Why we share our profits with our workers

Many businesses in London hold their annual meetings in the City of London and announce profits. But not many give half of their profits to their employees. Clean for Good does, because it is a different kind of company.

At our most recent AGM in the City of London, in November 2024, Clean for Good announced that it had made a profit for the fifth year in a row, and that it was sharing 50% of its distributed profits with its workers in line with our company Profits Policy.

At a time when many employers are concerned about rising employment costs, our social business is showing that by investing in its workers it can deliver a ‘triple win’ – excellent customer service, financial dividends to shareholders and social impact for employees. 

In their November pay packet, nearly 50 cleaners received their share of this year’s profit dividend – a payment of up to £378 for full-time cleaners. As one of our cleaners, Jacqueline, said:

“This bonus makes me feel more valuable and more close to the company. I believe, in London, that it is the only [cleaning] company that recognizes the values of the employee, by showing this generosity.”

Clean for Good does not make huge profits (we don’t seek to) but we need to make a modest surplus each year to ensure our financial sustainability and so that we can reinvest in the business each year too.

After seven years in business, and with a turnover now exceeding £1m pa, we are now sometimes able to distribute part of our profits. We do this in line with our Profits Policy, drawn up by the company’s Board, in which all profit distributions are shared equally between shareholders and employees – 50% each.

So, this year, at our AGM in the City of London celebrating our continued growth in 2023-24 the Board announced a profit distribution of £20,000, half to employees and half to our shareholders. Most of the company’s shares are owned by the three founding charities, so most of the shareholder dividends will go to support charities. This is not only a welcome financial boost to these charities but also demonstrates the positive role that their social investments can make – delivering a financial and a social return.

But why do we do this?

A ‘triple win’ business model

At Clean for Good we are trying to demonstrate that there is a better way to do business. We are a purpose-driven business, trying to deliver fair pay, dignified work and good management in the cleaning sector on a daily basis in a way that delivers for customers and cleaners.

But in order to survive and grow, we also need to be financially sustainable. This means we need to be professional in how we manage the business and we must deliver excellent services.

Our insight as a purpose-driven business is that by treating our workers fairly and well, we can join all of this up – delivering what you might call a triple win – high employee satisfaction, high customer satisfaction and financial returns to shareholders. Our investors, customers and workers all contribute to making the model work, and all of them benefit.

Clean for Good pays the real Living Wage and also provides better employment terms and conditions for its cleaners than most of its competitors – like occupational sick pay from day one of a cleaner’s employment. Unlike many conventional cleaning companies, we don’t see these higher employment costs as a negative to be driven down, we recognise that investing in our team is actually the best way forward; our cleaners are our greatest asset. It works for customers too because they get a much better and more reliable service.

So, sharing our profits is just another way of saying ‘thank you’ to our team for their work and commitment and a sign that this business model works. There is a better and fairer way to do business today.

If you’d like to know more about the difference we can make and how we do it, you can read our recent independently researched Impact Report.

The 'Waiting Days' are over!

Next week the government are going to announce their new employment rights bill, something they promised within their manifesto. Within the raft of measures, it is rumoured that ‘waiting days’ associated with Statutory Sick Pay will be removed. No idea what I am talking about? Nor did I, before joining Clean for Good. It probably means, like me, you have never had to worry about sick pay in your job.

Grab a cuppa and let’s dive into the detail on all things Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). It’s more interesting than you might think! SSP is the minimum pay that employers have to pay staff when they fall ill. Currently it is £116.75 per week, or £23.35 per day, (so just over £3 per hour). You are only entitled to SSP if you earn a certain amount per week, more than £123 AND if you have been ill for more than 3 consecutive days. So, for the first 3 days you are off ill you get paid nothing. And it’s these 3 days that are known as ‘waiting days’. Still with me?

Many (perhaps all?) of us will never have come into contact with ‘waiting days’. We have worked for good employers who have decided to run their own ‘Occupational Sick Pay’ scheme. These schemes go above and beyond SSP, often considerably so, and will pay staff (rightly) for every day they are off sick and most of the time at full pay. This is a wonderful benefit. In over 20 years of working, I have never had to worry about being off sick.

So, what’s the issue? Well, picture a multi-storey building in the heart of London, every floor filled with different companies, lawyers, charity workers, insurers, bankers, engineers and more. One of the lawyers catches a bug and his lovely HR team tell him to go home, rest up and only come back when he is fully recovered. The lawyer agrees and after 2 days of bed, Netflix, and chicken soup he comes back to work, rested and recovered. Unfortunately, though, the bug has spread, and it takes down other members of the office and also Carol, the cleaner, who came to clean the building that evening.

Carol is on SSP and is confronted with the reality of these ‘waiting days’. Does she stay at home and get paid nothing for 2 days or turn up to work ill. Terrible choice made worse by the fact that Carol earns less than the real living wage. Two days off genuinely puts at risk her ability to pay her mortgage, her bills and more. It’s not really a choice, she goes to work.

