How to Implement a Day Cleaning Program at Your Facility

By Chris Meyer  |  February 7, 2019

If you’ve ever proposed a day cleaning program at your facility, you’ve likely run into at least one of the following arguments: 

1. It’s too disruptive to building occupants
2. Tenants don’t want custodial staff around in front of clients
3. It’s harder to clean with people in the building

To be sure, these aren’t invalid arguments, but none of them are insurmountable if you’re strategic about how you develop and implement a day cleaning program at your facility. But before we get into the nuts and bolts of how to make a day cleaning program work, let’s review the benefits of doing so.

The Benefits of Day Cleaning

Energy and Cost Savings: The typical cleaning crew does their work after everyone in the building has left for the day. That means the building has to be kept up and running while the crew finishes their work. With a day cleaning program, you can shut the building down earlier, saving on energy costs.

Case in point: State Farm cut their energy bill by eight percent after implementing a day cleaning program.

On-Demand Custodial Service: When the cleaning crew only comes around at night, it means that things that should be taken care of immediately must wait until after hours. With a day cleaning program, occupants can make special requests to—for example—have a large, unsightly spill cleaned up.

Reduced Carbon Footprint: No sector in the United States produces more carbon dioxide emissions than the commercial and residential buildings sector. Day cleaning offers you a proven way to work towards reducing those emissions    and achieving your facility’s sustainability goals.

How to Set Up a Day Cleaning Program

Ultimately, the details of your program will depend on the unique needs of your facility, the people in it, and your staffing resources. However, while the details of your program will be custom to you, the general process for getting started and gathering information is universal. 

1. Communication with Tenants and Building Occupants

The reality is that most tenants and building occupants are not accustomed to day cleaning, so communication is key. By communicating with tenants, you should aim to accomplish three primary goals. First, you want to set tenants’ expectations and address their concerns. Second, you want to understand the various tenants’ different work patterns and unique preferences. And finally, you should make sure they understand why the day cleaning program is being implemented.

2. Equipment Needs

If your cleaning crew typically cleans after hours when noise is not a factor, you may need to invest in quieter equipment. If purchasing new equipment is not feasible, you can mitigate the effects of loud equipment by scheduling those types of tasks at times when they’ll be the least intrusive to building & room occupants. 

3. Space Usage Schedules

Take the time to observe how the facility you plan to clean gets used and ask yourself questions like: When do people arrive? When do they leave? Does the building empty out at lunch? Where do tenants meet with clients? 

Knowing this information allows you to strategically schedule various cleaning tasks & procedures, especially the more disruptive parts of your crew’s cleaning routine, to better match with the rhythm of your facility and the needs of your tenants.

Putting the Plan into Action  

After observing the building, evaluating equipment and communicating with tenants, you’ll need to think through your findings and make an initial plan. 

In your initial plan, you’ll identify any equipment purchase you need to make and set your staff’s schedule to minimize the disturbance to tenants. After that, it’s time to put the idea into action. 

Most likely, you’ll have hiccups as unforeseen obstacles will pop up. Don’t let it get to you. Keep reviewing your plan and make tweaks as necessary. When you start to get things figured out, don’t forget to keep reviewing each quarter to adjust for any changes in the building’s tenant mix or seasonal changes. 

And remember, if you’re not sure where to start or need ongoing support, WAXIE provides training and resource materials that you can leverage for help in developing and maintaining your day cleaning program.

Chris Meyer is content writer for WAXIE who leverages his background in facilities technology to discover and deliver educational insights to readers who want to make the world a cleaner, more efficient, and sustainable place. Chris has Bachelor’s Degrees in English and Finance from University of Hawaii at Manoa.