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German survey highlights tense atmosphere
26th of January 2026 Article by Katja Scholz
From Germany, Katja Scholz on the findings of the latest BIV survey into the mood of the sector.
The Federal Association of Contract Cleaners (BIV) presented the results of its latest survey recently, showing the overall mood in the sector along with market forecasts. The main theme of the 2025 autumn survey: bureaucracy.
Twenty-three per cent of the companies questioned forecast increasing turnover for the current financial year, while the majority (nearly 53 per cent) expect their volume of business to remain unchanged. The remaining ones (just under a quarter) have negative expectations of 2025.
The autumn survey was supplemented by a special one on bureaucracy. The results are clear: on a scale of one to 10 those questioned gave the impact on entrepreneurial activity of red tape in Germany eight out of a possible 10 negative points - clearly critical. According to their own figures, more than 62 per cent have recently recruited additional staff to cope with all the paperwork.
“It is alarming that a third of the working day of the head office staff in our companies revolves solely around coping with bureaucracy,” says federal guild master Thomas Dietrich. “The role of politicians should be to simplify things, when in doubt to do away with unnecessary regulations and to go digital wherever it is possible and sensible to do so. Our job is creation not administration.”
The companies’ mood reflects this; on the other hand, confidence in the ability of politicians to reduce red tape is at a very low ebb - 3.6 (out of 10) points.
Some areas of activity were highlighted as being particularly burdensome, such as instructions and risk assessments. Companies objected to the increasing amount of time and money spent on meeting documentation and assessment requirements which have become more numerous and ever more complex, and would like to see more options for the use of digital media and E-learning programmes.
The additional expenditure involved in electronic sick notes is also leading to resentment and, in the companies’ view, added bureaucracy. This is because according to the new rule, while the doctor informs the insurance company that a sick note has been issued, the employee himself still has to continue to notify the company of his sickness as he is not included in the information loop.
This means that the Human Resources department has to digitally retrieve details of every single case of sickness from the insurance company – often several times if the data are not instantly available.
Other issues which were considered to be very costly from an administrative point of view were the inspection of residence and work permits for non-EU citizens, data protection and the provision of statistical information required by government agencies.
Forecast for 2026
Compared with predictions for 2025, the general mood for 2026 looks considerably more negative: barely 20 per cent of companies have positive expectations for the coming year, just under 42 per cent expect their turnover to be unchanged and hence almost 39 per cent predict negative development.
Award-winning website
Some good news for the start of the year: the relaunch of the BIV website www.die-gebaeudedienstleister.de has earned the Federal Association of Contract Cleaners ‘MediaV Award. This prize is awarded every two years by the ‘Verbändereport’ for outstanding achievements in communication by organisations, agencies, associations and media professionals.
The website has been live since Spring 2024, is state-of-the-art and acts as a well-structured information platform for both members and their customers.
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