Why Cleanliness Matters in Pubs and Clubs

Customers often judge a business by its cleanliness, such as the state of its restrooms. A clean, well-maintained venue fosters a positive experience, encourages repeat business, and protects your reputation. More importantly, regular and thorough cleaning helps ensure compliance with health and safety regulations, reducing the risk of illness, injury, and potential insurance claims.

Professional cleaning staff bring essential skills and equipment to the job. When paired with technology like UniGuardX, their efficiency and accountability reach a new level.

Know Where Your Staff Are: Smarter Tracking, Better Workflows

One of the core features of UniGuardX is its real-time staff tracking system. By placing checkpoints around your venue, cleaners use either a recorder or mobile app to scan in as they complete their tasks. This time- and location-stamped data gives managers a clear picture of where staff are, what tasks have been completed, and how efficiently work is progressing.

This transparency not only ensures duties are completed on time but also allows supervisors to streamline workflows, quickly resolve issues, and reallocate resources where they’re needed most. The result? A cleaner venue, fewer missed tasks, and improved staff performance.

Say Goodbye to Paperwork: Embrace Digital Smart Forms

While many businesses still rely on traditional paperwork, it’s often inefficient and difficult to manage. Physical records can be misplaced, hard to retrieve, and prone to errors. UniGuardX’s digital smart forms offer a modern alternative.

These forms allow cleaners to submit real-time information from the site, including:

• Customised checklists
• Comments and observations
• Photos for visual evidence
• Digital signatures
• Timestamps and geolocations

The benefits are enormous. Smart forms reduce manual data entry errors, ensure legally binding documentation, and enable rich data capture. They also automate reporting, triggering notifications and follow-ups while onsite. Fully customisable, these forms adapt to your specific workflows and team structures.

Better Staff Management Through Data and Automation

Staff-related issues can hinder productivity and increase operational risks. UniGuardX addresses this by improving attendance tracking, performance monitoring, and accountability.

Every interaction with a checkpoint logs valuable data like when and where a task was performed, by whom, and how long it took. This data not only improves real-time decision-making but also builds a reliable history of performance that managers can use to:

• Track KPIs
• Analyse trends
• Allocate resources effectively
• Respond faster to onsite issues via alerts and notifications

Scheduled reports can be automatically generated and shared with managers and clients, providing full visibility without extra administrative burden.

The Bottom Line

In the high-paced environment of pubs and clubs, keeping your venue clean and compliant is non-negotiable. UniGuardX is more than just a tracking tool, it’s a complete staff management and compliance solution that modernises how cleaning businesses operate. With real-time visibility, digital documentation, and performance analytics, your cleaning team can deliver higher standards, reduce risk, and support your business growth.

Ready to elevate your cleaning operations? UniGuardX makes it easy to build a better business through better performance. Contact our sales team today.

The post How UniGuardX is Transforming Pub and Club Cleaning: Better Staff Performance, Smarter Compliance appeared first on Staff & Asset Tracking with Workforce Management Software by UniGuard.

To ensure customer safety, many shopping centres and supermarket chains around the world have adopted technology-based staff management solutions. For many establishments, these solutions have proven to be a key factor in efficiently and effectively managing their increased workforce, especially in times like these, when operations need to be monitored and adjusted quickly and without hesitation.

Cleaning and security operations has never been easier to manage remotely with the implementation of staff monitoring and management systems like those offered by UniGuard. This is essential for management who are under pressure due to the increased frequency of cleaning and security rotations necessary to maintain a higher level of hygiene.

Additionally, a good staff management system allows you to easily analyse and adjust staff movement on the fly when required. Such situations that need quick action include:

• General area sanitisation
• In-store basket and trolley cleaning
• Replenishing hand sanitisation stations
• Slip, trip & fall hazards (eg food & beverage spills)
• Quick action in case of a breach in social distancing regulations (eg crowing & queues)
• Contact tracing

Implementing a customised staff monitoring and management system will not only allow you to execute and assign tasks more efficiently. It enables an establishment to analyse and adjust cleaning rotations accordingly, monitor staff compliance, take advantage of an intricate reporting system and make operations as cost effective as possible without compromising staff and customer safety.

