Commercial cleaning staff training is rarely discussed in leadership circles.
Yet it highlights something many business owners quietly struggle with: how to train and support people who work alone, outside normal hours, and rarely see their manager.
In this episode of Go Beyond Busy, I spoke with Clifford Wilson, a commercial cleaner based in Hawke’s Bay. He has worked in the industry for over 10 years, primarily on night shifts. What he shared was not dramatic. It was practical. And that is precisely why it matters.
Because the challenges he described are not limited to cleaning.
They apply to trades, hospitality, security, warehousing, retail, and any business where staff operate independently.
The Reality of Commercial Cleaning Staff Training
Commercial cleaning is often done between 5 pm and 6 am. Many cleaners work entirely alone. Some may go months without seeing their manager face-to-face.
From a systems perspective, that creates three clear risks:
Communication gaps
Inconsistent training
High staff turnover
Clifford described how new staff may receive only a month or two of structured support before they are effectively on their own. Within six months, they are no longer “new”, even if they are still unsure about standards.
That is not a criticism of managers. It is a structural issue.
When supervisors are stretched across multiple sites, standardisation becomes difficult. Each trainer explains tasks slightly differently. Expectations shift depending on the client. New employees try to keep up.
Over time, training becomes tribal knowledge rather than a documented process.
Why Video Could Transform Commercial Cleaning Staff Training
One of the most interesting points Clifford raised was the role of video.
Many cleaning companies rely heavily on written instructions. But literacy levels in the industry can vary. Some staff are more comfortable watching and copying than reading and interpreting.
A short, clear video showing:
How to clean a toilet properly
How to rig and maintain a vacuum
What “finished” actually looks like
could remove hours of confusion.
Video creates consistency. It also reduces dependence on a single supervisor’s explanation.
From a business systems perspective, this is powerful.
When processes are captured once and reused repeatedly, training becomes scalable. It also becomes fairer. Everyone receives the same standard.
This applies not only to commercial cleaning staff training.
Any business with repeatable tasks can benefit from process documentation in video form.
The Hidden Issue: Isolation
Commercial cleaning can be lonely work.
Clifford mentioned that cleaners often will not initiate contact with a manager, even when something feels wrong. Once a conversation starts, they will talk openly. But someone has to start it.
That small detail says a lot about leadership.
If your team works remotely or after hours, you cannot rely on staff to “reach out if there is a problem”. Some will not. Not because they do not care, but because they are unsure whether the issue is worth raising.
Proactive contact from leadership changes that dynamic.
In practical terms, this might mean:
Scheduled in-person check-ins
Short monthly site visits
Structured feedback prompts
Simple video calls at consistent intervals
Commercial cleaning staff training is not just about mopping floors. It is about making sure people feel seen.
What Business Owners Can Learn
Even if you do not run a cleaning company, there are strong lessons here.
Ask yourself:
Do my staff work in isolation?
Are my training processes clearly documented?
Could someone new follow them without verbal explanation?
Do supervisors explain tasks differently?
Would short videos reduce inconsistency?
Many business owners assume training is “handled”. In reality, it often depends on who is available at the time.
Structured commercial cleaning staff training shows what happens when training is left informal in a high-turnover environment.
The solution is not more meetings.
It is a better system.
Standardisation Without Losing Humanity
The goal is not rigid control. It is clarity.
Clarity on:
What clean looks like
What good performance looks like
What equipment setup looks like
When to escalate an issue
When standards are clear, staff feel more confident. Managers spend less time correcting mistakes. Clients receive more consistent service.
And training becomes less reactive.
From Cleaning Sites to Business Systems
One reason I enjoy these conversations on Go Beyond Busy is that they surface operational insights from unexpected places.
Commercial cleaning staff training might sound niche.
It is not.
It is a case study in what happens when businesses grow, staff are distributed, and processes are assumed rather than captured.
If you would like to hear Clifford’s full perspective, you can watch the full episode embedded on this page.
And if you would like help reviewing your own training systems, documentation, or leadership structure, you can book a free Business Strategy Session at https://calendly.com/d/ctfx-g7j-bp4
Sometimes the issue is not effort.
It is structure.
And structure is fixable.
