This tip is a follow-up to cleaning an account with two day porters. At the account in question, these workers are to be dedicated and scheduled for specific high profile work to make sure that key areas are always clean.

The challenge to this approach is that a lot of productive time may be lost waiting for an event, which may happen twice a day or twice per week. It is essential that the day porters have a comprehensive check list of "to do" items that have to be addressed any time they are not responding to a request from one of the tenants. I still believe that a split shift is the best approach since wet work such as mopping floors, vacuuming or performing other noisy tasks need to be performed before or after the regular office hours.

If you need to stay within a set 2,080 hour year (8 x 260), you may need to cut one or more of the day porter's hours so they can work weekends to perform periodic work such as HWE (hot water extraction), stripping/scrubbing/recoating, scrubbing out restrooms, pressure washing entrance, etc. The determination of whether to adjust one or both will be based on whether the work can be performed by one person or will require two individuals.

My suggestion is that you work closely with the porters to develop a schedule that the tenants can live with while fulfilling the specifications. One or both porters should be knowledgeable in floor care so that they can effectively and efficiently fulfill the expectations.

Your comments and questions are important. I hope to hear from you soon. Until then, keep it clean...

Mickey Crowe has been involved in the industry for over 35 years. He is a trainer, speaker and consultant. You can reach Mickey at 678-314-2171 or CTCG50@comcast.net.


posted on 7/21/2015