Statistics That Justify Cleaning Costs And Investments

As executives face the perpetual temptation to sacrifice parts of the cleaning budget and allocate funds to flashier aspects of the business, facility cleaning managers need to be armed with statistics, trends and overall justification for the current protocols they have in place — and for potential upgrades in the future. In many senses, custodians and housekeeping staffs are much like referees: they fly under the radar when all is operating smoothly, but as soon as a mistake is made, they'll seemingly never hear the end of it. The ramifications of inadequate cleaning, however, can far outweigh those of a blown call. At minimum, dirty lobbies or uncleaned spills can ruin the chances of a repeat customer or result in a bad Yelp review. At worst, businesses could be on the hook for multimillion-dollar litigation with their reputation on the line.

Hospitals, nursing homes, hotels and restaurants are just a handful of facility types with unique stakes and challenges when it comes to sufficient cleaning, yet it can be difficult for managers to advocate for resources or additional staff. The 2019 Facility Cleaning Decisions Management Survey indicated that 61 percent of departments that experienced previous budget cuts still haven't rebounded from the reduction. The same report indicated that 53 percent of managers believe that their department is inadequately staffed to complete necessary cleaning tasks, requiring the 'do more with less' approach more often than not.

A persistent commitment to protocols and product investment, however, can pay tenfold for margins in the long run. More importantly, it can keep employees, customers, students, patients and the facility itself safe from unnecessary harm. The data ahead is a snapshot of how costly an under-equipped cleaning department can be for a variety of different facility types — and how comparatively-minimal investments can keep an entire operation afloat.

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How Cleaning Impacts Hospitality And Retail Facilities