ISO 9001 for cleaning and facility services

Your work happens on someone else's premises. Often it happens at night, out of sight, and by people the client never meets. The client cannot watch every shift. So they look for evidence that your processes are defined, checked and improved.

ISO 9001 gives them that evidence in a form they know. Procurement teams use it as a quick filter when they compare offers. Property managers and larger facility providers use it when they choose partners and subcontractors. A valid certificate answers a first question before the conversation starts: does this company work to a system, or to habit?

For you, the benefit is just as practical. A written system helps when staff change, when you take on a new site, or when you grow from five to fifty employees. The standard turns what your best team leader does in their head into something the whole company can follow.

• About ISO 9001:2015

ISO 9001 does not prescribe how to clean a floor. It asks you to define how your work is done, to check that it is done, and to act when it is not. The table shows where this meets the daily reality of cleaning and facility work.

The six key requirements below apply to every organisation. Here is what each one can look like in a cleaning or facility services company of a few dozen people.

1. 01

   Understand and document your context

   List who depends on your work: building owners, tenants, property managers, your own staff. Note what each of them expects, for example hygiene standards, access times or quiet working hours.

2. 02

   Define a quality policy and measurable objectives

   Write a short policy and set objectives you can count, such as the number of client complaints per quarter or the share of inspection rounds completed on schedule.

3. 03

   Assess risks and opportunities

   Look at what could go wrong: absent staff, damaged surfaces, missed keys and access codes. Decide how you prevent it. Note opportunities too, such as adding facility services to an existing cleaning contract.

4. 04

   Define and control your processes

   Describe how a new site is taken over, how a cleaning plan is made, how work is checked and how the client is informed. Keep it short and usable by team leaders.

5. 05

   Ensure resources and competence

   Keep a simple record of who has been trained on which machines, products and safety instructions. Give new staff a defined induction before their first shift alone.

6. 06

   Monitor performance and improve continually

   Record inspection results and complaints, review them regularly and log what you changed as a result. This closes the loop that the standard is built around.

• ISO standards for small and medium businesses

The standard uses general terms. These examples show what they mean on a typical site.

Customer requirement

What the client expects from the contract: for example, offices cleaned before 7 a.m., or sanitary rooms checked twice a day.

Documented process

A written description of a recurring task, such as the handover of a new building or the steps of a periodic floor treatment.

Inspection round

A planned check of cleaned areas against the agreed standard, recorded so that results can be compared over time.

Nonconformity

Work that does not meet the requirement, for instance a missed room or a surface cleaned with an unsuitable product.

Corrective action

The step you take to remove the cause of a nonconformity, such as retraining a team or adjusting a cleaning plan, and not only redoing the task.

Externally provided service

Work done for you by a partner, such as a window cleaning firm, a pest control provider or a technical maintenance subcontractor.

Zertify issues ISO certificates based on an online self-assessment. You answer 30 yes/no questions about your quality management. Twenty correct answers out of 30 are needed to pass. SICE reviews every assessment. The certificate is issued by G6 Agency AG under licence from SICE, within 4 hours after you have passed and paid.

There is no on-site audit. Every year a short online re-audit confirms that your system still stands. Each certificate can be verified publicly by its number and by QR code, so your clients and tenders can check it in seconds.

The price is 599 CHF (€599) in the first year, then 399 CHF (€399) per year including the yearly online re-audit. The certificate is valid for 3 years. Billing is an automatic yearly subscription, which you can cancel at any time to the end of the current year in your customer account. If you cancel, the certificate ends with the paid year. Prices include 8.1% Swiss VAT for customers in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. You do not need an account to buy.

If you also need other standards, for example for occupational health and safety, the multi-standard discount is 20% for 2 standards and 30% for 3 or more, also on the yearly fee. If you want to compare this with the classic route with an on-site audit by a certification body, the guides below explain the differences.

• Start the free self-assessment
• See pricing
• Compare the certification routes

Before you start, gather what you already have: your cleaning plans, inspection checklists, training records and a list of your main clients and subcontractors. Most of the 30 questions can be answered from these documents.

If you can answer a question with yes, you can usually show how. If you cannot, the question points to a gap worth closing. The self-assessment is free and needs no registration, so you can see where you stand before you decide.

• How it works
• Certification without an on-site audit