Is It Cheaper To Clean In-House Or Employ Professional Office Cleaners?
In this time of economic gloom many businesses are looking in depth at their budgets for potential savings.
I know some managers have started to think about doing their own office cleaning in Aberdeen in house and drawing up a business proposal for approval by the board. But what are the consequences of doing this? Is it really cost saving in practice?
Firstly you will need to start buying a number of different cleaning chemicals and some equipment on a fairly regular basis and hope you don’t run out if people are using too much. Someone will need to go out and buy these from the store. This is a time and cost expense in itself.The professional cleaning service in Aberdeen will already have a stock of their own professional grade cleaning products that are used for a number of jobs.
You may decide to employ an extra person to do the cleaning thus doing away with some of the savings but if you are considering using your existing staff you need to calculate into the process the lost opportunities for staff doing their “normal job”. Will that suffer if they are asked to do these extras and at what cost to your business?
If that person is not proficient on cleaning duties it will need to be done again an added expense and once again your office staff would not be using their skills and training in your business.
Consider the cost of mistakes when untrained people are cleaning your premises. Will someone try to remove a mark from a painted wall and remove the paint as well. Additional cost of repainting the wall! I heard about a receptionist /admin person who poured concentrated bleach on a floor to clean it and burnt off the top surface. That was a very expensive mistake to make. Will you be budgeting for additional repairs caused by trying to save money? Are you aware of the dangers of mixing cleaning chemicals (even household strength cleaning products)? Did you know mixing some toilet cleaners together can give off poisonous Chlorine gas?
• Have you all the skills in house to develop all the health and safety guidance in-house? Or will you to pay to outsource it?
• Do you know enough about the role to do a professional Risk Assessment as required by law?
• Do you have copies of the COSHH data sheets for every single cleaning product your staff purchase in the event of an incident? Your local superstore will not supply them for the general household products they sell!| Can you be certain that you have the required COSSH safety data sheets for every single cleaning product your staff purchase? Your local supermarket or corner store will not be able to supply these legal documents and you will need them on site in case of an safety incident.}
To sum up you need to be asking yourself some important questions such as
• “Are the extra costs of employing professional office cleaning cheaper than the risk of staff not focussing on my business and losing more money?”
• ” What are the currently unbudgeted costs I will need to add on to cover for time spent cleaning the office twice, additional costs for repairs due to mistakes, increased insurance premiums and cost of compensation for breaches of health and safety including accidents to staff? ”
Personally I would come to the conclusion in most places that it would be better to hire a professional cleaning company in Coatbridge rather than take the risk of letting untrained people make mistakes. I believe it works out cheaper that way in the longer term.
