Fighting The Good Fight

Tight budgets are an ongoing challenge for custodial managers, and in this gloomy economy there is little expectation of change. So, when the call for budget cuts comes, housekeeping department managers shouldn’t be surprised that they are often among the first to pay the price. As a result, outsourcing custodial services to independent contractors is more common than ever.

In Michigan — where it has been particularly tough to keep jobs in-house — more than 40 percent of public school districts are now contracting out at least one support service. Custodial departments have experienced the biggest hit and that trend towards outsourcing continues to grow. At least 42 additional districts are considering the switch to outsourcing, including Birmingham Public Schools.

“It’s simple economics,” says Neil Campbell, Birmingham’s executive director of facility operations. “State funding is growing at half the rate of inflation, which automatically means you don’t have enough money next year to do what you did this year. It means you have a recurring cut every year.”

As Campbell and others have learned, just the suggestion of privatization can stir up strong emotions. To help eliminate the threat of outsourcing, housekeeping managers should be prepared for the argument long before it is brought up at their institution.

“The best thing to do is for managers to sit back and look at it pragmatically,” says Alan S. Bigger, director of facilities at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind. “What can I do to ensure it doesn’t happen to me?”

Keeping outsourcing at bay can often be a losing battle, but these five tips can help housekeeping managers improve their chances of maintaining an in-house team.

1. Get In The Game

It’s impossible to win the fight if you’re not in the ring, which is why cleaning managers should work to become part of the decision-making process. If the organization is considering outsourcing, request that management open the bidding process to include a bid on behalf of the in-house department. This isn’t always feasible, particularly in certain union situations, but it is the best way to have a competitive battle.

“The fact is we need to compete with the real world or we’ll sink,” says Dave Daniels, district facilities supervisor for West Ottawa Public Schools in Holland, Mich. “Here is a simple formula for a difficult and sometimes emotional issue: Price plus service plus quality equals value.”

More often than not, the bottom line is the top reason for outsourcing. When price is the primary focus, it is important that management compares apples to apples. Whether or not the department submits a bid, a housekeeping manager must help decision makers create reasonable bid specifications and set realistic expectations.

“There’s no room for complacency; we need to tell our story,” Bigger says. “There’s external marketing happening so shouldn’t we take the time to market ourselves internally?”

Without some education from housekeeping, upper management probably won’t fully appreciate what the department does. That means bid specs often lay out only basic functions and omit many “little” things that require abundant time and energy.

“We had bid specs that had to be re-written because they didn’t cover a lot of the tasks we do on a daily basis,” says Tom Zaglaniczny, facilities engineer for Grosse Pointe Public Schools in Mich. “For example, at this time of year we have kids with the flu. If we get a call about a kid who got sick in the classroom, we have just minutes to get in there and clean it up before everyone is sharing the wastebasket.”

Whether it’s cleaning vomit or such non-custodial tasks as painting and moving furniture, make sure management knows everything the department does. If all of these tasks are not clearly defined in the bid specs, management will receive low-ball offers with which the existing department simply cannot compete.

“When you are dealing with an outsource entity, it’s all about the contract,” Bigger says. “You may have a flood or things that need to be moved, or something else you did in house but now you have to pay extra for. Add-ons can undermine what was perceived as savings. What you write down is what you’ll get — no more and maybe less.”

2. Define The Undefinable

Writing detailed and accurate bid specs is important, but there are some things that are less easily quantified. It is equally important for housekeeping managers to vocalize these issues to decision makers.

Perhaps the most convincing argument for in-house operations is the sense of ownership its employees bring to the job. Contractors may be there only for the paycheck, while full-time staffers become part of the community.

“It’s very hard to find an outside company that will care about the facility as much as employees do,” says Henry Martinez, executive housekeeper for Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Hotel in Orlando, Fla. “I find when you have employees internally, the quality of the job will always be superior to outsourcing. When you have a sense of belonging to a facility or industry, you tend to be more motivated to provide a better service.”

Also important to consider is the organization’s image in the community. As more jobs move overseas, the public is growing tired of outsourcing. The purchasing or voting public may not be happy about learning that a company or school district is firing employees in order to hire a contractor that offers sub-par pay and no health care or retirement benefits.

