Your questions,answered

There are so many different reasons I started it. One of the biggest was that the industry was awful to people, and I had to try and change that, and change the perception of the cleaning and facilities industry. I also wanted to help the staff in the industry, because when people feel their job isn't appreciated, they don't appreciate their job. That's how you get bad standards, people not turning up, calling in sick, because that's how they look at their job.

I remember one of the pivotal moments when I thought, I'm actually going to start my own company. I said hello to a cleaner in the train station and asked her how her day was, and she was so surprised. She literally looked at me like, why are you speaking to me? I couldn't believe that people felt nobody would talk to them.

I also wanted to make my own decisions about the way the business was run. I'd worked in the industry for 10 years, putting forward lots of ideas, and they were always shut down or not followed through because they were a bit out of the ordinary, not what people do. I wanted to make a young, modern company where people could look at cleaning as a career and not just a part-time job.

Harleigh Brown, Managing Director

Of course we make sure our audits are done, so we're actually checking on what the cleaners are doing. But the basics should be done anyway. That's the bare minimum, not "done properly".

Done properly is the fact that our audit minimum grade is 86%, which is very high. It's that staff have the right chemicals and equipment on site, they have branded PPE, they have training, they get monthly toolbox talks, and they have access to a manager at all times who answers their phone. Managers are audited on that as well.

They're never left stranded. We care about our staff. We check they've logged in and logged out; we don't just presume. Think about the staff almost how you'd think about family arriving somewhere. If we've got staff lone working, we're checking they're okay. So done properly isn't doing an audit. It's actually caring about the process behind the cleaning and the maintenance, and what that looks like.

Harleigh Brown, Managing Director

Every company would say they care about their people, but do they actually put the action in? Could every business owner, or whoever has the direct contact with those people, tell you all of their team by name? Because we can. We can tell you our cleaners by name, whose children have just moved out, who's got a holiday coming up. Our cleaners are really open with us about what they're going through at the time. If something awful has happened, they know they can come to us and say "I need time off because of this". It's not begging us for it; they know we're going to support them. I appreciate some businesses are bigger, so they wouldn't know. But you actually know the detail of these people, rather than just expecting them to go in and do a job.

For the customer, again, it's being personable: actually getting to know our customers and what they're about as a person, not just their job role. It's really easy in corporate environments to look at someone and go, that's the office manager, that's the facilities manager. But who are those people, and what are their interests? It's not being a corporate robot. We genuinely are a people company. Popping your head in and saying hello, how are you, having a conversation and being real. Helping with things that aren't necessarily in our remit. Recognising if a client is struggling with something and seeing how we can help, and not just for the financial gain, but actually fixing a problem.

Harleigh Brown, Managing Director

The contract is always a minimum of 12 months, and I feel it has to be fair from our side and from the client's side. So we put in our contracts that if they're experiencing standards issues, we have a set timeframe to deal with them. We'll go in for a meeting. Have the audits gone below 86%? If so, why? What's happened, and what are we doing about it? We'll evidence that, and be open and transparent about these things.

We send all our audits to our clients as well, and not many companies do that. So it's completely open: they can see if the site is falling below standard. If we still don't put it right in that timeframe, a month's notice I feel is always fair. If there's been a significant problem on site, we'd take accountability for that and not try to blame someone else.

Harleigh Brown, Managing Director

We hold SafeContractor, public liability and employers' liability insurance, and we're working towards ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001. We have insurance for our staff and insurance for the sites, so we're protected if there are any accidents.

Each accreditation has its own benefits. With SafeContractor, they come in and audit your processes, what you do as a contractor as a whole, and how you keep the site and the staff safe. I think it's important as a business that you allow external parties to come in and audit you. They recommend things you're perhaps not doing, you implement them, and it betters the business. I think all accreditations work the same way.

The ISOs are more specific. 9001 is quality management: you're letting an external auditor look at how you manage the quality of your business. That's important for clients because it shows we're committed to constantly improving, and to admitting if we've done something wrong. 45001 is health and safety. That's a massive drive in our industry, making sure clients, customers, staff and contractors are working safely, and having it audited externally shows we're committed and open to suggestions and improvements. 14001 is all about environmental standards. It shows we're committed as a company to helping the environment and trying to become net zero: improving the quality of our chemicals and equipment, and being innovative with the machines and what we put into the building.

