Bidding for a new contract can be daunting, especially as a small or young business that has not had previous experience in the tender writing process. However, responding to tenders and getting commercial cleaning contracts is a great way to expand your business, challenge yourself professionally and take your business to the next level. So where do you start? What are the things that YOU can do to get that contract?
Contracts will ask a variety of questions, some of which you will have the immediate answers to, and some we may need to build together. Commercial cleaning contracts specifically, tend to have a greater focus on the following categories: Social Value, TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment) and Improvement and Innovation. Complete Tenders have a plethora of successful pervious responses concerning these topics to help you build upon your own examples to win that tender. Below are some examples of potential questions you may find in a cleaning tender.
Social Value
Social Value questions within tenders have become increasingly prevalent when it comes to winning tenders and account for 10% of your total marks. It tackles concepts including (but not limited to) mutual employer and community benefit, sustainability, eco-friendly use of products, diverse employment and charity and volunteering work. These questions address how you and your business put your community and environment at the heart of your business. Start asking yourself questions like:
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How does your business prevent the use of harmful chemicals when cleaning sites?
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What efforts does your business make to contribute to sustainability?
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What procedures are in place that ensure the minimisation of your carbon footprint?
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How will you engage young people and develop volunteering/peer mentoring/apprenticeship opportunities?
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What procedures do you have in place that help develop a diverse economy?
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How do you improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of people and communities?
Being able to think about the answers to these questions challenges you to see what areas your business could grow in. Most importantly, these answers allow for us to show your business to be adding social value to the contract you are bidding for.
TUPE
Compared to other government contracts, commercial cleaning contracts often have an emphasis on TUPE in their agreements. The Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment rights ensures that upon the succession of the contract, the previous employees of the contract are transferred to the new provider. This allows for stability of employment within the community and for the transition of contracts to be smoother overall. Common questions include:
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How you would recognise and incorporate the existing team of employees that would potentially transfer under TUPE?
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What is your experience is of TUPE and how many have staff have you transferred under TUPE?
In addition to demonstrating your focus and consideration of the community, having a good knowledge of TUPE legislation and procedures allows for your business to grow and adapt to new opportunities.
Improvement and Innovation
The final factor that sets apart ccommercial leaning contracts from other government contracts is the consistency in improvement and innovation. Bidders will often have to list the ways in which they have learned from previous experiences and offer evidence for those changes. Tenders may ask questions such as:
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How does your business ensure that it remains consistently innovative over the period of a contract?
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What evidence can you provide to prove how you have previously rectified and improved upon past methods/routines?
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How is your business different from your competitors? i.e. Do you provide specialist cleaning services? Do you have consistent site visits from your supervisors?
Consistently reflecting on your business, its successes as well as its mistakes allows for innovation and improvement to take place. These changes and developments always make for good evidence when applying to win a cleaning contract.
Complete Tenders has the capabilities, care and experience and extensive Bid Library to not only professionally respond to those questions, but also work together to find the right solutions for your business to be able to answer those questions effectively. Get in touch with us for more expert advice on getting your cleaning business winning tenders.
