Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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What did the professional cleaning industry learn from Covid?
Now that we are inching our way out of the pandemic, Steve Ashkin, CEO of The Ashkin Group and Sustainability Dashboard Tools, conducted a LinkedIn poll, asking his connections what they felt the professional cleaning industry learned from Covid-19.
Respondents were given four answer options to select from:
* The value of worker training
* The value of our industry
* The value of protective gear
* To test for effective cleaning
More than 60 people participated in the poll, which was conducted in mid-May 2021.
The majority of the respondents - 72% - indicated the most important lesson learned was the value of the professional cleaning industry.
"We suspected this would be the case," says Steve. "The value of the professional cleaning industry and what we do has never been so clear," adding that when the pandemic first began, other than social distancing and washing or sanitising hands, cleaning was our only real defence.
While it certainly did not receive as many votes, the next most voted lesson learned, was 'the value of worker training'. Nearly 15% of the respondents believed that this was the big takeaway.
"This belief is very strong among jansan distributors," says Steve. "Distributors started working with cleaning workers as soon as the pandemic began. More than likely, they realised first-hand the value of proper and effective cleaning in fighting the virus."
Rounding out the voting was 'testing for cleaning effectiveness', which also received 15% of the vote, and 'the value of wearing protective gear', 5%.
Steve believes that as we look back on our industry's response to the pandemic, the industry is likely to see that it did many things right but may have done some unnecessary things.
"I suspect the indiscriminate use of disinfectants will fall into this latter category," he says. "But overall, our industry came out stronger, smarter, and much more respected because of Covid-19."
27th May 2021