The way we use office space is changing.
Hybrid working, employee expectations and a greater focus on workplace experience are influencing not only how often people come into the office, but what they expect when they get there.
Recent research from CBRE found that 65% of European office occupiers are planning to relocate within the next three years. Perhaps even more tellingly, 88% said they would reject a building if it was missing an amenity that they considered essential.
And as offices evolve, the way they're looked after needs to evolve with them.
For the world-class businesses we support, creating a great workplace isn't simply about how a building looks. It's about how it works for the people using it every day.
More Than Desks and Meeting Rooms
For many organisations, the modern workplace now has a much bigger job to do.
CBRE's research found that engagement with colleagues is the biggest reason employees choose to come into the office, cited by 85% of occupiers. This was followed by having a productive workspace at 81% and access to leadership at 77%.
As a result, we're seeing workplaces incorporate much more than traditional desks and meeting rooms. Breakout areas, collaborative spaces, kitchens, showers, changing facilities, lockers and wellbeing spaces can all form part of today's workplace.
That's great for employees, but it changes what is required from the people responsible for keeping those buildings clean.
Different Spaces Need Different Approaches
A shower facility can't be treated in the same way as a meeting room. A busy kitchen has different requirements from a quiet office area. And a breakout space used by hundreds of people throughout the day creates unique cleaning demands.
We've seen this first-hand through our work at Bank House in Newcastle.
The building offers the kind of facilities increasingly expected from a modern workplace, including showers and locker areas. Our cleaning team therefore looks after much more than traditional office space, adapting the service to the different environments and the people using them.
As the workplace changes, cleaning specifications need to change with it.
It's not only what we're cleaning that has changed. It's also when spaces are being used.
Hybrid working means occupancy can fluctuate considerably throughout the week. A rigid cleaning specification that doesn't take those patterns into account can quickly become inefficient.
The better approach is to understand how a workplace is actually being used and adapt accordingly. That might mean focusing resources on particular areas at certain times, responding to busier days or reviewing a cleaning specification as working patterns change.
For us, good commercial cleaning has never been about simply completing the same list of tasks every day. It's about understanding the building, the people using it and what they need from us.
Cleaning contracts shouldn't stand still while workplaces change around them.
At Edwards Commercial Cleaning, we work closely with our clients, listening to what is happening within their organisations and adapting our service as their requirements evolve.
Sometimes that's a small change. Sometimes it's supporting a client as their workforce grows. Sometimes it's taking responsibility for additional areas or introducing different ways of working.
We've built long-term relationships with world-class businesses by understanding that no two workplaces are exactly the same.
Whatever it looks like, the principle is simple.
The workplace is changing and the people responsible for looking after it need to change with it. At Edwards Commercial Cleaning, we're here to help you do just that.
