Our Staff Turnover Is Below the Industry Average. Here's Why That Matters to You.

Staff turnover in the cleaning industry is structurally high. Nationally, it's one of the most challenging sectors for worker retention — driven by irregular hours, physically demanding work, and wages that have historically sat at or just above the minimum.

Fresh Desk's annual turnover rate sits at 71%. That sounds high until you look at the context: research from Ringa Hora (the Workforce Development Council) shows that figure is lower than what's typically seen across the New Zealand cleaning sector, particularly among smaller operators.¹

We see our retention as a result of a few things working together: fair pay (Living Wage for all staff), continuity of hours, wraparound wellbeing support, and genuine investment in people's professional development. When people feel valued and financially stable in their work, they stay.

Why does this matter to you as a customer?

Because consistency of cleaner is one of the strongest predictors of cleaning quality. When the same person looks after your space week after week, they know your building, your team's habits, and your specific standards. They notice when something's off. They take ownership.

High turnover means the opposite — a revolving door of unfamiliar faces, repeated onboarding, and quality that's only ever as good as whoever showed up this week.

We're not complacent about our 71% — we know there's room to improve, and it remains a priority. But we're proud that our model is producing meaningfully better retention than the sector average, and we think our customers feel the difference.

¹ Ringa Hora, The New Zealand Commercial Cleaning Industry – Quantitative Insights Report, November 2025. https://ringahora.nz/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-Cleaning-Project-Quantitative-Insights-Report.pdf