If there are any positives that we can look to take from the COVID-19 crisis, it is that it has highlighted what is essential and important.

Pre-COVID, cleaners often came and went about their duties, without notice or recognition. Now, more than ever before, cleaning is recognised as an essential service and organisations are becoming more particular about who is providing this essential service to them.

Careerforce CEO, Jane Wenman, says: “cleaning service providers are increasingly needing to innovate and show they are up-to-date with industry skills, knowledge and technology.”

“Do they give their staff opportunities to upskill? Do they get appropriate training? Do they get the opportunity to progress within their company? These are important indicators that they are a reputable provider that truly cares for their staff wellbeing and can be relied upon to deliver quality cleaning services.”

An increased spotlight on infection prevention has put pressure on cleaning staff as well. “Now more than ever, cleaning is not just removing what is visible, but also making sure that the invisible, the germs, are wiped out. The responsibility to protect people from virus and infection is huge,” Wenman explains.

As the industry training organisation for the cleaning sector, Careerforce works with the cleaning industry to develop and maintain standards to ensure cleaners have the right knowledge and skills for their increasing and evolving responsibilities.

Hawke’s Bay’s: The Clean Crew leads the way in training and innovation

In the beautiful Hawke’s Bay, cleaning company The Clean Crew has established a successful business. The company has partnered with Careerforce to support the upskilling of their staff. Office Manager at The Clean Crew, Pete Upadhyay, says the company is more than just about passing cleaning inspections.

“Employees are an integral part of the business. That’s why training and retraining programmes are paramount and at the same time, health and safety needs fit within the structure and processes of the company.”

The Clean Crew has invested in staff training over the years. Upadhyay himself has a recognised NZQA cleaning qualification. Customer Services Manager, Jaz Bakshi and even owner and director, Gary Singh, have qualifications and are both registered assessors.

Bakshi says the organisation motivates its staff to be trained and recognised. Their induction process has embedded the achievement of the New Zealand Certificate in Cleaning (Level 2), achieved via workplace-based learning, in partnership with Careerforce.

“After they receive their certificate, they [staff] are keen to do more training.”

For The Clean Crew, looking after the environment is also part of their core values. They are New Zealand’s first Toitū Carbonzero Certified Cleaning Company.

“We look after the environment and make sure we don’t do damage by choosing chemicals that are not harmful to the environment. While doing so, we want to ensure our staff are happy, our clients are happy, and everything is done according to high standards.”

They made many changes to support their accreditation including making decisions to choose suppliers and partners who share the same values.

In 2020, when COVID-19 hit New Zealand, The Clean Crew wasn’t exempt from having to adapt to the evolving situation.

“We had staff that needed to be stood down, but most were willing to work. We really appreciated the support of all staff who helped during that time. Everybody wanted to look after the other essential businesses that we support,” shares Bakshi.

“We already had protocols in place, but we also created resources for staff so they could look after themselves. We kept staff informed with the best practices and guidelines being shared by the Ministry of Health. We also made sure that staff had appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and were using it properly.”

“COVID taught us a lot of things to help us improve our standards and help us think more strategically,” says Bakshi.

The Clean Crew even won the Excellence in Innovation category for their app, Convoy, at the Pan Pac Hawke’s Bay Business Awards 2020. It’s an industry-first designed app used to enhance communication between clients, staff and the management team, to manage workflow and to provide a tool to record services completed and provide reports to clients and management.

The app uses image recognition, machine learning and artificial intelligence to audit the clients’ premises every single time a cleaning service is completed. This creates transparency and accountability that clients of The Clean Crew appreciates.

Upadhyay says they are continuously upskilling and currently looking at adding more to their staff training programmes that is specific to infection control.

Ensuring cleaning Level 2 and 3 progammes are fit for purpose

As the industry training organisation for the cleaning industry, Careerforce is encouraging employers and industry organisations to provide feedback on their Level 2 and level 3 cleaning programmes.

The programmes to be reviewed are those leading to the New Zealand Certificate in Cleaning (Level 2) with optional strand in Health Care Facilities Cleaning and the New Zealand Certificate in Cleaning (Level 3) with optional strands in Specialist Cleaning and Supervision.

Rod Bentham, General Manager Learning Solutions at Careerforce, says the review will help ensure that cleaning programmes continue to be fit for purpose and reflect emerging needs, such as the impacts of COVID-19. It is important that training programmes meet industry requirements and cleaners have the most up to date knowledge and skills.

The review will take a comprehensive look at unit standards, assessments and learning guides for the two programmes and will take place between May and August 2021.

If you wish to provide Careerforce with feedback on these programmes, please contact qualreview@careerforce.org.nz

A new learning resource for cleaners is now available on the BSCNZ (Building Service Contractors of NZ) www.bsc.org.nz and Careerforce websites www.careerforce.org.nz

Careerforce wish to remind employers that the New Zealand Certificate in Cleaning (Levels 2 and 3) are now covered by the Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund (TTAF) and are now fees, free until the end of 2022.  This decision by TEC reflects the workforce challenges the cleaning sector faces, and the critical importance of having a trained cleaning workforce. TEC advise that the list of eligible qualifications may change over the period, so we cannot assume these qualifications will be covered for this entire period.