ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Cleaning affords fantastic career progression and broad opportunities for all genders. In this article, Claire Fields, strategic partnerships director at OCS, looks at the breadth and depth of opportunities that this career path provides and demonstrates why gender bias should be challenged across the board when it comes to cleaning.

The role of cleaning – whether in retail, healthcare, hospitality or offices – has changed significantly in recent times, not least because of the Covid pandemic. This brought into sharp focus the need for all environments to place a much higher priority on being hygienically clean rather than just ‘clean to the untrained eye’.

Cleaning has gone from being seen as a necessary service to keep areas of an organisation clean to the public eye, to one which is now viewed as a front-line service in protecting the health and wellbeing of members of the public, whether they are visitors to a store or patients in a hospital. The cleaning operative has gone from being simply ‘a cleaner’ to a ‘hygiene enforcer’ with a greater status placed on the work that they deliver.

With this change has come greater opportunity – the chance to elevate the world of cleaning and show everyone the amazing career progressions that are now available to those who are willing to embrace this new world. Cleaning is a non-gender specific role and, despite what stats may show, people from all walks of life, all genders and all skill levels join the world of cleaning because of a passion for it.

For me, the cleaning industry is much broader than just about making sure a building is clean; it’s about protecting the people who use that space from potential harm that typically goes unseen.

Opening the door to the FM cleaning industry

I personally came to the outsourced cleaning industry by default. I was recommended to it by a friend and have never looked back. But as an industry we need to get better at promoting the genuine career progression that is available to people in our sector. This is truly an industry where the sky is the limit. With the right skill set and attitude, an individual can progress from the ‘shop floor’ to board level.

And that is the real crux of the issue – advancing to managerial levels is not about gender. In fact, gender bias should be left at the door and people should be considered based on their skillset, the ability to do the job at hand and their experience.

What should be a consideration now for every company offering cleaning as an outsourced service is inclusivity and equality within the entire workforce, including at managerial and board level. Having a great mix of people in all areas of the service means that you can offer a truly amazing and flexible service to your customers – something that is vitally important. It’s all about the experience and the skills they bring to that role – gender should never be considered a barrier or a ‘leg up’ to a managerial role.

We need to be better at demonstrating to people the pathways that are offered in the cleaning industry and showing that cleaning is much more than just how it is perceived by those outside of the industry. There are fantastic benefits of working within the cleaning industry that are not gender specific, such as flexibility and progression. These benefits are what makes the industry attractive to people of all ages and genders.

By highlighting all of the positive aspects of working in the industry we stand a better chance of encouraging more people to consider this as a long-term career and will positively influence the balance of the workforce across all areas of our service.

The benefits of lived experience in managerial positions

It’s really important to understand the true value of lived experience in a management team. The best managers and board members, in my experience, are those who know the role, understand what it takes to deliver a customer’s expectations and understand how to go above and beyond in doing that. It takes a range of different skills including, but not limited to, empathy, logic, drive,
determination, directness, strategy and vision. None of these skills are gender specific. So, finding the right leader of people is about the skills they exhibit rather than the gender as which they identify.

Organisations that value this lived experience in managers will undoubtedly go on to be incredibly successful at what they do, but only if the managers also exhibit the other key attributes of a successful manager. Just knowing what it’s like to be a cleaner will not necessarily make you a good leader of people. In my view, it comes back to the organisation you work for and how it recognises talent and then nurtures it in a way that helps individuals to develop into the role they are best suited for – it’s certainly not a one-size-fits-all process.

This approach will help every individual to be the very best version of themselves – whether that’s a shift manager, team manager, general manager or board director.

The question of gender

I personally view the whole topic around gender and its relevance to the cleaning industry as very outdated. Cleaning is a gender-neutral role and can be a fulfilling career for any man or woman wishing to enter it.

For me, the bigger conversation should be around how we encourage more people to see the real benefits of a long-term career in the cleaning industry. It is a challenging and fulfilling career that can lead to many different roles, both within and outside of cleaning. Whether your goal is to eventually become a manager, to sit on a board, or simply to be the very best cleaning operative
you can be, there is support and guidance for everyone to achieve their aspirations regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or social background.

As an industry, our job is to support those aspirations and provide career opportunities and clear pathways that enable people to achieve those and more.

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