UniGuardX offers the following tools to make cleaning and security staff management easier.

• Location Tracking
• Activity Log
• Custom Forms
• Tasks
• Real-Time Alerts
• GPS
• Bluetooth & NFC
• Request Call-Back

Contact one of our UniGuard specialists today for a tailored walkthrough of the UniGuard solution based around your challenges and business needs.

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As the holiday season approaches, shopping centres and supermarkets are already gearing up in preparation for the influx of customers fulfilling their seasonal shopping spree. Christmas would not be complete without endless shopping carts, full to the brim, with hearty food and gifts for precious loved ones. Keeping customers’ holiday wishes in mind, these establishments are taking extraordinary measures to ensure that everyone gets to enjoy their holiday season routine, even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Technology based staff management solutions have been adopted by many shopping centres and supermarket chains globally to ensure customer safety. These staff management solutions have proven to be a key factor for establishments to be able to efficiently and effectively manage their increased workforce, especially in times like this, when operations have to be monitored and adjusted quickly and without hesitation.

Cleaning and security operations has never been easier to manage remotely with the implementation of staff monitoring and management systems within establishments.

Taking into consideration the increased frequency of cleaning and security rotations lately, as well as general sanitary precautions, management must be able to easily analyse and adjust staff movement on the fly if necessary.

Situations which require quick action include:

• General area sanitisation
• In-store basket and trolley cleaning
• Replenishing hand sanitisation stations
• Slip, trip & fall hazards (ex: food & beverage spills)
• Quick action in case of a breach in social distancing regulations (ex: crowing & queues)
• Contact tracing

“Implementing a customised staff monitoring and management system will not only allow you to execute and assign tasks more efficiently. It enables an establishment to analyse and adjust rotations accordingly, monitor staff compliance, take advantage of an intricate reporting system and make operations as cost effective as possible without compromising staff and customer safety.”

UniGuardX:

• Location Tracking
• Activity Log
• Custom Forms
• Tasks
• Real-Time Alerts
• GPS Bluetooth & NFC
• Request Call-Back

Contact one of our UniGuard specialists on (02) 9671 7777 or email us for a tailored walkthrough of the UniGuard solution based around your challenges and business needs.

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Instead of purchasing an off-the-shelf workforce management software package, another option that is increasing in popularity is contracting a software developer to create a custom-built system for the business. There are many reasons for managers to want to take this approach, as a quality designed system can be an asset to the organisation. A poorly built system, however, can be disastrous.

Something to Call Your Own

Among the many reasons people want to go down this path, one of the significant driving factors is the increasing number of different software systems that businesses are required to use to be able to function in our online world. Business managers understandably want to streamline as many areas of their business as possible for efficiency.

Another factor is the desire to get an edge over the opposition using unique software features and analytics that go above and beyond what other people in the industry have access to.

Where it Can Be Difficult

The difficulty often faced when approaching custom designed software is that most business owners are very experienced in their industry, not in developing software and their understanding of the pitfalls can be somewhat limited. It is naïve to think that all developers who are looking to further their own opportunities are likely to point out all the downsides of this approach and/or any of their own limitations.

The truth is that, on the surface, software is deceptively simple. Even considerably basic apps are complex to write, if a quality result is required. Most people would never consider making other equally complex products, such as for example, their own motor vehicle. Just as a poorly designed car can do a lot of damage, so can poorly designed software.

Streamlining Without Compromising Capability

Another big motivator for creating a custom-built platform is to consolidate numerous different applications into one. Not only does this potentially save costs, but it also means that people are not opening and closing different software applications all day.

The problem with this approach is that software built for different purposes generally require completely different layouts and functionality. It would be like trying to build a vehicle that has both the features of a pushbike and a semi-trailer truck.

Software that incorporates too many diverse features are often unstable and expensive to build, tend not to have unreliable results and are complex to learn and operate. This is why, for example, Microsoft maintains the individuality of their Office Suite programs in preference to amalgamating them all.

Some people in a business may benefit from having two or even three programs rolled into one, but most people in that business will never use these extra features and will find using the software too difficult. There is a reason nobody has successfully marketed a floating, flying car yet. Very few people want all of these vehicles rolled into one.