Harleigh Brown, Managing Director

We cover London, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire. At the moment, as a company, we're committed to expanding only in those areas. We wouldn't travel somewhere just because a contract was the right fit financially. It depends on whether we can deliver.

Experience in the industry shows that if you have multiple sites in one area, you deliver a better service, because you've got more people trained up in that area to cover sickness, absence and supervision. So even if someone offered a million-pound contract in another area, would it actually be the right fit?

Harleigh Brown, Managing Director

What we've noticed, being the cleaning contractor in a building, is that we have access to all areas and we're looking at things in detail because we're checking cleaning standards. When you do that, you notice maintenance issues, areas of concern and health and safety concerns. So we have someone on site every single day who can look at these things, and they're trained to notice and report them. Someone working in an office or a warehouse with a busy schedule might not notice a kitchen door hanging off, or a stair tread that's a trip hazard. Our cleaners do, because they're looking at the detail. The same goes for our managers when we do audits: we notice what's wrong and we can correct it. So having us as a dual provider for cleaning and FM works in everyone's favour, because we have constant oversight of those issues.

With the experience we have in the management team, we've also noticed that facilities is often handed to someone who already has a full-time role, because it's something people try to cost-save on. It's actually one of the most important things to run in a building, because the people working in your premises need to come into a fully functional building. If you come in and the building's not clean, or the lights have all gone, and no one can take accountability for that, what do you do? If you've got a provider who's dedicated to it, you should never run into those issues.

Harleigh Brown, Managing Director

Commercial cleaning · Facilities management

We pay the Real Living Wage, and it's something I'm a real advocate for anyway. At a time like today, when financial pressures on most families are big, minimum wage barely covers the cost of living. Why should we expect the people cleaning or doing maintenance in your buildings to work on that rate of pay, when they're the reason your staff can come into work today, or the children can go to school, because the building's running smoothly, it's clean and there are no pest issues?

On progression, there's no one better to go into the next position than someone who's done the first one. If you've been a cleaner in the building, you know the building, you know the processes and you know the job inside out. With a little help and support from management, I can't see anyone better to be promoted to supervisor, because you relate to that job and to the people you're then managing. We would always, always look to promote from within rather than hiring externally, because those people have an understanding and appreciation of what the team are doing. They've been there.

Harleigh Brown, Managing Director

First we do our free Clean Slate walk-round, so we understand your site and the scope of what you've currently got. There are so many different factors when we're pricing a cleaning job.

For example, if you've already got a provider, we have to take into account the staff you've got on site, because TUPE always applies. A lot of people forget about TUPE and think it's not applicable, but it's the law and you can't get around it. So we always get that data from you first: their rates of pay, the pension they're paid, and their holiday entitlements, before we can price anything, because those staff would TUPE across. We can look at ways of improving productivity, but you have to take into account that those people's jobs are safe.

If it's a fresh site with no cleaners and no maintenance, we look at the square footage of the building, what plant you've got and the facilities. We take everything into account, from drawings to how old the building is. We also speak to you as the client: what are your expectations, and what do you want from us? Then we tailor the package to what you want. It's really easy for a company to do one-size-fits-all, but that doesn't work for everyone. So we really try to get to know you and your building before we put a price in.

Harleigh Brown, Managing Director

Book a free Clean Slate walk-round

We want to expand all the divisions equally. Short-term lets is a big upcoming area, because a lot more people now are letting out short-term and doing Airbnb: the clean, the laundry, the hampers, the decorations, the maintenance, making sure it's safe, and guests out of hours. We're basically a one-stop shop for that, so we always want to expand it.

With total facilities management, I think there's a big gap in the market for that personal service. A lot of the big corporate companies hold the total FM contracts in most buildings, and I think the way the world is moving, businesses will come away from that, and we want to support more of them.

Something that will never change is the personal touch. Everyone who comes into our business will be trained to know that we're people. We don't want to just send emails. We want conversations, we want to still meet our clients, and we want to still meet our staff on site. We don't want just Teams meetings and Zooms. We don't want to be an online business. We want to still be in person.

Harleigh Brown, Managing Director

It depends on whether it's just cleaning, facilities management or both, and on the size of the site and what's happened before. Have they had their compliance checks? Are they up to date with everything? Do we need our own independent assessors to come in and do fire risk assessments or Legionella risk assessments?

