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Looking back on a year like no other
21st of December 2021 Article by Zac Hemming
As 2021 draws to a close, Zac Hemming, managing director of industrial, commercial and domestic cleaning services provider ICE Cleaning, looks back on the pivotal role the industry has played throughout 2021 and predicts the key drivers for 2022.
The Covid-19 pandemic has continued to significantly reshape the capabilities and expectations of the cleaning sector, not only throughout Europe but across the globe. Over the last two years, but particularly in 2021, cleaning services have been recognised as an essential strategy in the fight against the spread of the virus throughout all areas of society, from healthcare and hospitality to offices and retail outlets.
The introduction of EFCI's 2021 report, The Cleaning Industry in Europe: Covid-19 Impact Analysis, perfectly encapsulates the crucial role the sector has played in providing countries with a main method of re-opening, and crucially, staying open. As a result, the cleaning industry has facilitated the safe return of many of Europe's economies over the last 12 months.
As a result, this has accelerated a major shift in the perception and proficiency of the industry, with the role of commercial cleaning routines in particular undergoing major transformation. This has included the development of additional technologies and services as part of daily, weekly and monthly routines, to not only fulfil traditional standards of hygiene and cleanliness, but successfully mitigate against the transfer of viruses and bacteria.
This change in approach to hygiene and cleanliness has largely centred upon adopting a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to virus sanitisation, not only to fulfil duty of care, but to provide the highest standards of protection and fulfil consumer confidence.
For many throughout society, returning to workplaces and re-entering societal norms continues to be an area of concern. Research conducted by ICE Cleaning in 2021 identified that over half of British workers would support never returning to the office environment, due to a fear of germs, lack of social distancing and being in a room with lots of other people.
The study of 1,000 British employees, which was carried out via OnePoll, found two thirds would also feel uncomfortable about going back into their workplace full time, with worries including lack of personal space and not enough communal cleaning.
Here, dedicated virus sanitisation programmes, which were requested by over half of those surveyed by OnePoll, have played a pivotal role in supporting business owners to alleviate employees' concerns, by ensuring communal areas, such as kitchens, bathrooms and lifts, are sufficiently protected against the spread of bacteria and viruses.
This has been achieved through the continued advancement in cleaning technologies and non-hazardous chemicals throughout 2021, with specialist dispensing systems enabling businesses to revolutionise their approach to hygiene and sanitisation. This includes the application of positively charged electrostatic particles, which attach to negatively charged particles found on solid surfaces and throughout the atmosphere.
By using certain forms of electrostatic dispensing in combination with high performance chemicals, rather than traditional fogging methods, we can effectively destroy 99.9 per cent of traces of coronavirus and other bacteria and viruses, whilst also achieving longer dwell time on surfaces to guarantee protection against viruses and bacteria for up to 28 days.
This provides prolonged defence across high frequency touchpoints, such as door handles, lift buttons and stair bannisters, to achieve the highest standards of protection, whilst directly addressing employee and customer concerns.
Communication has also become an essential part of these routines. Rubbermaid's recent Changing Workplaces report identified 93 per cent of business owners felt visibility of cleaning is key, particularly as staff continue to return to the workplace. This has facilitated the creation of assets including decontamination certificates, which are distributed after every service to not only communicate how the environment has been cleaned and sanitised, but provide a physical trail of due diligence.
Looking ahead to 2022, as cases across Europe continue to rise and the Omicron variant presents a fresh wave of concerns, cleaning routines, supplemented by dedicated virus sanitisation plans, will continue to play an essential role in achieving the highest possible standards of protection.
Moving forward, continued innovation will be key but it cannot be achieved at the expense of sustainability. The development of non-harmful solutions, in addition to ensuring the wellbeing of cleaning technicians, clients, the wider public and the environment, will continue to be a main priority for 2022, to ensure the industry plays it's part in supporting net zero ambitions.
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