In-house facility managers consistently confront numerous challenges across multiple building types and environments that could be effectively addressed through well-managed outsourced janitorial services.
Facility Management Cleaning Challenges
The COVID-19 pandemic seriously disrupted building maintenance and hygiene programs, leaving in-house facilities managers to face rapidly emerging challenges within and without.
According to a recent Facility Cleaning Decisions Management Study, where 90% of respondents claimed to feel "safe from outsourcing threats," 71% claimed they faced ongoing competition from outsourcing agencies for all cleaning tasks, 48% cited external competition in the areas of grounds and window maintenance, and 24% said their teams faced external competition in the area of general maintenance tasks.
When asked about the most extensive cleaning challenges faced in their facilities, 57% of respondents said restrooms, and another 16% cited entryways--the two most challenging to clean areas of nearly all buildings.
The Misconception Regarding Outsourcing as Competition
Outsourced cleaning and facilities maintenance services are not meant to compete with, but complement, in-house teams.
Further, according to the Management Study, over the next 12 months, facilities managers plan to implement a combination of strategies to confront their modern cleaning challenges, including:
- 50% Hire and retain quality staff.
- 42% Improve staff performance and cleaning results.
- 40% Increase the number of cleaning and facilities maintenance staff.
- 33% Increase departmental emphasis on green cleaning and sustainability.
- 29% Increase the rate and quality of staff training.
- 15% Cut cleaning costs, and;
- 15% Improve the overall perception of the custodial department.
Outsourcing addresses and compliments each target without sacrificing departmental and decision-making control or employee job security.
How Vanguard Cleaning Systems of the Ozarks Compliments In-House Facilities and Custodial Departments
Vanguard Cleaning Systems of the Ozarks' franchise-owned cleaning service providers can complement in-house departments and fill critical knowledge, skill, labor, and material resource gaps.
Each franchise-owned business benefits from:
- Regional assistance via an experienced master franchise.
- Dedicated cleaning account managers.
- Access to the latest cleaning, hygiene, sustainability, and facilities maintenance training and technologies.
And each cleaning customer can dynamically control costs through monthly service agreements instead of long-term contracts, in addition to access to:
- A la carte services, and;
- The ability to scale up staff for special cleaning services and events.
References & Resources
Takeaway
Outsourcing to an experienced custodial and facilities maintenance service provider addresses all the significant challenges and concerns of in-house departments while cost-effectively complementing material and labor resource gaps.
However, the stated aims of in-house management teams, while worthwhile, will likely struggle in the face of the notoriously high turnover rate that plagued the custodial industry, even before COVID and the Great Resignation.
When combined with increasing salary demands from skilled laborers and the costs of implementing and managing needed technology infrastructures, the implementation of the resources deemed necessary to keep outsourced competition at bay may prove cost-prohibitive.
Conversely, outsourcing to a Vanguard Cleaning Systems of the Ozarks' franchise-owned business allows organizations to control costs through monthly service agreements and scalable service levels.
Need more capability from your vendor partners--Let’s talk.
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In Arkansas, dial 479-717-2410
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