Factors to Weigh When Hiring a Commercial Cleaning Company

Weighing the factors in hiring a commercial cleaning company

Proposals tend to look alike, so a scorecard forces the differences into view. Score each bidder from one to five on every row, multiply by the weight that fits your building, and keep the evidence you were shown. The weights below suit a typical multi-tenant office; the last section explains how to shift them.

Capacity: can they staff your building every shift

Capacity is the factor that fails quietly. A contractor that wins your building without the people to run it will cover the first weeks with its best staff, then thin out. Ask how many people will be assigned, which hours they work, who replaces them when they are sick and how quickly the company could add staff for a project or a tenant move-in.

Equipment is part of capacity too. A building with large hard-floor areas needs auto-scrubbers and burnishers, not just mops, and a warehouse needs ride-on equipment. Ask what will be kept on site and what will be brought in.

Compliance: California rules a cleaning company must meet

California regulates janitorial employers more closely than most states, and the building owner can be drawn into a vendor's violations. Under the Property Service Workers Protection Act, janitorial employers must register with the Labor Commissioner every year and provide sexual harassment and violence prevention training to their janitors every two years.

Safety rules apply as well. Title 8, section 3203 obliges every California employer to maintain an IIPP, a written Injury and Illness Prevention Program, and crews handling chemicals need hazard communication training under section 5194. Medical buildings add the bloodborne pathogens standard in section 5193. When you change vendors, the Displaced Janitor Opportunity Act generally requires the new contractor to offer the outgoing crew a transition period of employment, so plan for it.

Supervision and quality systems

Supervision is what keeps the scope delivered after the first month, which is why it carries a high weight. Ask who the supervisor is, how many buildings that person covers, how often they inspect and what the inspection record looks like. A good answer includes a written checklist, a score or pass and fail by area, and a log of corrective actions closed out.

Also ask how you will hear about problems. The best contractors report their own misses before tenants do.

Adjusting the weights for your building

No single weighting fits every property. Adjust the weights before any proposals arrive, so the scorecard reflects the building rather than the most persuasive bidder. These are the most common adjustments:

• Medical offices and clinics: raise compliance and training, especially bloodborne pathogens and disinfection practice
• Cleanrooms and labs: raise relevant experience and documentation to the top
• Secure and government facilities: raise screening, key control and confidentiality
• Warehouses and plants: raise capacity, equipment and shift flexibility
• Multi-site portfolios across Southern California: raise geographic reach and consistent reporting

How EBS answers these factors

EBS Maintenance brings more than 25 years of commercial cleaning, a staff of over 100 and more than 10 million square feet serviced, with its largest single contract above 1 million square feet. Licensing and insurance are in place, and no one joins a crew until a background check, training and a uniform are complete. Supervisors check work through eHub inspections and follow each correction to closure, standby staff step in for absences, and crews have worked inside government buildings and other sites with strict access control. Request a walkthrough at (949) 375-3305 and score EBS against your own list.