Intro If you are thinking of hiring a commercial cleaning company for your business, you may feel a little confused or overwhelmed by the options that are out in the market. You might be trying to figure out if you should keep cleaning in house, hire a friend / relative / someone someone else knows / someone off of Craigslist (yikes!), or perhaps go with a professional janitorial service. We wrote this quick guide to make it easier to make all of these decisions with ease. Let’s dive in!
Should you hire out or have your office cleaned by professionals? Since we are trying to save you time in making this decision, let’s go through a list of question you may consider answering before you take any steps:
How large is your office / business space?
IN HOUSE: For spaces that are under 1500 square feet, you may be able to manage cleaning needs by assigning some tasks to coworkers on a weekly basis, for instance. Set up a checklist of what has to be done and assign one or few tasks they will be responsible for. OUTSOURCE: For spaces larger than 1500 square feet we would recommend hiring out. While you can ask employees to keep their desks clean and dispose of trash, at the very minimum you need someone to come in and sanitize the restrooms, clean common spaces, and vacuum and mop the floors.
How many employees do you have working in the office every day?
IN HOUSE: If you have 3 or less employees in the office daily, you may be able to manage your weekly cleaning needs. OUTSOURCE: With 4 or more employees you are looking at multiple bathroom breaks, multiple lunches heated up in the microwave, and plenty of foot traffic. The space will get dirty!
Do you want your employees focused on their job or do you think they can manage cleaning in addition to their daily tasks?
IN HOUSE: If you think the team will not have trouble managing the cleaning responsibilities and it won’t create more issues for you, then go for it. OUTSOURCE: Oftentimes it is more efficient and profitable for companies to outsource their cleaning needs to one person or cleaning company.
Can your maintenance guy handle cleaning as well?
INHOUSE: If you already have someone responsible for maintenance of the building, you may be able to add basic cleaning tasks to their daily to do list. OUTSOURCE: If you believe (like us!) that it’s better to be great at one thing, rather than ok at a lot of things, you may want to outsource your commercial cleaning. Sometimes the maintenance guy is great at making sure the all the plumbing and repairs are taken care of, but *might* not know how to properly mop the floor so it’s not streaky or sticky. It’s ok! A professional janitorial company who only cleans, will have more tricks up their sleeves than you may think! They do this day in and out and you will not have to train them to do their job.
Do you want to be responsible for managing cleaning staff, supplies, and equipment?
INHOUSE: This is a personal preference. Keep in mind that supplies need to be restocked, vacuums break, and sometimes your wonderful and otherwise brilliant coworker may have very different cleaning standards or have no idea how to mop a floor (yes, we’ve seen it happen..). If you think this is manageable, go for it. OUTSOURCE: The benefit of hiring out is all the stuff that can go wrong - is no longer your problem. Cleaners call out, supplies run out at the most inconvenient time, vacuums break, and if someone else can handle all the tiny issues, you can focus on your job instead of these time wasters.
What kind of commercial cleaning providers can you choose from? Now that you have decided to outsource your office cleaning needs, here’s your options of who to hire:
Independent cleaners These are normally not recommended, especially for businesses, unless you are willing to put them on payroll and provide worker’s compensation insurance. Anyone who performs any work for your company has to pay taxes on those earnings so you would have to issue forms W-2 or 1099 at the end of the year. Any injuries at work will also be a liability on your business.
Local cleaning companies These are usually great option because they often stated out small with the owners cleaning the buildings themselves so they have the necessary cleaning experience to know how the job has to be done. Your business will not be responsible for any income taxes or insurance (if you screened them properly! See below). They are also often small enough to give every client account the attention it needs.
Large janitorial franchises These have some benefits of the smaller companies, such as no tax or insurance liability. The caveat is that they are often owned by business people who don’t necessarily know the ins and outs of cleaning as well as a small cleaning business owner might. They might not be able to tailor the cleaning to what the building needs and overdo certain tasks while neglecting others. They also often either hire minimum wage workers or… (industry secret!) sub out the local cleaning companies at much lower rate to do the dirty work.
Figure out what type of commercial cleaning service is right for you, before you ask for quotes! In order to get the best side-by-side comparison from several cleaning companies, it’s best to have somewhat of an idea of what kind of service you need in the first place. Here’s some questions you want to ask yourself or the decision maker, so when you have the walk throughs scheduled you will have all the answers ready.
How often do you need the cleaning to take place? Small offices or commercial buildings (under 3000sq.ft.) tend to be cleaned on a weekly basis. Medium size (3000-5000sq.ft) may need to be cleaned 2-3 times a week. Larger commercial buildings (over 5000sq.ft) may need 5-7 times a week cleaning.
What tasks do you want the cleaning company to perform and how often? During weekly cleanings, you’d expect a full cleaning each time. However there may be tasks that can be on a “maintenance” schedule to save you money if you need more frequent cleaning. For instance restrooms would have to be done on every visit but doing cobweb removal only once a week might be sufficient.
Which areas do you need cleaned and which ones are high priority? You may choose to have your employees be responsible for their desks if they prefer that, or you may want the entrance to your building to be done perfectly on every visit because you want to impress your clients with how clean your facility is.
When do you want the cleaning to take place? Most if not all office cleaners will tell you that the ideal time to clean your building is after business hours or at the time when there’s lowest traffic coming through. It’s easier for us and also for you. We hate to ask if it’s ok to vacuum, or have the microwave just scrubbed and have someone heat up their spaghetti in it for lunch, not to mention accidentally walking into a restroom in use. If possible have an arrangement to have the office cleaned after hours, if not see if you can find a day or time that is not super busy.
How will you grant access to your property? Will you give them a key, alarm code, or have a key box? It’s just one of those little logistics that should be ironed out before you find out that there will be an issue (for instance, some building lock gates / main doors after a certain hour).
Are there any extra services you may need? As an office manager, you can probably agree that the less vendors you have to deal with, the easier your life becomes. Ask yourself if you would like to ideally find someone you can call to clean the carpets, windows or VCT floors a few times a year.