Office Cleaning 3.0

Predictions for Office Cleaning 3.0 - more frequent cleaning in smaller spaces.

The evolution of office cleaning is speeding up. Office cleaning is always changing but slowly. Very soon changes will hit hyper-speed.

And the biggest changes in the near future won't be coming from the usual suspects, e.g., robotics, AI + Machine Learning, sensors, or chemical wizardry.

The biggest driver will be how building owners and managers reconfigure office space and working hours. Huge impacts to cleaning.

Here’s a look at the evolution of office cleaning, its impending future, and considerations for making that future a success.

Office Cleaning 1.0 was how BSCs cleaned offices before the pandemic. Back then occupancy levels and office usage were assumed to be constant. The number of occupants expected to use office space on Monday was the same as expected for Tuesday, and every day of the traditional business week.

Building owners and managers used that constant-occupancy to plan for and provide office space. And BSCs followed that assumption to calculate cleaning costs (staff, payroll, equipment, and supplies) and pricing.

SARS-CoV-2 nuked the status quo of Office Cleaning 1.0 and launched work-from-home (WFH). When businesses reopened, building owners, managers, and employers responded by running offices in hybrid mode. Offices were no longer occupied at the same levels Monday through Friday as they once were — now occupancy varies day by day, and time of day. Hello 2.0.

Currently in 2.0, building owners, managers, and employers have been adjusting to the impacts of variable occupancy (for more detail see Gensler’s “What About Wednesdays? Planning for the Busiest Day of the Week in the New Hybrid Office”).

Employers are downsizing leased and owned office space into smaller footprints, combining some and leaving others. They’ve accepted that more of their employees will surge into less space for a few days of the week, using less square footage than historically planned. But they’ll have reduced costs of underutilized extra space.

Building owners are also responding to that shrinking demand. In select markets, older office buildings are being repurposed into residential or life science labs. They too are always looking for value-based reductions in their operating costs — BSCs know this all too well.

But both approaches take time and money. And it will not be a uniform change everywhere. Some office markets will adapt much earlier than others, and some will not change at all, but all will feel its effects.

It’s unknown how long this period of adjustment will last but there’s an inevitable shift into the next phase of office usage.

On the service side, BSCs are now in Office Cleaning 2.0 and trying to catch up to these irregular demands. Office consolidations and shrinkage doesn’t mean BSCs are guaranteed the new cleaning contracts from that repurposed office space, or can afford to wait for it.

That lost revenue is painful and so those BSCs with large revenues from office cleaning are not standing still. Like their customers, they're responding by creating new estimating models and work-loading tools to serve the new financial pressures from variable occupancy.

In the near future, office cleaning will serve smaller spaces with variable levels of occupancy. With more data from building owners and managers, BSCs will adjust cleaning to the number of occupants per area, hour, day, week, and month of year.

Picture the needs of cleaning an office on a July 3rd Friday afternoon at 50% occupancy compared to a Wednesday in January at 120% occupancy. Savvy building owners and managers will want any savings from their cleaning price.

BSCs will use AI and Machine Learning to vary cleaning coverage and staffing into unique daily schedules, which could literally be 365 different cleaning sets.

And although demand-based cleaning (based on head counts) has been around a while, in 3.0 it will evolve into a set schedule based on predictive space usage, but different each day of the year.

Here are a few changes that could drive the future of Office Cleaning 3.0:

More Daily Patrols

On high-occupancy days, BSCs will schedule more daily patrols to touch up lobbies, coffee rooms, and restrooms several times. This means more highly visible, day-staff and the need to hire the right people at the right pay and benefits.

The Return of Restroom Attendants

Once upon a time, class A office buildings in large cities had full time restroom attendants. In 3.0, traditional restroom attendants may return to schedules on high-occupancy days. These cleaners would be stationed full time, or peak times in high traffic restrooms. They would spot clean counters, sinks, mirrors, door handles, and refill dispensers — without leaving the restroom during their assigned shift.

Day Cleaning Resurgence

Day cleaning, once a promising new way of cleaning, may have a resurgence. As cleaning needs are highly variable from hybrid work, day cleaning would be one way for BSCs to simultaneously serve overflowing Wednesdays and ghost-town Fridays with more daily patrols and restroom attendants.

Day cleaning also has the potential of attracting and keeping higher quality cleaners, if pay and benefits are equal to other day-time jobs.

Adjusted Night Cleaning

Based on occupant data, BSCs may be able to slightly decrease night cleanings after low occupancy days. With variable work weeks for cleaners BSCs may have floaters that pick up the heavy occupancy night cleaning and then are not called in following low occupancy days.

Variable Work Weeks for Cleaners

Work schedules are likely to become irregular for cleaners when based on occupancy-driven cleaning needs.

For example, work hours may vary per cleaner by day, such as eight hours for Tuesday through Thursday but six for Mondays, and only four for Fridays.

Also, a cleaner may be hired for 36 hours for the first week of the month, 40 hours for the second and third weeks, and 38 hours for the fourth week. Schedules may be for June, July, and August, with changes in other months as well. This will be far different than Office Cleaning 1.0, where cleaners typically were scheduled for the same number of hours per night. In 3.0, there will be no more fixed 40 hour work weeks.

Higher Wages & Benefits for Cleaners

Cleaners’ wages and benefits will need to increase to fill irregular work positions. This adjustment would also need willing cleaners to take that first step into new work schedules. Therefore, initial wages may need a bump up as total cleaning costs are reduced to fit occupancy’ cleaning needs.

More Non-Wage Benefits

More non-wage benefits will need to be added to incentivize cleaners to take on variable work schedules. One is to pay cleaners each day via direct deposit, the technology exists already. Paper payroll checks will be obsolete as they are too slow, error-prone, and costly. Another incentive is for more Paid Time Off (PTO), which will help BSCs avoid the costs of illness from presenteeism.

Also, the ability to swap shifts with other qualified cleaners will be possible using mobile AI scheduling apps. Today, technology exists where managers can publish open shift slots in advance, cleaners can sign up for available shifts, and claim them once chosen. Once claimed, the shift is no longer available to other cleaners.

Reshuffling Cleaning Tasks

Building owners and managers will continue to negotiate with BSCs to get the most cleaning at the least cost. This has meant some cleaning tasks will be eliminated and/or transferred from cleaners’ responsibility to that of the occupants.

An existing example is the centralizing of recycling bins, from the many desk-side small bins where cleaners spent time to empty (a cost) — to a single centralized bin where occupants empty their own desk-side recycling.

More yet to-be-determined cleaning tasks, once thought to be needed, will be changed and/or eliminated in the pursuit of lower costs.

Office Cleaning 1.0 was pre-pandemic and it's over. Today, Office Cleaning 2.0 is in a period of adjustment to variable occupancy with irregular cleaning needs that are not fully met - yet. The future of office cleaning 3.0 will be defined by key drivers, such as:

• More daily patrols
• The return of restroom attendants
• Day cleaning resurgence
• Adjusted night cleaning
• Variable work weeks for cleaners
• Higher wages & benefits for cleaners
• More non-wager benefits
• Reshuffling cleaning tasks

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ABOUT CHRIS ARLEN

A sales, messaging, and strategy consultant helping facility service contractors tell persuasive stories that sell and profit.

I’m sharing observations I've found insightful — and can help service departments communicate their value and help outsourced partners sell smarter for richer results.?

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