Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses across the UK, spanning almost every single sector, have faced major, completely unprecedented challenges.
The global pandemic, coupled with the fallout from the UK Brexit deal, has had a huge impact on UK businesses.
The commercial cleaning sector is one such sector that has been hit hard by these major developments.
In this article, we will be outlining the impact that Brexit and COVID-19 have had on the commercial cleaning sector, before sharing how JMS Cleaning has been navigating this difficult period.
What impact has Brexit and COVID-19 had on UK companies?
According to the Office of National Statistics, in October 2021, 6% of UK companies permanently ceased trading.
Furthermore, the ONS figures show that the Administrative and Support Service sector (which includes commercial cleaning companies) has been one of the most seriously affected.
According to the ONS, 10% of companies in the sector ceased trading in October, which is significantly higher than the average rate across all sectors.
Although the pandemic has, naturally, necessitated that all companies improve their cleaning procedures, this hasn’t created an overall net increase in profits for professional cleaners.
In fact, a recent report from the British Cleaning Council revealed that:
“The service sector has not recovered to pre pandemic levels. As part of the service sector, the cleaning and hygiene industry is directly impacted by the operation of other sectors.”
Since 31% of all businesses had temporarily or permanently closed sites in March 2021, a staggering 50% of UK businesses stating that COVID-19 has increased their financial losses, and 1 in 5 UK businesses reporting that they experienced trade disruption, it is easy to see how the cleaning sector was heavily impacted by this nationwide fallout.
Since companies are rapidly closing their offices, some temporarily and others permanently, there is much less need for professional cleaning services.
According to a fascinating report by Savill’s, in the City of London, there has been a 50% decrease in the uptake of office spaces, as a direct result of the pandemic. And, with many businesses benefitting from the cost savings of reducing their office spaces and encouraging staff to work from home, it’s unlikely that office rentals will return to pre-pandemic levels any time soon.
Alongside the fact that COVID-19 has significantly cut many business’s profits, the pandemic has also caused major staffing issues (as many staff were either required to work from home, or were put on furlough) and has forced organisations to change their normal supply chain, due to transportation or supply issues.
The challenge of this period is two-fold, as organisations also have to cope with the long-term impact of Brexit.
Many UK companies, including those in the commercial sector, have had to quickly re-think their operations, in order to navigate new legislation and restrictions.
Firstly, the reduction in free movement of migrant workers, many of whom are employed in the cleaning sector, has caused significant staffing issues. Now, many of these workers will no longer have the authority to work in the UK, meaning commercial cleaning companies have to quickly find new talent to hire within the UK.
Although some are of the opinion that this gives UK cleaners more opportunities for employment, there will inevitably be significant competition within the job market, amongst different hiring companies. This shortage of non UK workers caused by Brexit has driven up costs due to the competition to get the right cleaning staff
How are commercial cleaning companies navigating this period?
Although the situation is still complicated and challenging, the cleaning sector at large is adapting its practices and cleaning procedures, in order to respond to the situation in the best way possible.
Despite facing some of the greatest challenges of our generation, we are immensely proud to say that JMS Cleaning is still successfully overcoming these hurdles.
We have achieved this by innovating and adapting, re-thinking our services in order to provide a best-fit solution for the current requirements of our clients.
A key example of this is the flexibility of our service. We work with our clients to develop flexible cleaning schedules, which work around their requirements and working hours.
We also offer a wide range of contracted cleaning plans, including everything from daily schedules, to a one-off cleaning service. Furthermore, we can also tailor our services to fulfil the specific requirements of sites in any industry, of any size.
During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it’s never been more important to keep your business clean, sanitised and free of germs. Starting by creating the perfect cleaning routine, here at JMS Cleaning Services we get to work using up to date products and methods to keep your workplace sanitised. We also conduct fogging so that the entire space is deep cleaned. Fogging is a quick and efficient way to disinfect surfaces across large areas without missing anything. The fog produced is antimicrobial, eliminating traces of COVID-19 and other types of viruses for up to two months. It is utterly harmless to humans.
It is this flexibility, coupled with the outstanding quality of our service and our commitment to using the industry’s most effective cleaning products, that has enabled us to achieve a rate of repeat business of over 90%.
So, if you would like to find out more about any of our commercial cleaning services, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Get in touch with the JMS Cleaning team today.