Digitally Managed Workforces To Succeed In A Data Driven World

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• Digitally Managed Workforces To Succeed In A Data Driven World

02 May 2019

Yet to digitise your contract cleaning business? asks Christian Berenger - as technology is transforming the efficiency and effectiveness of the sector.

All businesses now operate in a highly competitive market with tight margins and where the customer is king. In the UK cleaning sector, the need to ensure contract compliance, validate service delivery and automate key processes has never been higher.

A new report from MTW Research suggests the contract cleaning market is set for £95 million growth in 2019 with specialised cleaning services and those offering innovation doing particularly well.

The rise of the App

There are a growing number of digital-only businesses with models based on immediacy, lower cost and detailed, real-time analytics. They are leaving their old school analogue competitors behind. It’s easy to see why business models based on a digital platform appeal to users – there is much less admin (where there is, it’s often almost fully automated) and it’s far more responsive.

Anyone who has ordered cleaning supplies through Amazon or booked a train or ordered a takeaway from an App knows how the digital thing works. Embracing digital in a business can be a powerful differentiator for SME facilities management firms and cleaning contractors.

UK cleaning contractors embracing technology can measure and monitor their cleaning procedures. By gathering data and analysing it real-time, it to helps them to work smarter, create efficiencies and raise standards. Technology can help these businesses analyse productivity at the touch of a button and this information can then be used to develop competitive strategies.

Differentiation

According to MTW, demand for enhanced ‘data driven cleaning’ also representing a key tactic in the market used to add differentiation by cleaners and associated equipment suppliers and boost productivity.

IoT connected devices, 5G and software developments continue to drive innovation in contract cleaning. MTW identifies a range of factors boosting growth in the next few years. It’s reassuring to see that ‘enhanced data driven cleaning’ will be a key tactic to differentiate cleaning service offerings. The companies embracing digital are already challenging the traditional facilities management business models.

Even the smallest cleaning company can benefit from reduced paperwork, greater payroll accuracy and the ability to run cleaning contracts digitally.

The cleaning market is set to grow exponentially with further technological advances and the ability to attract younger qualified workers who understand the technology used to clean complex environments and deliver services. It’s critically important that cleaning contractors invest in recruitment and in upskilling existing staff.

Ezitracker

Over the last 20 years, my company, Ezitracker, has been developing technology that challenges workforce management convention – reducing costs, delivering efficiencies and improving workforce productivity.  We help to facilitate the entire employee journey from onboarding, to flexible contract-based rostering and attendance verification in real-time, through to accurate payroll with powerful analytics available at each step. We eliminate the need for timesheets, streamline budgeting, improve contract reporting and in-turn increases employee engagement and wellbeing.

With customers requiring more robust service level agreements, evidencing service delivery and knowing staff are on-site as planned is critical. We are seeing a huge increase in demand for the latest time and attendance technologies for field based workers and remote workers. These new technologies enable employers of large workforces such as cleaners and maintenance workers to reduce absenteeism, lower costs via automation and increase productivity.

Retention

Cleaning contractors already using our workforce technology are able to highlight the staff that regularly turn up for work on time and those that are there until the end of their shift - the things that help retain contracts and boost business growth.

Picture: Technology is transforming the efficiency of the contract cleaning sector.

Article written by Christian Berenger | Published 02 May 2019

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