Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 11th April 2024 Issue no. 1109
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"Vacuuming is a waste of skilled time," says CEO of Vacuum Manufacturer
In a recent poll of cleaning professionals, only 2% ranked vacuuming as 'important', yet vacuuming takes about 25% of a cleaner's time. Automated vacuuming costs less, can clean better, saves energy and frees up skilled cleaning teams to concentrate on the important tasks.
Touch points, toilets and kitchens accounted for the other 98% of votes, which makes perfect sense as these are the high-risk areas when it comes to infection control. Creating any time- or cost-saving in these areas is almost impossible, but vacuuming, which is easy to automate, could provide a lot more time for the 98% of important tasks.
Pre-Covid, cleaners were, apparently, typically spending 25% of their time vacuuming. TPLC wanted to understand cleaning priorities in the current climate, so asked 2,000 cleaning professionals to select which activity was the most important cleaning task. As predicted, vacuuming came bottom, with touch points, kitchens and washrooms scoring highest in level of significance.
Current Government guidance states that regular cleaning plays a vital role in limiting the transmission of Covid-19 and that this should be increased in frequency, paying particular attention to all surfaces - but especially ones that are touched frequently, such as door handles, light switches, work surfaces, remote controls and electronic devices. As a minimum, it is advised that frequently touched surfaces should be wiped down twice a day.
As we know, touch point sanitisation must be completed by skilled teams with a high level of accuracy and must be completed regularly. Talking with cleaning industry professionals we are finding less important tasks, like vacuuming, are often rushed or missed - or more staff are having to be recruited to deal with the additional work. Even though vacuuming is deemed less imperative at this time - it is the one task that can be the most noticeable when missed or rushed.
The time saved by using TPLC robot vacuums, named Abbee, can be used to free up cleaning personnel to execute the most critical tasks while ensuring visible and sanitisation standards remain at a high level.
"This recent poll puts vacuuming at the bottom of the list because it is not a touch point or key to people's health,” says Michael Richardson, CEO of TPLC. “Vacuuming is easy to automate, saves money and releases time for the important tasks. Using automated technology for vacuuming, works - Abbees collect 50% more debris than a traditional tub vacuum and typically cost 50% less to use.
“Replacing a laborious task with automation ultimately helps reduce the spread of infection by allowing people to concentrate on the really important responsibilities.
“We are also incredibly excited by the findings of a recent study which shows a fall in pathogen levels when using an Abbee compared to a traditional tub vacuum on carpeted floor areas. More to follow on that!"
Golnaz Fathi, sales & marketing director of TPLC, comments: "The cost of additional cleaning tasks and of illness to individuals, businesses and the overall economy is huge and if a proportion of this can be saved by giving cleaners extra time by automating some of their work, then it must be worth it."
Poll Results: Results taken from a TPLC LinkedIn poll during Feb 2021. 2,000 cleaning connections were asked to vote on what cleaning activity they felt was the most important.
Importance Votes
Toilets & Washing Facilities 33%
Kitchen and Food Preparation Areas 18%
Door Handles & Touch Points 47%
Vacuuming 2%
Pre-Covid Time Spent on Cleaning % Time %
Toilets & Washing Facilities 30%
Kitchen and Food Preparation Areas 30%
Other 15%
Vacuuming 25%
T: 01865 689 004
W: www.tplc.uk
www.gov.uk
18th March 2021