Encompass Insights

Finding a cleaning company for your construction  project seems easy enough on the surface, but the reality is that it can be quite complex. Part of the reason, is that almost every company likely tells you close to the same thing: “We will give you the lowest price, and the best quality”. In fact, you may have heard something similar from us, but if you pull back the curtain actually finding someone that can actually deliver what they say is very rare. That is why we recommend going a bit deeper in the following 6 areas, it will make all the difference.

We’ve talked about the many benefits green cleaning can bring to your facility, including fewer health risks, savings, and a cleaner environment, but how can you get your own green cleaning program off the ground?

Here are a few ways you can approach it, and how you can get your employees on board.

Are you still using multiple vendors to maintain your facility?

Using a single vendor versus multiple vendors for your facility managed services is an often debated aspect of the industry.

But the truth is, consolidating services as opposed to carrying three or four extra suppliers can help streamline operational efficiency and save you money. 

First impressions count.

When someone walks into your facility, it’s important that they immediately feel like it’s a clean, comfortable, safe space. This is especially true in the hospitality and healthcare industries. 

So what’s one of the best ways to ensure you make a great first impression?

Floor care.

Although it might sound silly, the state of your flooring is incredibly important to how others perceive the overall cleanliness of your facility. In fact, according to Procter & Gamble, “Facility appearance ratings can drop by as much as 75% if floor shine makes a bad first impression.” 

Yes, there are interior design strategies you can implement at your facility in order to create a more productive work environment.

And we all know the perks of increased productivity: Financial savings, customer satisfaction, and a cushier bottom line. 

In a recent three-part series, Facilities Net broke down how these interior design strategies can help boost productivity initiatives. Here are the top highlights and strategies, as well as how you can implement them at your own facility.

Here’s why you need to fix the cause of facility maintenance issues, not the symptoms.

If you don’t have a maintenance and repair (M&R) program at your facility, chances are you’re spending a lot of money on reactionary measures.

This reactive, as opposed to proactive approach to facility maintenance, means a lot of money is lost to emergency maintenance. According to Facilities Net, the cost of emergency breakdowns annually is in the billions.

How can your organization avoid this? By focusing on the cause of facility maintenance issues, not the symptoms. This type of approach will allow you to nip any potential problems in the bud instead of waiting until it’s too late to address them.

There are many things you can do to save money at your facility. While there are a few more well known ways, like strategic sourcing and going green, there are other, lesser-known strategies that can save you just as much if not even more mula.

Here’s how you can save money in the long term by planning your periodic facility maintenance. 

When it comes time to pick a facility maintenance vendor, there are a lot of things to consider. In addition to the traditional vetting process, you want to find a vendor that creates value for your organization.

But how can you go about finding a partner that makes it a priority to create value for their customers? 

Here are some questions you should ask yourself before seeking out a facility maintenance vendor.

Management often tosses out or discontinues good facility programs because they believe it didn’t achieve the desired outcome.

But don’t give up so easily. Tossing out the entire initiative and simply dismissing it because it “doesn't work” deprives you of the opportunity to learn more about your organization. Instead, you need to look deeper to understand what went wrong and how you can remedy it.

Here's how you can dissect your initiative to figure out why your facility program didn’t work and how you can get back on track. 

Since the majority of service employees aren’t on salary, how can you incentivize them to be more productive when their pay depends on the amount of hours worked?

First and foremost, it’s important that you take a different approach when motivating salaried vs. hourly employees. While employees on salary can more easily be motivated to be more productive in order to reduce the time spent at work, hourly team members respond best to completely different factors, because of the nature of the pay structure.