Clifford can be contacted through https://www.linkedin.com/in/clifford-wilson-0a269950/
Want to read the transcript?
Welcome to Go Beyond Busy + Meet Clifford (Commercial Cleaner, Hawke’s Bay)
[00:00:00] Bernard: Hello, and welcome to Go Beyond Busy.
[00:00:02] In this episode, Christine Abela talks with Clifford Wilson, a commercial cleaner based in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.
[00:00:10] Clifford shares what running a business looks like from the other side of the roster.
[00:00:16] Working alone.
[00:00:17] Working at night.
[00:00:19] And often going years without seeing a manager face to face.
[00:00:23] This conversation covers staff connection, communication gaps, training challenges, and why video may be one of the most underused tools in industries like commercial cleaning.
[00:00:35] If you employ people who work remotely, after hours, or largely on their own, this one will give you plenty to think about. Clifford’s contact details are available below this episode if you would like to get in touch with him directly.
[00:00:50] Christine Abela: Hello, I’m Christine Abela from Go Beyond Busy, and I’m here with Clifford Wilson, who is a commercial cleaner in Hawkes Bay in New Zealand.
[00:00:58] How are you today, Clifford?
[00:01:00] Clifford Wilson: Very good, thank you.
The Lonely Reality of After-Hours Cleaning & Feeling Invisible to Management
[00:01:01] Christine Abela: Thank you. So Clifford, what would you like business owners to understand about running a business?
[00:01:08] Clifford Wilson: I would like business owners to understand their staff better. Especially in my work in commercial cleaning. Where you don’t have much to do with managers or anyone behind the scenes. It’s quite a lonely job because a lot of the sites you’re by yourself. You don’t know people.
[00:01:35] It is quite easy to work for years and not ever see your manager. You might see your supervisor once a month, but that’s about it. Like getting around, knowing your staff, knowing who’s working for you. Knowing more just their name and email, is something that I think the, especially in the commercial cleaning world, needs more.
Communication Barriers: Small Issues, Literacy Challenges & Starting the Conversation
[00:01:59] Christine Abela: So how would that make you feel if your manager understood you better? What difference would it make to you?
[00:02:06] Clifford Wilson: Quite a lot because sometimes there’s difficulties that you have on a site that feel very minor, that don’t feel like they’re worth email or text or a phone call your boss. But maybe the boss will feel that they’re actually really important.
[00:02:28] And especially because like literacy standards in my work aren’t very high and a lot of people have either ADHD or autism or whatever. It’s very hard to decide to contact your employer. So it would be a lot simpler to talk to them in person, to make the time to let them know or start the conversation. Because generally speaking, once you start talking to a cleaner, they don’t stop talking. So they’ll tell you freely what’s an issue, but they won’t start the conversation unless you start.
Night Shifts & Split Schedules: When Cleaning Actually Happens
[00:03:12] Christine Abela: I don’t know a lot about commercial cleaning, but I imagine a lot of it would be done at nighttime, like when the commercial premises are closed. Is that right? And does that make it more difficult to communicate with your manager?
[00:03:23] Clifford Wilson: Yeah, it makes difficult. Most sites are during closing, although that is changing. Some office sites don’t trust having a cleaner have their keys anymore, so quite a lot of office sites require you to come while they’re there. More so than when I started.
[00:03:46] But yeah, it’s still pretty much always either sometime between 5:00 PM and like early hours in the morning. Usually 5:00 PM to 6:00 AM is the most common time you’ll be working. Myself, I work, from 5:00 PM to 4:00 AM which sounds like a lot, but actually that’s two sites that are broken up. So one site is 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM. And then there’s a huge gap between and my morning site.
Training on the Job: High Turnover, Limited Supervision & Becoming the ‘Leader’
[00:04:27] Christine Abela: How does that affect training? Does that make it difficult to train somebody?
[00:04:31] Clifford Wilson: At the supermarkets because they have more staff on than an office office site. And also your supervisor will come and visit you and when you’re first starting out, the supervisor’s there a bit, but it doesn’t take long before they can’t be there all the time because they have other staff that they’re also training.
[00:04:57] There’s very high turnover in commercial cleaning. It doesn’t take long before someone else is the new person, and you are not the new person. You might only get a month or two in the beginning of training. And then maybe you stick around, and you become the leader. Six months is about the difference between a new person and someone who’s been there for a while.
