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POWERED UP - AN INSIGHT BY THE IN GROUP

How does transparency play into your culture?

I hope that at Kanso it’s not feared, but seen as openness and a way of sharing. In practice, this means our values evolve, and we notify the staff immediately about everything from the services we are bringing in, to the new benefits we plan to offer. Often this type of change is known by the senior management team for a while, but our transparent way of working means we openly share developments with every single person in the business. Transparency is our foundation stone and one that strengthens our culture.

For any business, but especially with a start-up, it’s about bringing people on the journey and making sure that they understand the part they play in it.

Our aspiration is to be the best cleaning company bar none in the market. What does being ‘best’ mean in real terms? To us, it means we make sure that we exceed our client’s expectations at every turn; and that must start and end by empowering our people and giving them what they truly need to be successful.

How are you empowering your people in real terms?

Cleaning professionals come from many walks of life, and often from socially challenging backgrounds. Education, socioeconomic and socio-cultural inequalities historically set up what is seen by many as a divide. Those who clean are often perceived as invisible – they’re there cleaning up after others doing important work – and are there to serve as part of their job, but not at Kanso. They say you should be the change you want to see. So, for me, I refuse to be anything other than completely inclusive and fair, for how else will I be someone who enables that change to happen?

How do you incentivise your people?

Everyone benefits from our benefits. Whether cleaners are part-time or full-time staff, on three days a week or five days a week, it makes no difference. The benefits are the same. If they are ill or somebody gets injured at work, or they fall ill at work, or on their way to work, or on their way home from work, they are covered. I took out an enormous insurance policy to ensure that I can pay my staff 75% of their wages for up to 104 weeks. This is groundbreaking for cleaners who are usually excluded from care at work. My overriding aspiration is to ensure that we’re a partnership, that runs in the same way in which John Lewis does, for example. We’re not there yet, but it’s my mission to get us to a place where every single one of our staff has a shareholding in the business, within the next two years.

CREDIT - DARIA PIMKINA