Why your cleaning contract gets worse after four months

The pattern is so consistent it is almost a law. A new cleaning contract starts well. Around month four, small things start being missed. By month eight you are having a meeting about it, and the company is genuinely puzzled, because nothing in the contract changed.

Nothing in the contract did change. The people did.

Why this trade churns

Commercial cleaning is night work, often part-time, frequently at or near minimum wage, and the buildings are usually a drive from where the staff live. Those conditions produce high turnover in any industry.

When a cleaner leaves, the position has to be filled. That takes a few weeks, during which the remaining crew absorbs the hours. Absorbing hours means doing the same building faster, and doing a building faster means the first things dropped are the ones nobody notices immediately: under the desks, the high surfaces, behind the door.

By the time you notice, the crew has turned over twice and nobody in the building has cleaned it before.

Why the cheapest bid churns most

The largest cost in a janitorial contract is labour. The only way to be meaningfully cheaper than the market is to pay less, use fewer hours, or subcontract to somebody who does both.

All three raise turnover. So the bid that wins on price is frequently the bid that will degrade fastest, and the degradation arrives exactly when the novelty of the new contract has worn off and nobody is watching closely.

What to ask before signing

• Are cleaners employees or subcontractors?
• What is your annual turnover rate?
• How many cleaner-hours a night is this price based on?
• Who supervises, how often, and do I see the log?
• What happens on the night somebody is off sick?

The turnover question is the one bidders least expect. A company that knows its own number, and will say it out loud, is a company that has been paying attention to the thing that matters.

What we do about it

We pay above the local average, which is unglamorous and is most of the answer. We employ rather than subcontract. We name the crew on your account and introduce them at the walkthrough. And when somebody does leave, we cover with relief and recruit for the position, rather than quietly spreading the hours across the people who remain.

It is why our bid is rarely the cheapest of the three. It is also why the conversation about month eight tends not to happen.