Whether you’re hiring a cleaner directly or clarifying scope with a contractor, an explicit duties list prevents most of the friction that develops over the first six months.
Core duties
Daily
- Sanitise all bathrooms and restock consumables
- Clean kitchen and breakout areas
- Empty all bins and replace liners
- Remove waste to the collection point
- Clean entry glass and reception
- Sanitise high-touch surfaces
- Vacuum or mop high-traffic floors
- Wipe clear desk surfaces
- Reset meeting rooms
Weekly
- Full vacuum including edges and under desks
- Dust skirtings, sills, door frames
- Clean internal glass and partitions
- Wash out bins
- Scrub bathroom tile and grout
- Clean stairwells and common areas
Monthly
- High dusting
- Clean vents and light fittings
- Clean fridge interior
- Vacuum under and behind furniture
- Wipe cupboard interiors
Ongoing
- Monitor and report consumable stock levels
- Report damage, faults and hazards
- Maintain cleaning equipment
- Store chemicals correctly and keep safety data sheets accessible
- Follow colour-coded equipment protocol
What falls outside the role
Worth stating explicitly, because assumptions differ:
Not a cleaner’s job:
- Moving or handling personal items and papers
- Deciding what to discard from shared fridges
- Cleaning personal desks that are covered
- Anything requiring height access beyond a two-step ladder
- Anything requiring a licensed trade
- Handling clinical or hazardous waste beyond agreed protocol
- Plant care, unless specifically agreed
- Reception cover, mail handling, or general admin
Grey areas to decide explicitly:
- Dishwasher loading and unloading
- Restocking tea, coffee and milk
- Putting bins out for collection
- Watering plants
- Receiving deliveries
Write your decision on each into the duties list. Undefined grey areas are where resentment builds on both sides.
Writing a duties list for a directly-employed cleaner
Include:
- The task list, area by area, with frequencies
- Hours and days, and expected duration
- Access arrangements, keys, alarm codes, who to contact
- Reporting line, who they raise issues with, and how
- Equipment and consumables, what’s provided, who reorders
- Health and safety, chemical handling, signage, lone-worker arrangements
- What’s explicitly excluded
The reporting duty people forget
A cleaner sees your building more regularly than anyone else, usually when it’s empty. They are the first to notice:
- A leaking tap or running toilet
- Damaged flooring or a lifting carpet edge
- A light that’s out
- A door that isn’t latching
- Signs of pests
- A window left open
- Consumables about to run out
Make reporting these an explicit duty, and give them a channel that isn’t "tell someone if you see them". A cleaner who has no way to report a problem stops noticing problems.
Our teams log anything they find with a photo against the visit record, so it reaches the facility manager the same night rather than being mentioned in passing three weeks later.
Setting the standard
A duties list says what. For a few tasks it’s worth saying how well:
- "Mirrors cleaned streak-free, checked at an angle"
- "Bathroom floors mopped including behind pans and into corners"
- "Consumables restocked to full, not topped up"
- "Carpet vacuumed including edges and under desks where accessible"
Those four lines resolve the four most common disagreements in commercial cleaning.