Several independent studies have shown conclusively that employees feel more comfortable and perform better in a clean environment. Over a third of the working Dutch population is in offices.
Sick building syndrome
A large-scale study, done in the 1990s, showed that half of office buildings fall under the heading of unhealthy. It is estimated that that is still about a third of office buildings now, so there is progression. How important do you think cleaning is in reducing absenteeism?
Employees themselves say they work better in a clean work environment (79%) and a vast majority (98%) say they feel more comfortable in such an environment, seems logical. But apparently not so logical that companies and organizations invest sufficiently in cleaning. In fact, it turns out that some 37% of employees feel that cleaning is being cut back within the company where they work.
Clean Experience
What is the cleanliness perception like in practice? Most employees generally find their work environment clean (67%), but there are places and materials that are perceived as less clean. For example, the personal computer is considered the least clean (45%) followed by the floors (42%), windows (40%) and ceiling (39%).
The Top 5 biggest annoyances within the work environment.
- Dirty plumbing / dirty toilet (75%)
- Dirty desk (36%)
- Dirty workroom (34%)
- Dirty PC (28%)
- Dirty canteen (21%)
Quality and reality
Cleaning perception, of course, does not say everything about the quality of cleaning. This is clear from a study on cleaning quality commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. It shows that a user's perception of quality does not always match the results of the technical quality measurement. In 25% of the cases it occurred that the perception was between satisfactory and very good, while the objective measurement indicated inadequate. The reverse also occurred, only to a lesser extent. In 12.5% the users' perception was poor to moderate/unsatisfactory, while the technical cleaning quality indicated the opposite.
Opinions count
All in all, everyone has an opinion about how clean his or her workplace is. People feel more comfortable in a clean environment, including your employees. So it seems important to factor employee opinions into determining a cleaning program. In addition to feeling comfortable, an employee will also have higher productivity and be sick less often. So the perception of cleaning quality also has a business importance.