PROFILE NJC (NOT JUST CLEANING)
building maintenance and inspection from
the ground, mobile elevated work platforms,
cradles and rope access window cleaning.
The company is also working with clients
on the increased adoption of robotics, but,
stresses Crilly, this requires getting involved
at the design stage to ensure the technology
fits the environment. He firmly believes that
as the experts in their field, NJC’s job is to
look at ways of constantly improving service
– but simply demanding ‘innovation’ in a
tender, he argues, doesn’t actually o er the
customer anything definitive and can lead
to empty promises. “The word innovation is
overused. There are many things which have
been forgotten and reintroduced – is that
innovation?”
PEOPLE POWER
All of NJC’s services are people-centric,
which impacts the company in many ways,
including how much its employees are paid
per hour, the number of hours they work and
the impact of Brexit on workers from abroad.
Says Crilly: “Some of our customers who
are more exposed have been contacting
us regularly to see how we’ll cope, but
we wouldn’t be as successful without our
international colleagues, all of whom show
a high level of professionalism and attention
to detail. We’ve always recorded country
of origin, and if any of them need to be
sponsored we would do so. So far we haven’t
seen high levels of self-repatriation going on,
although we’re seeing fewer Europeans by
volume and lower levels of English language.
But we’re not lowering our standards when
it comes to language as it’s important people
have a good understanding, especially as a
lot of smart buildings use voice instructions
should there be an emergency.
26 APRIL 2019
“There’s a big drive for social value in
the community we’re in,” he continues,
“and first and foremost we look a¡ er the
community we employ. This is why we’re
big supporters of sustainable employment,
so we have a low proportion of operatives
on minimum wage. It’s di icult for me to
say to a colleague, ‘I value you highly but
will only pay you the government minimum,’
which is why we’ll pay above the living wage.
Our policy is not to do zero hours unless a
colleague actively requests it, and we’ll use
technology to control the number of hours
people work.”
For instance, if someone is covering for a
colleague for two weeks and their number
of hours goes above 12 or 14 hours, NJC
will contain that. Although good clients are
conscious of the number of hours NJC’s
operatives are working, some organisations
with a worthy CSR agenda are still only
prepared to pay the minimum wage,
Crilly says. For this reason, NJC will
“check out potential customers,
and if their attitude to sta
in the tender document
contradicts their values,
we’ll turn them down.”
This sustainable agenda
extends to other key areas,
including limiting the
kind of chemicals used
during cleaning, ensuring
the rigorous use of PPE and
o ering work opportunities to
a diverse range of people, from
youngsters just out of school to
rehabilitated o enders.
Says Crilly: “In our sector, I believe
if we pay people well we’ll get a higher
quality service every day. Then they’ll think
of ways to make work smarter themselves.
They’ll embrace new equipment and new
technologies more quickly, and even if we
introduce some kind of new technology
or equipment that saves man hours, we’ll
absorb that into our business. This mean
they won’t be in danger of losing their job
because we don’t need them to do as many
hours, as we can always move displaced
colleagues to other parts of our business. In
that way we’re motivating sta to try and
think of better ways to do their jobs, faster,
quicker and smarter.”
He concludes: “I’ve always believed that
good cleaning is a positive experience, and
means you can come into that reception
downstairs a¡ er it’s been snowing and
we’ve ensured it’s clean and dry and you’re
able to get to your work safety and be
productive. The WeWorks of this world
are driving the power of the workplace
experience. This is driving up the need
for higher quality services, which we’re
determined to deliver.”