The cleaning professionals behind Manchester Central’s big events
Have you ever wondered about the staff who work behind the scenes to keep big events like the Cleaning Show spotless and squeaky-clean?
With a huge number of people visiting the Manchester Cleaning Show and most of them professionals in the industry, the standard of cleaning has to be tip top.
Heather Andrews and Emma Roberts are part of the OCS team that cleans Manchester Central Convention Complex, in the city centre, for events such as healthcare conferences, Christmas parties with 2,000 guests a night and the Conservative Party conference.
Heather said: “For the Cleaning Show, we always make sure that we triple check everything so it's absolutely perfect. I probably feel a little bit more pressure because these are my peers. At cleaning conferences, you instantly look at the floor automatically! But we do this for every single show, to make sure they are spot on.”
With the eyes of the world on Manchester Central for the Conservative party conference, it was a particularly high-powered event.
Heather said: “We had to make sure our logistics were absolutely pinpoint accurate. There's a lot of briefings that go on about four months prior to it and then there’s background checking on staff too, that's one of the big ones. “
Heather is a Venue Housekeeping Manager, managing a team of up to 50 cleaning staff, depending on the event.
She explained “My role day-to-day is to be in charge of cleaning operations, waste management operations, working with the client, making sure that their sustainability pact is kept to and working with them on waste management and cleaning. Waste is weighed after events, to see if they can be made more sustainable.
“I’ll be on site for a large event over a weekend, making sure the points are covered and expectations met. My team is great, to be honest.”
Emma is a Housekeeping Supervisor in charge of cleaning, overseeing up to 30 staff.
She said: “I make sure everything gets done, make sure standards are maintained and everything's ready for the event, and supervise the staff while it is running.”
Both Heather and Emma have recently completed apprenticeships – Heather, the Level 5 Operational Departmental Manager Apprenticeship, and Emma, the Level 3 Team Leader/Supervisor Apprenticeship.
Emma said: “It was good to learn different ways of doing things, managing different people and the way things should be done. I would definitely recommend it, especially for someone looking for promotion.”
Heather’s apprenticeship has helped her succeed following a promotion. She said: ‘It is very worthwhile. Doing the apprenticeship has made sure I am confident enough to deal with certain situations as a manager, because I've never been in this position before.”
Both enjoy their jobs and encourage others to think of the cleaning industry as a career option.
Emma said: ”There's always rewards doing this job. There's a good positive vibe about the cleaning, especially when you run a busy event that's got real messy and you come back in and it's totally clean and done.
“You get the compliments from people when they go past and go ‘oh, thank you for all your help and everything’.”
Heather added: ”The satisfaction I get is going home at the end of the day and going ‘Yeah, we absolutely smashed everything that we set out to do that day’.
"During the Conservative Party Conference, when you see Manchester Central on TV, you're like: ‘Oh, that floor's dead clean. We did that.”