It’s finally summer in the UK (although it doesn’t always feel like it!) and that means the school summer holidays will soon be upon us. With this time of year often comes an increase in footfall, particularly for retail and leisure environments, and this can put pressure on your soft services teams.
Anchor Group Services have decades of experience working with large public spaces on their cleaning requirements and as such have developed an effective cleaning strategy, ideal for helping sites successfully navigate the busy summer months.
We spoke to Ismael Herrera, Cleaning Operations Manager for our client, Peel L&P at MediaCityUK to discover his top tips.
We have been at MediaCityUK for six summers now and over that time, we have developed a strong relationship with our client and a system that works well for keeping a very busy area with a lot of footfall clean, even during special summer events.
Early preparation
Early preparation is key for preparing for the summer months. We agree extra hours with our client from the beginning of April to the last weekend in September to ensure that we have enough time and enough staff on site to ensure cleanliness is maintained at an Anchor standard level throughout the busier summer months.
The south side and gardens at MediaCityUK tend to get very busy during this period and so in March / April we start to prepare these areas with a deep clean and pressure wash before the increase in crowds.
Consider events differently
Thanks to our fantastic relationship with Peel L&P, we will know in advance when big events are happening at MediaCityUK and so we can prepare our team accordingly. In June, the site hosted We Invented the Weekend – a weekend-long festival which required additional cleaning and therefore we recruited extra staff for the specific event.
Thankfully, recruitment is made simple by our pool of relief cleaners who we have on standby and are continually refreshed and managed so we can call on this extra help if required. We also have a large soft services team at Anchor so we can call on our colleagues in other areas if needed.
Effective team management
When managing a team, it’s important to remember that summer holidays are also when staff members may need time off for childcare, etc. We keep a holiday rota in the office so we can keep an eye on how many are off at one time and we also allow for lots of overtime opportunities, with a generous overtime package to match.
At Anchor, our people are our most important asset and so we ensure that they are well looked after. We do regular ‘employee of the month’ rewards for when a team member has accomplished something out of the ordinary and we also have the official Anchor reward and recognition scheme, Anchor All Stars, of which one of our team was a recent recipient of the ‘Leadership’ award.
But most importantly, I’d say that knowing your team is crucial to effective team management. Anchor allows time for managers to get to know their teams and as a result, I know a lot about who my team are and the important things in their lives. This means that I know who can do and can’t do what. For example, our team is very diverse and so I am conscious to schedule work around religious holidays, etc. Knowing this information makes it so much easier to manage the team but it also fosters a better team environment as I know they appreciate the consideration that Anchor gives them.
From the client’s perspective
So, what does having such an effective cleaning strategy and an experienced provider in place to deliver it mean for our client? We spoke to Peel L&P to find out:
“Peel L&P and Anchor have worked together for nearly six years now, and we work extremely closely together to achieve shared goals. They have aligned themselves with our business, particularly with things such as our ESG commitments. They want to be a part of that, and they want to do their bit for our success.
We don’t see them as contractors, we see them as part of our business as well. A huge benefit of having them on board is that I know that the job will get done.”
Daniel Fairhurst, Soft Services Manager
Peel L&P
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