Executive Housekeeping Today - September 2008 - (Page 6)

frugal housekeeper Cleanliness and Learning in Higher Education In 1992, APPA published a seminal work titled Custodial Staffing Guidelines for Educational Facilities. The work was based on a concept that was in the embryonic stage in 1986 and then grew in momentum through 1988 when the APPA Board of Directors commissioned a task force to address custodial staffing issues at institutions of higher education. The Guidelines became so popular that it was revised in 1998. The two editions addressed a critical need in facilities management at educational institutions. Even though institutions were growing in size and in delivery of services, custodial staffing budgets were either staying static, or in many cases, decreasing. In other words, each custodian was being asked to clean more square feet than ever before. The facilities managers did not have an empirical document to fall back on that indicated how many custodians were really needed to complete the tasks at hand and the impact of such on productivity or cleanliness. The Guidelines became that document and defined five levels of cleanliness and clearly stated that as the square feet of area assigned to a custodian increased, there was a direct impact on the level of cleanliness. The second edition of the Guidelines clearly identifies this phenomenon. According to the book’s staffing service levels chart, a custodian can clean 87,000 i by Jeffrey L. Campbell, Ph.D., and Alan S. Bigger, M.A. square feet of carpet office space at Level 5. However, you get what you pay for at Level 5, where the level of cleanliness defined as “Unkempt neglect—floors and carpets are dull and dirty, dingy, scuffed, and/or marred. There is conspicuous buildup of old dirt ” The research for the Guidelines shows the impact of decreasing custodial staffing: Less staff results in dirtier spaces. The findings of the Guidelines are based upon the feedback of hundreds of individuals and institutions. In addition, the expertise of professional organizations, such as ISSA, the worldwide cleaning industry association, was integrated into the publication. The Guidelines have been in use for over two decades by an ever-increasing number of institutions to validate staffing requirements and to justify the need for custodial budgets. Even though the Guidelines addressed staffing levels and the impact of staffing levels on cleanliness, it did not address the impact of cleanliness on the students who were involved in higher education. If there was an impact of staffing levels on cleanliness, could the case be made that there was an impact of the levels of cleanliness on an individual student’s ability to learn? Representatives from ISSA and APPA started to ponder these issues a few years ago. Background Information In 2005, representatives from APPA and ISSA met to discuss conducting collaborative projects that would enhance the facilities management profession. After considerable discussion, the two associations decided to concentrate on cleanliness in higher education institutions and the impact that cleanliness has on student performance. The representatives concluded that a study should be conducted that would seek to determine if there was any correlation between the five levels of cleanliness and student performance. Such documentation would provide unique insights for facilities services providers. The representatives from APPA and ISSA met several times to clarify the direction of the research project. They concluded that the project should be coordinated through APPA’s Center for Facilities Research (CFaR). Alan Bigger applied for approval through CFaR for the research project to be conducted by Jeff Campbell of Brigham Young University (BYU), the students of BYU’s Facilities Management Program, and Bigger. CFaR accepted the project and APPA, in concurrence with ISSA, agreed to fund and support the project that would seek to: 1. Determine if there is a correlation between the five levels of cleanliness and student learning. 2. Determine if there is a link 6 Executive Housekeeping Today/September 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Executive Housekeeping Today - September 2008

Executive Housekeeping Today - September 2008 Contents Executive Corner 2008 Salary Survey Results Strengthening Worker Safety in a High Throughput Laundry Frugal Housekeeper How CIMS Relates to You Feature Article The Green Scene The Un-Comfort Zone: What's Pushing Your Buttons? Inside the Industry Product Highlights New Members Joint IEHA/ISSA Members Advertisers’ Index Calendar of Events Inside I.E.H.A. What I.E.H.A. Has Done For Me

Executive Housekeeping Today - September 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.