Who Should Perform Quality Control Cleaning Inspections?

Many Building Service Contractors authorize their onsite supervisors to conduct the final Quality Control inspections for an account. This is not best practices for many reasons. 

First of all, the onsite supervision has too much invested in the day to day operations to be an unbiased inspector. He/she will be tempted to take into account the realities of the night before. Such realities may include a late start, absenteeism, emergencies (real and not so real) as well as equipment malfunctions and other excuses. 

With such information in their head, they will tend to grade the work on a sliding scale to allow for these excuses. They also are emotionally engaged with their staff and may be reluctant to make work Unsat for a worker who did them a favor by staying late or covering other tasks.

Inspections should be conducted on different levels beginning with front line worker. If he/she has been trained to a standard, providing the correct equipment and allowed sufficient time to perform the prescribed tasks, they should inspect their own work and correct any deficiencies they find. If they are using the same inspection form and grading system as the onsite supervisor and Quality Control inspector they can identify areas missed and make note of the corrections.

The onsite supervisor should accompany them on their self-inspections often enough to verify that they are being performed correctly. This one act will give the onsite supervisor insights into how effective the training has been as well as adjusting training for future staff. With the onsite supervisor partnering with the worker, they can better learn each other’s expectations based on a clear understanding of the Statement of Work.

Some of you will react to the preceding suggestion noting that it will involve too much time and effort. My contention is that it could be a tremendous investment in accountability and reduced complaints. 

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.