Cleaners become wellbeing workers

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10th of June 2021 Article by Christian Bouzols

France reporter Christian Bouzols speaks to Guillaume Hubert at O’Petits Soins - a company offering innovative services alongside cleaning.

What is your philosophy? What we’re offering are cleaning operations and wellbeing solutions. Our first challenge is to demonstrate that our job requires specific techniques and skills. At O’Petits Soins, we are also wellbeing workers. Staff are involved in housekeeping, of course, but that’s not their first assignment. We contribute to the wellbeing of all those who are employed by our clients.

At the heart of our work is the requirement to ensure the premises we deal with are clean. If work spaces, socialising areas or toilets aren’t clean, employees won’t feel comfortable. Cleanliness makes a vital contribution to a good experience.

What do your wellbeing workers do? We train our people to be good caretakers. They are therefore much better equipped to adapt themselves to various situations than usual cleaning workers. For example, they’re able to set up a meeting place, to prepare breakfast for executives, and even to collect clothes at the dry cleaners.

These are brave people. Take a cleaning lady: she gets up at 4 am and then takes the underground in order to have everything ready by the time you arrive for work. Despite this, some people are embarrassed just to speak to cleaners, let alone to show them some form of gratitude. It’s a disheartening job in that if it’s done correctly, cleaning staff just don’t exist. However, if there’s a problem, they never fail to get complaints.

How you do ensure your people are appreciated? To start with, all our staff have appropriate tools, which are of good quality and easy to work with. Contrary to the saying that “clothes don’t make the man”, they do! There’s an intellectual and social hierarchy surrounding our people’s outfits. All our wellbeing workers wear a black shirt, for example. The way they are dressed is important because it highlights them as professionals.

The idea is to change the perception of cleaners among client employees. Every week, O’Petits Soins undertakes specific wellbeing actions (flowers, fruit baskets, fresh drinks) which are deployed by our workers. This has helped mentalities to change slowly. We have clients who tell us they have sensed a difference, because their staff show more attention towards cleaning workers who they now recognise as bringers of happiness.

Our wellbeing workers come from 16 difference countries. It’s our responsibility to make sure that they understand what client expects from them. That’s why we’ve designed an app where they can get all the information they need, in their respective languages.

Protecting the environment is most important. We use green labelled products because it makes sense, but we keep using plastic containers. To make up for this, we plant a tree for each drum that we use.

We have the same attitude towards the use of consumables. For example, every week we collect used microfibre rags on-site, wash them and re-use them. Our microfibre products are always clean, which enables us to consume fewer.

We also help our clients in their recycling practices.