Cleaning workforce absenteeism and high staff turnover levels are leading to cost pressures and productivity disruption.

Managers of busy facility cleaning operations face a specific challenge; one that impacts many areas, including operational efficiencies, health and safety outcomes, cost control and resource planning.

The challenge is focused on people.

Cleaning team members can often be asked to work long shift patterns, perform consistently within a physically and mentally draining working environment, and do so using what can be heavy and cumbersome cleaning equipment.

As a result, facility maintenance teams can be impacted by workforce churn and elevated levels of staff absenteeism. This necessitates a constant need to spend time, resources and costs retaining existing skilled staff and attracting and train new talent. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the absenteeism rate across workforces in 2023 was 3.1%, while 48% of companies say managing costs is their biggest business challenge.

In many cases, valued cleaning staff decide to leave their jobs. For others, the consequences of workplace-related physical injuries and health issues, such as muscle or joint strains, mean they are simply unable to work for extended periods of time.

Overall operational workforce strength is directly compromised by unplanned absences. Schedules have to be altered, other staff are potentially inconvenienced, and in the worst-case scenarios, essential cleaning tasks are not completed. This could lead to a greater risk of slips or falls and other workplace accidents, or a failure to meet stringent cleaning requirements.

People-centric issues influence both the economic and productivity success of facility maintenance teams. And with 80% of a cleaning operation’s costs linked to the cleaning function, tackling the underlying causes of labor disruption and unwanted exposure to workforce weakness makes good operational, productivity and safety sense.

So, how can facility cleaning operations access workforce-orientated solutions to help alleviate these ongoing pressures?

Harmonizing digital and physical worlds

Historically, cleaning equipment design has focused primarily on cleaning performance. Innovations have long prioritized improving key delivery areas, such as cleaning solution use, down pressure and water pick up. This has resulted in machine development typically placing the equipment at the center of thinking, not the individual users.

Adjusting cleaning machine design thinking, and basing it on clear insight, ensures functionality and outcomes are led from the perspective of the user. In turn, this opens up a world of user-friendly possibilities.

The industry needs intuitive, adaptable, easy-to-use and ergonomically designed communal cleaning machines, which are created through fresh thinking and user perception. Shifting focus in this way will mean the industry can start addressing the disruptive and costly staffing issues facing facility maintenance teams and support the need for enhanced health and safety outcomes.

Design strategies need to be focused on next-generation functionality, which connects with user needs, is truly personalized and tackles the key areas that lead to physical discomfort and injury. This approach will reap dividends in terms of key workforce metrics, including staff engagement, loyalty and job satisfaction.

There are many areas where enhanced machine functionality, linked to tailored design solutions, can help to make a real difference to the user and, by association, the level of cleaning success.

Personalized but flexible

What about ensuring the cleaning machine has the flexibility to match the varied workforce users that engage with a communal machine? How can we make it suitable for both the experienced user, as well as the novice just starting out?

The introduction of a personalized digital control interface, which is programmed specifically for the individual and is only accessed via a pin code, means users can quickly prepare for the work needed and have confidence that their particular skill levels are catered for. Key areas, such as chemical and water use, can be automatically managed, ensuring only the right level of material is used for the task at hand.

Stopping working stresses

When it comes to ergonomics, design can also work to offset the previous physical stresses and injury potential, which leads to user absence and workforce disruption.

Through a digital interface that has pre-programed instructions, machines can be adjusted to the individuality of the user, considering height and strength. Ergonomic benefits with built-in flexibility will alleviate injury incident potential, with machine useability tailored to individuals, improving ease of use and reducing exposure to typical muscle-related problems. It could mean the difference between a valued operative staying or opting to look for alternative employment elsewhere.

Built-in intuitive controls, which are pre-calibrated, and quick start functions, which enable jobs to be started on time, drive up productivity. These are among a number of ways to harmonize the physical and digital world on a new breed of cleaning machines that truly support employees.

Facility cleaning operations have been non-ergonomic for far too long. It should no longer be negotiable. Access to communal cleaning machine solutions flexibly designed for individual use can help tackle the daily physical and mental challenges faced by cleaning team members.

Doing so helps produce better and safer cleaning outcomes, which reduce the chance of slips and falls, and offers a robust solution to the traditional workforce problems around physical exertion and musculoskeletal damage that are leading to absenteeism and employee defection.