Tidy Green Clean- Why we became a Recognised Service Provider

Tidy Green Clean, why we became a Recognised Service Provider: “We are an employer of choice and I think the Living Wage has a part to play in that”

Tidy Green Clean offers commercial cleaning services and has seven franchises across Scotland, with three based in Aberdeen. In 2020, the business became accredited as a Recognised Service Provider, but had been tendering for work based on real Living Wage hourly rates before that.

Recognised Service Providers have committed to paying all directly employed members of staff, not tied to client contracts, the real Living Wage. They have also committed to always offer a real Living Wage bid alongside every market rate submittal to all prospective and current clients. This means the client always has the choice to implement the real Living Wage at the point of tender.

We spoke to Tidy Green Clean’s founder Andrew Alleway about why they decided to accredit.

“We've been a Recognised Service Provider for the last five years. The reality is that we run a commercial cleaning business. The majority of our staff are at the entry level job market.

It was really important from a business point of view that we value our staff and pay them as much as we possibly can, and obviously the values of the Living Wage Foundation work really well for us. The Recognised Service Provider accreditation was really the only option that we had because we are reliant on clients that want to pay the real Living Wage versus paying the National Minimum Wage. We're in a competitive industry with lots of people who are price driven and content to pay the staff the minimum. We see a lot of that from staff who come to work for us; they've been working for a company for five or six years and they're still just on National Minimum Wage. So that's the reason why we decided to sign up and obviously we've stuck with it ever since.”

Andrew feels that becoming a Recognised Service Provider has helped improve the staff retention rate, and fits in with their holistic approach to supporting their employees. 

“We run at a 94% staff retention rate across our business, in an industry that has probably 200% attrition annually. I definitely think that paying real Living Wage has a hand in that. It's part of our ethos to pay our staff as well as we can to make sure that everyone is well renumerated for the work that they do. 

We have a whole raft of other benefits for people working for us. If they need money, we'll always advance the money. We'll always make sure that they're not worried about keeping the lights on at home or feeding the family. So it's a bit more of a holistic approach than just paying the Living Wage. It's all the other things that go with it.

A lot of our staff are paid over and above the real Living Wage, even if it's not for a real Living Wage customer. They also get paid more on length of service, even if its not a Living Wage contract, especially if they are a supervisor or have other roles in the business.

We don't have a lot of staff absence. We don't have a lot of staff turnover. We are an employer of choice and I think the Living Wage has a part to play in that.

And because we don't change our cleaners very often, then our clients have a consistency of service which they appreciate as well. So it all kind of ties hand in hand.”

As well as becoming a Recognised Service Provider, Tidy Green Clean has also become involved in the campaign to make Aberdeen a Living Wage City. 

“Taking part in this campaign was a bit of an eye opener I suppose, because you live in your own bubble and your own business all the time. When you start dealing with other organisations, especially a lot of the hospitality sector that sit in on the on the living Wage Committee, you hear things about what a huge difference it makes to people's lives. 

As an employer, we like to think that we make a difference to all of our staff's lives and we make welfare checks and we look after them. And that's all well and good, but you hear some of the stories about being paid the Living Wage is literally the difference between taking the kids to the cinema or not, or being able to take them on a holiday for a week or never being able to go away. It's quite an emotional tie as well that, and we want Aberdeen to be the best place to live and work.”

Due to the commercial contracts Tidy Green Clean procures, promoting real Living Wage contracts to clients hasn’t always been easy. 

“I think it's overall been quite positive, but it's obviously been a tough few years post Covid. A lot of our business is in the northeast of Scotland, so we've got a lot of oil and gas companies, where there is the windfall tax and political uncertainty at the moment.

A lot of SMEs are more than happy to commit to it because they think it's only fair that the guys that are emptying the rubbish bins and hoovering the floors are well renumerated. In the scope of the things, what is a 60p more an hour? It isn't going to make a huge difference to the company’s bottom line at the end of the year, but it will make a difference to someone else.

But from an overall perspective, I would say that 90% of the conversations that we have with clients about real Living Wage, whether or not they're prepared to pay it, they endorse the sentiment of it.”

Despite the difficulties, Andrew still feels that becoming a Recognised Service Provider benefits business, and recommends other organisations also accredit. 

“If someone is considering accrediting, I would 100% suggest that they jump on board. I think your staff retention, your staff welfare, your staff commitment, the lack of absenteeism, the productivity, the feeling of being valued - all of these things are hugely beneficial to your organisation.

We know as a business what it costs to retrain a new staff member to come in versus retain an existing one. And it is days and days of training time and management time and HR time and payroll time to bring them on board versus actually just looking after the people that you've got. 

I think the Recognised Service Provider programme works really well in regards to the fact that you've got a commitment. Our proposals, every single proposal, has a Living Wage price and a minimum wage price in it and we always push the real Living Wage. It's in all of our literature, everything that we put out, every conversation we have with the client and this is what people should be jumping on board with.

This is what it means to be a true leader. Business leaders want to actually give all of their team, no matter what their role is within the business, a better lifestyle and a better level of income.

I think sometimes people are scared off because they don't understand the role of a Recognised Service Provider and that it's not a commitment to pay every single staff member because we realise that in the world that we live in, that's just not always possible. But it is a step in the right direction. 

The cleaners tend to want to work for clients that have agreed to pay the real Living Wage because they tend to be the really good clients to work with, they have their ethos and the cleaner becomes part of the team rather than just someone that comes in at night. It’s so much more than just paying the money.”