Having spent the last 36 years in the cleaning industry, gone through 2 recessions and an economic downturn, the evolution of the cleaning industry continues to impress that this industry will continue to grow despite all the challenges it faces.
One thing for sure is that the stakeholders must take this opportune time of the COVID-19 pandemic situation to reset and start driving the cleaning industry in a different direction. As the saying goes, “You cannot expect a different outcome when you keep doing things the same way.”
During the last one year, the demand for enhanced cleaning and disinfection services skyrocketed as a result of the pandemic. Cleaning services became essential services overnight and the frontlines became instant heroes (although many a time unsung) for braving the pandemic and still coming to work to ensure that all operational premises are cleaned and sanitised.
Service buyers have also reacted positively by encouraging our frontlines with thank you cards and messages, meal and beverage treats and many other forms of motivation and encouragements to spur them on.
The effects of the pandemic have also aroused the emotions of the general public and many of whom have expressed that cleaners are generally unappreciated and undervalued. This has led to a survey commissioned by The Straits Times on 14 June 2020, where 8 in10 Singaporeans expressed that they are willing to pay up to 10 to 20% more for essential services, provided the extra amount goes to the workers.
While it is common knowledge that the enhanced Progressive Wage Model (PWM) has already seen a 3% increase in cleaner’s wages year on year from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2023. The impending increase from 1 July 2023 and beyond is the current talking point as the Tripartite Cluster for Cleaners (TCC) is already engaging the stakeholders and will be recommending the next phase of the PWM soon to allow all service buyers sufficient time to adapt to the increase.
With the PWM expected to rise steeply to reflect the real value of cleaners and professionalise the industry, service buyers should quickly look into the possibility to procure cleaning services differently. The current cleaning contracts are predominantly headcount-based contracts, whereby service buyers are dictating the number of headcount required and evaluating the procurement process and service providers on their capability to provide the headcount instead of the quality of the work performed.
Since about 80% of the cost of cleaning contracts sum is the labour cost, cleaning expenditure will definitely increase year on year as the PWM dictates.
Hence, the way forward would be for all service buyers to adopt an Outcome Based Contract (OBC), where the reliance of labour doing menial work is reduced and by implementing the following to circumvent the leaner workforce:
- Better cleaning tools and materials to replace traditional way of cleaning.
- Technology adoptions to improve work processes and productivity.
- Digitalisation of work process for better accountability and efficiency.
- Up-skilling of the human resource to embrace the new technologies and digitalisation of the work proesses.
- Job redesign (JR) to ensure the trained human resources are assigned to their new roles and job description in order to achieve the positive effects of productivity and efficiency growth.
The success of an OBC will only be possible if the stakeholders can holistically agree to roll out all of the above concurrently. Hence, the first step is still the services buyers buying into the concept to better control their ever increasing cleaning expenditure.
At Anergy Building Services, we will be most willing to partner our current clientele as well as prospectives ones to embrace OBC to better manage their cleaning cost, professionalise the cleaning industry by attracting new workforce to join the industry with the continuous up-skilling of the human capital, adoption of technology to improve productivity and work efficiency, leading to the uplifting of the image of the industry.
Together, we can achieve.
We are proud to announce that Anergy has increased our internal retirement age to 66 and internal re-employment age to 71. This is in accordance with the Senior Worker Early Adopter Grant (SWEAG) and Part-Time Re-Employment Grant (PTRG) as supported by the authorities. These changes exceed the current Retirement & Re-employment Act by 3 years.
To effect these changes, Anergy’s Retirement and Re-employment Policy and Employee Handbook were updated and both were populated to all staff via the Human Resource Management System (HRMS).
To communicate the good news, announcements were made via email and the Company’s Operations Digital Exchange (ABODE). Our HR Team also conducted face-to-face briefing sessions with staff aged 60 and above and issuing for their acknowledgement, an addendum to their contract of service, to affirm the change.
Briefing sessions were also conducted for HQ Staff, and for staff in our various project sites, Supervisors announced the change during their respective Toolbox Meetings.
Anergy held it’s inaugural Solutions Seminar where we invited some of our vendors to talk about their latest cleaning products, equipment and machinery to our Operations and Sales teams.
