Quantifiable data is your secret weapon to ensure that you have enough custodians to keep your buildings clean. Whether you are a university, college, or K-12 school district, an employee assessment for custodial staffing will give you the data that you need to make reasonable and informed decisions.

It is important to have a computerized custodial management program data base to organize the data and create valuable reports. There are some excellent custodial management programs on the market that can help you with this task. The following components should be included in the management program: 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.

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 program. 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

A staffing assessment, when done correctly, is the cornerstone of your custodial operations. Whether you are a college, university or K-12 school district, 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 of an effective custodial staffing assessment is an organized operation with a focused view on cleaning, efficiency and cost.