[00:05:23] Christine Abela: How long have you been doing it for?
[00:05:26] Clifford Wilson: Over 10 years.
[00:05:27] Christine Abela: Oh wow. So you’re the exception.
[00:05:29] Clifford Wilson: I started in 2009 and I’ve been with this company since 2013.
A Better Way to Train: Using Video to Standardise Expectations
[00:05:39] Christine Abela: Wow, that’s quite a long time. So what would you like to see change with regards training?
[00:05:46] Clifford Wilson: I would like to see more use of video. I think with today, I mean you can do video conferencing. You can put videos online to show certain jobs, how they’re done. I think cleaning companies should do a better job of explaining what’s necessary. Like sometimes it feels very arbitrary, the difference between not clean. And it’s true everywhere because clients will have different opinions on what is clean and not clean.
[00:06:24] So you have to follow what your client. But the overall stuff, if it’s dirty, clean it. Keep it tidy. That stuff’s not new. I think a better job of explaining our gear and what’s actually required is needed in the industry as a whole.
Clifford’s YouTube Habit: Travel Shorts, Sharing, and Why Video Works
[00:06:48] Christine Abela: You told me before this interview that you’ve done some stuff on YouTube. Tell me about that. What have you done on YouTube?
[00:06:55] Clifford Wilson: I’ve done a lot of documenting my travel. So I really like travel. I’ve been to eight countries so far. And in the beginning I was using my phone take photos of my travel, but I never really rewatched them. So now I use YouTube short, which is free to store as much as you want, and I can look back at them much easier, with a playlist.
[00:07:28] Christine Abela: So are these public?
[00:07:30] Clifford Wilson: I’ve thought about privating them, but honestly it just makes it easier to share with my family. I currently am on a Discord with it, it makes it easier to share there too.
Industry Call-to-Action: YouTube Process Videos for Cleaners (Big Players Lead)
[00:07:43] Christine Abela: What would you like to see businesses use YouTube for?
[00:07:49] Clifford Wilson: Documenting processes like especially in commercial cleaning. I would like to see them show how to clean a area.
[00:07:58] I think with a lot of cleaners because of reading literacy is so low. Even my own reading literacy is not very high. It’s much easier, it’s a much lower bar to show someone a video of how to clean an area, than to show them a document and have them read it, and expect them to understand it. Or to have one of the supervisors come out and try and show them and try and talk to them.
[00:08:34] But every supervisor has their own way. So it’s not standardized. You might have one supervisor that does it completely different to the last supervisor and it makes it harder to learn.
[00:08:50] I actually think this is an area where like OCS, Paramount, the big players should really be putting out their own videos on their own YouTube channels. And that other cleaning companies, small ones like my one can use as a reference.
[00:09:12] I think it would be beneficial for the whole industry to have a single point to show where and what. Because obviously a small cleaning company like mine doesn’t have the money to have its own YouTube channel. That would take business away from every other thing that they have to do.
[00:09:34] But a company the size of OCS, or an international brand. So they have more than enough to show simple things like cleaning toilets, how to rig a vacuum cleaner, simple things. They seem simple, but when you’re trying to train someone, it is very hard to train a new person.
Wrap-Up, Contact Details & Free Business Strategy Session
[00:09:59] Christine Abela: Thank you very much. And thank you for having a chat with me today.
[00:10:03] If anybody wants to get in touch with Clifford, I’ll put some contact details under this video. And if anybody wants to get in touch with me and have a chat about their business, I do offer a free Business Strategy Session.
[00:10:14] So thank you very much, Clifford.
[00:10:17] Bernard: That was Clifford Wilson, sharing his real-world experience of commercial cleaning and what better communication and training could look like in practice.
[00:10:28] Clifford’s contact details are available below this episode if you would like to get in touch with him directly.
[00:10:35] If you would like support stepping back and working through your own business challenges, Christine Abela offers a free Business Strategy Session at GoBeyondBusy.com.
15 February 2026 · Season 3 : Season 3 · Episode 7
10 Min, 57 Sec · By Christine Abela
Commercial cleaning staff training often lacks structure. Here’s what night shift teams can teach business owners about better systems.