Cleaning is usually a lot quicker to mobilise. We try to get it mobilised within a week, or immediately if it's a brand new site. If it's a TUPE transfer, it's 28 days. Facilities management can take longer, anywhere between a week and a month, because at the end of the day we're going to be responsible for the building and its compliance. We want to start off on the right foot and make sure the building is completely compliant before we take it on, whether the client sorts that out first or we do. It all depends on the plant and so on.

Joseph Taylor, Operations Manager

More about our commercial cleaning

Straight away, we try to sort it out internally with our own staff.

Second, there are a few smaller cleaning and facilities management businesses in the local area that we like to support, because we like to help other businesses grow. We've built relationships with them. We know the managing directors well and we know the staff well, and we'd always try to pass it to them first.

Third, we'd look at our agency, but our agency isn't just a random cleaner. We've built relationships with the agencies. We've had meetings with them and told them who we are as a business. We don't just say we need a cleaner; we say we need a cleaner who can do this. If a supervisor is off, we won't just put a cleaner in, we'll put a cleaning supervisor in. Nine times out of ten we use the same people regularly, so it's always a nice surprise to see agency staff who've been on our sites before and have built relationships with our staff. We've moved a few agency staff over to permanent roles, and we're happy to pay the fees to bring them over if we think they're reliable and we can help them.

We always tell the client. We give them a name and a date for whenever there's cover. That's one of the most important things: they need to know who's on site. On any site that requires DBS, we make sure cover staff are DBS checked. All our RAMS, COSHH assessments, contractor agreements, and anything else the client requires, are sent to them before the cover operative attends site, not after. There will always be someone on site to train and induct them, and to tell them who we are as a business and how we conduct ourselves.

Joseph Taylor, Operations Manager

There are two things we do as standard on every contract, big or small: monthly site visits and monthly audits. I think this is one of the most important things we do as a company. Auditing after the staff have been is one thing, but how can we pass judgement on their cleaning if they never actually see us?

The site visits are for the staff member, to make sure they're fine and happy and to deal with any problems they might have. It's how we keep building our relationships with our staff. The audits are just as important. We go in after the clean has been done and audit every section that's been cleaned, from smell to dust to health and safety, staff presentation on site and how staff conduct themselves. Both the site visits and the audits include client feedback, so we're constantly held accountable to what we sell our business on and what we stand for.

Joseph Taylor, Operations Manager

For facilities issues, it's immediate: our 24/7 call centre picks it up straight away. For cleaning, we'll respond within two hours. Depending on the size of the site, and whether we have supervisors or area managers in that area, it may go to the supervisor first, depending on how serious the problem is.

We put it right through training. We don't discipline our staff for poor standards the first time; we offer training. We ask if there's anything else we can help with, and we're happy to take suggestions. On multiple sites we've bought equipment that staff have suggested, and we'll do anything we can to help that staff member grow their skill set. Then we stop it happening again by checking a week later: we do a follow-up audit and make sure it's improved.

Joseph Taylor, Operations Manager

Everyone whose role requires a DBS check is DBS checked before they start, and they're inducted on site by one of our team, so they know the site, the job and who we are as a business from day one.

Then there are our cleaning cards, which we have on all our sites. On top of our two to three days of training, sometimes more, there are cleaning cards the team can take with them once they're onboarded. They help them remember every area we clean and everything in the scope. They go section by section and are colour-coded red, blue, green or yellow, depending on the colour code we use in each area. Each one is a step-by-step instruction on what we do in that area, what chemicals we use, how we clean, and what to do if there's a problem. Every card also has a health and safety tip, to keep health and safety fresh in people's minds.

We do a toolbox talk and a cleaning skills talk on every site visit. The toolbox talk is based around health and safety. The most recent one was slips, trips and falls, so we went around the site and brought out everything in our PPE bags that could help. Wet floor signs are obviously the bare minimum, but we also have cable covers, so if they're hoovering in a walkway with people still around they can cover the cables. We have chemical spill kits and body fluid spill kits. We really do cover all bases. We believe that's the bare minimum, though unfortunately a lot of other companies see it as overkill. We don't.

