FaCilities How Clean Should It Be? By Dave Sagaser Setting staff ratios to meet industry guidelines It is not unusual to hear campus housing facility managers asking questions of their colleagues: “Can you send me a copy of your organizational chart?” “What is per square foot cost running these days?” “Has anyone felt an impact from hiring freezes?” The most realistic manager knows that the topic of custodial and maintenance staffing ratios is frequently addressed in such conversations and that achieving the right ratio has a lot to do with an operation’s efficiency and the ability to deliver good customer service. The first step in improving service and efficiency is to accurately and objectively analyze the current level of service. At Southern Illinois University22 Talking STick Edwardsville, Bob Legate explains that they start with the standards set forth by APPA-Leadership in Educational Facilities. “We build our custodial program around APPA’s Five Levels of Clean, seeking to maintain a Level 2 during the academic year.” APPA publishes a list of key indicators for five levels of cleanliness, from Level 1, the highest (spotless), to Level 5, the lowest (unkempt). The detailed descriptions are not only a good starting place for defining the current level of service but can also serve as a planning tool for determining goals to be achieved or as information that can be used to explain how the level of service would change as the result of specific cuts.