Office cleaning is contracted cleaning of a commercial workspace, normally carried out outside working hours on a daily, several-times-weekly or weekly schedule. It covers desks and touch points, washrooms, kitchens and breakout areas, floors and waste, with periodic deeper work on carpets, windows and high level surfaces.
Unlike domestic cleaning, it is partly a legal obligation. Under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, employers in Great Britain must keep workplaces, and the furniture, furnishings and fittings in them, sufficiently clean, and must remove waste appropriately. The same regulations cover washroom provision and suitable washing facilities. Cleanliness in an office is a duty, not a nicety.
What a standard contract covers
Daily or per-visit
- Desks and hard surfaces wiped, subject to a clear desk policy
- Touch points: door handles, push plates, light switches, lift buttons, handrails
- Washrooms cleaned and consumables restocked
- Kitchen and breakout areas: worktops, sinks, appliance exteriors, tables
- Waste and recycling emptied and taken to the collection point
- Floors vacuumed and hard floors mopped
- Reception and entrance, including glass on entrance doors
- Meeting rooms reset
Weekly or fortnightly
- Internal glass and partitions
- Skirting boards
- Desk legs and chair bases
- Kitchen appliance interiors, particularly microwaves
- Fridge cleared and cleaned, usually by arrangement with staff
- Window sills
- Stairwells fully cleaned
Periodic, quarterly or annually
- Carpet deep cleaning
- Hard floor stripping and resealing
- High level dusting, including light fittings and ceiling vents
- Window cleaning, internal and external
- Upholstery cleaning on soft seating
- Entrance matting deep cleaned or replaced
Where the standard usually slips
Three areas account for most complaints about office cleaning contracts.
Washroom consumables. Running out of soap or paper is what staff notice and remember, far more than dusty skirting boards. Agree who supplies, who monitors stock, what the reorder trigger is, and what the escalation is when something runs out at nine in the morning.
Kitchens. The office kitchen is the most contested space in any building. Cleaners will wipe surfaces and empty bins, but they cannot deal with individual staff leaving washing up, and no contract will fix that. Agree explicitly whose responsibility the sink is, and communicate it to staff.
Desks. If your contract includes desk wiping but your staff leave papers and equipment everywhere, the desks will not get wiped. A clear desk policy is a prerequisite for desk cleaning, not an optional extra.
Why it matters beyond compliance
The business case usually presented is sickness absence. It is worth being careful here, because the cleaning industry routinely overstates it.
The Office for National Statistics has recorded UK sickness absence rates of around 2.6%, the highest since 2004. Minor illness is consistently the largest reported category. Hand hygiene and touch point cleaning have reasonable evidence behind them for reducing transmission of respiratory and gastrointestinal illness in shared settings, and ventilation matters more than surface cleaning for airborne transmission.
What cleaning will not do is produce a measurable, attributable drop in your absence figures, and any contractor promising that is overselling.
The more defensible arguments are simpler. It is a legal duty. Staff read the state of the kitchen and washroom as a signal of how the organisation regards them. Clients form judgements in reception and the washroom. And buildings degrade without periodic maintenance, with carpets and hard floors needing replacement years earlier if never deep cleaned.
How contracts are structured
Per visit. Most common for small offices. A fixed price per visit for a defined scope and duration.
Hourly with defined hours. Common for medium offices. You buy, for example, two hours a night, five nights a week. The most transparent model, because you can see exactly what you are buying.
Output-based specification. Larger contracts. Rather than specifying hours, the contract specifies standards and the contractor decides how to meet them. This works well with an experienced client who will actively monitor, and badly with one who will not, because policing standards requires real effort.
Per square metre. Used for larger sites, useful for benchmarking across buildings, less useful for understanding what will actually happen on any given night.
TUPE, which catches people out
If you are changing contractor and cleaners are assigned to your site, the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations may apply, meaning the incoming contractor must take on the existing staff on their existing terms and conditions.
This materially affects pricing, because the incoming contractor cannot simply staff the site at their own rates. It also carries obligations around information and consultation.
Raise it at the start of any tender. A bidder who has not asked about TUPE has probably not priced it, and that becomes your problem when they discover it after award.
Timing
Most offices are cleaned outside working hours, typically between 6pm and 10pm or early morning between 5am and 8am. Evening tends to be preferred because the space is cleaned after the mess is made rather than before it.
Daytime cleaning has become more common with hybrid working, partly because occupancy is lower and partly because visible cleaning of touch points reassures staff. It costs more, since daytime hours attract higher rates, and it is more disruptive.
Consider your actual occupancy pattern. If the office is empty on Fridays and Mondays, paying for five cleans a week is paying for two you do not need.
Lone working and access
Cleaners are frequently alone in a building in the evening, which creates duties for both parties.
The contractor should have a lone working policy: check-in procedures, a means of raising an alarm, and a risk assessment covering it. You should provide clear access and egress arrangements, emergency procedures, fire exit information and a named contact.
This is the control most often missing from otherwise competent contracts, and it matters for their safety and your liability.
What to ask for in a quote
- A written specification listing every task and its frequency
- The number of cleaning hours per visit, not just a price
- Whether consumables are included or charged separately
- Who provides equipment and where it is stored
- The periodic schedule for carpets, windows and high level work, priced
- Site-specific risk assessments and method statements
- Public liability insurance level and certificate, commonly £5m for commercial
- Employers liability insurance certificate, a legal requirement for almost all employers
- Whether staff are employed or subcontracted, and how they are vetted
- Named account manager and the escalation route
- Notice period and exit arrangements
- TUPE position
A quote without a written specification is not a quote, it is a number, and it cannot be compared with another number.
Managing the contract
The contracts that work have three things: a named contact on both sides, a simple way to log issues, and a scheduled review, usually quarterly.
The contracts that fail almost always fail the same way. Standards slip gradually, nobody raises it formally, resentment accumulates for a year, and then the contract is terminated abruptly over something minor.
A five minute monthly walk-round with a checklist prevents nearly all of that. Keep a dated log. If standards do slip, a record of specific issues is what gets it fixed, and it is what you need if you eventually retender.
Frequently asked questions
How often should an office be cleaned? Daily for most offices with five day occupancy. Three times a week is common for smaller or hybrid offices. Match frequency to actual occupancy rather than to habit.
Who supplies the consumables? Either party, but agree it explicitly. Contractor supply is usually more reliable because they see the stock levels.
Do I need to provide storage? Yes, a lockable cupboard for equipment and chemicals. COSHH requires safe storage of hazardous substances.
What insurance should they have? Public liability, commonly £5m for commercial work, and employers liability, which is legally required for almost all UK employers.
Can cleaners work during office hours? Yes, and it has become more common. It costs more and needs a risk assessment covering working around occupants.
What happens if the cleaner does not turn up? A good contractor has cover arrangements and will tell you proactively. Ask what they are before you sign.
