Economy Forces Managers to Reassess Cleaning

In years past, economists argued that the jan/san industry was recession proof, that cleaning would always be important to the health and well being of building occupants. Although these issues are certainly top-of-mind, shrinking cleaning budgets as a result of our current economic strife have left managers struggling to make up for the shortcomings.

As staffing levels are reduced and departments strive to do even more with much less, managers are reassessing their cleaning goals. For instance, cleaning frequencies are changing and what was once done every day might only be tended to every other day — freeing up overworked employees to address the most critical cleaning issues. Daily tasks such as trash removal, dusting and vacuuming in low-traffic and out-of-sight areas have been reduced in an effort to maintain proper disinfection and perception of clean in high-profile areas of the facility.

This month’s cover story, “The Big Squeeze”, explains how managers are tackling the issue of doing more with less. Some departments have been successful with the introduction of more effective and efficient products and equipment — tightening up cleaning times and increasing employee productivity. Others have explored workloading software in conjunction with industry-recommended cleaning times to streamline their cleaning.

No matter what departments are doing, one thing is clear, cleaners are affected by our current economic situation and managers are facing some tough cleaning decisions.