The Smart Cleaning
Table of content:
The Smart Cleaning
A new agile cleaning method
Since the health crisis, “Smart Cleaning”, also known as “cleanliness in use”, is increasingly present in the world of work. Our article will help you better understand this method, its advantages, its implementation and how Flex Office management applications can contribute to it.
What is Smart Cleaning?
Smart Cleaning consists of intelligent cleaning on company premises by cleaning service providers. We talk about “smart” cleaning because it is about cleaning where it is most needed. Indeed, 87% of French people say that companies and cleaners play an essential role in guaranteeing health and safety. This method is based on data collected through connected tools: motion detectors and connected objects. Cleaning providers will then be able to adapt their practices to the actual use of spaces, to gain efficiency and to optimize cleaning costs.
Significant benefits
Cleanliness in use offers interesting advantages for cleaning providers but also for the company wishing this service.
Cleaning professionals
Cleaning professionals regularly intervene in companies. Depending on the surface of the premises, the intervention will take more or less time. It is therefore optimal to be able to find out about the places to clean first. This will limit the interventions that are sometimes unnecessary for maintenance staff. Indeed, knowing this information upstream will allow them to organize their working day and rank their tasks in order of importance. They will gain in efficiency and customer satisfaction.
A question then arises about the schedules of the maintenance staff. It is quite common for cleaning agencies to work quite early or quite late in the day. More than 2/3 of French people are in favor of continuous and/or daytime work of cleaners in order to improve working conditions and offer a high value-added service. Indeed, by working during the day, maintenance staff will be able to have a better reactivity if an incident is triggered. Cleanliness in use lies in the service relationship between the cleaner and the recipient of the service, so the well-being of both parties is important.
Enterprise
Let us not forget that the primary interest of this new method is user centered. It is therefore a question of identifying and taking charge of the real needs of the users of these spaces. Among these needs we could find the fact of informing users of the products used (organic, non-toxic, etc.). Smart Cleaning, by integrating these new missions and activities, contributes to meeting CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) challenges.
By using the data collected by connected objects, the company can have a precise vision of the offices and meeting rooms use. With teleworking, some unoccupied offices remain clean since the last visit of the maintenance staff. Cleanliness in use is therefore an optimal service based on the actual use of workspaces. It will make it possible to benefit from clean and disinfected workspaces at a controlled cost.
According to our research, the average price for a cleaning service would be around 18 € / m2. Everything will depend on the agency chosen, the number of square meters to be cleaned and other factors. Let’s take an example, a building measuring 250m2 would then cost you €4,500. Since the health crisis, offices can only be occupied at 40 or 50%. Even if we take an occupancy rate of 70% (average Flex Office rate), you could make substantial savings. Below, a graph representing the different expenses of a building. We can observe that cleaning represents on average 14.5% of the operating costs of a tertiary building, which represents the third item of expenses. Smart Cleaning is relevant in terms of overall savings due to these two aspects: the low occupancy rate and the high share of cleanliness costs in tertiary buildings.
A set-up challenge?
Cleanliness in use poses a challenge in the implementation of the contract. It will indeed be complicated to determine the hourly volume according to the real-time needs of the company’s premises. In compensation for this risk, the cleaning agency can offer Smart Cleaning contracts without commitment. If we add to this, the fact that a cleaner must be available if an incident is declared, the organization of cleaning providers can be complicated. Being a “tailor-made” contract, it will therefore be necessary to build it in a logic of partnership and mutual interests.
Another essential point for the implementation of this new process is to collect data. Indeed, whether it is the application or the connected objects that you will use, you will have to be sure that the data collected is reliable in order to be well processed. Indeed, it will be important to pay attention to the choice of sensor technology to ensure that they meet the identified needs. Do not hesitate to be accompanied by a professional.
An app to help with Smart Cleaning
A Flex Office application will allow you to collect and process the data of your connected objects. Presence detection will be done via technologies and a range of sensors that adapt to your needs (Bluetooth beacons, infrared sensors, thermal camera, etc.). Depending on the application, you will also be able to get statistics for example in the form of heatmaps showing the actual use of your offices and meeting rooms. Thanks to this data you will be able to determine the order of priority for the maintenance of your premises. This meets the first prerequisite of Smart Cleaning: precise knowledge of the spaces occupation.
A Flex Office application can also support other Smart Cleaning services such as incident management, whether technical or household, in your meeting rooms and offices. It will be possible to report them on the application and thus send a notification to maintenance staff. This will therefore make it possible to act quickly to fix this issue. To go even further in the well-being of employees, there are solutions to notify when there is no more toilet paper or soap in the toilet. This problem is quite recurrent, and it is an essential point since we are talking about hygiene. It is true that 50% of French people have increased their level of requirement in terms of cleanliness and hygiene after the health crisis.
A rich method
Smart Cleaning is a new method of cleanliness that since the health crisis, is more present in the world of work. Indeed, as we have seen above, it has many advantages, starting with time savings leading to better cost control, while satisfying users as well as possible. However, do not go too fast in its implementation and exchange well with the professionals you will hire. Whether in terms of technology or cleanliness, specialists will be there to support you throughout your project. The main thing is to take into account the actual and expressed needs of users.
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