With shrinking janitorial service budgets, how can you as a facilities manager work with your janitorial service to keep your building clean?
In a perfect world, you would have a budget that accurately reflects the time and money it takes to keep your facilities in top-notch condition.
You would have your janitorial service come nightly, completing every task until the building once again shines like a diamond.
But the realities of ever-shrinking janitorial service budgets mean you may not have the dollars allotted to get exactly what you want.
Still, with a little communication and planning, you can get what you need.
As we communicate with facility managers out in the field, the biggest recurring complaint we hear is that facility budgets are continuously being cut.
But how can that be with so many Fortune 500 companies reporting record profits?
Take for instance the Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford Motor Company—at one point reporting a $2.4 billion profit.
So how can so many companies have so little cash dedicated to keeping their facilities in order?
The reality is the economy has not always recovered evenly across all sectors.
Even as we move into a more stable economic climate, it can take years for budgets that were cut to slowly return to normal operating levels.
Companies continue to be cautious with economic conditions still unpredictable, and many organizations are profitable because they are being run lean.
So how can you as a facility manager combat a shrinking facilities budget and still get a level of janitorial service that meets your basic needs?
1) Make sure your Cleaning Specification reflects the cuts in your budget
Many facility managers go wrong by only cutting labor without cutting the frequency with which cleaning tasks are performed.
This all too often sets your janitorial service up for failure because it becomes impossible to meet the same expectations after a significant labor reduction.
Across many industries, labor has been eliminated—and we all know you cannot simply give the tasks of two people to one person.
Sure, everyone can do a little more and work a little harder, but the math of 1 + 1 = 4 just doesn’t work.
If you eliminate two of your four janitorial service team members, you have to scale down the workload to reflect that.
It is going to change no matter what, but if you work with your janitorial service company, you can help determine which services are cut as “non-essential.”
Here at Stathakis, our customers who have most successfully weathered shrinking janitorial service budgets have reduced services and clearly communicated it to their tenants.
By strategically cutting certain line items and managing expectations, everyone stays on the same page.
For example, tenants are not as likely to complain about vacuuming on a Tuesday if they know it is being done at a reduced frequency on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
2) Good communication is key to keeping tenants happy on a thin budget
Good communication is key to keeping tenants happy on a thin budget.
You can’t afford to clean every square inch of the building every day.
If you keep in contact with your tenants and understand how they use their space, you can customize a cleaning program with your janitorial service that focuses on the areas that matter most to them.
3) Don’t let a thin budget be an excuse for an unclean building
Don’t let a thin budget be an excuse for an unclean building.
Set clear, realistic expectations for your cleaning company.
Meeting with your janitorial service regularly is even more critical when you are operating on a razor-thin budget.
Your janitorial services company likely wants your business—they want to help—so partner with them to get through this tough economic climate.
Make your janitorial service company your ally.
There is no reason your building cannot look presentable on a tighter budget.
Spending less on cleaning will mean you don’t get everything done every time, but you can keep things looking good and running smoothly.
The key is to make sure every hour spent cleaning is used in a meaningful way.
At Stathakis, we call it “Smart Cleaning” because it takes planning and intention to apply resources properly and deliver the best value.
With no end in sight for many budgets to return to previous levels, we understand that facility managers still have to ensure buildings are clean and tenants are satisfied.
Until budgets more accurately reflect what it takes to keep your facilities in their best condition, you can take steps to weather the crunch and enlist your janitorial service as an ally—making the dollars you do have work harder for you.
