Agency Cleaning

Overview

Realcorp's agency aged care cleaning is a labour hire service: it supplies individual cleaners into aged care facilities that run their own cleaning operation, for short or long term hire. The facility directs the day's work; Realcorp supplies the person, and carries the employment, licensing and compliance obligations that come with them. This is deliberately different from Realcorp's aged care and healthcare facility cleaning service, where Realcorp holds the cleaning contract, sets the scope and rosters, and supervises its own team on site. Facilities that already have a hotel services or environmental services function generally want the agency service; facilities outsourcing the whole cleaning function want the contracted service. Many providers use both.

Realcorp describes an extensive pool of agency aged care cleaners who are on-call and available at short notice and for flexible periods. The use cases it names are specific and recognisable to any aged care rostering coordinator: covering a sick day, surging staff during a facility health outbreak, and bridging the gap until permanent recruitment is finalised. Its stated framing is "hire our aged care cleaning staff for a day, or for a quarter" — the commercial point being that the facility is not committing to a contract term to solve a roster hole.

Realcorp's central claim on this service is that it is a cleaning company doing labour hire, not a labour hire company placing cleaners. It states it provides all team members with training and tests their cleaning ability before they attend a client site, so that the work is done correctly the first time without the facility having to train an agency worker on arrival. Realcorp states that staff on its aged care staffing list have completed extensive training against its own standards, which are reviewed regularly. It also states it does not use subcontractors — a position it applies across the business and links directly to the risk that labour supplied by others is operating outside legal employment standards.

What's included

Element	What Realcorp states
Engagement length	Short or long term — from a single day through to a quarter or longer; flexible periods
Notice	Staff available at short notice from an on-call pool
Typical triggers	Sick leave cover, facility health outbreak surge, cover until permanent recruitment is finalised, temporary gaps in employment
Pre-placement screening	Training provided and cleaning ability tested before attending site; staffing list membership requires completed training against Realcorp's standards, reviewed regularly
Employment status	Directly employed by Realcorp — no subcontracting
Verification	Photo verification for critical tasks
Account management	High-touch approach; Realcorp states it builds close working relationships with partner facilities and is "a phone call away"
Suitability	Staff described as experienced, professional, reliable and caring, and selected as suited to working among residents and patients

Where a facility needs more than staff hours — an outbreak deep clean, a periodic carpet or hard floor program, a bin room pressure wash, or 24/7 emergency response — those sit under Realcorp's specialist, bathroom hygiene and emergency services rather than the agency scope, and can be arranged alongside it.

Who this is for

• Aged care facility managers and hotel services managers filling a roster gap without opening a tender
• Rostering and workforce coordinators who need a cleaner on site tomorrow morning, reliably
• Providers mid-recruitment bridging to a permanent hire without carrying an unfilled shift
• Facilities managing an infection outbreak where cleaning hours must increase quickly and temporarily
• Providers with an in-house cleaning team who want supplementary labour under their own direction, rather than to outsource the function
• Providers testing a contractor — using agency supply as a low-commitment way to assess whether Realcorp's people are a fit before considering a contracted program

How Realcorp delivers it

A pooled, trained workforce. The service depends on depth of bench. Realcorp states it maintains a large pool of aged care facility cleaners available on-call, and that pool is what underwrites both short-notice supply and the relief cover offered on its contracted aged care service.

Cleaning competence tested before placement. Realcorp states it trains its team and tests their cleaning acumen before they attend a client site. This is the operational answer to the standard complaint about agency cleaners — that the facility ends up supervising and re-doing work it paid for.

Direct employment. Every cleaner supplied is a Realcorp employee. Realcorp states this means Award-compliant pay, superannuation, insurance and work rights clearance are its responsibility, not a chain of subcontractors, and that this protects the client facility's own reputation and compliance position.

Technology on site. Realcorp's cloud-based app supports GPS-tracked time and attendance, real-time task completion and issue reporting, and photo verification for critical tasks — so a facility receives an attendance and task record for agency shifts, not just an invoice.

