We’ve all established that there are positives and negatives surrounding working from home. Whether video calls in your pjs is something you have grown accustomed to or the interference from kids/pets/other half/poor internet (delete as appropriate) is becoming intolerable, and you dream of normality (if we can remember what that is!), a return to the workplace is inevitable for most, at some stage. Just because your offices have been sitting empty however, doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a build-up of dust and grime, and those dirty dishes you left in the sink….? Well, they will be unrecognizable and hosting multiple bacteria…. not to mention the toilets which have been sitting unflushed, with water evaporating, leaving an open path for sewer odours. At APM [...]
Case Study: Hoarding Clean
Client: Newcastle City Council Background: APM Cleaning & Repair has been a trusted supplier of Cleaning Services to Newcastle City Council on a regular and ad-hoc basis since 2005. Job: APM was requested to provide a price to clear and clean a tenant’s property by NCC Social Services Department. Appraisal: APM met with the appointed social worker at the premises to understand the full job requirements, where the tenant was still in situ. The home was over-filled, in an extremely dirty and unsanitary condition with blood, urine and faeces evident throughout the property. APM initially requested further information relating to the case relevant to the clean; specifically, to be made aware of any known blood [...]
North-East entrepreneur named Services Industries Entrepreneur of the Year at national awards
North-East based business founder Samantha Read has been named as Services Industries Entrepreneur of the Year winner for the North-East at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. In partnership with Starling Bank, the ceremony was held at Grosvenor House in London on 22 November and saw 159 entrepreneurs across the UK recognised for their entrepreneurial stories and achievements over the last year. The Great British Entrepreneur Awards launched in 2012 to celebrate the best of British enterprise, inviting founders from across the UK to apply with their entrepreneurial success stories. This year, after having to hold the awards virtually in 2020, the organisers brought together all eight of their regional shortlists for the first time, with a guest list of [...]
Our Christmas wishes to you..
Thank you to all of our loyal clients, partners and suppliers - your support, business and 'being there' is very much appreciated. Thank you also to our amazing team - we couldn't do this without you. Merry Christmas and best wishes for a happy, healthy and successful 2022! Our offices are closed as of 17:00 23rd Dec and open on 09:00 04th Jan. Operations will continue throughout the period for our Extra Care, Social Housing, Blue-light, Hospitality and other clients as usual. #merrychristmas [...]
Offload and Outsource
The learning curve never ends. As APM Cleaning and Repair continues to grow, the broad spectrum of daily tasks and activities multiplies, with increasing volume and urgency. In the early days, I became perfectly used to picking up a task and running with it, developing new systems and the most efficient way of carrying out a daily working routine. As these tasks obviously increased, my days became a marathon of getting through the essentials, without the opportunity to consider the bigger picture and spend time making more strategic decisions and plans. Now thankfully, I have learned that I cannot do everything and although multitasking remains a strength of which I am very proud, my focus is firmly on the future, and I have learned to offload and [...]
Service Industries – Entrepreneur of the Year – Winner!
It still feels strange saying it and I don’t think I have come down from the high Monday night gave me, when I won, yes actually won the north-east Service Industries Entrepreneur of the Year. I think everyone goes with a glimmer of hope but I certainly had no expectation that I would leave the evening with, what to me, is a recognition of the hard work and dedication of the last few years. I genuinely love what I do and my work creating and building APM Cleaning & Repair Ltd to a recognizable, notable and trusted company, working within social, health, construction, education and many other commercial sectors has been some of the most rewarding work I have done, ever. Having some recognition of that during an evening where I was honoured to be in the [...]
Case Study: Durham County Council
Durham County Council appointed APM in 2019 to clean six extra care sites distributed across County Durham. Each of these sites contains up to 35 flats, with a total of 210 to be cleaned on a weekly basis by APM’s clean teams. With an existing ten staff who transferred from the outgoing provider, we supplemented the team with existing employees and assigned a team of two, including a supervisor to each of the Durham County Council contracted sites. Each of these staff have completed not only the council’s required training but APM’s in-house training, covering Safeguarding and Dementia Awareness, as well as our Code of Conduct which covers all work we undertake, involving vulnerable people. During the mobilisation period, supervisors visited the sites to [...]
CLEANERS: CHARITY CALL TO ARMS – COLLECT THOSE PENNIES!
Since APM Cleaning & Repair Ltd started our Void Property cleans for Livv Housing Group in Liverpool, I have been gathering all the pennies found around each flat, collecting them in a jar. Typically cleaning companies throw them out as "it's just a penny" I am so happy to say that today, these loose pennies have been counted and we have collected almost £50 which we shall be donating to a local Liverpool charity: Alder Hey Children's Hospital on this special Children In Need Day 2021. So, I am calling out to other cleaning businesses and cleaners to do the same, wherever you are working; save the pennies and donate to local charities. #penniesplease We can make a BIG difference from doing something small - please help and share your copper finds and [...]
WFH is not the new normal: discuss.
As the world opens up post-pandemic, we find a lot of things have changed; some for the better, some not so much. One of the more controversial topics, which currently seems to be dividing opinion, is the move to more home working (or not). The two sides of the debate aren’t as clear cut as business owners and employees or even home working versus office working; but certainly prompts discussion and places businesses in a precarious situation when weighing up productivity versus new regulations and employment law. Is there a tendency to assume working from home is an ‘easy option’, suited to those who choose to no longer travel to the office? Alternatively, has the seemingly idealistic scenario of home and work life merging, now lost its shine and are [...]
Recruitment!
No matter your thoughts on the process, recruitment is an ongoing and unavoidable challenge facing growing businesses today. For some, an in-house HR team shall expertly navigate the workforce requirements of a larger business concern; for others, outsourcing is the answer and for the smaller companies facing what seems like a daunting process, well, they are thrown in at the deep end of the ever-changing recruitment pool. Envious of the businesses who boast staff retention as one of their USPs, for some industries, this is really not an option, with a fluid workforce and staff using jobs as stopgaps en-route to their dream job. Service industries, including the cleaning sector, do require skilled labour and at APM we are willing, ready and able to offer [...]