Why Get Certified?

In general, CIMS certification should lead to improved efficiency, greater customer satisfaction and an overall better quality of service regardless of whether your organization is a building service contractor or performs cleaning in-house.

Building Service Contractors

CIMS presents a terrific opportunity for a building service contractor to validate its commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. Only a CIMS-certified organization can say that an independent third-party has actually performed an assessment of their systems, processes and policies, and agreed that they have instituted the management framework required by CIMS and demanded by those individuals responsible for selecting a cleaning service provider.

CIMS has received an official endorsement from the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), who has recognized the program as a powerful tool their members can use to pre-qualify contractors. As a result, more and more facility managers, purchasing professionals and others are citing CIMS in their requests for proposal and cleaning specifications, including the Air National Guard Readiness Center at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, State Farm Insurance and others who have made the decision that only CIMS-certified organizations are eligible to be awarded a cleaning service contract.

In-House Service Providers

As the industry continues to undergo a shift in focus from “cleaning for appearance” to “cleaning for health,” cleaning is becoming recognized as a primary weapon in the fight against emerging public health threats. Simply states, an in-house organization cannot afford to take a chance when it comes to cleanliness and good sanitation.

By complying with the cornerstone elements of CIMS, an in-house cleaning department will be uniquely prepared to improve the efficiency of its services, advance the organizational master plan, achieve budgetary support in the board room, and improve the overall performance of their cleaning service. And because CIMS is a management framework that is based on universally-accepted management principles, the Standard sets fort a sustainable business model that can apply to other services with only slight adjustments.

Created by the Industry, for the Industry

The Standard was created through a true consensus-based process that brought together representatives of the cleaning, facilities management and purchasing communities. In total, more than 100,000 constituents were represented in the process, which included full peer review and was administered by ISSA and the American Institute for Cleaning Sciences (AICS)... For more information, click HERE.

Case Studies

Since 2007, a number of organizations have participated in the cleaning Industry Management Certification Case Study Program. Each organization went through the official certification process, underwent a comprehensive assessment and achieved certification to CIMS.

Learn about their experiences going through the process and how some Canadian organizations see CIMS certification benefiting them in the future by browsing their individual CIMS case studies below:

ISSA Canada