What do the industry’s top consultants view as the biggest issues facing the in-house cleaning profession? Our cover story this month attempts to pick the brains of leading industry observers and come up with some answers for you. For one thing, industry pundits are making a lot of noise regarding the need for a formal management degree or certification for housekeeping directors to improve professionalism.

Market-specific associations like the American Society of Healthcare Environmental Services have developed a designation that addresses healthcare’s specific housekeeping management needs. But there is no counterpart in the education, industrial or governmental arenas. Similarly, we could use more encouragement from top-placed executives in the various building markets as a way of giving professional designations the necessary impetus.

Some people believe that the way to increase professionalism in cleaning and to improve the demand for certification is to make it part of the curricula devoted to undergraduate and graduate degrees in facilities management. Housekeeping gets very little “book time” in these programs, in spite of the fact that this mission represents about a third of most operations budgets. Academic credibility can’t help but lead to increased respect for cleaning services throughout the facilities chain of command.

But, first, someone in the housekeeping field must take the lead in such an initiative. Who of you in the cleaning industry will take the first step in helping educate the rest of the facilities world regarding the critical nature of your missions?




POSTED ON: 11/1/2002