5 Reasons Your Cleaning Team Needs Upskilling, Not Just Suds
When new cleaners start, they’re often introduced by their employers to a storeroom full of bottles, sprays, and tubs, given a brief induction, and assigned areas of responsibility. They’re then expected to know what to use, when, and how. There’s often a common assumption that they’ve picked up cleaning knowledge elsewhere, such as helping out with chores growing up, previous experience, or simply relying on intuition.
But personal habits and prior experience aren’t always correct – or safe. Jeffery Madkins, Marketing Manager for Unilever Professional, says that without proper training, many cleaners end up emulating coworkers or guessing their way through tasks, often picking up bad habits that get carried from job to job. This can lead to inconsistent results, risky shortcuts, and missed opportunities to clean more efficiently and effectively. “Cleaners are on the frontlines of hygiene, and we have to equip them like professionals, because that’s exactly what they are,” he notes.
Madkins provides five reasons why cleaner training should be standard practice in every professional environment:
1. Cleaning without understanding wastes time and product: Using the wrong product for the job isn’t just ineffective, it’s costly. With the right training, cleaners know exactly which product to use for grease, grime, limescale, or bacteria – reducing guesswork, rework, and unnecessary overuse.
2. Better technique equals better results: From knowing how long to let a product sit to understanding proper dilution, small technique tweaks can make a big difference. Trained cleaners work faster and more effectively, often achieving higher hygiene standards with less effort.
3. Health and safety risks are reduced: The incorrect use of cleaning agents, especially in kitchens, can be dangerous. Training reinforces safety protocols and helps cleaners identify which products are safe for which environments. For example, the Handy Andy Food Safe range is ideal for cutting through tough dirt and oil in ovens, yet still safe for food-prep surfaces.
4. Cleaners feel more valued and confident: When cleaning staff receive proper training, it shows them that their work is important and that they are valued. And with clear knowledge of the right products and techniques, they can perform more effectively and experience greater job satisfaction.
5. It drives better business outcomes: Cleanliness has a direct impact on customer satisfaction, especially in industries such as hospitality and food service. Trained cleaners help protect reputations, reduce complaints and improve the bottom line.
“Based on this belief in training, Unilever Professional has launched a nationwide campaign to upskill its distributors, which kicked off with a LinkedIn Live session earlier this month,” explains Madkins. The goal is simple: to pass on this knowledge to cleaners and operators on the ground.“
That same commitment came to life at the Hotel & Hospitality Expo Africa in Cape Town last week. Through live demos, attendees, many of them hospitality establishment owners, saw firsthand how product knowledge and proper usage techniques can completely transform results. For many, it was a lightbulb moment.
“Training empowers cleaners to work smarter, not harder,” says Madkins. “At the show, you could see the genuine surprise when people realised how quickly grease could be removed with the right product. In just a few minutes, you can shift someone’s entire approach to cleaning.”
“Unilever Professional continues to invest in practical, hands-on training and in-field support for cleaning teams across South Africa,” he concludes. “Because real clean doesn’t just happen. It’s taught.”