Mrs Buckét has published research suggesting workplace cleanliness is increasingly being treated by UK manufacturing leaders as part of employee experience and operational management rather than solely as a facilities expense. The commercial cleaning company’s survey covered 250 manufacturing business leaders and asked about the perceived effects of cleanliness and hygiene on morale, engagement, and absence.
Of those surveyed, 96% said cleanliness and hygiene have some impact on employee experience, morale, and engagement. Almost half, 46%, described that impact as significant, 43% as moderate, and 7% as slight. A separate question found 92% believed improved cleaning and hygiene standards could help reduce employee sickness and absence, while 1% disagreed.
The findings need qualification. The research was commissioned by a company selling commercial cleaning services, and the supplied material does not include fieldwork dates, respondent-recruitment details, weighting, the sampling frame, or the exact wording of the questions. It also surveyed manufacturing leaders rather than employees, so the figures describe management perceptions rather than independently proving that a particular cleaning intervention improves morale or reduces sickness.
That distinction does not make the subject irrelevant to manufacturers. Factories combine production equipment, materials movement, shift work, vehicle and pedestrian traffic, welfare areas, waste streams, and, in some sectors, tightly controlled production environments. Cleaning can therefore affect routine presentation, slip risk, contamination control, maintenance access, housekeeping, and the removal of process residues.
UK workplace rules already treat cleanliness as a basic requirement. Health and Safety Executive guidance says employers must provide clean premises, furniture, fittings, floors, and stairs, remove dirt, refuse, and trade waste regularly, and clear spillages promptly. Cleanliness therefore sits partly inside health, safety, and welfare compliance before any claimed effect on engagement is considered.
The operational problem becomes more complicated on larger industrial sites because cleaning work has to coexist with production. Offices, welfare areas, loading bays, machine cells, workshops, high-level structures, and process areas can require different methods, frequencies, access controls, chemicals, and isolation arrangements. Poorly planned cleaning can itself create hazards if floors are left wet, incompatible chemicals are used, or activity interferes with machinery and traffic routes.
Rachael Flanagan, CEO and founder of Mrs Buckét, said: “Cleaning should be viewed as part of the wider employee experience and operational strategy, rather than simply a facilities cost.”
The survey’s absence finding is commercially attractive, but it is also where causal language needs the most restraint. Office for National Statistics figures show that sickness remains a material workforce issue: the UK sickness-absence rate was 2.0% in 2025, with an estimated 148.8 million working days lost through sickness or injury, equivalent to an average of 4.4 days per worker.
Process, plant, and machine operatives were among the occupational groups with the highest sickness-absence rates in the latest ONS data. That does not identify workplace cleanliness as the cause. Absence can reflect acute illness, long-term health conditions, injuries, working patterns, age, and factors outside work, while ONS also cautions that current Labour Force Survey estimates should be interpreted carefully because of sample volatility.
For manufacturing managers, the stronger case for cleaning is therefore likely to come from measurable site outcomes rather than assuming that a cleaner workplace automatically produces better attendance. Slip incidents, contamination events, unplanned cleaning interventions, audit findings, waste accumulation, employee complaints, equipment-access problems, and sickness patterns can all be monitored before and after changes to cleaning regimes.
That approach also allows facilities teams to distinguish cosmetic improvements from operational ones. A polished reception area may influence perceptions, but removing oil from a pedestrian route, controlling dust around equipment, improving washroom standards, or changing waste-removal frequency can be assessed against more specific safety, maintenance, or workforce indicators.
Mrs Buckét was founded in 2005 and provides commercial cleaning services across manufacturing and other sectors. The company says it recorded 30% growth during 2025 and secured 30 new clients across multiple markets, and it has since obtained ISO 9001 quality-management and ISO 14001 environmental-management certification.
The new survey is useful as an indication of how manufacturing leaders think about cleanliness, but its headline percentages should remain in that context. A stronger evidence base would combine employee responses with absence, incident, and operational data before and after defined interventions. For now, the research shows that facilities standards are being discussed increasingly alongside workforce experience and site performance rather than being treated only as an overhead line.
