You want your workspaces and facilities to be clean. But who defines what “clean” is for your organisation? I ask because how you define “clean” may not be the same as someone else. You might be held to rigorous compliance standards that others are not, based on your industry, or you simply may be interested in providing a safe and sanitary environment for your employees.
Regardless of the circumstances, someone has to be responsible for deciding what “clean” looks like for you, right? Now, some of you reading this might assume that the “professionals” — commercial cleaning companies like ours — are the experts, so we should know how to do our jobs.
Having been in business now for more than 30 years, you’d be correct … well, to some degree.
We are experts in what we do as commercial cleaners, and we take an immense amount of pride in delivering a quality service, with well-trained, well-compensated, and supported employees.
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However, you (the client) are the one who should own the responsibility of defining what “clean” means for your organisation. And then your commercial cleaning partner should then be responsible for delivering on that. But what does it take to define “clean” for your organisation? And how should your cleaning partner support you with their expertise? That’s precisely what we’ll be covering together in this article.
First, we’ll discuss why your ownership of the definition of “clean” is so important, as well as what can happen if you leave that “up to the professionals.” Next, we’ll review cleaning standards vs. cleaning outcomes — specifically, what they are and why knowing the difference matters. Finally, we'll talk about how your commercial cleaning partner should support you with the right cleaning processes to meet those standards and outcomes.
Rather than speaking in hypotheticals, let’s look at real-world examples to show you what happens when cleaning standards and outcomes are set by the organisation — and what happens when they are not. No, we do not clean these sites. It’s a shame, too, because I’d be proud to say we service one of them.
However, we would never want our name associated with the work being done at this first site ...
Going to the airport is already a rather inconvenient and messy affair. Yes, there are some airports that ease travel woes with clean facilities, top-of-the-line amenities, and a sophisticated presentation. Canberra airport comes to mind. Surprisingly, even though it is home to our rather dirty federal politicians, the airport itself is absolutely spotless.
It goes to prove that an airport can be clean.
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Unfortunately, if you're a local like me, you would probably all agree that Brisbane Domestic Airport is not one of them. If you’ve ever been there, you may have noticed this airport is simply not clean. The toilets are smelly and in dire need of sanitising. And just one glance at the chairs and carpets makes even the most undiscerning traveler wonder if the last time they had been cleaned was back when hair bands were still topping the charts.
It’s important to note that, as of the end of 2024, Brisbane Domestic Airport began renovations — hopefully, this new chapter includes plans for a cleaner future.
At the airport, the client sets the cleaning routine, sets the hours to be used, sets the number of staff to be rostered on and even to a degree tells the cleaning company how to clean. But for the most part, other than the time spent and number of cleaners requested on site, the airport (as an organisation) has not defined what “clean” is for that airport. They leave the cleaning to the “professionals.”
And the rest of us are left to suffer with the disgusting consequences.
As much as we’re picking on Brisbane Domestic Airport, however, they have gone out of their way to set a standard. Unfortunately, they’ve chosen not to define the outcomes required to meet that standard. That means their commercial cleaning partner can try to meet that standard however they like.
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But since they never came together to agree on defined outcomes, what those actual outcomes look like will always be a bit of a crapshoot depending on who is actually doing the cleaning.
In stark contrast to the airport, Brookside Shopping Centre is a dream. In fact, whilst we do not service this particular shopping centre, we would be proud to say we do.
Why? No matter where you go as a patron — strolling by the shops, making your way to and from your vehicle in the car park, travelling on the travelator, walking through the glass entry, and even in the toilets — everything is actually clean.
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And it’s clear across the entire property, great care and detail is paid to ensuring every single person (from patrons to employees) has a clean, sanitary experience.
Unlike Brisbane airport — which outsourced not only the cleaning of their site, but also the decision-making of what constitutes "clean" — the team at Brookside Shopping Centre did the following:
... and this is what you need to do, as well.
To define what "clean" looks like for your organisation, we need to set what are called your "standards" of clean, and then the "outcomes" required to achieve those standards.
