What Determines the Quality of Professional Cleaning?

What defines the quality of cleanliness, what do we hope to achieve through cleanliness, and what exactly determines the quality of cleanliness?

We need to clean the world we live in. As humans have settled down and no longer move from place to place on a daily basis like wild animals, there is a need to clean the places where we live, work and relax. This is basically the root of the need for cleaning. Whether we do it ourselves or have someone else do it, we must keep our habitats clean to survive in the long run. And the quality of the cleaning should be good. How well it works depends on the risks involved if we don't do a good enough job.

Incidentally, it also largely determines the amount of money we are willing to spend on cleaning. Cleanroom environments need to be completely clean or there will be costly breakdowns. Medicines can become contaminated and people can die, or electronic components such as microchips can be damaged by dust and have to be thrown away. On the other hand, if we don't do a good job of cleaning in the office, it can be annoying, but it won't cause a disaster.

What is cleaning quality?

I have searched for definitions and my favourite one is "the desired level of cleanliness achieved and the effectiveness of the cleaning process". So cleaning quality relates to the effectiveness and operation of the cleaning itself. When we clean, we remove unwanted substances from the surface, such as dirt and stains (aesthetic cleaning). But we also want to remove or reduce microorganisms, especially disease-causing microorganisms (hygienic cleaning). Sometimes it is even necessary to kill bacteria. In this case, the main aim is not to clean but to sterilise, and the two terms are often confused. Surprisingly, also professionals.

What are we trying to achieve?

There are many reasons why we clean our environment, and not just to make it look nice again. While there is no intention to make a complete list, I will say this:

- Maintaining the visual appeal (aesthetic cleanliness) of the environment and objects
- Prevent rapid deterioration of surfaces and objects (e.g., sand on a wooden floor can cause serious damage)
- Removing unpleasant odours
- Reducing the microbiological load of surfaces (hygienic cleanliness). The fewer pathogenic microorganisms, the lower the risk of contamination. Consider also the removal of biofilm. Sometimes cleaning is followed by disinfection.
- Prevent rapid increase in dirt levels. Dirty environments tend to get dirtier at a faster rate. Although the rate at which dirt builds up can be complex and influenced by a number of factors, there are a number of theories backed up by scientific research that explain this phenomenon: "broken windows theory" (visible signs of disorder may indicate a lack of social control and encourage further disorder) ), "normalisation of dirt " (the presence of dirt can act as a social cue to normalise untidiness and reduce the propensity to clean) and "diffusion of responsibility" (multiple people using the environment may assume that others will look after it) cleaning can lead to neglect and dirt build-up).
- Reduced negative psychological impacts on health and wellbeing. A clean environment can reduce stress and anxiety, improve concentration and productivity, enhance mood and well-being, increase motivation and goal setting, and improve health and hygiene perceptions. For example, remember how you feel when you come home and the cleaners have left everything clean and tidy. Feeling good and a little relaxed.

What determines cleaning quality?

There are many variables that determine cleaning quality. Let's start with the basics. Time - If the cleaner doesn't have time to complete the job, the quality of the cleaning will decrease. It's so simple. However, we still see cleaners having to clean wards in just a few minutes, which of course never achieves the results we want.
Cleaning chemicals - In many cases, cleaning with good quality microfibres and water alone is sufficient. However, there are situations where adequate chemicals are required or to provide an additional cleaning effect. Of course, it is important to use chemicals that are appropriate for the job, not just those available on site.

Equipment - Machines and appliances are needed to clean properly. Not just anything you can buy, but quality, professional equipment. To keep costs down, I have seen professional cleaners use household products many times. Household products are nice, but they are not designed for professional cleaning. Consider durability, sustainability, ergonomics, ease of use, safety in use, and the variables that determine what is good and what is acceptable.

Temperature - Temperature affects the quality of cleaning, but it can also have a negative impact. If you try to remove blood with hot water, the results will be bad because blood contains proteins that coagulate with heat. Another common mistake is for cleaners to use hot water solutions to clean floors and interior surfaces. When a mop or cloth touches a cold surface, the effects of heat are immediately reduced to almost zero. Additionally, bacteria usually multiply faster in warm, humid conditions. This is something we don't want, especially in a healthcare environment.

Astute readers have already seen that the four factors listed above represent the Cynar Circle. But there is more.

Education - Everyone cleans, but not everyone cleans professionally. It takes education. And not once, but repeatedly, which is something that is often overlooked. Other than that, I'm a big proponent of "evidence-based cleaning". What you do and what you teach should be independently proven to be the best. Often times in my practice I wonder if this is really the best way to go. There is a lot of "this is the way it should be done because this is the way we have always done it" in professional cleaning. Experience is good, but evidence is better.

Adhere to the latest guidelines and standards - Guidelines and standards help to achieve the required quality of cleaning in a consistent way. They should clearly mention what the required output should be, how it should be performed and how often. Not in general terms, but in detail.

Behaviour - This is a very interesting factor that affects the quality of cleaning. Labour costs usually represent a significant part of the total costs, usually between 50% and 80%. Obviously, this means that human influence is important. This not only affects the total cost of the cleaning activity, but also determines the quality.

Behaviour makes all the difference

The behaviour of cleaning staff, operators and supervisors is critical to achieving and maintaining quality cleaning. Attitude, genuine engagement and work ethic significantly affect the overall cleanliness of the environment. This is certainly a very important insight to recognise. Firstly, behaviour is of course influenced by other factors. If there is no time to clean, no education, no low quality equipment and guidelines, cleaners will suffer. When people suffer, their behaviour will be different. If management "doesn't care" then why should they?

Cleaning is a very interesting and challenging industry, but for those who really need it, it may not be as fun and exciting as we think. The key insight from this research into influencing behaviour is:

"Cleaners are suffering from the fact that they are invisible. This invisibility sometimes means that cleaners are not actually seen by others, and this invisibility is often attributed to a lack of recognition." Drawing on Hegel's concept of recognition, this invisibility is defined as literally not being seen or not being recognised for who you are and what you do.

Rarely noticed

Invisibility stems from the way cleaning is usually organised in organisations and society. The cleaning industry has always focussed on efficiency, and invisibility helps to achieve this. Cleaning is dirty work. "Dirty work is work that needs to be done, but for some reason is not popular. As a result, society stigmatises dirty workers. The stigma of dirty work causes dirty workers to distance themselves from people; by doing so, society can manage its dirty work."

In addition, organisations tend to give relatively little attention and resources to cleaning because it does not directly contribute to the success of the organisation. This issue also came up in a recent interview with a US EVS (Environmental Services) manager. Her response to management was that while cleaning does not contribute to profitability, you should be aware that poor cleaning can have a negative impact on profitability. This is very true if you are aware of the damage caused by outbreaks in hospitals.

There are many more things that could be said about the importance of human behaviour and the variables that influence it. It seems that behaviour is the most important variable and therefore deserves more attention and research if we want to improve and maintain the quality of cleanliness.

As artificial intelligence, quantum computers and other upcoming technologies become more and more integrated, professional cleaning will also be seriously affected. We are just starting to use robots for cleaning, but who knows what the future holds? However, as long as humans are heavily involved in cleaning operations, it's worth considering investing in tools that will positively incentivise people to do what they have to do in a professional and proven effective way.