Janitorial costs are mostly labor but how, as a facility manager, do you know if the labor on your site is being productive? Do you have the right scope of work? Too little? Too much? Has your organization been asked (required) to cut its janitorial budget? The usual reaction is, “we can’t cut it any further without having dirty facilities.” How do you really know unless you can compare to some similar buildings and see how they are doing with their janitorial costs?
When janitorial budget cuts are coming your way, it would be really great to know how other facilities are managing their costs. Maybe some are operating just fine on less, or maybe what is being requested of you will result in a janitorial cost that’s lower than anyone else—this is not a place you want to be. Wouldn’t it really be helpful to explain where you stand on janitorial costs to management in a focused, rational way? Direct comparisons with a valid peer group would be very valuable and appropriate in making the correct decisions.
What we need is janitorial benchmarking data to compare how your organization is managing their janitorial costs. But when budget cuts come around, there isn’t enough time to develop a rational response, collect data from the other facilities in your area, and develop a case to support your position. You don’t have time to collect and input data for a benchmarking survey. What is really needed is a table or chart showing the janitorial cost comparisons with a good peer group. Well, there are some tools available to answer these questions. Let’s look at some of the options that would support your position with management.
Let’s start with the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for janitorial services. The usual KPI for janitorial work is cost per cleaned area. That KPI shows how your janitorial costs compare with others. But comparing your janitorial costs with everyone else may give you the wrong perspective on your performance unless the comparisons are made with a relevant peer group.
We have used FM BENCHMARKING’s LITE version to create a chart showing the janitorial cost per cleanable area of a good peer group. Figure 1, for example, shows comparison chart for mid/large facilities. One thing that really stands out is that the first few buildings on the very left of the chart are likely to be operating at a cost level that is not sustainable for any extended period of time (after all, it is most unlikely that anyone could be so much lower than the “norm”, especially when there is not that much variation among the first three performance quartiles). When budget funds are restored they probably will be spending a lot to restore their facilities to a proper operating condition.
Filters: Size of facility 250,000 — 599,000 GSF
This chart allows you to see at a glance how well your facility is performing its janitorial functions. There are 150 buildings in this peer group with a median janitorial cost per GSF of $1.27 per Cleanable square foot and a first quartile performance of 1.12 per Cleanable square foot. By looking at and comparing similar types of facilities, you will be able to make intelligent “data driven” decisions. The Facility Director, for this example, has calculated his janitorial costs at $2.14. This is nearly double the first quartile costs and is an expensive fourth quartile performance; we need to investigate further as to the reasons of this costly performance.
Are there other ways to compare performance? Sure there are! We said earlier that janitorial costs are mostly labor so we should look carefully at our labor utilization rate to see why our costs are so far above the 1st quartile results. Let’s look at how this facility compares, for the same building filters, with its janitorial staffing levels. The KPI with janitorial staffing is area cleaned per full time janitorial worker (see Figure 2).
Provided courtesy of FM BENCHMARKING
Filters: Size of facility 250,000 — 599,000 GSF
Figure 2 shows that the median area cleaned per worker is 20,180 cleanable square feet with a first quartile (working right to left in this case) of 24,400 cleanable square feet. The facility director, in this example, calculated his janitorial worker’s performance at 14,200 cleanable square feet per person. It looks like the staffing is excessive, which goes a long way towards explaining why the janitorial costs are so high. In this case we really should look at the scope of work and the staffing levels to come up with the requested budget reductions.
As you can see, from this example, a good benchmarking tool is invaluable to see where you stand in a very quick and easy manner. If your facility performance is in the third or fourth quartile you may need to investigate and benchmark further to determine the next steps to take.