As we take this further and begin to imagine Carol having to go to hospital and being forced off for a week earning just £46.70, what then? Lots of us, I suspect, would begin to struggle with our bills and payments that month. And maybe you could scramble through for a month, but after 10 years of the same thing? It’s like a repetitive kick to the face and it’s the horrible reality for Carol and thousands of cleaners, security guards, and others in low paid professions across the UK

So, if the Labour government scrap ‘waiting days’ next week we will of course welcome it, whilst at the same time not pretending that getting by on £23.35 SSP per day, is anywhere near adequate.

At Clean for Good we are one of the very few cleaning companies (and to date I have not come across any in London including some of the real biggies in the market) who run our own occupational sick pay scheme. From day 1 if cleaners are off sick, at Clean for Good, they are paid in full.

One of the joys in the last couple of years was taking on a team of new cleaners from another cleaning company (this happens at the point that you take over a cleaning contract) and seeing one of our new cleaners, eyes bulging as we explained to her that CFG has its own sick pay scheme. She stopped me mid-sentence and exclaimed…What, you will pay me if I am sick? To which I replied Yes, we will! She had been a cleaner in London for over 15 years surviving on SSP.

If you’re not sure what your employer pays you when you go off ill, you will find the policy lurking somewhere in the depths of your staff handbook. Do go and check it out, and if you are part of an organisation that has its own sick pay scheme go and encourage your HR team and tell them they are all wonderful today!

Find out more?

The centre for progressive change is running a national campaign on sick pay. If you want to find out more on the whole area of sick pay. Check the campaign out here.

Better Business day: For the many, not the few....

‘Evening, sorry to text you but I just had to. I would firstly like to say thank you so much for the support and great news. I’m so delighted, tears in my eyes. How great for the company to look into our dedication and work ethic to give us a little gift for Christmas. I can’t thank you all enough for recognising our work’

A text from one of our cleaners working at Clean For Good (CFG) as she found out that she was going to receive an unexpected addition to her December salary.  

Clean For Good was incorporated back in 2017, and deliberately set out to be a different kind of commercial cleaning company; where cleaners don’t just survive, but thrive. We had a vision to create a business which could genuinely benefit the many, not the few.  

Was it possible? Certainly rare, unique even, in the cleaning world – which is typified by businesses owned by a small number of shareholders in which profits are extracted by the few, not shared with the many. The extraction of profits is the outworking of what is known as ‘Shareholder primacy’; the concept of making decisions which prioritise shareholder returns and wealth before considering other stakeholder needs. This concept is commonplace in the commercial cleaning world and incentivises cutting costs (which really means staff wages), squeezing supply chains, always being led by client demands for price reductions rather than your own convictions, and taking shortcuts if you can get away with it. Commercial cleaning is a ruthless market, where the trajectory is too often to the bottom, fighting on price. 

The prevailing outcome is often destructive both to the lives of workers and their families, and the planet. Staff are treated as a commodity, something that can be bought and sold on a whim without consideration of the consequences. They are a means to a better financial end, but an end in which only a few, ever, do really well. 

CFG have always strived to be different, and that includes our company structure; we have three ‘Class A’ shareholders (a church and two charities) who have ultimate control of the company and from day one our social purpose was locked into our articles of association. As a result, any decision taken by directors needs to ensure our cleaners, our suppliers, and the environment are all taken into consideration along with our financial position. 

One way in which this has impacted us is in regard to profit-sharing. In 2022-23 CFG paid their first ever corporation tax bill and were proud to do so (we were the first cleaning company to sign up to the Fair Tax Mark).  At that point, we had recouped all the original shareholder investment into CFG and had made further profits on top of that. More profits, we believed, than the business required at that time; it wasn’t huge but there was a surplus. 

We wanted to use this well, but differently, and in line with our core values. We had already written a profit-sharing policy anticipating this moment, which distributed the surplus: 50% to our cleaning team and 50% to our shareholders. The shareholders had a further option to forgo their dividend and allocate it to the cleaners’ ‘pot’.  

As a result, we made our first ever dividend payment to shareholders; a social return had been generated for many years, but here for the first time, a financial return was also realised for them. 

In turn over 30 cleaners who had worked for us during 2022-23 were eligible to receive the profit-share. The response was humbling. More than just the thank yous (as shared above), there was the overwhelming sense of being seen, of being valued, and of work being recognised. Bonuses for cleaners in the city, which we think is good news.

And so in the month of December 2023, cleaners, investors, and the public purse all felt the growing reach of CFG. The inklings of a new way, a better way, we believe, to do business in which we hope and dream many hundreds and thousands will benefit from and be impacted by, for good. 

It’s official, we are B Corp certified!

Clean For Good is one of the first office cleaning companies in the UK to become B Corp certified. Since our inception 6 years ago, the vision, informed by our Christian faith, to be a completely different kind of cleaning company, has always been at our core. So we are thrilled to be the very first Living Wage employer and B Corp certified commercial cleaning company in the UK.

