The cleaning industry doesn’t have a recruitment problem. It has a retention problem.
It’s a familiar story every cleaning business owner has experienced at some point.
You finally recruit someone who turns up on time, works hard, takes pride in what they do and quickly earns the trust of your customers. For a while, everything feels easier, the mental burden is lighter and you can take a breeder to focus on working on the business. Complaints reduce, supervisors spend less time firefighting and clients begin to notice the consistency of the service they were promised.
Then, almost without warning, something happens and they leave.
Sometimes it is for a slightly higher hourly rate. Sometimes it is because another job offers daytime hours instead of early mornings or late evenings. Sometimes they simply decide the industry is not for them anymore. I have had a lot of clever sayings that they find the cleaning work too laborious. One of the most memorable discovery was a guy who actually joined us and left us after 2 weeks. He simply used his holiday to test the waters and didn’t like it.
The vacancy is advertised, interviews begin again and the whole cycle starts over.
For many businesses, this has become so common that it is almost accepted as part of running a cleaning company. Yet perhaps we have become too comfortable accepting something that should concern us all.
The cleaning industry is not struggling because people do not want to work. It is struggling because keeping good people has become increasingly difficult.
A growing industry needs more people, but the workforce is under pressure
The British Cleaning Council estimates that around 1.51 million people work across the UK’s cleaning, hygiene and waste sector, making it one of the country’s largest employers. At the same time, demand for professional cleaning continues to grow as organisations place greater importance on hygiene, compliance and healthier workplaces. (British Cleaning Council Research Report 2026)
On paper, those figures should be encouraging but in reality, they create another challenge.
An industry that continues to expand also needs a growing workforce, yet cleaning businesses are recruiting from the same labour market as supermarkets, warehouses, hospitality, social care and logistics. Many of those sectors offer similar pay rate, but more predictable working hours and, in some cases, clearer career progression.
Cleaning is no longer competing only with other cleaning companies. The cleaning sector is losing the competition against almost every service industry in the country.
The value of a great cleaner is highly underappreciated
There are some services that are seen by customers as a needed and wanted service. Cleaning falls short of that scale, customers want a cleaner but fine often feel it’s a need. That means anyone who’d pruning the cleaning bin is more likely to be expecting cleaning to be the cheapest thing on their budget.
Why does this matter? It means the majority of the cleaning procurers are likely to have under-budgeted for cleaning, forcing cleaning providers tethering for the job to accept lower margins. As a result, cleaning companies only pays minimum wage and often over weekends their cleaners, leaving them to clean for longer than they are being paid.
This terrible cascade of perspective madness cleaning recruitment a matter of just filling a vacancies. There is often little conversation for the needs of the cleaner -it’s a one sided affair. No wonder cleaners hop about various ethno employments so frequently.
Aside from the pay, a cleaner who has worked in the same building for several years knows far more than the cleaning specification. They understand how the building operates, recognise areas that require extra attention, build relationships with staff and notice problems long before they become complaints.
That knowledge cannot be replaced overnight and every time an experienced cleaner leaves, a business loses more than an employee. It loses familiarity, trust and consistency, qualities that customers often value even if they never consciously recognise them.
Perhaps the biggest mistake the industry has made is measuring people by the hours they work instead of the holistic value they create.
Another factor: The Cost of Recruitment is Going Up
Finding the right person has never simply been a matter of placing an advert.
You have to invest time writing job descriptions, advertising vacancies, reviewing applications, arranging interviews, completing Right to Work checks, carrying out training, issuing uniforms and supporting new starters through their first few weeks. Even then, there is no guarantee the person will stay or turn up on the first day of work.
Every unsuccessful recruitment campaign costs money. While every resignation creates disruption and every vacant shift increases pressure on the rest of the team.
When staff turnover becomes a regular occurrence, a sour morale is cast over the remaining team recruitment cost goes up and Metheny attention gets diverted once again. Time and money that could otherwise have been invested in training, equipment or business growth is spent to nurse poor retention.
So why do cleaners leave?
It would be easy to assume that pay is the only reason people leave cleaning but the reality is more complicated.
Of course, fair pay matters. We shouldn’t ignore the impact of rising living costs, and businesses should always aim to reward good work wherever possible. However, conversations with cleaners often reveal a much wider reason.
People leave because they feel invisible, have you heard of the saying” out of sight, out of mind”?
Cleaners are used to closing very early before sunrise and late after office staff are gone, so that they do not disturb the very people they are cleaning for. Has anyone ever thought of the cost of not making breakfast for your children, or not putting them to bed because you have to clean an office where nobody knows who you are? To make matters worse, most cleaners’ career progression is limited to the yearly minimum wage increase. If you think about it, such a job will not motivate you either.
While the cleaning industry often talks about attracting better people, perhaps the first question should be whether enough is done to keep the excellent people already in the trade.
Professionalism changes everything
One of the most encouraging developments in recent years has been the growing recognition that cleaning is a profession that requires knowledge, training and continuous development.
The expansion of accredited training, apprenticeships and professional standards reflects a wider shift in how the industry sees itself. Organisations such as the British Institute of Cleaning Science continue to promote structured learning and recognised qualifications, helping to demonstrate that professional cleaning is far more than unskilled work. (BICSc)
That matters because careers are built on professionalism. When people believe they are part of a respected profession, they are more likely to invest in developing their skills, remain within the industry and take pride in their work.
Changing perceptions may ultimately become one of the most effective recruitment strategies available. With an increasing number of organisations realising how crucial cleanliness and hygiene is to their operational success the welfare of cleaners is also gaining interest.
How do we build a work environment that attracts a good cleaning team?
When I ran a team of 35 staff these were the other areas that helped increase staff retention to 85% from 35%, I realised that more money doesn’t solve this issue, although it is a major part of the puzzle.
Building a workplace that attracts and retains good cleaners is rarely about one initiative. It begins with communicating a clear company vision so that everyone understands the role they play, providing consistent supervision so standards are applied fairly, setting clear expectations through an employee handbook, investing in proper training and recognising good work when it happens. Flexible scheduling, opportunities to learn new skills and creating a genuine sense of belonging all contribute to a workplace environment and culture where people want to stay.
These are not expensive initiatives compared with the cost of replacing experienced employees again and again.
Many successful cleaning businesses have discovered that retention begins long before someone considers handing in their notice. It begins with creating an environment where people feel respected, listened to and supported every day they come to work.
The businesses that succeed over the next decade are unlikely to be those that simply recruit the fastest, they will be those that give talented people a reason to build a career.
CleanBow’s perspective
For many years, the cleaning industry has been measured by contracts, turnover and hourly rates.
Perhaps it is time to measure something else: the quality of our people.
Buildings do not clean themselves. Machines and systems do not replace professionalism. While technology can improve efficiency and provide better reporting and reduce administrative work, it cannot replace the judgement, care and attention of someone who genuinely takes pride in creating a clean, healthy environment.
If the future of the cleaning industry depends on anything, it depends on the people who turn up every day, often before the rest of us arrive and long after everyone else has gone home.
Those hard working staff, who are not often seen during normal working hours deserve more than being seen as a labour cost on the balance sheet.
They should be recognised as the professionals who keep our workplaces, hospitals, schools and public spaces safe. When we start treating cleaning as a profession, we will also begin to solve one of the industry’s biggest challenges.
Coming next
Finding great people is only part of the story. Once a cleaning business has the right team in place, customers increasingly expect more than spotless floors and empty bins. They want evidence, transparency and measurable standards. In our next Inside the Industry article, we’ll explore why modern clients expect more than just cleaning, and how digital reporting, compliance and quality assurance are reshaping the industry’s future.