It may be worthwhile to remind decision makers of their roles as community stewards. Better yet, the public can do this on behalf of the department.

“Last year when a contractor came out with their presentations, a parent asked a guy from a national cleaning company how long it would take to change a light bulb in a classroom. He said, ‘About a week and a half.’ With the in-house staff, it’s done immediately,” Zaglaniczny says. “The public outcry helped sway the school board’s decision.”

Institutional knowledge can also be lost when in-house crews are dismissed. Although career custodians are not as common as they once were, many companies have the same employees for decades. Contractors, on the other hand, can have turnover rates as high as 60 to 300 percent a year, Bigger says. High turnover and absenteeism rates create voids and can cause quality control issues.

Turnover and absenteeism are areas that housekeeping managers can, and should, quantify. Providing these and other benchmarks to decision makers can make a big difference in the bidding process.

“The contractor can come in with reams of diagrams that show what they can do,” Bigger says. “We need to be as good as or, if we want to survive, better than the competition. We need to show the services we provide, the costs, the value-added services, the savings. If we don’t run it as a business we probably deserve to go out of business.”

3. Give To Get

There may come a time in the bidding process when managers have to give a little to get a little. Take an honest, objective look at the department. What do contractors do differently to save money? Are any of these ideas practical for the cleaning department? Could any of these changes make cleaning more efficient and affordable?

“If nothing else, this has made us more aware of our need to be competitive,” Daniels says. “We have milled down our staff through attrition over the years. We now do more square feet per person than ever, which requires us to work smarter.”

While not all housekeeping departments have the freedom to negotiate, those that do may need to lose a few battles in order to win the war.

The first time Zaglaniczny’s department went head-to-head with contractors, it won, hands down, based on the numbers. More recently, however, outsourcing proved more economical. This time, Zaglaniczny’s department decided to give up some concessions to become more affordable. The custodians now pick up about 10 percent of their health care plans, pay part of their retirement plans, and instituted a two-tier wage system for new hires.

4. Admit Department Weaknesses

Many housekeeping managers view outsourcing as an all-or-nothing proposition. In fact, there’s no shame in asking for help if managers don’t have the staff, equipment or skills for certain tasks.

“You can’t be all things to all people all of the time,” Bigger says. “It’s perceived that if the contractors get a little piece they’ll take it all. In fairness, some of the most effective cleaning tasks I’ve learned came by observing contract cleaners. They weren’t perfect at cleaning our facility, but I learned from them.”

Hiring contractors for some specialty services is a great way to beat management to the punch and to prove that in-house management can be team players who are willing to contribute to the bottom line. Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Hotel’s staff isn’t capable of cleaning windows so it uses an outside company for the job. West Ottawa Public Schools doesn’t own the equipment needed to re-coat its gym floors so it hires out the task.

“We outsource the cleaning of our ceiling rafters, which requires hang or lift work, and some high dusting, which also requires lift work,” says Daminga Lash, housekeeping manager for Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. “You must be certified to operate certain lifts and our staff does not have the specialty training for these areas.”

5. Gather Evidence

The best way to argue against privatization is to show its failures. Many organizations that once outsourced their cleaning later reversed the decision and returned to in-house crews. Talking to cleaning managers at these facilities can provide great background for a debate against outsourcing.

To find such examples, search online, attend association meetings and conventions, and keep in contact with peers. If an institution that switched back from contracting to an in-house department is exposed, find out what went wrong and use that information to lobby for in-house staff.

Mall of America started by outsourcing its third shift cleaning, but brought it back in-house “because we were able to do a more effective and efficient job,” Lash says.

Six years ago, Grosse Pointe Public Schools used an outside vendor for substitute custodians. When the contractors tried to clean classrooms like offices, “we got rid of the company and brought back our guys,” Zaglaniczny says.

“We have of course been following the results of other districts that have outsourced,” Daniels says. “There is no doubt that in some districts it has worked, but we have seen mixed results.”

Becky Mollenkamp is a freelance writer based near Des Moines, Iowa and is a frequent contributor to Housekeeping Solutions magazine.