Then There’s What You Cannot See

Generally, by the time a business owner has decided to go with building their own software, they know all the features they want and don’t want in the application. They base this on what they do and don’t like in other software they have used.

Whilst this approach makes complete sense on the surface, they are often unaware of all the important hidden features that make the software safe, secure and reliable, lending the situation to software design that does not deliver on expectations. This is a major stumbling block for first time software builders.

Finding a good developer is another challenge.  Developers who are used to talking to people at their level about this subject, can seem to talk a different language when they talk to you. A program can be written many ways, and each developer has their own unique knowledge and skill level, they may not know the best coding and simply use what they have always used. The specialised process itself, of software development enables opportunities to cut corners, without detection by the client until it is too late.

Making Sure Today’s Savings Are Not Tomorrow’s Costs

One area where costs can blow out with employee tracking software or any software, is the hardware. This can be costly in several ways.

To keep costs down, a staff tracking app can be designed to work on a limited number of smartphone devices, maybe only certain Android phones for example. The problem with doing this is that it is then harder for the company to save money by getting the staff to use their own phones, as all employees must have exactly the right phones.

The alternative to this is for the company to supply phones, but then run the risk of the phones being repeatedly damaged and destroyed.

Building an app that can work on a range of phones, including both Android and iPhone, and keeping these apps up to date with the latest operating systems, as well as honouring older models becomes awfully expensive very quickly.

As well as keeping up with the latest operating systems, the software may have to be patched to protect against emerging security threats, as well as the ongoing updates that go with software bug fixes. Software bugs will happen no matter how good the developer is. Constant updates to keep up with Windows, IOS or Android changes are necessary.

Keeping the data on a secure server long term is the other big ongoing cost. This is a cost that software companies can minimise for their customers through the economics of scale.  

What Is Your Time Worth?

Ultimately, developing software, is a long, drawn-out complicated process with no guarantees on the quality of the result. It is common for projects to run over time, and over budget, even for experienced software development companies such as UniGuard. Naturally, well designed software with all the functionality that is needed can be more expensive.

For an inexperienced company, the development cost can easily exceed $1 million, for software that ends up being no better, or sometimes ever worse than the ready-made staff tracking software they could have purchased for a fraction of this price. Did I mention maintenance to keep up with changes in operating systems?

Many business owners who have commissioned their own software admit to being disappointed with the product they eventually receive. Unlike ready-made software, it is impossible to try out the software before you commit money to the project. Ultimately a lot of thought must go into good design, and this can only be guided with knowledge and experience.

Another Alternative

An attractive alternative that may not readily come to mind; is getting an established company, such as UniGuard who already have a well-maintained employee tracking software in the market, to offer a solution to you. Contact us today and we will be incredibly happy to show you how.

Would you like to know more about how UniGuard can customise a software package to your needs , click here to find out more?

The post Developing Your Own Custom Software appeared first on Staff & Asset Tracking with Workforce Management Software by UniGuard.

Those who support using mobile phones will tell you that doing so is cheaper and easier, but they often do this just to push their own mobile app forward in the marketplace. Of course, people who sell dedicated hardware say that purpose-built hardware is the better solution.

With all the information going around it can be difficult for managers to know which is the best solution for their business. UniGuard offers both options to the consumer in an integrated system, so we have no incentive to push one solution ahead of the other. This allows for an unbiased opinion on the situation.

Mobile Apps, the Ideal Solution or Is It All Smoke and Mirrors?

On the surface a staff tracking system using mobile apps installed on your workforces’ own phones seems the perfect solution, or at least the simplest and cheapest. This is particularly attractive for businesses who have never used staff tracking before and are looking for an entry level solution. The other positive is that people are more likely to look after their own phone than company equipment.

There are a few unforeseen problems with this approach. Firstly, your workforce needs to have a compatible phone. Older phones and even some newer phones will not work with many tracking applications. Most staff management apps also focus on either Android or iPhone because it is cheaper, easier and faster to develop and maintain software on one platform only.

Even if the staff tracking app is successfully downloaded and working, it may clash with other apps on the phone. This may mean that the tracking app will not work properly, or your workforce will be frustrated with the staff tracking app stopping other apps on their phone from working. This may encourage them to uninstall the tracking app, which may cost you from the loss of attendance data or other reasons. Personnel may also be concerned about their privacy.