Joseph Taylor, Operations Manager

This is something we're very firm on: our staff are trained on our chemicals. We've used our chemicals ourselves. We recently changed chemical supplier, and we actually used the chemicals in our own homes first before putting any on site. We started on a trial site with some of our more established cleaners who've been with us longer, and got their feedback. We picked our chemicals from those trials, then slowly brought them in across all our sites, making sure every site was properly trained and the COSHH assessments were written, signed and understood.

We will only use what we provide, and that's not a financial thing. It's a safety thing and a training thing. All our staff are trained on how long to leave a chemical on the surface, when to wipe it off and what to wipe it off with. We cover all bases, and we follow the safety data sheet word for word. That's how we create our training.

Joseph Taylor, Operations Manager

We can work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, though we try to steer clear of night work. We also try to avoid lone working, but where we can't, we have systems in place. We have a check-in and check-out process, and every staff member has a lone worker alarm connected to a 24/7 call centre. The call centre staff are trained in security issues and medical situations, and they have direct links to the emergency services. It's all done through one alarm, which has fall detection and a panic button if there's ever a safety risk from someone else or they feel threatened.

Joseph Taylor, Operations Manager

More about our commercial cleaning

Call us on 01908 965333 or email facilities@sbg-services.co.uk, and it's logged and picked up from there.

This is something I'm very proud of at SBG. Since we've gone into facilities, Harleigh and I both bring experience. I worked in trades before this, and Harleigh has worked in facilities management for over 10 years, so together we have experience of all the different aspects of trades and facilities.

One thing we stand by is that we don't just use any contractor. We don't just go on Google and find the cheapest local one. All our contractors are vetted. Before any contractor sets foot on one of our sites, we have a meeting with them, whether that's with the MD, the operations director, or sometimes the engineers themselves. Then we onboard them: we hold all their qualifications, so we know who holds what, how many plumbers and electricians they have, what they're qualified to do and what we can rely on them for. It's an open book from day one. We have regular meetings and require after-job reports, which we then send to the client.

I'm very happy with the contractors we have at the moment. They're reliable and they do good-quality work, and if it ever does fall below standard, it's always picked up by our internal auditors.

Joseph Taylor, Operations Manager

More about facilities management

It sounds like a lot, but it's really quite simple: it's about not reacting to issues, and planning instead. If you don't have an active PPM plan in place, your plant and machinery isn't being serviced. And what happens when you don't service machinery correctly? It breaks down, and then it needs really expensive repairs, which you could have avoided with an active PPM schedule. Also, if you don't keep one in place, you forget what plant, machinery, fire alarms and so on you've got in the building, and that can lead to a failure in health and safety.

The type of PPM normally included in our schedules covers things like Legionella testing, boiler servicing, emergency light testing, fire alarm testing, intruder and security alarm checks, and air conditioning maintenance and testing.

It saves the client stress and money, because we take the schedule, log it, save it and remind the client when things are due. We take the whole building, look at it, turn it on its head and say what PPM is needed here, and we take that whole stress away.

Joseph Taylor, Operations Manager

More about PPM and facilities management

On every job, before we take it on, a contractor goes and looks at it and a quote is produced. Once that's approved, RAMS are produced and sent to the client before anyone enters site. They're checked by our health and safety consultant and by our in-house health and safety team. Jobs are logged in our system so everything's tracked from day one: you can see when a contractor's been appointed, what's been sent across, and anything else needed for that job is on there. Once the job's completed the report is sent, and no invoice is paid until that report has been approved and sent to the client.

Joseph Taylor, Operations Manager

More about compliance and facilities management

Short-term lets are something I feel we really do well as a business. We can accommodate any changeover whatsoever. Whatever it needs, we'll put one member of staff on it, or two, three, four, five, however many it takes to get it turned over before the next guest.

That includes the clean, our in-house laundry and restocking, with photo sign-off when the property's ready.

All our short-let staff, alongside our commercial cleaners, are trained to notice defects and maintenance issues. They report them directly to us through our facilities management system. It's then assigned to a manager or supervisor, who will either speak to the client or put a contractor on site straight away, so it's corrected before the next guest stays at the property.

Joseph Taylor, Operations Manager

More about short-let property care

We try to avoid rearranging cleans at any cost. With the client's permission, we'll always get spare keys cut. All our keys are logged against whoever holds them, so we know who to call, and there's always a key in the local area. If, as a very last resort, we did have to reschedule, it would always be within the client's expectations.

Joseph Taylor, Operations Manager