Who enters your premises? Vetting cleaning staff in Quebec

A cleaning provider holds the keys to your premises. They move through them in the evening, alone, once everyone has left. They pass your files, your computers, your cash drawer, your server room.

It's the most intimate contract a business signs, and yet it's the one negotiated fastest — often on a single number: the hourly rate.

Here are the questions to ask before handing your keys to anyone, and the answers Y CLEAN gives to each one.

Why this matters more than it seems

Theft in commercial premises is rarely noticed the next morning. A laptop left behind, a small cash box, confidential documents photographed: these come to light weeks later, when nobody can say who was inside that evening.

And if your provider carries no liability insurance, or if their worker wasn't properly declared, you carry the problem. Your own insurer will ask who had access to the premises, and on what basis.

Question 1 — Are your employees subject to a criminal background check?

It's the first thing to ask, and the most often dodged. Many companies answer "our people are trustworthy." That isn't an answer: it's an opinion.

At Y CLEAN, yes. Our agents undergo a criminal background check, and the attestation is provided on request to any client who asks for it.

Remember the phrase "on request": it's verifiable. A provider who can produce nothing when you ask has probably verified nothing.

Question 2 — Do you check employment references?

The cleaning industry has high turnover. Some companies hire in the morning and send someone out that same evening, without a single reference call.

At Y CLEAN, yes. We check references, and we apply one simple requirement: a minimum of one year of cleaning experience before being assigned to a commercial contract.

Then every agent receives Y CLEAN training: disinfection protocols, task sequencing, products and their contact times, conduct in occupied premises, confidentiality. A candidate's experience doesn't replace our method — it adds to it.

Question 3 — Do you carry liability insurance?

This is the question that protects your business. An agent spills a product on an office carpet, scratches a glass door, causes water damage: without insurance on the provider's side, the claim comes back to you.

At Y CLEAN, yes — we carry civil liability insurance, and the certificate is provided on request.

One piece of advice: ask for it before signing, not after an incident. A serious company sends it to you the same day.

Question 4 — Do your agents sign a confidentiality agreement?

It's rarely considered, yet it's essential in a clinic, a law firm, an accounting office or a technology company. Your cleaning agents see lit screens, open files, whiteboards left unwiped.

At Y CLEAN, yes. Every agent signs a confidentiality agreement. What our teams see in your premises does not leave your premises.

Question 5 — How do you handle keys and access codes?

Here's the question whose right answer is surprising.

Our key and access-code protocol is confidential — and that is exactly what you should require. A provider who publicly explains, on their website, how they store and distribute their clients' keys is describing a vulnerability.

What we do tell you is firm: Y CLEAN assumes responsibility for the access entrusted to it. That's a company answering for it, not an employee who can no longer be found.

Question 6 — Can I know who actually comes to my site?

In most contracts, the answer is no. You know neither who comes, nor whether it's the same person from one week to the next.

With Y CLEAN, you can see the profile of everyone assigned to your contract: first name, initial, years of experience, specialties and a sentence written by the person themselves.

We never publish an agent's full name or phone number. That isn't opacity: it protects our employees and complies with Quebec's Law 25 on personal information. You know who enters — you don't have their personal contact details, and that's how it should be.

Question 7 — How can I verify they actually came?

This is the logical extension of everything above. Vetting people means nothing if you can't verify their visits.

Every Y CLEAN intervention is clocked, timestamped and located. You see the date, arrival time, departure time, actual duration and the name of the person. A scheduled day where nobody came shows up as a logged absence, not as a hole in your history.

This is what we call next-generation cleaning: vetted teams, tracked interventions, documented results.

The checklist to take to your providers

• Criminal background checks? — require the attestation, not a statement.
• Employment references verified? — ask what minimum experience is required.
• Liability insurance? — ask for the certificate before signing.
• Confidentiality agreement signed? — essential in clinics and professional offices.
• Key protocol? — be wary of anyone who explains it publicly.
• Can I know who comes? — a provider who refuses has a reason.
• Can I verify the visits? — no log means no proof.

Ask these seven questions to three providers. You'll quickly see which one built a company, and which one built an order book.

Where we work

Y CLEAN serves Greater Montreal and its surrounding areas: Montreal, Westmount, Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, Saint-Laurent, Anjou, Laval, Boisbriand, Blainville, Terrebonne, Repentigny, Mascouche, Longueuil, Brossard, La Prairie, Granby, Chambly and the Montérégie.

Offices, clinics, daycares, retail, rental buildings, condominiums and industrial spaces.

Ask us for the proof

We're not asking you to take our word for it. Ask for the background-check attestation. Ask for the insurance certificate. Ask to see the profile of the team that would come to your site.

Then watch the first visit unfold in your client portal. That's where the difference shows — not in a brochure.