By introducing these new products, equipment and machinery, we aim to inspire our staff to think of new means and ways to incorporate these products to suit the ever-changing needs of our project sites by means of the following initiatives,
- Improving productivity.
- Improving efficiency.
- Delivering better service.
- Delivering better results to our Clients.
This is part of our current efforts to help our staff and current and also future project sites transition towards outcome-based contracts instead of the traditional manpower-based contracts.
The introduction of more efficient tools and equipment helps to improve manpower efficiency as it supplements the manpower requirements for previously manpower intensive tasks and frees up additional manpower to perform other required tasks. Automation of cleaning tasks through the deployment of AI-powered cleaning solutions such as robotic floor scrubbers, sweepers, etc, also frees up manpower to focus on other tasks concurrently, getting more done in the same period of time.
Adoption of new technology thus allows for greater time efficiency as lesser time is required to complete tasks whilst still delivering the same or superior cleaning results. It also reduces our reliance on traditional labour intensive cleaning methods and helps ease the workload on our staff, especially for our older staff.
One other advantage of using mechanised or automated cleaning solutions is that it allows for greater efficiency in the use cleaning chemicals as it generally requires the usage of less chemicals to deliver the same cleaning results compared to the traditional cleaning methods. This also helps to prevent over or under-dosing of the cleaning chemicals as overdosing cleaning chemicals results in wastage and under-dosing would result in underperformance and require more time to rectify.
We would like to extend our thanks to 3M Singapore Private ltd, Klenco (Singapore) Pte Ltd and Jeff Supplies Pte. Ltd. for sharing their extensive product knowledge and helping to make this seminar a fruitful and successful session.
For more information on how we can help your estate or job site in achieving your desired cleaning requirements, drop us an enquiry or email us at sales@anergy.com.sg.
Disclaimer: Anergy adhered to the current safe distancing measures and procedures in running this seminar.
Anergy is proud to announce that we are a sponsor for the NEA Industry Scholarship in 2020.
This local scholarship is offered to Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and Polytechnic students to realise their potential in the Environmental Services (ES) Industry.
Full-term and mid-term scholarships are available to support outstanding students who demonstrate academic excellence, strong leadership potential and a passion for environmental sustainability.
As part of our efforts to contribute back to the community, Anergy Building Services arranged for a pro-bono disinfection service at the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Our disinfection technicians were more than ready to take on the assignment and performed the disinfection service with gusto.
Regular disinfection of commonly touched surfaces or those with are at high risk of contamination from viruses and pathogens helps to protect you and your loved ones and is also part of a system of safe management measures to protect and strengthen resilience against any further disruptions due to COVID-19.
At Anergy, we believe in nurturing and developing the skills of our employees in order to better equip them with relevant and up-to-date skillsets and also aid in their career progression within the organisation.
This is our effort to achieve our goal in our vision of being “An Employer of Choice”.
We would like to highlight the journey of 2 of our long-time staff in Anergy.
Terence Goh, Operations Manager
Terence Goh has been with Anergy for the last 11 years, having built up an extensive background in the cleaning services industry since 1982 in Operations before joining Anergy in Sales. During his time in Anergy, Terence strived to build up close relationships with existing clients under his care. He became a valuable team member in helping to deliver concerns and compliments from the clients to the Operations Team.
Terence obtained the WSQ Professional Diploma in Leadership & People management in 2018. He went on to participate in the EMAS LEAP Programme in 2019 and obtained the ILM Level 4 Diploma in Leadership & Management. This diploma was administered by the City & Guilds’ Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) of the United Kingdom, where he achieved the distinction of being the top student in the programme.
Therefore, it was a natural progression when Terence stepped up to the role of Operations Manager last year, bringing along his experience and knowledge in leading the Operations team in Anergy.
Nur Iza Ibrahim, Senior Purchasing & Facilities Executive
Nur Iza Ibrahim was promoted to Senior Purchasing & Facilities Executive in 2020 in recognition of her effort, hard work and accomplishments during her 15 years in Anergy.
In 2018, Nur Iza obtained the WSQ Professional Diploma in Leadership & People Management and has been applying the knowledge and skills learnt in her day to day work since. Nur Iza was nominated and subsequently awarded as a recipient of the Congratulatory Certificate in the Environmental Services (ES) Workforce Day 2020 which serves to recognise employee’s outstanding contribution and commitment to their organisation.