The Cleaning Cost Squeeze

Are you facing the situation where your facility is growing – more occupants, more physical space required (sqm), more fixtures and equipment?

That’s great news but…..

At the same time are you being directed to maintain your costs? “Cleaning budgets can’t increase…we have just increased our labour costs, we can’t afford to spend more on other services”

You know intuitively that the workload for the cleaning service will increase:

• it takes longer to service the equipment/workstations, the increased density makes it more difficult to navigate, consumables need to be replensihed more often, increased volumes of dishes etc
• Bigger office workload but holding cleaning costs – what’s the answer?
• Consult your cleaning services provider
• Confirm the standards which need to be achieved

Typical options:

• Decrease the total cleaning frequency eg decrease from cleaning 5 days per week to 3 days per week
• Will this be acceptable to your staff and guests? Will hygiene levels be able to be maintained?
• Or identify where service standards need to stay high and what can be compromised, for example, kitchens and washrooms may be maintained at 5 days per week but cleaning of workstations may be reduced to a weekly task
• (or you can go to the market and find a cheaper provider…but beware there are risks – check out our article on the Dodgy Bros
• Your cleaning contractor should be using work loading calculations and be able to give you the costs for different scenarios

Implement and monitor
The most important question becomes, ‘is the new cleaning specification sustainable or do we really have to invest more to meet the needs of our property, staff and visitors?’

We’ll discuss other ways to save cleaning and facilities maintenance costs but if you have any questions do not hesitate to contact the team at Duticall.