When Rolando Villanueva first arrived in Malta, he planned to stay for a holiday. With degrees in business management, marketing, communication, and project management, he had already built a successful career spanning banking, boating, and business support. As his time in Malta was nearing its end, he found that the Hi-Care Services team was looking for a cleaning manager.

“I went from planning to leave Malta within a week to settling into a new career in a new location,” Rolando recalls. He quickly saw the parallels between offering prime cleaning service here and having managed boats in Australia.

“Managing boats means more than skippering. When you’re looking after the cleaning and maintenance of boats, you need to divide the vessel into sections, assign staff to specific rooms and check that everything is done to a high standard,” Rolando explains. “You’re liaising with clients and workers and regularly deal with unforeseen problems.”

In both locations, recruiting, training and managing the right team members has been critical for business and client success. “Cleaning services have been the foundation of Hi-Care Services as a company,” Rolando explains, “and while the business has branched out into other areas, cleaning remains a significant revenue stream.”

Most of the company’s business comes from word-of-mouth recommendations. “Our clients like that our service delivery lives up to the company name – ‘Hi-Care’ means our teams will do everything we can to clean any premises to a high standard.” In practice, that means putting in an extra 20 minutes beyond the time originally planned if that’s necessary to get a job done perfectly.

Rolando currently manages a team of 20 cleaners across Malta and is constantly on the lookout for new team members. “We need people who are happy to work to high standards. As long as someone has the right attitude, we can provide them with the training they need.” Having several years of experience in a training role in the banking sector gave Rolando the experience to create efficient training programmes.

It’s also advantageous for cleaners to speak at least a little bit of English to communicate with clients on different job sites. Job sites can vary widely as Hi-Care Services teams clean offices, common areas in residential buildings, commercial premises and condominiums as well as offering post-construction cleaning.

“It’s easy to look at cleaning work as a stopgap, but some of our staff have gone on to become team leaders, so you can have job progression in this field,” Rolando explains. Some of Hi-Care Services’ cleaners have stayed with the company for years because they enjoyed the job stability and a supportive work environment.

“I believe in treating everyone with respect, and I understand that proper cleaning requires training,” Rolando says. “Think about something as seemingly simple as a washing machine – they all work differently, so it’s our job to ensure our cleaning teams know how to operate the different brands they’re expected to use.”

Having respect for team members also means giving them the best tools to do their job and creating realistic schedules. Rolando also personally checks in on each job to see how team members are performing and who needs additional training.

Clients notice the difference in the level of cleanliness and the company’s efficiency. “When prospective clients ask for a quotation, we get back to them fast to set up a meeting on their premises and learn more about the job we’re quoting for,” Rolando says.

“Without seeing premises, it’s hard to quote accurately which can lead to problems later, but we’re not only thorough, we’re also fast and aim to submit a quotation within 24 hours of an enquiry.” Rates differ based on the stage a building is in with post-construction cleaning requiring more time and effort than regular weekly office cleaning, for example.

Another differentiator between Hi-Care Services and its competitors is the company’s high level of transparency. Hi-Care’s leadership team had an app developed that allows cleaners to punch in and punch out when they visit a client’s site.

“The app makes billing easier, but it also ensures that our clients know exactly how long the team spent on their job and have the peace of mind of knowing they’re only paying for the services we delivered.”

While the company originally focused on offering services on the mainland of Malta, the team will soon look after clients in Gozo and is working on expanding its business there. “We already have a small prospect base in Gozo, and as that’s growing, we’ll be building a dedicated team there,” Rolando says. Expanding Hi-Care’s cleaning operations in Gozo is one of Rolando’s goals for 2025.

Another goal is to expand areas of the business that require cleaning throughout the entire year. “We all know that the Maltese islands are busier during the main tourist season,” Rolando says. “As visitors come and go, Airbnb and short-let property owners need professional cleaning services. While we love taking care of those clients, we want to focus on expanding other areas of our business such as commercial cleaning, office cleaning or keeping the common areas of shared buildings looking perfect.”

As the business grows, Rolando believes the team will need flexibility as well as high standards to meet and exceed customer expectations. “One of the biggest differences I noticed between working in Australia and Malta is the high level of flexibility here,” he says. “In Australia, everything used to be mapped out and planned for the entire week. Here, it’s much more common to get last-minute requests from clients.”

Always having a plan B for his team is Rolando’s way of fulfilling these requests. “I make sure that our teams are trained in the specifics of the properties they work in, and as soon as I need to move someone between jobs, I make sure another person is training.”

As the team is growing, their commitment to high standards, respect for team members and building trust-based relationships with clients will help Hi-Care Services thrive and deliver to clients in Malta and Gozo.