Outsourcing your organization's commercial cleaning services will significantly reduce labor costs while improving operational efficiency.
Outsourcing Commercial Cleaning Services for Profit and Efficiency
In-house or direct hire labor is becoming more and more expensive, especially for smaller organizations with tight budgets.
Outsourcing support services, such as commercial cleaning services, can reduce operational costs while improving efficiency and productivity.
Unfortunately, business owners and school administrators are typically short on available time to perform in-depth research and make purchasing and service decisions based on price as opposed to quality and probable return on investment.
However, with the proper tools, perspective, and insight, it is relatively simple to identify and partner with a qualified custodial team that can eliminate cost and frustration while improving your organization's bottom line, as well as the health and productivity of building occupants.
The four core elements to success are:
- Understanding your Organizations Needs.
- Policy and Procedure Improvement.
- Product Consolidation and Innovation, and;
- Traning.
Organization Needs
The key to understanding your organization's needs is to walk through and document specific information regarding each space, including:
- Real square footage versus cleanable area.
- Priority and areas with special needs.
- The minimum number of days per week, or times per day, a specific area needs to be cleaned.
- The tasks that need to be completed for each designated space, as well as necessary cleaning tools and products.
- The amount of time it typically takes to clean an area while calculating in cleanable square footage and any special requirements.
- Define your organization's standard of 'clean.'
- Calculate the number of full-time employees necessary to facilitate your organization's needs, and the total cost of employment, including sick leave, probable workers compensation claims, lifetime pay increases, and training expenses, and;
- Calculate the full cost of cleaning tool and product procurement, storage, life-cycle management, and safe disposal.
Improving Policies and Procedures
During the walkthrough of your organization's various spaces, currently implemented processes should have been documented, as well as the underlying reasoning behind the decision to employ them.
This will help you and the outsourced provider determine where inefficient practices and policies can be altered to reduce building occupant dissatisfaction, a significant challenge for facilities managers.
According to a 2015, Q2 survey conducted by the U.S. Department of the Interior:
- 15% of respondents were not satisfied with the level of communication they received from the facilities management team.
- 31% believed the custodial, specifically office cleaning services, did not meet their needs.
- 47% said trash pickup did not meet their expectations, with another 26% reporting the same regarding recycling services.
- 12% were not satisfied with the way public restrooms were stocked or cleaned.
- 8% were dissatisfied with the time required to complete maintenance requests.
- 7% were not happy with the health, safety, and indoor air quality of their building/service, and;
- 14% were dissatisfied with the overall facilities maintenance service they received.
Source:
The most effective solution to address these gaps in satisfaction and service is to partner with your outsourced provider and survey the relevant occupants to determine what would serve their needs more effectively.
Analyze the results of that information and determine a quality, cost-effective plan with a health-first approach.
One of the best resources for surveying building occupants is SurveyMonkey.
Resources:
- Facilities - Maintenance Survey
- 2011 Facilities Maintenance Customer Satisfaction Survey
- Facilities Services Customer Satisfaction Survey
Consolidating and Innovating Product Purchasing and Use
Intelligently designed product consolidation significantly reduces overhead and procurement costs while eliminating numerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other toxic chemicals into the environment.
- An analysis of the cleanable spaces likely established that less than five products are necessary to sanitize the entire complex on average.
- Portable dilution control and chemical management systems reduce costs and waste, as well as worker exposure to cleaning chemicals.
- Microfiber-based cleaning tools further eliminate resource use and waste while providing superior performance and longevity when compared to cloth and cotton alternatives.
- Backpack vacuums reduce worker fatigue, repetitive motion stress, and office noise levels while reducing cleaning times.
- Certified green cleaning products are biodegradable, do not release toxins into the air (a primary cause of occupant illness, absenteeism, and reduced productivity), or the water (a contributing factor in climate change).
Innovative product adoption further reduces cost by automating basic, low-priority custodial tasks.
- Monitoring paper towel, soap, and toilet paper levels will significantly reduce issues with customer dissatisfaction related to facilities maintenance and supply tasks while helping to eliminate the spread of germs and bacteria throughout the building and protecting the public health.
- Specialized UV lighting can automate basic bathroom sanitation when the facilities are unoccupied to reduce maintenance costs, the potential for the spread of disease, and occupant complaints.
- Programmable automated floor scrubbing systems reduce resource (water, electricity, and gas) use, personnel costs, and time to task completion.
See Also:
- Technology Advancements in Green Janitorial Services
- Cleaning Services Tips to Promote Workplace Wellness
Traning
The expense of training an adequate number of full-time employees to support your organization's needs, versus the cost of retaining the services of a commercial cleaning services provider, is hard to ignore.
Federal rulings, such as the FDA's ban on antibacterial soap, as well as scientific research, pointing to the chemicals we use to clean our homes, schools, and offices as a root cause for cancer, premature death, and a host of other devastating illnesses, underscores the need to fully comprehend the hazards that go along with the application of chemical cleaning products, especially in an enclosed space, as they relate to the custodial staff and building occupants.
New information becomes available, regarding public health and safety, especially where toxic chemical applications are concerned, that can have a profound financial impact on unprepared businesses with inadequately trained employees.
Further training is required to educate non-custodial building occupants as to the nature and use of chemicals used within the facility.
Cost and liability can be significantly reduced by eliminating the use of toxic cleaning chemicals, resource-intensive cleaning processes, and inefficient cleaning tools and products by outsourcing your organization's cleaning requirements to an external vendor.
See Also:
References & Resources
Takeaway
Outsourcing your organization's commercial cleaning services needs reduces costs, improves efficiency and occupant satisfaction and, with a green certified partner, can improve your students and workers health and performance--eliminating occupant complaints, management headaches, and reduced profits.
- Take the time to understand your building and occupancy use needs before requesting any service bids.
- Focus on methods that improve efficiency while adhering to a health-first mentality.
- Reduce the costs of product life-cycle management and disposal by outsourcing all of your organizations needs to a licensed, third-party vendor.
- Eliminate the expense and liability of training in-house personnel by outsourcing complicated or repetitive tasks to experienced professionals with specialized, and often expensive, equipment.
If you would like to learn more about the advantages of outsourcing green commercial cleaning services for your school or business, contact us today for a free quote!
In Bakersfield CA, call (661) 437-3253
In Fresno CA, call (559) 206-1059
In Valencia CA, or Santa Clarita CA, call (661) 437-3253
