Survey: Staffing Challenges For In-house Departments - Member Content

Staffing challenges have plagued in-house custodial executives for years. But in 2014, managers started to see a shift and this year, departments are more comfortable with the professionals working within the departments.

In our 9th Annual Facility Cleaning Decisions Reader Survey, we asked custodial executives in K-12 schools, colleges/universities, as well as healthcare, commercial, hospitality and government facilities about the staffing challenges that they currently face. Below are their responses.

Questions included:
Which employee issues impact your custodial department?
Do you support employee certification/accreditation or offer advancement opportunities to your custodial employees?
Are you or your employes required to attend ongoing training or continued education (CEUs) offerings to maintain personal credentialing?
What is your annual percent of turnover within the department?
Do you believe your turnover rate is lower, about the same or higher than other facilities?
On average, how long does a janitor stay with your company?
What is the main reason your janitors leave?
Do you plan to add staff to the department in 2015?
What do you look for potential staff when recruiting?
How important is it that janitors on staff are paid a living wage?
Where do you start new janitor's pay at?
What retention strategies have you tried with your custodial staff?
Which method of employee recruitment is most effective for filling open positions?
Which screening process do you use when hiring janitors?