Executive Housekeeping Today - Demo - (Page 7)

employees of contract cleaners. One survey indicated that some contract cleaners have turnover rates as high as 75%. The stability offered by in-house cleaners is a real benefit to customers as they know who to contact, when, and where. *Institutional knowledge: If an employee of an organization has been in a building for numerous years, they tend to get to know the building “like the back of their hand.” They can guide plumbers, electricians, and other trades persons—the knowledge that an in-house custodian gleans over the years can save a lot of time and money in getting to the root of problems quickly. There are tens of thousands of in-house cleaning professionals who go beyond the call of duty each and every day. Professional and well-trained in-house custodians who know the institution and its expectations inside and out can provide the service that an institution expects on a consistent basis. However, outsourcing of any in-house entity may be a viable business option. The outsourcing of custodial and janitorial services is a rapidly growing business that exceeds $50 billion annually and the services are fulfilling a need at many institutions. Since contracting of services is an operational reality at various types of facilities, what are some of the benefits and liabilities of outsourcing an operation? *Quality: A recent article quoting a vice president of an institution indicated that the reason the housekeeping operation was outsourced was because the level of quality provided by the in-house staff was unacceptable. After repeated trials to get better quality from the in-house staff, the tough decision was made to outsource. It could also be counter-argued that the reason some outsourced services are brought back in-house is because of poor quality, but this tends to be the exception rather than the rule and we need to be aware of that. Only one quarter of outsourced functions have been brought back in-house and that is usually because of quality or cost issues according to one survey. *Cost: Cost control is a serious issue for most institutions. A recent survey indicated that some institutions’ in-house costs for benefits are 25% or more of the base salary. The issue of benefits is a thorny one and one can argue until blue in the face, but the only way to address the benefit issue in-house is to develop strategies that offset or minimize the impact of the costs of benefits. In addition, salary bases are in most cases higher for in-house operations, and this, along with high benefit costs, contributes to significantly higher costs per square foot for an in-house cleaning operation versus a contract cleaning operation. The savings by outsourcing may be 25% or higher. The liability of this is that cost does not guarantee quality. *Efficiency: A survey taken a couple of years ago indicated that one reason outsourcing is considered is because of the perception (and maybe the reality for some) that contract cleaners are more efficient. The advent of widespread team cleaning and the phenomenal growth of backpack vacuums can in part be attributed to innovations implemented by contract cleaners. However, many of these methods are being used by proactive in-house cleaning operations. Efficiencies in custodial operations can be misleading. Just because a contract cleaner indicates that their average custodian can clean 40,000 square feet and an in- In-house or Contract? That is the question. house custodian can only clean 20,000 square feet does not tell the whole story. Housekeeping quality and cost of service is based upon multiple factors such as tasks, frequencies, time allocated, and quality expected. This is a complex formula and one needs to track the relationships of these variables to determine the real facts. *Specialty services: A contract cleaner may have additional specialty services they may be able to provide that make the whole package of cleaning services attractive. A large contract cleaner may have specialty carpet cleaning trucks and equipment, heavy-duty floor equipment, access to flood and fire restoration services, window cleaning, and other services. In other words, their whole package may make it easier to place everything under one umbrella, rather than having routine in-house cleaning performed by in-house staff and emergency or specialty cleaning contracted out for those particular services only. The liability is that many local contract cleaning operations may not have all of these elements available to meet your needs. *Core business: Some organizations may make the decision to outsource because they want to concentrate on their core business or end product and no longer wish to have to digress from their business to deal with issues such (continued on next page) July 2007/Executive Housekeeping Today 7

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Executive Housekeeping Today - Demo

Contents Executive Corner FTEs: A Fresh Approach to an Old Challenge Cleaning in the United Kingdom Frugal Housekeeper The Green Scene

Executive Housekeeping Today - Demo

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