Impact of soil and desired cleanliness on working time

Puhastusekspert has been leading the Erasmus+ cooperation project ‘Cost Effective, Need Based Cleaning INSTA800’ for three years. The aim of the project is to exchange experiences between the seven countries that adhere to INSTA800 and to jointly prepare new materials to implement needs-based cleaning.

The largest part of the project was carrying out working time tests to find out the impact on working time of reaching different quality levels under INSTA800. We wanted to know how having a quality level one grade higher or a soiling one grade higher before cleaning would affect the working time. The tests were carried out in five typical areas: office, toilet, classroom, corridor, and staircase. In total, over 800 tests were carried out. They took place in Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Latvia. To the best of our knowledge, there are no other studies of such a broad scope that examine how the presence of soil and the level of quality impact the working time in real-life cleaning. It is therefore an important and valuable study with both interesting and useful results. In addition to defining working time, the tests revealed some other illuminating aspects. A comprehensive report was drawn up on the working time tests, providing important data and advice for cleaning service providers, buyers and other cleaning professionals.

Summary of main findings:

• Having a quality level one grade higher or soiling one grade higher before cleaning will impact the working time by 10-30%. Working time is the biggest cost driver for cleaning services, so it is important for both service providers and buyers to take into account the impact of quality levels as well as soiling on working time. It is important to define needs-based quality levels, monitor their achievement and refrain from defining higher levels just in case. If, during the period of the service, the intensity of the use of the premises changes, for example, if pets are allowed to come to work, this generates more soiling. The square metres to be cleaned remain the same, but the time needed to achieve the agreed quality level can be significantly longer.
• It is important to define a needs-based quality frequency. Premises are cleaned if they are soiled to an extent that might interfere with daily activities. Often, sub-standard cleaning is compensated for with more frequent cleaning. Doing sub-standard cleaning more often will not improve the situation. It is important to make sure that the premises meet the agreed cleanliness level after cleaning and to monitor the time it takes for soil to build up that should not be there.
• The awareness of cleaning managers and cleaners is key both in terms of cleaning techniques and INSTA800. For example, tests in Sweden showed that a skilled cleaner achieved the desired result in 33% less time.
• Cleaning involves a lot of time spent on activities that do not remove soil or create value. For example, people often clean surfaces that are already clean because they are used to a certain routine. This needlessly wastes resources. The main challenge is to minimise such work, but this requires awareness.
• Using the wrong cleaning methods is costly and can make the situation worse.For example, using cloths that are too wet or holding too much cleaning agent will lead to surface soiling.

Make note of the areas that are actually soiled to understand which dirt to remove for the desired quality level. Awareness is crucial in removing unwanted dirt, i.e. in choosing and using the right method, agent and equipment. Especially the awareness of the cleaner and the cleaning manager. As cleaners change often, it comes down to the ability of the cleaning manager to guide and train cleaners to act as needed. The provision of cleaning services will therefore be determined by how much cleaning managers know about cleaning techniques and INSTA800. Based on the test results, 30-50% of the time cleaners actually need to clean a site may depend on how well cleaning managers are able to instruct them. There is often too little time for cleaning, but adding more time and doing inefficient tasks does not improve the result.