How we manage the cleaners
You can be sure we will always be there, to make sure your cleaning and service is at a very high standard.
With our 5 Star service we will put in writing the minimum amount of regularity that your direct account manager will come to your site, meet with you about the cleaner and also meet the cleaner to go over their work.
These regular cleaner appraisals mean that cleaners are:
- Aware of their performance, both the good aspects as well as what they can improve on.
- Fully accountable for their performance
- The assessments are fully in line with employment law and procedures so that we can act promptly and legally to resolve any issues with a full history of a cleaner’s previous conduct.
Most importantly customer retention and satisfaction determines your account manager’s profit share which hugely encourages managers to meet customer’s performance requirements.
These incentives means your account manager is really focused on meeting the requirements laid out in our quotes and ensuring that you are always happy.
Your site will always be important to our managers.
Managers are also highly trained ane experienced in how to manage cleaners, cleaning techniques and to ensure the clients get the best possible service.
The senior level management of our company also contacts customers to regularly ensure that they are happy with their cleaning manager’s management of their cleaning. They also go to customer’s sites to inspect that managers are managing their contracts to the highest possible degree.
If a customer is every not totally happy with their cleaning manager, the cleaning manager is trained or changed to ensure the customer has an account manager they are happy with.
Cleaner training
We are very proud of our continuous training programs which are based on BICS, NVQ, many other certifications and also the experiences of our cleaning managers. We would be delighted if you would like to come and see our cleaners being trained.
The training course has a first part and then regular updates and progressive levels.
The first stage includes:
- Oral and practical cleaning instructions with a test at the end.
- Customer service training.
- Health and safety
- Green cleaning
- Preparation for all possible contingencies that can happen.
This is then regularly followed up by other cleaning sections which are determined by the results of their regular cleaner monitoring and assessments. These include:
- Detailed cleaning techniques
- Reliability and decorum
- Working as a team
All cleaners both new recruits and TUPE go through our detailed and ongoing training which is second to none. The raining programs are fully systemised and documented to ensure that it is seemlessly delivered and understood by all operatives.
We have training programs and proedures for everthing we have come up against over the many years we have been in commercial cleaning, so we are prepared for almost every eventuality.
Our senior managers also have continuous training at the best and top levels trainng organisations in the UK, so that they can best guide the company’s training programs.
Cleaner vetting
All new applicant cleaners are very carefully selected and vetted so that they have:
- References that we carefully check
- Permission to work in England using the government’s Right to Work Checklist
- Proof of address
- Identification
- Next of kin
- If there are any doubts after that we use the service Onfido.com who are one of the biggest security checking services right now
If they pass the criteria above they then have to:
- Pass cleaning tests to see that they are good at cleaning
- Go through and pass our training program with an experienced instructor
Only 1 in 60 new applicants get to this stage and once they do, they are then constantly trained and monitored before they can become a permanent member of our team.
However most of our cleaners come from referrals from other cleaners, as we make sure we are the best possible company to work with. Our cleaners are a very close knit community, they all know each other and any ‘bad apples’ are not let in.
Also as most cleaners taken on are friends of people we use already. For these cleaners the process is the same, but the percentage that get through tend to be higher. This is because we find that often the cleaners who are good, also know other cleaners who are good.
So only a very small percentage of our cleaners are new cleaners from recruitment advertising, they are also given extra high levels of supervision. Most of the cleaners are people we have used already, or are friends of people we use already.
We do not tend to have problems with theft because by the time applicants have been through our process, we know who they are, where they live, who their next of kin are, normally who their friends are and so on. They are also shown how we would be very strict if there were any issues. So people who are dodgy see that stealing with us is probably the hardest way to commit a crime and quickly go elsewhere once they see this.
As a result theft is not an issue we have, but we are cautious never to be complacent.
Corporate Responsibility
We take full responsibility for the cleaning service we provide and to ensure clients’ peace of mind, we are totally transparent with how we operate.
We are very proud of our operations and would love clients to come and see our office and how we operate, we are also equally transparent with our work on customer’s premises:
Employment law
We are experienced with employment law, are constantly learning about new and changing employment laws and our employment consultants who assist our managers are second to none.