Yenny Satizabal, a cleaner at Clean For Good remarks: “It is an excellent company and I can say that it is the best I have been able to work for. I have received good treatment from my managers. They have been very correct and punctual with the payments, they are very generous because they pay for sick days, at times when I was very sick. They were very understanding with me and immediately sent me home until I got better and could return to my job. In a few words, it is an excellent company.”

The B Corp certification celebrates our unique position as an ethical office cleaning company. It has certainly demanded a lot of of work by many people at Clean for Good and will continue to do so, but we are thrilled to get this widely recognised accreditation.

One of the reasons we went for the B Corp accreditation was its commitment to having goals and aims outside of shareholder profit. This aligns strongly with our own values. We strive each day to be good news to our cleaners through fair pay & dignified work, to our clients through an excellent service, to the planet by ensuring we use sustainable products and materials. The accreditation requires you to “lock in” to your articles consideration of your staff, suppliers, community and the environment, when decisions are taken by the Directors. We were very happy to lock this in, and legally commit ourselves to this action.

But what does that look like in practice….?

Well, at Clean for Good it looks like paying people fairly, correctly, on time, running an occupational sick pay scheme, administering annual leave to all of our staff, not overloading our managers with masses of clients, contributing above the statutory minimum (5%) into a staff pension scheme are just some of the practical ways we do this. Small things aren’t they?

Take a moment to step back and read that list again, these really are very normal, standard things in many sectors, but we know these policies and practices are rare in the cleaning world. We are determined to safeguard them, and to improve them where we can.

Moreover the B Corp accreditation process looks across our supply chain to assess what environmental as well as social standards we meet. From the uniforms we use, which are sourced ethically and free from any human rights abuse, to our cleaning products which are environmentally friendly, down to our mobile phones which are sourced from the only telecoms co-operative in the UK

The B Corp certification process is rigorous. It covers five key impact areas of Governance, Workers, Community, Environment and Customers. The applicants are required to reach a benchmark score of over 80 (we scored more than 90!) whilst providing evidence of socially and environmentally responsible practices relating to energy supplies, waste and water use, worker compensation, diversity and corporate transparency.

We hope that this accreditation provides confidence to our customers, joy to our original founders and investors that the vision is working, and a continued commitment to our staff that they matter and are deeply valued.

2023 Employee Survey- Some Reflections

What brings you satisfaction in your workplace?

One of the questions we asked in our recent employee survey is ‘Overall, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your job?’ 100% of those who answered (with over 75% engagement) either said they were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’. This thrills us.

So what brings satisfaction at work? This will vary depending on what type of work you’re involved in, but below are some thoughts we are reflecting on at Clean for Good.

Relationships Matter - Products, equipment, the latest cleaning technology are all important, but relationships matter more. The small things are the big things: checking in with someone, listening, showing respect, not overloading the cleaning managers with too many clients, caring for non work needs. A staff member was recently in tears when she received some flowers from her line manger when she was unwell. She told us she had never received flowers from her work before. Cleaning is relational.

Fairness Matters - Things which many of us might consider ‘basic’ are often non-existent in cleaning: paying staff on time, letting clients know when we haven’t been able to work a full shift, paying staff correctly, making sure cleaners hours are not cut without reasonable notice & consultation, proper HR processes, providing sick pay. The list goes on. Perhaps when we see that fairness trumps making money at all costs, satisfaction and fulfilment prosper as we feel connected with something bigger, to something we can align ourselves with.

Pay Matters - Pay gives us an indicator of our value and worth both to the company we work for, and to the society in which we live. Pay, we believe, must enable us to live, to support people during times of distress, and to provide for a decent life. All of our staff are paid, at least, the London Living Wage. A hard day’s work, deserves a decent day’s pay.

Below is word cloud that fuelled the above reflections and come from our staff when asked ‘what the best thing about working for Clean for Good was’

[Be assured there were many suggested areas of improvement too!]

Living Wage Champion Award 2021!

Today, at its Annual Awards Ceremony, the Living Wage Foundation announced that it was awarding Clean for Good with a Living Wage Champion Award 2021. We are, of course, delighted!

We have been awarded the ‘Against All Odds’ Award for our leadership in bringing change to the cleaning sector. The Living Wage Foundation said this:

“At last night’s Living Wage Champion Awards, Clean for Good was recognised for its trailblazing leadership in advancing the real Living Wage within their sector, showing that not only is paying a real Living Wage in the cleaning sector possible, but that doing so can help to change the industry as a whole for the better.

Clean for Good was awarded the prestigious prize for its commitment to the real Living Wage in the face of a generally low-paying sector. Clean for Good has been a leader within their industry, setting a new standard for employee welfare within the traditionally lower-paying cleaning sector.”

Such an award is always as a result of a huge team effort - our initial investors, our cleaners and managers and, of course, our customers - all of them have made this possible.

The Living Wage movement has been gathering pace for 20 years and with 7,000 employers now accredited by the Living Wage Foundation, the movement is having a real impact.

For our part, we will continue to work for the day when every cleaner in the UK earns a Living Wage and has dignified work.