ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Cleaning industry association ISSA has chosen the UK and Republic of Ireland as the first two countries outside of the US in which to launch its Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS).

CIMS is a consensus-based management standard geared towards validating and improving the professionalism of cleaning service providers. It lays out a framework based on management principles: quality systems; health,safety & environmental stewardship; service delivery; management commitment; and HR.

The standard was first introduced in the US in 2006 and so far 186 organisations have achieved certification.

Keith Baker, director of EMEA services at ISSA commented: "To my mind, CIMS works so well because it is based on universally accepted management principles and applies these elements to an entire organisation rather than to an individual, product or process.

"The use of specific products and cleaning techniques is not required, or actually even recommended, and each organisation keeps the flexibility to choose the products and cleaning techniques that best fit its needs."

Organisations wishing to achieve certification must undergo a comprehensive on-site assessment by a fully independent and accredited assessor who evaluates the organisation's compliance with the standard.

In the UK and Ireland the CIMS standard will be audited independently by ISSA's exclusive partner BICS Business Services. Certification will then be reassessed every two years to ensure ongoing compliance.

The first workshops will be taking place next month, for details email keith@issa.com