to clean after themselves, but it’s up to the gym’s management to hire a cleaning company that has the expertise needed to properly clean gym equipment and protect customers from dangerous germs.

How Our Professionals Clean and Sanitise Gymnasiums

When it comes to destroying colonies of germs on gym equipment, commercial grade antibacterial cleaners are more effective than ordinary disinfectants, which is why our gym cleaners use them. Many fitness centres use their own staff to clean their workout equipment and in many cases, their staff are only equipped with store bought spray cleaners and rags, which are not really effective in the face of millions of bacteria.

Professional grade antibacterial cleaners have the ability to kill even the toughest germs and viruses. Before choosing a specific type of disinfectant for use on a given piece of equipment, our cleaners assess its chemical properties to ensure that it doesn’t corrode the equipment. Also, experienced cleaners will look for disinfectants that are safe as the disinfectants used on gym equipment should be safe for humans. To see more information about how our cleaners clean to prevent the transmission of infectious disease click here

A disinfectant that is perfect to use in gyms is one containing quaternary ammonia compounds. These compounds have been found to be highly effective in killing even the most notorious types of germs and bacteria. The quaternary ammonia disinfectants are applied using spray bottles. They are generally safe for the environment, harmless to humans, and nonreactive when they come in contact with most gym equipment. To disinfect a surface, this disinfectant is generously sprayed onto the area, left to soak in and kill the germs for about 10 minutes, and then wiped off with a clean rag.

Of course, all other areas of a gym should also be cleaned and sanitised as often as possible, for instance, showers should be scrubbed and sanitised every day to prevent the growth of and spread of fungal disease, locker rooms should be thoroughly wiped down and mopped and public bathrooms properly cleaned to a professional standard.

Professional Gym Cleaning Services by Smart Cleaning Solutions

Smart Cleaning Solutions have extensive experience in cleaning gymnasiums, we clean for some of the biggest gyms and fitness centres in Australia. To find out more about our gym cleaning services click here and to look at sources used in this article click here.

Learn more here: The Ugly Truth about Sanitation in Gyms

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smartclean · 7 years ago

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5 Things a Commercial Cleaning Service Must Do to be Reliable

[caption id="attachment_11704" align="alignleft" width="292"] Commercial cleaners should be well organised[/caption]

If you are looking to contract a commercial cleaning service for your company, you are going to come across many service providers, each claiming to be better than the last, so how do you know which one to hire? Before you sign a contract with a commercial cleaner, you should check to make sure that their business practices are built on a solid foundation of reliability and consistency. According to Smart Cleaning Solutions CEO Nicholas Pastras, here are the 5 essential things a commercial cleaning service must do to for them to be considered reliable enough to earn your business.

Have Quality Control Processes in Place

Any commercial cleaning company can claim that its services are high quality, but unless it has quality control processes in place, there’s no way to prove it. A truly professional cleaning company will audit their services regularly throughout the duration of the cleaning contract. When you talk to sales reps from different companies, ask about their auditing practices, and immediately rule out those who provide vague answers because it means they don't have one. Only work with a cleaning company that carries out weekly checks and performs monthly audits. A good commercial cleaning service should have processes for handling day to day feedback issues, promptly addressing and rectifying problems identified during audits, and supervising their on-site cleaners regularly. Even more importantly, the company should have a quality management system such as the ISO 9001. Cleaning companies with ISO 9001 accreditation are usually audited on a regular basis to conform to International Standards Organisation specification which are based around the use of business processes that have been proven over time to facilitate achieving customer satisfaction, and if a cleaning company has ISO 9001 certification, you can be assured that they have regularly audited quality control systems in place.

Have Work Care and Liability Insurance Coverage

Just like all other businesses, commercial cleaning companies are prone to risk, so the company you hire should have adequate insurance coverage. Whenever cleaners are in your offices, you are exposed to potential legal liabilities, and you could be exposed if someone is hurt to personal injury claims,even more so if your cleaner doesn’t have public liability insurance. At the very least, a cleaning company should have a $10 million coverage against public liability as well as an up-to-date work-care policy for the cleaners that are sent to work in your office. This means you and your insurance company won’t be responsible if any of the cleaners are injured.

Mitigate against Security Risks

Before contracting a cleaning company, ask them about their hiring policies. Do they carry out police checks before hiring their cleaners? Do they check to ensure that their workers are legally allowed to work in Australia? Do they teach their cleaners how to maintain security while at your offices? The last thing you want is to expose your property to theft or vandalism, so you should only hire a cleaning service that cares about safety and security. Cleaners will have access to most areas in your office, so you need to know that they are responsible and trustworthy. The cleaning staff should also wear uniforms and name tags so that they can be easily identified.

Agree to a Cleaning Schedule and Scope of Work

A cleaning schedule and a scope of work should form the basis of your agreement with a commercial cleaning company. They are important because you can refer to them if you have any disputes about cleaning standards. When you sit down to talk terms, ensure that the sales rep listens to you and acknowledges all your concerns in the scope of work. The scope of work should specify which areas need to be cleaned, how often they ought to be cleaned, and how much it costs. Areas that require less frequent cleaning should also be listed and the charges for special services should be specified. The company should not pressure you to agree to terms you don’t like. You should be able to ask questions or ask for changes to the schedule. All the terms that you agree to should be presented in a written contract, which you should only sign if you are absolutely satisfied with the terms.