Other issues include members making excuses to not use the phone, such as they lost the phone or forgot to charge it. Even when they are willing to use the tracking app, some staff members may use it as an excuse to look at their phones during their shift for non-work reasons.

A lot of these problems can be solved by choosing a well-made staff management software system with good after-market support, and consulting properly with you team about the importance of using the app, explaining the benefits to them and alleviating their concerns about privacy.

How About Using the Staff Tracking App on a Company Phone?

Another potential way of minimising many of the problems associated with staff tracking apps is for the business to supply the phones. This will guarantee that the phone is compatible and that there are no other apps that will clash with the tracking app.

Team members will have less excuses too, as it takes away concerns about privacy, and if the phones are kept at the company premises it ensures they are available and charged at the start of a shift.

Unfortunately, the workforce will have less incentive to care for the phones. Some disgruntled team members may even actively remove the covers and cases, damage or even lose the phones, as this will allow them to avoid working. That said, more durable, and expensive, rugged phones are available.

Is Dedicated Hardware Really the Ugly Duckling?

A bespoke staff management system built around dedicated hardware is initially more expensive to install and not considered fashionable by some people, but it has many advantages over simple phone apps. For businesses who already use one of these systems, it is generally cheaper and easier to keep building on the system in place, than install something new.

One of the biggest advantages is that recorders have been purpose built with the situations that they will be used in mind. This means that the devices are stronger and more durable without software compatibility problems. The functionality of the devices are also limited to the purpose for which they are built, meaning less distraction for team members who may otherwise play with a phone.

Although cost is seen as a disadvantage, the price of the recorders is still comparable to many phones on the market. In the long run, the bespoke staff tracking system may actually be more cost effective as the recorders are more resistant to damage and last longer.

Bespoke staff management systems are also seen as more complicated to set up, but recorders from reputable sellers are supplied with the software preinstalled at no extra cost to the consumer.  Support is also provided. A good staff tracking system is also guaranteed by the manufacturer, who will service and repair the product.

So Ultimately, Which Is the Best?

The truth is that no solution is 100% perfect because for any one system to work in a particular way compromises have to be made in other ways. However, having some knowledge of the difference in staff management systems on the market will help you make the best decision for your business, and help you minimise any problems you may potentially face when using whatever system you chose.

Want to find out more about the most flexible staff tracking system, click here to see a demo of UniGuard in action.

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In Australia in 2020 many businesses are finding themselves in an increasingly difficult environment in which to operate. The list of challenges is long, with some hurdles seemingly impossible to move beyond. In such a situation, the correct advice can make a big difference to whether a business stays viable or not.

For businesses that manage the cleanliness and maintenance of buildings such as shopping centres, hospitals, offices, airports, and any other publicly accessible location, a significant burden is Public Liability Insurance and associate Personal Injury Claims. Insurance costs for such business are rising dramatically every year, with some insurance companies now refusing to insure many businesses. Going without insurance is not an option due to the costs of many Personal Injury Claims, besides insurance is needed to secure contracts.

So, in an increasingly challenging business environment how do such companies protect themselves from these unwanted liabilities?

The best way is to avoid claims and keep insurance cost down is by ensuring that the buildings are cleaned and maintained in way that creates the safest environment that is reasonably possible. This can be achieved through having a comprehensive maintenance and cleaning program which includes training staff on the correct procedures to minimise risks. Unfortunately, this is not always enough, as managers also need to prove that premises have been cleaned and maintained to an appropriate standard. This is where rotation compliance comes in.

Australian courts have mandated that companies show proof that building spaces that are used by the public have been cleaned on an interval of 20 minutes. Some cleaning contracts now require a cleaning interval less than this. Rotation compliance or contract compliance is simply the act of keeping staff to these cleaning schedules and can be achieved using a staff tracking system to monitor and organise when and where cleaning takes place.

More information about how rotation compliance can improve your business outcomes can be found in our white paper “The Solution to Cheaper Public Liability Insurance for Cleaning and Building Services”, which can be accessed here.

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