The worst of the Covid pandemic might be behind us (the bad news for new case spikes across Europe notwithstanding), but London’s office and corporate world might be changed forever. And so, naturally, will all maintenance services related to it. So while some office cleaning contractors wistfully remember “the good old days”, I look toward the future and why our business might never be the same.
A Contracting Field
Fewer people are working in an office environment today than I could ever remember (fifteen years in the industry). I can see no logical reason why this trend would change. The pandemic showed managers and employees alike that working from home did not affect productivity as dramatically or negatively as previously thought.
Yes, some industries insist on their workforce returning to the office. But a significant portion of the IT or marketing industry, for example, has become much more flexible as far as working time is concerned.
Bottomline – more people working from home means less office space taken, and therefore – decreasing demand for office cleaning.
Entirely New Cleaning Challenges
I cannot remember a single office worker being concerned about the sanitizing and disinfection of their working place three years ago. Today, half of my customers demand a detailed breakdown of how we treat every single working station and how we ensure health safety. Covid changed the rules of the game – probably for the better. Cleaning contractors who simply went through the motions – dusting and polishing, vacuuming or mopping the floors, restocking the waste bins – are no longer competitive.
In other words – the office cleaning field has become a struggle for the survival of the fittest.