Communicate well with Cleaners and Clients

Commercial cleaning companies should have clear lines of communication which clients know and understand. Check to ensure that the company has processes for collecting feedback, and reliable procedures for addressing special issues that may arise during the period of the contract. The cleaning company should assign you an account manager who you can contact during business hours if you have any issues to raise. Find out the specific communication policies the company has in place to communicate with cleaners on site, and what backup procedures they have in place in case cleaners are sick. Look for immediate and clear responses from the cleaning company rep, if the are uncertain in any way, you can be certain they have no clear policy and you will be let down at some time. Good companies with well established policies will give you clear definitive answers to questions like these.

Smart Cleaning Solutions is the leading commercial cleaning company in Australia, and we meet all of the conditions discussed in this article and more. We have commercial cleaning offices and operations in every capital city of Australia, to find your closest office look in our menu structure under locations and fill out the form on the page or give us a call. We promise you the most reliable and best managed cleaning service you have ever experienced.

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smartclean · 7 years ago

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Why Hygienic Childcare Services are an Imperative for Working Mums

[caption id="attachment_2945" align="alignleft" width="439"] Hygienic childcare cleaning services reduce sick-days taken by working mums[/caption]

Most mothers agonize over the decision to leave their kids under the care of strangers in a childcare facility and go back to work. It's only natural that working mothers need peace of mind that their children are being well taken care of in an environment that is safe, intellectually stimulating and hygienic. But while safety and an intellectually stimulating environment are usually front of mind when selecting a childcare facility, cleaning standards are just as important, because if cleaning standards are lax, it can directly affect a working mothers successful return to the workforce.

Equal opportunity in the workplace is the law, and employers understand this, but never the less, the last thing any working mother needs is to be constantly called at work with the report that her child has fallen ill. Of course, the occasional illness is bound to happen, and most employers will understand, but when the frequency of your children’s illnesses goes beyond a certain threshold, this can create real stress between a newly back to working mum and her employer, even with the most understanding of employers.

That’s why hygiene is one of the most important considerations for working mothers who are looking to place their kids in a childcare facility. The last thing you need is your relationship with your employer to be unduly stressed or jeopardised, indirectly, by lax cleaning practices employed by the childcare centre you engage when this can be completely avoided simply by choosing a childcare centre that has adequate hygienic cleaning practices in place. Professional childcare cleaning companies like Smart Cleaning Solutions ensure all the hygienic cleaning requirements are adequately managed in a childcare facility.

Why Hygiene is Important in Childcare Centres

Kids will be kids. Even if they are closely watched, they are still likely to engage in lots of unhygienic behaviours such as putting toys and other unclean objects in their mouths. Kids of childcare age are still in the process of learning good personal hygiene habits, so they can't be left to their own devices when it comes to maintaining their hygiene. The childcare centre, therefore, has a responsibility to ensure that the kids aren't exposed to dirt and germs. They have to make sure that all the surfaces, toys, and playground equipment in the childcare centre are thoroughly cleaned and sanitized every day.

Disease outbreaks are more likely to occur in childcare centres with questionable standards of hygiene. Young children of childcare age are still in the process of developing their own immune systems, which means that they are more susceptible to contagious illnesses. It’s therefore imperative that childcare centres be kept in immaculate conditions to prevent the spread of disease-causing germs.

Good Hygienic Practices in Childcare Facilities

Proper childcare hygiene can only be achieved if surfaces and objects in the facility are cleaned, sanitized, and disinfected on a regular basis. Since the health of little children is at stake, cleaning alone will not suffice. Cleaning refers to the process of removing dirt from surfaces, sanitizing refers to getting rid of dirt and most germs, while the process of disinfection has the effect of obliterating all disease-causing microorganisms.

All the activity areas in a childcare centre must be cleaned once or more times daily. Floors in childcare centres tend to get soiled often, so they should be frequently vacuumed, swept, or mopped. The bathroom facilities at the centre should be cleaned and disinfected at least once every day. Bathroom surfaces such as taps, sinks, flush handles, diaper bins, and toilet seats must be thoroughly disinfected as well. Areas where food is prepared and where the kids enjoy their meals and snacks must also be sanitized on a daily basis. The linen or beddings that are used by kids while taking naps must be washed before they are assigned to a specific kid. All the cleaning products used in the childcare centre should be mild and safe for the kids.

How Working Mothers can tell if Childcare Centres are Hygienic

If you are a working mother and you want to enrol your kid in a clean and sanitary childcare centre, you should ask about the centre’s hygienic practices when you meet with the administrators. Ask them how often the facility is cleaned, and what processes are used. Do they have a cleaning schedule they can show you? Do they make hygiene a priority?

