Facility cleanliness is a critical component to the successful operations of any organization--ensuring the health and safety of occupants and the preservation of the built environment, among other things
Why Cleaning Matters
The COVID-19 pandemic brought the importance of facility cleaning practices to the forefront of many conversations about human health and wellness.
Most people spend more than 90% of their day indoors, so when we collectively discovered that the methods we have been employing for decades to clean indoor spaces and prevent the spread of illness were fundamentally flawed, it necessarily resulted in a moment of pause and reflection.
What we are experiencing now is a paradigm shift in our understanding of the purpose of cleaning, how we should view positive cleaning outcomes, and how we move from where we were to where we need to be.
The first step along any such journey is to assign a profound 'why.'
Why does cleaning matter?
- It improves the health of facility occupants.
- It protects the physical built environment of the building.
- It increases occupant productivity, and;
- It increases customer retention.
Improving Occupant Health and Productivity
Cleaning improves occupant health by removing environmental pathogens, pathogenic bacteria, allergens, mold, mildew, and other harmful particles from surfaces and the air.
As previously stated, most people spend most of their day indoors starting from a young age, and most of the common illnesses in humans are transmitted via direct contact with an infected person or indirectly via contact with a contaminated surface.
Routine environmental cleaning and disinfection break the chain of infection by removing and eliminating illness-causing germs and bacteria from indoor spaces.
Conventional cleaning has a positive impact on occupant mental health by reassuring occupants that risks to their health due to environmental pathogens and bacteria have been addressed.
However, environmentally preferable cleaning programs have been shown to improve occupant health and productivity over that of conventional cleaning methods.
Buildings directly influence occupants' health and productivity.
The effect of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in buildings on occupants' health, well-being, and productivity is an important topic in occupational health and public health.
Better ventilation, higher indoor air quality, environmentally friendly materials, and optimized lightening are the features that influence people in green buildings
Results reveal that buildings with green features and environmentally friendly materials provide better indoor environment quality for their residents compared to conventional buildings.
Consequently, high indoor environment quality will lead to less indoor pollution and improve occupants' health and productivity compared with conventional buildings residents.
Green Buildings Impacts on Occupants' Health and Productivity
Protecting Capital Investments
Regular high-performance cleaning has a tremendous impact on corporate bottom lines, especially when it comes to protecting capital investments in furniture and equipment.
One of the most commonly cited and easily understood investments subject to a wide range of cleaning and occupant use/abuse are floor and carpets.
Large facilities shell out millions of dollars each year in carpet and flooring.
When properly cared for, the investment can last for over a decade.
Conversely, when poorly treated and managed, the surfaces have to be replaced far more often.
According to a case study published to the online industry magazine, CleanLink;
You can go down the list of Fortune 1000 companies with roughly the same amount of space, all sorts of companies.
They spend $1.5 million on carpet a year nationally.
If they don’t have a proper maintenance program in place, they get maybe 7 years out of it; if maintained properly they get 15 years out of it.
Carpet Care: Improving Security And Increasing Productivity With One Machine
Cleaning and Customer Retention
Cleaning also has a direct impact on prospective customer purchasing decisions and repeat customer business.
Poorly cleaned facilities, especially those with odor issues coming from the restroom or kitchen, are unlikely to perform well long-term.
According to QSR Magazine;
A study commissioned by Cintas Corporation of almost 2,100 U.S. adults found that 93 percent of those surveyed would not return to a store if they experienced issues with a retail store’s facilities.
Those surveyed listed the following as cleanliness issues that mattered most: bad odors, dirty restrooms, and other dirty surfaces, and miscellaneous areas like tidy entryways.
Takeaway
Cleaning matters.
It matters to the people who use your facility every day and, given those people have stated quite clearly they have no issues with leaving and never returning again if your facilities' cleanliness isn't up to snuff, it should absolutely matter to you and your investors.
Outsourcing facility cleaning and infection prevention and control services to an experienced provider is a proven method for onboarding critical health and wellness services at a fraction of the cost of maintaining a similar service in-house.
If you would like more information regarding the effectiveness of high-performance infection prevention and control measures, or if you would like to schedule a free, no-obligation onsite assessment of your facility's custodial needs, contact us today for a free quote!
In Bakersfield, CA, call (661) 437-3253
In Fresno, CA, call (559) 206-1059
In Valencia CA, or Santa Clarita CA, call (661) 437-3253
In Palmdale, CA or Lancaster, CA, call (661) 371-4756
