The below article was written by Biological Preparations and published in Tomorrows Cleaning October 2025 Issue, page 50
Cleaning has long been one of society’s oldest safeguards, protecting the health and hygiene of communities long before businesses even existed. As society evolved, so too did how we cleaned and what we cleaned with; turning the cleaning industry into a quiet catalyst for success across modern industries. At the same time, another societal shift has unfolded: we now live in the digital age. Technology, automation, and data are embedded into daily life, with businesses tracking, measuring, and optimising almost everything they do. On the surface, these two evolutions appear to sit at opposite ends of the spectrum. Cleaning is physical, people-centric, and routine; technology is automated, digital-first, and data-driven. Some fear this growth in technology could replace the human side of operations. In reality, the two are not in conflict. Digital tools are not here to replace the workforce, but to enable it, particularly through the evolution of training. This article explores how cleaning has changed alongside society, why training has become a critical touchpoint, and how the industry must embrace new digital platforms to actually help their people and operations.
Cleaning has always been with us. In its earliest form it was simple and domestic, relying on what nature provided: clay, ashes, vinegar, and other simple, natural materials suited to the times. There was no formal training; instead, customs and household rituals passed knowledge from one generation to the next.
But as societies grew and economies shifted, cleaning began to move beyond the home. Industry and urbanisation created new environments where hygiene was no longer optional, and capitalism drove demand for faster, stronger, more consistent solutions. This opened the door to synthetic chemical alternatives. Fuelled by the petrochemical boom, these products were cost-effective, quick to produce, and highly effective. Yet with more potent products came new risks, making training more important. Workers now needed guidance on how to handle stronger chemicals safely, although knowledge was often shared peer-to-peer rather than through structured programmes.
As society rebuilt in the post-war years, the cleaning industry itself became industrialised. Commercial settings needed specialist care, leading to the rise of janitors and cleaning operatives with defined responsibilities, although their training was far from what we’d recognise today.
By the 1960s professional cleaning companies began to emerge, offering structured service sand their own in-house training. Franchised models spread, bringing greater consistency within individual brands but still leaving a patchwork of approaches across the wider industry. Standards varied from company to company ,and with no regulation in place, training remained irregular and potentially harmful. This lack of unified standards, in an industry growing at pace, created space for an independent professional and educational body to promote best practices and develop training programmes. Still, these were voluntary, not mandatory. It wasn’t until the late 20th century that regulation and health and safety laws began to formalise what effective cleaning and training should look like.</ahref="https:>
The rapid expansion of the cleaning industry was undeniable. With a sector growing in size, products and employees, standards and protection needed regulation. This came in the form of COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) 1988,covering cleaning chemicals alongside other hazardous substances. For the firsttime, training was not simply best practice, but a legal responsibility.</ahref="https:>
Introduced to protect workers, COSHH placed a clear duty of care on employers: to assess risks, prevent or control exposure, provide information, instruction, training, and maintain control measures, firmly putting the onus directly on businesses to protect their employees. Like technology, COSHH evolved, with a major update in 2002 clarifying requirements and giving more explicit guidance on training and documentation. While critical for employee safety, these rules also added administrative burden. Training became more complicated, resource-intensive, and difficult to manage
Today, the industrial cleaning market contains thousands of products, including more than 1,200 eco-friendly SKUs in the UK retail market alone. With growth forecast at a CAGR of 8.7%,businesses face a constant wave of new hazard classifications, SDS requirements, and usage instructions, creating a constant noise in an industry that depends on streamlined operations.
Before the rise of digital technology, training was a paperwork-heavy process. Record-keeping was slow, fragmented, and prone to error, making it difficult for businesses to stay compliant or provide consistent training across sites. The arrival of early digital platforms offered a step forward; reducing reliance on paper, easing compliance, and making records more accessible. But as with any early tech, gaps remained.
For managers and compliance leads, the problems were just as acute. Onboarding took longer, training was difficult to track across multiple sites, and visibility for audits or reviews was limited. Training remained generic, impersonal, and a drain on already overstretched teams.
With the digital era enabling faster, more efficient processes, the cleaning industry, like many others, now have an opportunity to embrace the next evolution of training: smarter, data-driven, and designed for the scale and complexity of modern operations.
The story of cleaning and training has always been one of adaptation. From household rituals to regulation, from paperwork binders to early digital tools, each stage sought to make processes safer, clearer, and more consistent. Yet with the scale and complexity of today’s market, incremental improvements are no longer enough. Businesses now need systems that don’t just record training but actively enhance how cleaning operations run.
The next step is data-driven training and compliance: platforms that provide cleaning operatives with instant, tailored guidance on the products and procedures they actually use, while giving managers real-time visibility across sites. No more generic modules or scattered paperwork; just clear, role-specific training that evolves as products, legislation, and best practice change.
This is the thinking behind BioLogix, purpose-built for the cleaning industry, it combines intelligent training with centralised compliance management, streamlining everything from onboarding to audits. For cleaning teams, it means clarity and confidence; for managers, oversight and efficiency. Above all, it reflects where the industry is heading; towards smarter, more connected systems that strengthen safety, sustainability, and operational resilience in the years ahead.
As cleaning technologies evolve, so too must the way we train people to use them. It isn’t about choosing between manual skill and digital support, but about using the evolution of technology to make training more accessible, more effective, and better for the people in your business.