The end is in sight. With a vaccine being rolled out in record time and hopefully good results from the recent tougher lock-downs, the time when the country’s economic activity lights turn to green is getting closer every day.
Across the country and in every industry, thousands of premises managers have faced a year of constant uncertainty, with on/off lockdowns, restrictions and operating guidelines changing almost daily. It’s been a perfect storm. Few outside the business will appreciate that there is often just as much work involved in safely and properly mothballing a large facility as there is in running it normally.
With up to 24% of the workforce currently working remotely, hundreds of thousands of office premises up and down the land are standing empty, waiting for the lights to finally change from red to green.
Preparing for a new way of working
Getting all those premises ready quickly, safely and cost-effectively is the next major challenge that will be thrown at facilities managers. With health and safety and hygiene measures firmly moved to the front of our minds, high standards will be demanded and expected. It will need deep cleaning processes, conducted by professionals. Faced with some staff who have found working from home quite convenient, a sparkling clean environment could play a significant role in maintaining morale among staff returning to an office base.
Hospitality and manufacturing
Other sectors face similar challenges. The hospitality sector, which normally accounts for over 70 billion of the country’s annual GDP, has seen large, medium and smaller hotels and restaurants completely or partially closed down for most of the year, many receiving only basic maintenance cleaning. With business, sport and recreation sooner or later bouncing back, the bookings will come again, and the hospitality industry knows better than most just how important first guest impressions are. With hospitality managers facing their own rebound challenges in many other areas, not least replacing lost catering and waiting staff, contract cleaning services are going to be in big demand when the call comes.
In the factories too, they will be eyeing the eventual return to full normal operations and assessing what they need to do to be fully ready.
At ACC, we have the answers to these and many other questions that will need to be answered to help Britain bounce back to sparkling form. Get in touch for more information.