Look around the play area of the childcare centre to see for yourself if it’s properly cleaned or if there are pieces of litter and dirty surfaces all over. Try to pay an impromptu visit to the childcare centre for the inspection, because the facility may be cleaned during scheduled visits for your benefit. Go into the bathroom and check if all the fixtures are cleaned, and if the nappy bin is properly secured.

Only enrol your kid in a childcare centre if you are absolutely satisfied with their hygienic practices. This will give you the peace of mind that you need to focus on your job and ensure that you are not needlessly held back in your career by having to have days off to look after sick children simply because the childcare facility you are using cannot keep adequate sanitation standards required to minimise the spread of illness among the children they care for.

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smartclean · 7 years ago

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Cleaning to Prevent the Transmission of Infectious Diseases

Hygienic cleaning practices are important in all public areas, for example toilets, lunchrooms and gymnasiums, but they are even more important in childcare centres, aged care centres, and hospitals because the young, the old and the sick are particularly vulnerable to all sorts of infections. These three groups tend to have weaker immune systems than the rest of us, and it’s therefore important that their environments, and indeed all office and workplace environments, are kept not only clean, but extremely sanitary. Here is what you need to know about infectious diseases and how to prevent them through hygienic cleaning practices.

Hygienic Cleaning

How infectious diseases are transmitted

Disease-causing microorganisms are usually transmitted through:

Contact

Droplets e.g. when someone coughs or sneezes.

Airborne particles such as dust or pollen.

Vectors and agents such as insects (mosquitos, fleas, ticks, and flies).

Common material such as food or water.

Contact is the most common way through which infections are transmitted. Infections that are transmitted through contact are categorized into direct contact infections and indirect contact infections. Direct contact transmission occurs when disease-causing microorganisms are transferred to a new subject after he or she is touched by or is near an infected person. On the other hand, indirect contact transmission involves the spreading of an infection that results after the subject comes in contact with an object that is contaminated. In a childcare centre, the contaminated object can be a common toy or play equipment. In an elder care facility, office or gym the contaminated object can be any surface but common culprits are things like door handles and taps. In a hospital, the possibilities are limitless. Proper hygienic cleaning practices are the keys to limiting the transmission of infections through either direct or indirect contact.

Cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting common objects and surfaces

In aged care facilities and hospitals, common objects and surfaces need to be cleaned, sanitized and disinfected as often as possible. Cleaning involves the removal of dirt and soil, sanitizing reduces the number of germs, and disinfection involves virtually getting rid of all germs.

Professional cleaners use spray bottles with disinfecting agents and rags to clean surfaces in care facilities and hospitals. In childcare centres, all toys, monkey bars, swings, slides etc. must be cleaned and disinfected as often as possible. In elder care facilities, surfaces and objects such as doorknobs, taps, faucets, and television remotes must also be frequently disinfected to reduce the spreading of infections.

The risk of transmission of infections through direct and indirect contact is much higher in a hospital than anywhere else. This means that commercial cleaning companies have to be even more thorough when cleaning hospitals. Cleaning agents such as bleach, ammonia, and hydrogen peroxide are used to disinfect a wide range of surfaces and objects in hospitals, including bed frames, hospital floors, and wardroom tables.

Proper handling and disposal of waste

Waste handling and disposal is an important part of hygienic cleaning. In childcare centres, wastes should not be left in the children’s play area. Young children tend put random things in their mouths, and it can be extremely dangerous if they were to get their hands on any kind of contaminated wastes. Common wastes in childcare centres include diapers, broken toys, and papers. Most childcare centres take care of children who are between 6 months and 6 years old, so some of them still need diapers. Childcare personnel should always ensure that used diapers are kept in secure bins which are out of the reach of children, as they wait for the cleaning crew to dispose of them.

In aged care centres, wastes aren’t a big issue, as long as there are enough bins placed around the facilities, and that they are frequently emptied. In hospitals, all wastes are potentially hazardous, and they should be treated as such. Medical wastes are usually handled by healthcare personnel since they are deemed too dangerous to be disposed alongside ordinary wastes. However, general hospital wastes such as cafeteria leftovers, papers, and bottles, are usually handled by commercial cleaners.

The Importance of Hygienic practices in care centres and hospitals

Hand washing is perhaps the most important hygienic practice that can reduce the transmission of infections. In childcare centres, children should be trained on how to properly wash their hands. Commercial cleaners usually wash their hands before, during and after certain cleaning tasks to prevent the spread of germs.

Protective equipment should be used in aged care centres and hospitals whenever it’s necessary. Commercial cleaners use gloves, safety goggles, gas masks, face masks, dust coats, and aprons to protect themselves as they clean and disinfect care centres and hospitals.

Childcare centres, aged care centres, and hospitals should only contract cleaners who have the means and expertise to clean, sanitise and disinfect their facilities, but even offices and gymnasiums should be sanitised as they are cleaned, particularly in flu season or when there is an outbreak or epidemic of any debilitating virus. But without doubt the health and well-being of children, the elderly, and patients must be considered in care facilities, and will depend greatly on the competence of cleaners and their diligence in sanitising while they clean.

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