Context, background Regardless of where buildings are located or what people do, all buildings must be cleaned. Cleaning has become a service sector; the majority of the buildings are cleaned by a cleaning service. Therefore, the content and quality of the service must be agreed in the contract. However, what is the meaning the word “clean”? All of this is having caused the need to develop unambiguous and assessable standards to agree on and assess the quality of cleaning. Nordic countries prepared their first common standard in 2000 – the INSTA 800 System for the Establishment and Assessment of Cleaning Quality. INSTA 800 is the official standard in seven countries by now –Nordic countries, Estonia and Latvia. The efficient use of the standard depends on many aspects – the competence of staff, agreeing on a quality level and supervising it, knowing how much the agreed quality level actually affects the cleaning time etc. There are obstacles in using INSTA800 on the market. The main goal of this project is to overcome the obstacles and to gather the best practices from different countries, prepare recommendations for using INSTA 800, introduce them to the market, highlight the benefits and create optimal training programmes to guarantee the competence of the staff that use the standard. It’s important to make all this simple so that everyone understands the benefits and results. If the project succeeds, the implementation of the INSTA 800 standard would allow to increase the efficiency of cleaning, reduce illness, make people feel better and increase their capacity for work. All of this has a broader impact than we think. This concerns all people, because all rooms are cleaned by someone. Objectives The main objective of the project is to remove and/or reduce the factors that obstruct the effective use of the standard, especially with educational methods. Number and profile of participants There is one organisation participating from every INSTA800 using country – 7 participants. Partner organisations are with different profiles to cover different points of view – cleaning companies, cleaning associations, consulters. Description of activities During project we will: - Put together guidelines of the best practices from different countries, helping to use and start using INSTA800. - Work out cleaning time-matrixes for typical rooms, helping to understand the quality and price correlation in the cleaning service - Work out cost-effective and productive training programs and methodology for knowledge level 2, 3, 4 trainings in INSTA800 - Broadly disseminate the project results on local and international level. Methodology to be used in carrying out the project - Collecting, analysing good practices, but also obstacles - Developing the missing new data (for example cleaning time-matrixes) - Putting together best practices and new methodology Result and impact - the users get maximum benefits from the standard - cleaning services sector will be developed by what is more needed and cost-effective - understanding and using the facts (cleaning time – matrixes) in quality and price in the cleaning sector. It’s important for realistic tenders and agreements to know what is the base for effective co-operation between the cleaning company and client - thanks to cost-effective and productive training programs, cleaning staff will have more competence. It is the base for innovation. Project will have a large impact long term, better perspective for people´s health, workability, well-being, because cleaning has a big influence on these factors and every room is cleaned by someone.
- To share different experiences of using the standard, both good and bad. To teach each other how to solve different challenges using standard INSTA800 - To give easy-to-understand instructions to new INSTA800 users, both cleaning service companies, service buyers, and trainer and cleaning managers - Together develop materials that everyone needs but do not yet have. For example, cleaning time tests on the effect of the level of dirtiness and desired degree of cleanliness on real working time, training of cleaning staff for need-based cleaning in limited conditions.
The cleaning quality standard INSTA800 is the official standard for agreeing and evaluating the quality of cleaning in seven European countries (Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Norway), but all these different countries had never before cooperated with each other on the standard. Although the INSTA 800 standard is common to all seven countries, there are differences in how the standard is used. The aim of the project was to collect the best practices of using the INSTA 800 standard from 7 countries and to offer new users the best solutions for adopting the standard. The future of cleaning is need-based cleaning - only those activities are performed that help to create cleanliness, and these activities are performed systematically at specific times, which are necessary to maintain the optimal cleanliness of a specific room. Such an activity helps to save both time and material resources. The INSTA800 standard has a reliable statistical side. At the same time, the standard is considered too complicated and technical. Together with the project partners, we looked for solutions to make the use of INSTA800 easier, clearer and more logical, because those who already know and use the standard have the opinion that the standard is very helpful when purchasing a cleaning service, agreeing on the terms of the service and evaluating the quality of the service. However, those people who do not have sufficient knowledge of the standard find it too complicated to use. Practical needs for the project: - Absolute cleanliness does not exist, cleanliness means different results in different rooms. In the case of a cleaning service, it is important that the buyer and the customer of the service understand the expected cleanliness in the same way. This is where the INSTA800 standard, which is often considered too technical, comes to the rescue. It is necessary to clearly point out the benefits of using the standard and simplify the teaching of its use (IO1). - The time required for cleaning depends on how much dirt there is before cleaning and what the level is after cleaning. This is usually not taken into account in the calculations of cleaning time, there are also no clear data how to calculate these terms into cleaning time. Using the example of five typical rooms, we conducted experiments to find out how much the level of dirtiness before cleaning and the level of cleanliness after cleaning affects the working time. (IO2) - Since the standard is considered difficult, it is important to collect the best practices from trainings. If you train people with different knowledge needs accordingly, it becomes easier to use the standard. And if the standard is used correctly, all resources are saved and together we can create a cleaner environment (IO3)