As we celebrate Thank Your Cleaner Day, it’s essential to recognise the invaluable contributions of the cleaners who ensure our workplaces are safe, clean, and welcoming. To mark the day we sat down with Sean Fisher, CEO of OCS UK’s cleaning division, a leader who is passionate about acknowledging and supporting the vital work of cleaners. In this Q&A, Sean shares insights into the importance of recognising cleaners, the initiatives OCS has in place to ensure their well-being and professional growth, and the role of technology in enhancing cleaning services.
Why is it important to recognise the contributions of cleaners, especially in corporate environments?
They are quite often the unsung heroes that go unnoticed. Our cleaners get up at all hours of the night and early morning to make their workplaces safe and clean for when people arrive at their offices, warehouses, shops – pretty much all buildings and external areas.
Therefore, it is so important to recognise the effort all our cleaners put into their jobs. They are a special force that achieves excellent results at all hours of the day and quite often in very short periods of time.
In celebration of Thank you Cleaner Day, how does OCS ensure that cleaners feel valued and appreciated within the company?
We celebrate the work our cleaners do with our TRUE Star recognition programme where our cleaners are nominated to win these awards.
I also expect our management team to visit all their sites and ensure they spend quality time with the people who are the face of our business. A simple thank you to recognise the work our cleaners do always goes a long way.
We launched OCS Live this year, a real-time platform allowing us to share news and updates with our customers. We use this platform to recognise our cleaning colleagues and help our customers see the excellent work they do for them.
What are some of the challenges cleaners face in their daily work, and how can companies help mitigate these challenges?
One of our biggest challenges is when cleaners feel unwelcome in their workplace. We see our cleaners as an extension of our customers’ workforce so when they are ignored or belittled by customers this causes emotional stress to our cleaners.
What initiatives or programs does OCS have in place to support cleaners’ professional growth and development?
We have a solid learning and development platform to allow our cleaners the opportunity to develop their careers. We also don’t limit them to just cleaning, if they would like to move into a different industry like security, catering or pest control then we can facilitate that for them.
We can demonstrate how we have progressed cleaners’ careers to supervisor, area management, operations management and onto director level. It is something my senior leadership team and I are very passionate about.
We can also offer apprenticeships to those interested, it’s an exciting area we are focusing on.
What role does technology play in enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of cleaning services?
Technology is very much the future. Whether it’s autonomous cleaning, sensor technology, AI, or all of it combined, our goal is to make the lives of our cleaners easier and provide value to our customers.
How does OCS promote a culture of respect and dignity for all employees, including cleaners?
It starts at the top, we all need to lead by example and at OCS we live true to our values – Trust, Respect, Unity and Empowerment. All these values are key to our success. As I said earlier, we recognise and reward our colleagues with our TRUE Star nominations and awards. This includes all our colleagues from our frontline cleaners to our managing directors.
We also have our award-winning CHROMA network which empowers our workforce to actively contribute to our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion agenda.
What message would you like to share with the cleaners at OCS on International Thank Your Cleaner Day?
Thank Your Cleaner Day
All of you are incredible! I cannot thank you enough for your commitment and dedication to achieving excellent results day in and day out. You deserve more than just one day a year recognising your contribution to our workplaces!
