The Difference Between Scheduling And Workloading

A reader comments: “I am still confused about the difference between scheduling and workloading. Could you elaborate?”

Although we have covered this in past articles, let’s take time to break it out differently. The key to many issues is clearly defining terms. Although some may disagree with my definitions as either being too simplistic or inaccurate, I believe that you can take these concepts and refine them to fit your own perceptions. Note that as a small company your needs and goals are different in many ways from a large company with multiple locations. I believe that custodial best practices are important regardless of the size of your service.

Workloading is taking a job and breaking it down into the various tasks necessary to fulfill the SOW (Statement of Work) or PWS (Performance Work Statement). For instance, you need to carefully read the specifications and be clear on how often a task is to be performed to achieve the desired results. One example is vacuuming. How often do you vacuum and to what degree? If you say that you always vacuum wall to wall every visit you probably are wasting time and resources unless it is a very dirty, high traffic account. In a typical five-day-per-week account, you probably will vacuum wall to wall once or twice per week at best. Many companies call this thorough vacuuming and may only perform this task every 10 business days. The other days they simply spot vacuum with a focus on entrances and high traffic areas. This can make them much more competitive and workers are trained to visually inspect to make sure that they are not missing anything.

In the next article we will look at Scheduling as well as discuss different speeds. 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