Cleaning Agencies
An agency can help you locate staff, trust me this is much more difficult than you can imagine! Some agencies take anyone on board and advise how to "fake" two references many claim to check. I dont know of any home cleaning agencies that insist staff are CRB checked.
So they save you all the recruitment hassle, they also have to provide Public liability Insurance by law, just check that it covers "sub-contractors", as essentially the Agency sub-contracts the work to their agency registered staff, who are in turn self employed.
- Questionable Recruitment Methods
- No CRB check
- No guarantee of quality
- Still have to fund cleaning prodcuts
- Lack of full cover insurance
- Sign up/Registration Fees
- On going monthly or quarterly fees payable in advance
So although an agency can take away some of the recruitment issues, you will have to search hard to find a home cleaning agency that offers guarantees of work, ( you have to ask yourself why they dont!) Few if any offer full cover insurance which includes Fidelity bonding, which still leaves you exposed to dishonesty, which isnt an idle marketing ploy, just remember that most DON'T CRB clear their staff.
You will still have to bear the cost of providing the cleaning products, so do factor that in when working out the overall costs of the service.