Every once in a great while I do find a little wisdom on the internet when it comes to cleaning services. Seldom do I ever see anything relative to the attitude of management when it comes to the benefits of hiring cleaning services. The excerpt below is an anomaly because it very succinctly points to the cost savings smart managers can realize. (Regretfully, I did not record the source when I saved it.)

Money and Time Considerations

Some business owners seek cost efficiency by outsourcing to companies providing cleaning services.

They do this because they understand attempting to use in-house resources can take valuable time away from core business needs.

Outsourcing cleaning services allows in-house resources to continually support the primary business rather than dedicating them to cleaning and maintenance issues.

I wish that more business owners and managers were this savvy. I have seen this type of benefit, over and over again, with my clients. They have more of a payback as a result of the professional cleaning services we provide than the cost of those services to the business.

This benefit comes in the form of high employee morale resulting in increased productivity, happy customers that share their experiences with others, and the lifting of stress from managers because they no longer spend their time and energy disciplining employees for not cleaning.

There is, however, an underlying attitude regarding the use of employees for cleaning that has been left out. The statement focuses on the result businesses can attain with a professional cleaning service; it does not delve into the attitudes people have about cleaning that make it seem reasonable to have employees do the cleaning.

There is a common erroneous presumption that anyone can clean. This is like saying that anyone can dance, anyone can do math, anyone can be an artist or an accountant or a chemist.

When I started my business, I naively presumed that I could teach anyone to clean. Boy, was I wrong. I found that some people just don’t see dirt. I learned that the level of perceptual detail to even identify places that need to be cleaned cannot be taught. I also found that some people can’t move their bodies in a fashion that would allow them to complete the work efficiently.

• Why go to the bakery? After all anyone can decorate a cake.
• Why hire a seamstress? Anyone can sew.
• Why hire a bookkeeper? Anyone can add and subtract.
• Why hire a window cleaner? Anyone can produce a streak-free window

We all have different skills. Yet, when it comes to cleaning, it seems that the mantra “any dummy can clean” is a hard one to dispel. When a business thinks that their employees can do the cleaning it is with this erroneous presumption. Don’t be a dummy with your business.