A named relationship, not a call centre. Realcorp emphasises a high-touch approach and working with partner facilities as a team to place suitable staff, with direct phone contact when a shift needs filling.

Compliance and assurance

Labour hire is the part of cleaning where compliance risk transfers most directly to the host facility, so these positions matter. All are Realcorp's own statements; request compliance documentation and verify licence currency before engaging.

• Labour Hire Licensing. Realcorp states it is licensed under the Labour Hire Licensing Authority as required in several Australian states, and that this assures clients all cleaning personnel are paid legally, insured appropriately, and cleared to work in Australia
• Direct employment, no subcontracting — with Cleaning Services Award compliance, superannuation, payroll tax, insurance and portable long service leave, and no sham contracting or modern slavery exposure through a subcontract chain
• Fair Work Act compliance
• Police checks and background verifications completed as required for healthcare, aged care and high-security sites; Working With Children Checks where required; site-specific inductions with compliance monitored through the rostering system
• Infection control training for staff working in aged care and healthcare environments
• Public liability and workers compensation insurance, professional indemnity where required
• Site-specific Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS), ongoing safety training, incident tracking and defined escalation protocols

Common questions

How is this different from Realcorp's aged care facility cleaning?

Agency cleaning supplies staff into a facility that directs and supervises the work, charged for the hours supplied. Facility cleaning is a contracted program where Realcorp owns the scope, roster, supervision and quality outcome. If the facility wants to keep control of the cleaning operation and just needs people, agency is the right service; if it wants to hand over responsibility for the result, the contracted service is.

What is the minimum engagement?

Realcorp states staff can be hired for a day or for a quarter, with flexible periods in between. There is no published minimum term.

How fast can a cleaner be on site?

Realcorp states its pool is available at short notice and positions the service around same-situation problems like a sick day or an outbreak. It does not publish a guaranteed fill time — agree the response expectation when setting up the account, before the first urgent call.

Who supervises the agency cleaner day to day?

The facility directs the work under a labour hire arrangement. Realcorp's contribution to quality is pre-placement training and testing, its app-based attendance and task recording, photo verification for critical tasks, and account contact when something needs correcting.

Do agency cleaners have police checks and infection control training?

Realcorp states police checks and background verifications are completed as required for aged care and healthcare sites, and that its staff are infection control trained for these environments. Confirm the specific clearances held for each placed worker as part of your own onboarding.

Can the same cleaner return for repeat shifts?

Realcorp emphasises continuity and relationship in its general service model, and states it offers continuity of assigned staff wherever possible. For agency placements this is worth requesting explicitly, since residents in aged care settings benefit from familiar faces.

Can agency supply be scaled up quickly for an outbreak?

Realcorp names a facility health outbreak as a scenario the service is built for. Its published work on rapid mobilisation elsewhere — deploying over 15 cleaners per site within a three-day window for student accommodation turnover — indicates the workforce depth behind that claim, though that example is a different sector.

Which locations does the agency service cover?

Realcorp states it offers agency aged care cleaner hire in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide. Its detailed published client work is Melbourne-based, with some Adelaide student accommodation work. For a facility outside Melbourne, confirm local supply capability before relying on the service for cover. Note that Realcorp's retired FAQ page lists this service for Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide while the current agency page adds Perth — worth clarifying directly.

Getting a quote

The starting point is a conversation about your rostering pattern rather than a site inspection, since the service is charged on staff hours supplied. Expect: an enquiry describing the facility, shift pattern, clearances required and expected volume; agreement on hourly rates, notice expectations and clearance requirements; and account set-up so that future requests are a phone call rather than a fresh procurement. Realcorp states it responds to proposal requests within 24 hours, and its proposal form carries a dedicated Aged Care Cleaner Labour Hire path.

Contact: 1300 307 298 · sales@realcorp.net.au. Realcorp Commercial Cleaning, 4 Graeme Ave, Montmorency VIC 3094. Realcorp was founded in 2016 by John Reale, a Chartered Accountant, and is 100% Australian owned.