Outsource Your In-house School Custodial Work: Hire a School or University Cleaning Service and Lower Your Overhead
With states across the country implementing education spending cuts, many K-12 schools, colleges, and universities are looking for ways to lower their overhead. Some schools choose to outsource janitorial services, either whole or in part. A variety of factors lead to making this choice, including cost savings, improved efficiencies, greater flexibility with staffing, and avoiding personnel issues.
Outsourcing to Save Money
With primary schools, colleges, and universities looking to save money wherever they can, custodial and housekeeping outsourcing is a popular choice among facilities managers.
Savings originate from a variety of areas, and operations management often measures this by the cost per square foot. If schools only saved on the salaries and benefits of in-house employees, the cost difference likely wouldn't be enough to justify outsourcing. However, throw in savings on cleaning supplies, equipment, and other overhead costs, and the cost difference widens considerably.
Facilities aggregate all of these expenses – salary, benefits, overhead – and use it to calculate the per square foot cost of in-house cleaning and maintenance. If they find a commercial cleaning company that can do the same work for 20 percent less per square foot (for example), the cost savings becomes evident.
Outsourcing for Greater Efficiency
With professional training, supplies, and equipment, commercial cleaning companies often prove more efficient than their in-house counterparts do. Square foot analysis enters here, too, with facilities managers determining how many square feet an in-house custodial employee maintains, and comparing it to the square footage covered by an outsourced team.
These comparisons often prove greater efficacy in outsourcing, which, when added to cost savings, makes switching to a commercial cleaning company an obvious choice.
Outsourcing for Staffing Flexibility
The fact that workload varies over the course of a year surprises no one. At the same time, it is also expected that staffing levels remain stagnant. The result is that facilities either keep staffing levels at the low end for times when workload is lower, or staff with an eye toward their busier times. Neither option is optimum, as the facility has either an overworked or an underworked custodial team. Outsourcing negates this problem.
Hiring a commercial cleaning team also allows the facility to focus its in-house employees on the core mission of the school.
Outsourcing to Avoid Personnel Issues
In-house employees necessarily come with a variety of personnel concerns, including payroll, labor relations, benefits, disciplinary actions, and more. With outsourcing, these issues become the responsibility of the company you hire to complete your custodial and housekeeping services. Employees become sick or go on vacation? Not your issue; the contractor has policies in place to make sure the job still gets done.
Requesting a Quote
Rates for hiring a commercial cleaning company vary widely, based on factors such as campus size, your facility's unique needs, and geographical location. Request quotes from at least three vendors and, before signing a contract, make sure it includes a cancelation clause in the event you are unsatisfied with the company's services. Compare the quote with the full cost of your in-house cleaning staff, including salary, benefits, and supplies.
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