The severe staff shortages currently faced by the cleaning and hygiene sector and the Coronavirus pandemic have combined to create a perfect storm, which I fear could potentially add to the health concerns of the public and, in doing so, present risk.
I have rarely known it to be as hard to recruit staff as it has been recently and many industry colleagues say they are experiencing the same problems. As advised, we surveyed a number of firms in the sector on the topic, which included some of the biggest companies, and whilst we await the remaining returns, it confirmed the scale of the trends in relation to the problem.
Firms representing over 30,000 employees in total reported nearly 2000 vacancies. One firm said the number of vacancies had increased by 252% in the last six months, and another by 267%, which are both astonishing figures. The majority of companies taking part reported staff leaving with reasons based on foreign nationals going home or employees moving to other roles - such as truck driving or in hospitality - given the rates of pay differentials.
Until now, the cleaning and hygiene industry has depended on employees of all nationalities with overseas workers proving difficult to replace. We don’t believe it is possible to replace them all with UK nationals who have not traditionally joined the industry. The current trends suggest that nothing has changed in that regard. These staff shortages are being exacerbated by employee absences due to the traditional winter ailments and staff also being forced to stay home to look after children who are self-isolating or whose class or school has closed due to possible virus exposure.
This challenging issue comes at a critical stage in the nation’s fight against the Coronavirus pandemic, with rates of infection still relatively high and a new variant in circulation, all of which threaten to make it easier for the virus to spread. The work of cleaning and hygiene staff is vital to protecting the health and wellbeing of the public, particularly during the current pandemic. We ensure workplaces and public buildings are clean, germ free and safe to use and staff are justifiably proud of the important role they play.
During the pandemic, the roles of staff have changed to focus on keeping hospitals and healthcare facilities, public transport, factories, workplaces, and most other buildings and facilities clean of the disease to protect and reassure employees and visitors. As examples, within the cleaning and hygiene sector clients have revised, changed and improved specifications for cleaning operatives to complete additional or focused tasks, such as ensuring touch points are clean, employing additional numbers of day staff and, in certain sectors, providing 24-hour cleaning.
In the healthcare sector, cleaning operatives have been asked to work longer hours, take on extra responsibilities and adopt new standards and practices to prevent COVID-19 contamination. Across the industry, demand increased for deep cleans, sanitisation cleans and decontamination cleans, with many organisations and businesses wanting to invest in highly visible cleaning achieving a high standard. But our critical role in keeping public spaces free of Coronavirus at this crucial time will be dramatically reduced by the staff shortages we are now experiencing. How can we continue to deliver such high standards if we don’t have enough staff?
We simply do not believe that the scale of the issue has been truly recognised at the highest level and that’s why we are campaigning to get this critical matter on the national agenda and lobby for government assistance. After all, we all share in not wanting this to become a matter of life or death.
About the contributor
Jim Melvin
Chairman
British Cleaning Council