by Brianna Crandall — November 1, 2017 — Worldwide cleaning industry association ISSA and the Workloader Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) announced their future merger by signing a memorandum of understanding last month at ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America 2017.
The Workloader Benchmarking Alliance is organized as an educational resource for quantifying and disseminating ideas and practices for workloading labor. WBA is committed to research, develop, and standardize workload concepts and processes through collaborative benchmarking and innovative practices. The Alliance empowers facilities professionals to make informed business decisions and enhance their organizational values.
Since building managers often are unsure about what really is a fair and competitive price for providing services requested, many of them, working with some janitorial distributors, have begun “workloading” their cleaning services, explains a blog from the Buildings Web site.
Workloading helps facilities managers (FMs) and in-house cleaning professionals, as well as contractors, to more precisely estimate the time, labor needs, and related costs involved in cleaning a facility based on cleaning standards, contractor experience and cleaning frequencies.
With the help of new workloading software, FMs can determine their facility’s cleanable space, the scope of work, cleaning times, and labor and supply costs in order to gain a clearer understanding of their building’s cleaning needs and what services will cost.
ISSA Director of Education, Training, Certifications, and Standards Brant Insero stated:
This merger will enable ISSA and WBA to provide focused education and tools that facility service providers need to improve their operational efficiency.
Sean Fox-Elster, WBA president, remarked:
Workloading is the foundation that a successful and profitable cleaning program is built on. With labor comprising 80 percent or more of a cleaning budget, it’s surprising that there is no comprehensive, professional workloading certification or educational program. The merger of the WBA and ISSA will fill that gap and help to improve skills in the profession as a whole.
ISSA offers a page of Workloading Resources, including software, on its Web site as well as access to events such as the Cleaning System Design and Workloading management seminar April 11, 2018, in Illinois.
