In this article
Every school, hospital, shopping centre and office building depends on a cleaning team simply to open its doors in the morning. Because those contracts are almost always outsourced to facilities companies, the demand is constant and spread right across every neighbourhood — which makes cleaning one of the easiest jobs to find close to home, in practically any town or city.
Pay and benefits
Pay follows the rate set for cleaning and facilities work in your area, and there are usually additions on top of it depending on the kind of site your post is on.
- A written contract from the first day, at the rate set for the sector in your area
- A supplement for work in hospitals, laboratories and waste handling, where local rules provide one
- A meal allowance, or a canteen on the site the contract covers
- Help with the cost of travel to and from the site, where the employer offers it
- Uniform and protective equipment supplied at no cost to you
- A fixed rota with set hours written into the contract, rather than shifts that move each week
Worth knowing: The supplement for difficult or hazardous sites depends on an assessment of the site itself, so not every post carries one. Ask at interview which building the contract actually covers before you accept.
Requirements to apply
There is no technical qualification to obtain. What the employer is assessing is whether you turn up, whether you take care of the building, and whether you can follow the routine each site has.
- Basic schooling — many contracts do not ask for a completed certificate
- Minimum age of 18 for most sites
- Being comfortable on your feet and moving around for the length of the shift
- Availability for the hours the post runs — morning, afternoon or night
- Care with diluting products correctly and using the protective equipment given to you
- Previous experience is not required for most vacancies
What a cleaner actually does
Cleaning and upkeep of the areas you cover
Sweeping, washing, sanitising washrooms and keeping the shared areas in order, following the routine set out in the contract for each client and the frequency laid down for each type of room.
Using the products correctly
Every product has its own dilution and its own use. Getting it wrong ruins the flooring, wastes material and can cause an accident — which is exactly why the initial training is compulsory before you take over a post.
Restocking and general support
Refilling paper, soap and bins, helping keep furniture in order, and separating waste into the right streams for collection.
How to apply, step by step
Almost always you are hired by the outsourced company that holds the contract, not by the building where the work happens.
- Find the facilities companies working in your area. Search for cleaning, contract cleaning or facilities management companies near you: they are the ones keeping an active list of candidates.
- Register on their candidate list. Posts open as new contracts are signed, so that list gets looked at repeatedly throughout the year rather than once.
- Be precise about where you live. Posts are scattered right across the city, and living close to a particular site raises your chances of being called for it far more than anything else on the form.
- Get your documents together. Identification, proof of address and your tax or social security number. A short certificate in hospital or specialist cleaning, if you have one, is a genuine advantage.
How to improve your chances
Offer more than one shift
A great many posts are night cleaning in office buildings, and they attract far fewer applicants than the daytime ones. Saying you can do evenings widens the list of posts you can be put forward for immediately.
A short cleaning certificate opens doors
Courses in hospital or specialist cleaning are short and inexpensive, and they qualify you for exactly the posts that pay the site supplement.
Turning up is the thing that gets you kept on
In this job the employer watches attendance above everything else, because a post cannot be left uncovered. People who do not miss shifts are the ones made permanent and promoted.
Informational and independent content. This site is not the employer, does not run recruitment processes and does not guarantee that anyone will be hired. Pay, benefits and requirements vary by region, by site and by date, and must be confirmed through the employer’s official recruitment channel. No vacancy listed here charges an application fee.