By maintaining workplaces, facility management plays an important role in the productivity of employees, who are also happier. Yet colleagues sometimes complain about their workplace. From ’too strict security’ to coffee machine or dirt, while the manager thinks that everything is well organized. It turns out that various parties use different definitions of what is ‘good’. How do you make everyone happy? A matter of good contract management.
Let me give an example to give. It is a well-known discussion for many facility services: is it building clean enough? Sometimes users, administrators and implementers appear all have a different definition of what a clean building is. Also the
way people look at cleaning from different roles sometimes different. That makes the discussion difficult: partners do not know what they are talking about can expect each other and not everyone is always satisfied.
What is cleaning experience?
Especially the user of a building looks at cleaning differently than what we call the ‘professionals’ to call. For him or her it is mainly about the experience, in other words the subjective assessment of how clean and fresh an environment. This cleaning experience is influenced by factors such as:
- Stories and complaints shared by colleagues at the coffee machine;
- Things that are arranged carelessly in a building, a crack in the floor or uncleaned items, even if this does not result in dirt or danger;
- Odors in the toilet;
- And even the impression made by the cleaner himself (for example: does he say hello or is she friendly?, is he/she neatly dressed?, etc.).
Users of a building are not aware of the performance agreements with it cleaning company. Their perception can therefore have a negative impact on them have experience. For example, users are dissatisfied when they see that the trash has not been emptied at the end of the day. That in it cleaning contract stipulates that this is only done every other day, they know not. If there is good communication from the facility services, customer satisfaction will increase go up. In short, expectation management.
What is technical quality of cleaning?
Building managers and cleaners have their own way of judging the cleaning work. Unlike the visitor or user of a building, they take the technical quality of cleaning as a starting point: the agreements they have made about the quality of the work to be delivered.
We know a number of systems that assess the technical objective quality of cleaning. In this way, the client and contractor can make firm agreements in contracts and everyone knows where he or she stands. In another article I will discuss these control systems in detail: the Daily Control System (DKS), the VSR Quality Measurement System (VSR-KMS) and the European Result Oriented Quality Measurement System (ER-KMS).
Monitoring cleaning
The expectations of the different partners in the chain therefore differ considerably. This sets the facility manager for a problem. On the one hand, he or she must take into account keep in mind the experience of its internal customers, because this is for them is more important than the technical cleaning quality (although there is of course one relationship between the two). On the other hand, the administrator invests the contract with the contractor establishes correct agreements about the technical quality, to ensure the quality of the work in an impartial manner.
An administrator who definitely wants knowing that the entire cleaning process is excellent will not be there both the technical and the experiential quality of the cleaning can be compromised to monitor. Fortunately, this is very easy in today’s digital age.
With digital monitoring of facility services, including cleaning, your daily work becomes a lot easier. It is important that you have handy tools for this have available. You have to be able to trust that this will improve both the experience quality and the technical measure quality.
A butcher making his own meat inspection is often not really convenient. When you go tools or software make sure that you check both yourself and by an independent can be performed by a third party.
In short, the facility manager of 2019 has more overview through the use of data and can also easily share this data. The result: more clarity for everyone, agreements that are actually adhered to and more satisfied customers.
