Our tools of the trade aren’t guitars, our workplaces aren’t concert arenas and we’re unlikely to have too many Instagram followers.

However, in many ways cleaners have been centre stage in helping businesses throughout COVID-19. As we move away from heavy restrictions and look towards successfully living with COVID-19 in the year ahead, it’s worth examining the changing nature of cleaning within the new business landscape.

Australian organisations realise commercial cleaning can no longer be considered a secondary concern, but is now a core business issue.

Too often cleaning was outsourced to the cheapest service provider, but organisations are now looking for proactive and strategic long-term partners amid a heightened focus on workplace hygiene.

Having access to agile and responsive deep commercial cleaning companies was instrumental in getting businesses back up and running quickly after a positive COVID-19 case in the initial phase of the pandemic. Rapid deployment proved critical to business continuity and revenues.

Cleaning has also become a core customer and employment issue for organisations.

When people enter a conference room or classroom now, they cast their eyes over it to ensure it’s clean and hygienic. An unfavourable impression could be the difference between winning and losing a client or prospective employee.

Many organisations, especially in the customer service sector, are now moving towards a constant cleaning model throughout the day to promote comfort, reassurance and confidence among their staff and customers.

This is especially important as organisations work to encourage staff back into the workplace after long stints of working from home, and customers back into shops and service centres.

Having said that, cleaning is about much more than merely optics. Highly targeted and detailed work, leveraged by sophisticated technology and expert knowledge remains the bedrock of superior commercial cleaning services, such as ACS Property Services.

Businesses need to be able to trust and rely on their cleaning partner to provide these critical services in both proactive and reactive settings.

While cleaning is the core service, helping our partner organisations achieve their corporate social responsibility goals is becoming an increasingly valued component to our services.

This includes our commitment to Closing the Gap through ACS Indigenous. Headed up by retired AFL champion Shaun Burgoyne, the initiative was created to meet growing requirements by government and the private sector to create long term career and procurement opportunities for Indigenous Australians.

From an environmental perspective, securing ecological best practice cleaning services is becoming an imperative for businesses and their stakeholders alike. At ACS, we ensure the entire lifecycle of products and services deliver best environmental practice to all our clients, and in turn their staff, customers, and local community.

We have now introduced Tersano into more than 30 sites across Australia – an innovative product which turns tap water into a safe, highly effective sanitiser. Achieving our customers’ cleaning and corporate social responsibility goals requires shared values and strong, transparent communication channels, which we provide through our industry leading customer portal and online compliance platform.

Cleaning aside, as we leave behind what’s been a challenging 2021, and move confidently into a more promising 2022, let’s as a business community make sure we take time to savour the festive season in between.

We might even pull out the guitar at the ACS Christmas party!

Best wishes from all the team at ACS Property Services.