Frontline Supervisors Need To Know Labor Hours

Each business manages their contracts in different ways. For instance, some companies provide a copy of the contract to the front line supervisor and staff to get buy in from each participant. Other companies keep them in the dark and provide only the most essential information. Others go to the point of expecting the staff to “do the best they can” without really knowing specifics. 

Such lack of guidance can be very expensive to a company that does not trust their own people. Of course, it is important that confidential information about an account not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. The goal should be to provide enough information for the cleaning team to be able to intelligently manage the contract.

For a front line supervisor to manage his/her account, they must at least know how many labor hours are allocated per shift per day. This allows for variations in worker hours since the total is what matters, not how many workers show up. In addition, they need to be able to bank enough of the total labor hours to cover periodic and project work which may only be performed monthly or even less often. They can compare actual labor hours to the budgeted on a day to day basis so that by Thursday of each week, they know whether they are ahead or behind for a manageable time period. By Friday, they can adjust by limiting hours or bringing in additional staff to complete all the work for the week.

Over time, the front line supervisor will know earlier in the week how labor hours are going to add up and be able to schedule substitutes or shorten hours to stay within budget. They can also make adjustments to assigned work so that each worker is producing at their maximum capacity even though the tasks will vary by area. By having this basic information, a front line supervisor can stay within budget and over time, improve performance by having a baseline to work from. 

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.