The challenge in finding the right cleaner for the right Job
Commercial cleaning

Finding cleaners in Auckland is challenging. Setting the bar too high could be preventing great cleaners from using their skills and work ethic to showcase their commitment to cleaning services to provide a better service. As the face of the cleaning business, cleaners interact with customers and can be pivotal in ensuring continued business.

Job Description For Cleaners

A Cleaner is responsible for keeping offices, industrial areas, homes, hotels or other spaces clean, neat, and well-organized. This requires skills, training, and personal values and characteristics that will meet the demands of the job.

Regarded as a lower-level job, cleaners are often relegated to minimal job requirements but subjected to greater personal scrutiny. A study of the readiness of new entrants to the workforce found that work readiness includes certain qualities that apply to cleaners:

  • Assessing skill levels in terms of being  “excellent,” “adequate,” or “deficient,”
  • Whether these skills may change over the next five years
  • Further training that may be required

The best qualities of cleaners- in addition to skills and past training are:

  • Close attention to detail.
  • Punctuality
  • Communication skills.
  • Loyalty
  • Flexibility

The strategies of many cleaning services are to regard cleaners as easily replaceable, but this can cause disruptions in operations and incur recruitment and training costs. Finding the best cleaner is key.

Pricing: Commercial Cleaners Rates Chart

Labour costs are one of the highest expense items of a commercial or domestic cleaning service. The minimum wage in New Zealand with effect from 1 April 2024 (valid until 31 March 2025) is $23.15, but scales differ vastly. A small sample in Auckland shows an average of around $24.50, but this differs depending on skills and specialties:

  • Entry level cleaners: $23.15 – $24/h
  • Intermediate level cleaners: $24 – $28/h
  • Carpet cleaners: $23.15 – $30/h
  • Street / Park cleaner: $23.15 – $26/h
  • Kitchen hands: $23.15 – $24/h
  • New window cleaners: $23.15 – $24.50/h
  • Skilled and specialist window cleaners: $24 – $35/h
  • Specialists: Up to $35/h

But the personal qualities of cleaners- despite being critical to the candidate selection process, don’t have a financial value attached.

How To Find Loyal Hard-working Cleaners In Auckland

Many people are looking for jobs and many that have skills don’t have a Curriculum Vitae (CV), or the administrative requirements are missing. Another demand they may not meet is a high level of fluency in English communication. Yet these are often a perfect fit.

The problem is that communication can go awry but understanding the backgrounds of Polynesians cleaners of which the majority in Auckland are  Samoan and Tongan, can go a long way to filling job vacancies with ideal candidates.

Understanding Cleaners from the Pacific Islands

Samoa has just one city, and limited employment opportunities. Yet family is of the utmost importance. Samoans act in a way that honours all family members and each one must contribute to the success of the family. With warm smiles and friendly personalities, they willingly accept almost everyone. Hospitality, respect, and cooperation are intrinsic parts of Samoan culture.

Tongans emphasize modesty and humility using the principle ofmanafana loto meaning warm-hearted. Highly respectful people, many Tongans shun signs of wealth or affection. As the Pacific’s only monarchy Tonga has never been colonized. Sharing is an inherent part of their culture- sharing stories, resources, and just about anything else.

These groups are generally good people, but English is seldom their home language. Samoan and English are the official languages in Samoa but their home language is more often than not Samoan. The official language in Tonga is Tongan, but English is taught in schools and is widely spoken in the main towns. In both cases, English is not completely foreign. Immigrants may display more broken- but understandable, English, yet naturalised Polynesians tend to have a better grasp of English. Practice makes perfect, but keeping conversations simple and staying away from complex words or explanations goes a long way to keeping communication efficient.

A unique advantage that these people have is their size and strength. Statistics show that they have the advantage of reaching higher and lifting heavier weights without special equipment. The averages for Polynesians are:

  • Men: Height- 178cm Weight- 93,8kg
  • Women: Height- 166cm Weight- 81,3kg

Wikipedia has a myriad of facts on Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificans who are the peoples of the Pacific Islands- and who are keen to find jobs in Auckland now.

Other Pacifica cleaners often share the same traits, but- as it is anywhere in the world, every person within a nation or country differs, but sadly- despite that, they often make ideal workers, but they don’t have the standard Curriculum Vitae or CV to get placed in a job.

Alternatives to CVs

If the priority is to find the right cleaner to fill job specifications, other ways of assessing applicants are important. At CleaningNZ, cleaners are required to register, list their skills, and provide evidence of their all-important work permit.

A few suggestions are:

  • Find cleaners based on their skills or potential, not the quality of their CV
  • Look closer at references- and verify them
  • Talk to them. Communication resolves many questions
  • Keep an open mind

Kiwis are known for being welcoming and inventive. Extending that hospitality to cleaners looking for an opportunity to support their families embraces that spirit.

TAKEAWAYS:  Auckland Cleaning Companies are Missing Out On Some Of The Best Cleaners?

  • Be specific about the skills required for the job
  • Find creative ways to assess cleaners
  • Consider options that others don’t to gain an advantage
  • Find cleaners in Auckland- including groups you wouldn’t usually consider, where they are looking for jobs.