Times, They Are A Changin'

In a typical year, departments will see employees come and go, budgets fluctuate up and down and cleaning priorities change. In a time of economic distress, employees don't come, they go, budgets go down, not up and cleaning frequencies decrease. The global economy has no doubt had a strong effect on in-house departments.

For the fourth consecutive year, Housekeeping Solutions has reported on the state of the in-house cleaning market in its annual "Reader Survey," here. Not surprising, budgets and labor (the largest budgetary line item in any department) have taken the largest hit since we first began surveying the industry in 2007.

With new construction and facility renovations on the rise in 2007, staffing was expected to grow in 31 percent of custodial departments. However, since early 2009, facility construction has slowed and today, only 12 percent of departments expect an increase in staffing. Budgets have been hit even harder, flip-flopping from an expected 48 percent increase and 13 percent decrease in 2007 to only a 15 percent increase and 46 percent decrease this year. This is no doubt due to economic cutbacks trickling down to custodial departments.

To offset shrinking budgets and minimal staff, departments have been forced to reduce cleaning frequencies and postpone purchasing, while maintaining departmental goals. This has been challenging, but many departments are staying afloat by identifying cleaning efficiencies and working with distributors to obtain value-added services that will help stretch purchasing dollars.