The boss is concerned with the appearance level of your buildings and is questioning your management skills. Your cleaners complain of being overworked, and are questioning your management skills. It's time to drive your cleaning operations with data.

It is important to have cleaning management software to organize the data and create valuable reports. The following components should be included in the software: space inventory, work areas, cleaning tasks, labor estimates, cost reports, work loading, inspections, and reports on employees, equipment and chemicals. National cleaning or janitorial standards such as ISSA and APPA should be available for use on these programs. A quality program gives you the big picture (entire facility) and the small picture (room by room) look of the organization. It should also provide you with multiple service levels of cleaning to choose from. This allows you to choose a cleaning level that matches your monetary resources.

To insure that you can maximize the features of cleaning management software, it is crucial to perform a complete space inventory on your facilities. A space inventory is the recording and entering of room name or number, area type, floor type and size of the room (square feet) into the custodial management software. A custodial staffing assessment is a mathematical equation connecting the cleaning time of a janitorial task to a surface to be cleaned. Custodial tasks can be added, deleted or modified as long as there is a cleanable surface attached to them. Specific cleaning tasks and frequencies can be developed and grouped for each of the area types. A detailed space inventory gives you flexibility for prioritizing and allocating staffing resources. Cleaning can also be prioritized based on room types, and work areas can be equalized for your custodians

Effective and accurate cleaning management software is the cornerstone of your custodial operations. It will standardize your cleaning procedures, and provide data for effective decision making. If the process seems overwhelming, use a consultant or trainer to get you started. The return on investment is an organized operation with a focused view on cleaning, efficiency and cost. The next time you are caught in the middle, use cleaning management software to show that your management decisions are based on solid and accurate data.