We use careful management, advanced training and detailed cleaning assessments. These are carefully designed to ensure cleaners are treated fairly, that they are fully accountable for their actions and that we are always acting in line with employment laws.
We take responsibility for all employment law issues and you get the best possible cleaning.
Health and Safety
We take full responsibility for health and safety, this includes but is not limited to:
- Full health and safety assessments which are periodically updated.
- Full risk assessments
- C.O.S.H.H. (safety materials for use of cleaning chemicals)
- Safe Working Practices and Method Statements
- Incident and Accident Reporting
- PATS Testing – Maintaining Safe Plant and Equipment
- Full health and safety training
Equal Opportunities
We are commited to a comprehensive policy of Equal Opportunities in employment in which individuals are selected and treated on the basis of their relevant merits and abilities and are given Equal Opportunities within Alex Best Cleaning. The aim of this policy is to ensure that no job applicant or employee should receive less favourable treatment on any grounds not relevant to good employment practice. Alex Best Cleaning is committed to a programme of action to make this policy fully effective.
It is the Company’s policy as an employer to treat all people equally irrespective of race, ethnic origin, sex, marital or parental status, sexual orientation, creed, disability, age or political belief.
Environmental Issues
We are very proud of our advanced environmental cleaning systems and how they reflect really well on our clients. Alex Best Cleaning has put a large amount of work into ensuring that we invest in, and use, the most environmentally friendly cleaning techniques.
We are highly efficient with minimising the usage of materials only to those needed and using products and practices with the least environmental impact.
We also invest in the best training to ensure that all people in the organisation are aware of how they can act in the way that is best for the environment.
Customer Satisfaction
We would love to show you how we ensure that our customers are satisfied:
Our operations: We are totally transparent with our operations and would be delighted if you would like to take a tour of our office, watch how we vet cleaners, sit in on a cleaner training course, be with our managers as they manage cleaners and join our customer service department to see how we serve customers.
Speak to and meet existing Customers: We would be delighted if you would also like to speak to, and visit, existing clients. Due to the great service we provide they are usually more than happy to show other people how we are serving them.
Our office and commercial cleaning service Performance Measurement Quality Controls work alongside our first class cleaner vetting, training, instruction and management.
They ensure that people who do great work are recognised and any problems are quickly noticed and promptly resolved.
We would love to show our systems if you are thinking of hiring us.
Quality Controls
Our office and commercial cleaning service Performance Measurement Quality Controls work alongside our first class cleaner vetting, training, instruction and management.
They ensure that people who do great work are recognised and any problems are quickly noticed and promptly resolved.
We would love to show our systems if you are thinking of hiring us.
Existing customers can also view them for all the cleaners that are serving them as well to ensure we are totaly transparent and accountable.
Regular Cleaner Assessments: These 360 degree reviews focus on all aspects of performance from our regular random cleaner inspection visits and feedback and requests from our regular contact with customers. These assessments enable us to consistently provide a great service:
- Cleaners get a bonus when customers are served well and this is a huge incentive for them to perform to the best of their ability.
- Cleaners know how they are performing, both what they are doing well and where they can improve.
- If a cleaner is not meeting the necessary standards, these assessments ensure that our disciplinary actions are effective, but still completely fair and fully adhere to employment laws.
- They help us to quickly find out if anything is not up to standard and promptly respond.
We also assess supervisors and managers in the same way as the cleaners, although they are assessed on the assessment performance of the cleaners they are managing, as well as the direct assessments from their own managers.
Customer Feedback: We regularly contact customers for candid feedback, it is really important to us that customers feel comfortable to tell us anything they need, no matter how small it is. We also regularly contact customers to find out if there is anything to ensure that they are as satisfied as possible.
If there are any issues we love to find out about them quickly so we can sort them out promptly.
The results from customer feedback are also important for the cleaner assessments, as a result we ask if we can have a regular customer contact so that the assessment procedure is completely fair for cleaners, especially due to our bonus system.