It is tempting to handle office cleaning in-house. Ask staff to tidy up, hire a part-time cleaner through an ad, or rotate responsibilities between the team. On paper it looks like the budget option. In practice, for most Portsmouth businesses, it costs significantly more than a professional contract - and delivers a worse result.
Here is an honest breakdown of what DIY office cleaning actually costs.
The Hidden Cost of Staff Time
If your staff are spending time cleaning, they are not doing the jobs you hired them to do. Even 20 minutes of tidying at the start or end of a day across five employees is nearly two hours of productive time lost - every single day. At average Portsmouth office salaries, that adds up to hundreds of pounds a month in lost productivity.
More importantly: employees do not want to clean. Asking them to creates resentment, affects morale, and in some sectors raises questions about professional standards.
The Cost of Ad-Hoc Cleaning Staff
Hiring an individual cleaner privately seems cheap until you factor in:
- Employer NI contributions if they work regular hours
- Holiday pay and sick cover obligations
- No insurance if something is damaged or broken
- No backup when they cannot make it
- No quality standard or checklist - you get what you get
With a professional commercial cleaning contract, all of this is handled. VS Group Ltd carries full public liability insurance, provides a dedicated team with a bespoke checklist for your premises, and guarantees cover if your regular cleaner is unavailable.
Cleaning Standards Affect Your Business
A consistently clean office is not just about hygiene - it affects how clients, visitors and prospective employees perceive your business the moment they walk in. Reception areas, meeting rooms and toilets are judged immediately. A professional contract ensures these areas are cleaned to a consistent standard every visit, not whenever someone gets around to it.
For Portsmouth businesses in client-facing industries - legal, financial, healthcare, hospitality - this perception matters.
Sick Days and Cross-Contamination
Professional commercial cleaning uses the right products for each surface and follows cross-contamination protocols - different cloths and mops for toilets, kitchens and desks, for example. Ad-hoc cleaning rarely does. In shared office environments, this matters for staff health - and sick days cost Portsmouth businesses significantly more per employee than a cleaning contract.
What a Professional Office Cleaning Contract Costs in Portsmouth
VS Group Ltd provides commercial cleaning contracts for Portsmouth offices from £80 per visit, with weekly, twice-weekly and daily options. For most small to medium Portsmouth businesses, a twice-weekly contract works out to £600-£900 per month - often less than the cost of the staff time currently spent on cleaning, and far less than the hidden costs of doing it badly.
We cover all Portsmouth commercial postcodes - PO1 through PO6 - as well as Fareham, Gosport and Southampton. Every contract includes a free site survey and a bespoke cleaning checklist for your premises.
Contact us for a free site survey and quote. We typically respond within one working day.