Keeping your office or facility clean and sanitary can be challenging, especially if you’re doing it yourself or relying on your employees. Let’s be honest, more often than not, when things get busy and deadlines are looming, cleaning the bathrooms, mopping floors, and sanitizing high-touch surfaces is the last thing on your mind.
Your best option is to engage a facilities management contractor to handle the burden of making sure your workplace is clean, safe, and healthy. Choosing the right partner to suit your company’s needs shouldn’t be difficult, so here are five questions you should ask a contractor, when considering retaining their cleaning services.
1. Are you bonded and insured?
Trust is a big factor in the janitorial services industry, because a cleaning company has access to your facilities after hours and often operates without your supervision. A company that is bonded, and insured is a reputable company. When a cleaning company is bonded, it protects the customers from employee misconduct–protection that is unlikely to be provided by a business that is unscrupulous.
2. Are your employees actually employees of the company?
It isn’t uncommon for smaller companies to outsource their employees. This is an unfortunate reality that has left a bitter taste in the mouths of many business owners. To avoid any unforeseen problems, it’s best to ask this question upfront and verify if the company is bonded.
3. How does your company hire its employees?
This question builds on the last and it’s important, because questions about employment practices help to instil your trust in the cleaning company you’re considering contracting with. Employment practices vary from company to company; however, it’s important to know that your contractor has a thorough interview process that includes a background check.
4. Are you local?
This is an important question that verifies the answers of the previous ones. Companies that aren’t local may subcontract their cleaning services; this means you don’t actually know the company you’re trusting with your facility.
5. Are your employees supervised?
Trust is paramount when contracting a facilities management company. The assurance of adequate supervision helps to build that trust. The level of supervision generally depends on the contract; however, a reputable company should offer assurances that their employees will be supervised when on your premises.
Hopefully, these questions will help you make the right decision when considering a facilities management partner. If you are looking to contract a cleaning service partner in Ohio or Indiana, we would love to discuss your needs with you. You can contact us at 800-686-4597.
