In continuing the discussion regarding day versus night cleaning, it must be noted that there is always a tradeoff when cleaners have to perform the bulk of their dry tasks around tenants and visitors. The ideal is to have day porters on task to keep restrooms policed, front doors touched up and spills taken care of immediately while the night crew does the heavy cleaning and re-stocking of restrooms.  If this technique is handled properly there can be a 10 to 20 percent overall savings in labor being reduced from the night crew tasks.  

If the day porter is not managed or becomes a gopher for the tenants then there can be a 10 to 20 percent increase in total labor with no appreciable improvement in service. With a well managed schedule a day porter could have frequencies for high/low dusting tasks by floor/section, re-stocking rest rooms at the end of the day and even pulling trash at the end of the day thereby relieving night crew of having to deal with those tasks. The property manager and tenants would have to be flexible in accepting some trash cans with some waste in them the next morning and the carpet having been walked on.

Many of today’s contracts are prescriptive based which unnecessarily increases labor with little appearance benefit to the buildings involved. An example of true performance based cleaning is a typical commercial office area. The trash is pulled daily, debris or paper dots are swept up, vacuuming occurs every 5 to 10 days with a more frequent cleaning of hallways, and dusting is done 2 times a month.  The restrooms are kept stocked by a day porter and the night crew cleans and re-stocks only when necessary. The results are lower costs for the property management company and a clean office space for us. Since this is a low traffic building, we do not have a serious problem with supplies or soiling that is part of a high traffic public building.  

In summary, the difference depends on many factors that can drive the direct labor hours up or down.  Wet work such as stripping, re-finishing, most buffing, carpet cleaning, deep scrubbing restrooms and other tasks will be scheduled at night, weekends or whenever the building is least active with traffic.  Overall, well managed day cleaning can improve appearance of a building if the property management and tenants cooperate. There will usually be overlap of some tasks thereby duplication of time.  Night cleaning (or when the building is closed) will always be more productive (resulting in lower direct labor hours) if all other things are equal as to equipment, supplies, management, etc.

Finally it should be stressed that no two buildings are exactly alike due to age, tenants, use, weather and expectations.  

Your comments and questions are always welcome.  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 9/30/2013