Custodians: Addressing a Janitor's Poor Performance on the Job

No matter the level of supervision present at your place of business for your custodial staff, I can ensure you that on some level your custodians are finding or have found a way to beat the system, so that they do not have to work all the hours for which you are paying them. It is the "Nature of the Beast" in the custodial industry, that custodians simply will not work as hard as they are expected to perform.

In many cases, custodians will perform only to the measure of expectation that their supervisors consider to be an acceptable level of performance for their custodians. Being compared to prior custodians or custodial service providers, your supervisors or other employees have probably already conditioned your custodians to perform to a level where they find the custodial work acceptable. When a custodian has reached the point where their minimal level of cleaning effort has met the minimum level of cleaning acceptance, your custodial staff will seek to determine how much effort is then necessary for them to get the job done. When this occurs, you will find that your custodial staff will begin to accomplish the same amount of work in less time, because this will give them more "free time" to relax while getting paid. It is the "Nature of the Beast."

In the cleaning industry, the simple fact is that each day, we have the same basic tasks to complete in order to meet minimal cleaning expectations. In order to maintain a clean environment, additional daily tasks need to be performed as well, so as to maintain the clean environment. This would mean that on an ordinary day, we might empty the trash, reline the trash cans, vacuum the offices, sweep and damp mop the hard surface floors, clean and disinfect the bathrooms, and clean the interior glass windows. However, we would then expect our staff to high dust on Mondays, do the exterior windows on Tuesdays, scrub the inside of the trash cans on Wednesdays, clean grout joints on Thursdays, and sweep the stairwells every Friday, which takes our cleaning efforts one step beyond just cleaning, because we are cleaning with the intent to reduce dust, smudges, and dirt, thereby making our cleaning effort easier the next time out.

As a supervisor, I would recommend the following measures to assist you in better managing your staff, especially if you are responsible for multiple property sites every day:

1) Have a disciplinary penalty and procedure in place for staff inactivity, in case a custodial staff member is found not working while "on the clock";

2) Have established additional task obligations preset daily for the staff to work on, as well as minimal cleaning guide expectations set forth daily for your staff; Too much extra work to do is better than not enough;

3) Do routine inspections of each custodial area and have preset penalty procedures in place for failures to perform up to expectations;

4) Have your review times at different times and places each week.

5) Have constant dialogue with all custodial staffers, so that you will always know what is going on in your buildings when you are not present.