Consider your "standards" of clean as your baseline, or what you're looking to achieve overall. For example, "We want our amenities to be spotless," would be a standard. Articulating such a standard is essential to achieve the cleaning results you're looking for. However, although necessary, it's not enough to only define your standards of clean, as they're quite ambiguous on their own.
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Let's say you were to ask 10 of your team members, "What does a spotless washroom look like," you would likely get 10 unique answers. For one employee, they might consider a washroom to be “clean” as long as all surfaces are visibly spotless. Whilst another employee might only deem a washroom "clean" if surfaces are disinfected, all bins are emptied, there are no lingering odours, and so on.
This is where outcomes come into play.
"I want our toilets to be clean."
Great, you've got a standard. But what does a clean toilet look like to you?
Now, we're talking about outcomes.
Your cleaning outcomes are the specifics of what a standard of "clean" truly means. They're measurable outputs, so your cleaners can meet your standard consistently, regardless of who’s doing the work or on which day. Collectively, your outcomes act like an itemized scorecard you'll use to determine whether or not your standard is met. Because all of your outcomes are either checked off or they're not.
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Let's revisit our "spotless amenities" standard from above. As we discussed, "spotless amenities" can be defined in a multitude of ways. So, we want to specify the outcomes we need to complete before we can say your amenities are, indeed, spotless — for instance, all surfaces cleaned and disinfected, no visible soiling, bins emptied, toilets scrubbed and disinfected, all hand towels replenished.
When you take the time to define the outcomes required to meet your standards of clean, you guarantee that everyone (from your staff to your cleaners) are on the same page what "clean" actually means for you.
"Our staff kitchen wasn't cleaned last night."
This is a common complaint a commercial cleaner might field from a client. Now, if this were our client, we'd first take a look at FreshOps — the app our cleaners use to track time on-site. Now, let's say in this case, I discovered our cleaners had been on site for their scheduled amount of time, indicating the cleaners didn't take any shortcuts.
What might be the problem? I would turn to the client for clarification.
"One of the rubbish bins was missed," they might say.
And thus, all would become clear in an instant. Yes, the cleaners had performed a clean the night prior in that area. But to the client, a single rubbish bin missed meant the staff kitchen wasn’t clean. They wanted their staff kitchen to be cleaned (their standard), and one of the ways they measure whether or not their kitchen is cleaned is that the bins are emptied (an outcome).
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Now, you've got your standards and your outcomes. Our work is almost done. The last missing puzzle piece are your cleaner's processes. The processes your cleaners use are what guarantee your standards and outcomes of clean are met consistently.
I like to use the example of floor cleaning to illustrate this. Imagine if your standard of clean for your floors is (once again) "spotless," and your outcomes to meet that standard include floors that are deep-cleaned and sanitised. If the process your cleaners use to make your floor "spotless" only includes a quick mop, without proper tools or cleaning solutions, you'll only get a surface-level clean.
This is where the expertise of your commercial cleaner should shine. With a clear process backed by expertise — using a scrubbing machine, such as an iMop (shown above, used by one of our cleaners), with the right cleaning agent — you'll knock it out of the park when it comes to meeting that outcome of truly spotless floors every time.
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Processes make your vision of clean scalable and sustainable, because (in collaboration with your cleaning partner) you're putting in place the requisite repeatable actions and tools for consistent service delivery.
And the right commercial cleaning partner will understand that. For example, my wife, Anne, and I both have a shared standard of loading the dishwasher at home, because we like to eat off clean plates. The outcome that Anne wants to achieve that standard is that she stacks lids in a certain way, so they don’t collect water and dry more efficiently.
I, on the other hand, don’t mind too much if I have to shake a little water off a lid, it's still clean to me! Then my loving wife will helpfully point out all that shaking wouldn’t be necessary if I had simply loaded the dishwasher “properly" in the first place. True love.
So, I want to leave you today with a challenge:
Take a moment and ask yourself:
If you're interested in learning more on how to choose the correct commercial cleaning partner for your organisation, you can download our guide, 10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Commercial Cleaning Company. Or you can contact us at any time with your questions, or to start a conversation about how we may be of service to you.