ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

ECJ’s UK reporter Lynn Webster reflects on an intense period of retenders during May.

Following an intense time of tenders and retenders for and with clients, along with the focus on catching up after a very successful ISSA/INTERCLEAN, summer is upon us, and we can all enjoy the gifts of newness and possibility that spring has brought us. Or can we?

Mad May for this year is finished; the spring clean of all spring cleans has been a great success. Cleaning and facilities staff on the ground can get on with the job, the job that was carefully specified and re-specified over a period of close consultation and negotiation of price, hours, start dates and service levels. Facilities managers and cleaning managers are free to get on with actually managing their clearly defined contractual roles - making their jobs more straightforward, and even fulfilling.

Stakeholders are enjoying a summer of contentment, happy in the knowledge that all is as it should be; that the managers have the situation in hand and their advice and particular needs are rightly integrated within working practices. New working relationships are experiencing a prolonged joyous honeymoon. Nothing at all is rotten in the state of contract cleaning.

It’s a lovely picture and one that we would all enjoy being a part of. The reality is likely to be very different. Mobilisation of contracts will probably have everyone in a state of exhaustion, with more than the occasional period of panic. Seamless processes are already showing gaping holes and reinterpretation or misinterpretation of contractual requirements seems to be the norm.

No one is sure who is responsible for those aspects that keep going wrong, (sales versus operations?) or who to speak to so the problems can be resolved. Frustration levels are high and rising. The phrase echoing across the industry might well be, “never again”.

Many colleagues will know the second scenario well. Many have developed their expertise based on the “never again” promise, through their own wide ranging experience, learning from their and others’ mistakes, by hearing horror stories at networking events and through their consultancy and advice work with clients in difficulty.

Consultancy work relies upon recognising the pitfalls and helping clients to avoid these where possible, or as a minimum, having contingencies in place to tackle them when, not if, they arise. But every consultant would agree it is the array of communicative relationships that underpin every successful contract.

A contract is a concrete statement of complex and difficult to define realities. There are three parties at the forefront and essential to the process: the supplier/service provider, the client and the various stakeholders - all with a vested interest in the cleaning itself.

A few of the key questions need asking well before, during and after Mad May. Who needs to be involved? How and when do they need to be involved? How does their involvement contribute to the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of this process? What means of regular and valuable communication, and between which individuals, need to be established and maintained?

Keep asking the questions, establish relevant channels of communication between those essential individuals from those three parties and who knows, maybe we won’t hear too many cries of, “never again” in the summer of 2017.