Professional,
diligent, effective property managers across the nation are being taken advantage of every
day.
Confessions
of a Cleaning Corporation Project Manager: A True Story
Preface. I believe that I have some
insight into the operations of the large corporate cleaning companies. I and many others
like me have fled large corporate cleaners, because of our frustration and disillusion
with what I shall refer to as “the Corporate structure”. Quality experts would
characterize our disillusion as resulting from a “lack of empowerment”. We
wanted to do a good job, but we simply were not provided the resources that we needed to
produce quality results. I have no “axe to grind” with my former employer, they
are no worse than other large cleaning companies. I do have a problem with large Corporate
Cleaners in general, and so do their clients!
If this is respect, I’d like to see how they treat their enemies! I
left my former employer in 1994 after 14 years of service. Twelve of those years were
spent as manager of one of their premier accounts. This major university comprised more
than 3.5 million square feet, and as you might imagine, the company was very proud of it.
In fact I was reminded often by my bosses in Dallas and Houston that sales presentations
across the country used my account as a reference. So, how did my former employers care
for this “special” account…I believe that you will be surprised.
Forget the bid price, cutting labor is how
cleaning companies really make money! We were always expected to keep labor to a
minimum--this is the way big cleaning companies make money. Local managers are constantly
encouraged (are more accurately harangued) into cutting more and more labor. Either from
fear of my bosses, or in an effort to seek their approval, I became one of the best in my division at
“cutting labor”. I was seldom
complimented for the quality of our cleaning (which was fairly good considering what we
had to work with). I was; however, congratulated profusely for my ability to make deep
labor cuts. The trick was to scramble around to cover the “hot spots”, without
getting us in too much trouble with the client. It was not unusual for me to run 20% under
budget--and that was more than $30,000 per month under budget! This money was not
reallocated to the account; it was not used to modernize equipment, or give raises to our
employees; it went straight into the corporation profit account. Although this made my
bosses extremely happy; and consequently, I
received the praise of a grateful management, I was always a little embarrassed when I had
to answer for a complaint. Gradually, I became less and less tolerant of the demand for
profit and I became more protective of my account. This was my downfall with the company.
Such is the dilemma of the local
managers in the corporate structure. They are torn between two masters, and the client
does not sign their paychecks. I was at the university long enough to build a sense of
loyalty, what quality experts would describe as “a sense of ownership”. Certainly this is a desirable quality for the
client, but unfortunately, few managers are left in the same location long enough to build
this relationship, which brings us to another question.
How long has the supervisor or project manager been
in charge of your account?
Most
purchasing experts agree that the “learning curve” for large janitorial account
runs approximately one year. I believe that for accounts of more than a million square
feet, the curve is more like three years. The average length of service for a local
cleaning manager is three years. The reason for the high turnover is that, within the
corporate structure, the best available manager or supervisor is usually transferred to
the latest “hot” account or most recent “sale.” In many cases, this manager is promoted and
guaranteed to a new account as part of…you guessed it, a sales presentation! Always
remember, “the sale is king” in the world of corporate cleaning.
My company wanted to “fly”
me out to San Francisco and introduce me to a potential university client to help close a
deal in 1990. I turned this “opportunity” (and others) down because of my desire
to stay in Texas. I stayed because of family connections; however, many of the supervisors
and managers--that I trained for my account—were soon transferred to other locations.
I was constantly “breaking in” new people. Even if you have a supervisor or
manager with some lengthy “time on the job”, it doesn’t mean that you
won’t be asked to support other corporate enterprises. Once I became experienced
(after five years or so), I became known as an “expert” within the company, I
often served as a consultant to other accounts. Even in this capacity, my account was in
effect paying for me to train and assess the work of others. My client university should
have been reimbursed for the time that I was “called away” from the campus. This
was my companies’ way of supporting its’ prized university!
This personnel
shuffling results in a constant lag of experienced supervision and management at most
branches. In essence, your property is the “training ground” for both managers
and personnel, in a typical corporate cleaning program.
Is
the corporate structure supporting you (the client), or, are you supporting the
corporation? Although corporate support
and training are emphasized in corporate sales presentations and literature, very little
support is actually directed toward local building operations. Probably seventy five
percent of Corporate support is directed toward sales.
The rest is directed toward loss control (worker’s comp issues) and
corporate paperwork. I found it interesting that budget and labor control documentation,
supply and cost control documentation, loss control documentation, and many other forms of
paperwork were required, but no inspection forms were required by our corporate office.
Probably the most incredible example,
of the corporate structure acting as the recipient of support rather than providing
support, occurred after I left the company. An associate told me that “an executive had swindled several million dollars
from the company”. In order to make up
for the loss, each branch was assessed a
percentage of the loss. You can be sure that money was not redirected from profit. I was
told that even though the labor situation at Baylor was already critical, labor was cut
even further. Supplies had already been cut, due to the demands for more profit, supplies
were cut even further, and my contact told me that “employees were instructed to
clean with water as much as possible”. The customer ended up paying for this
theft!
This is not the only
time the customer is charged as a de facto supporter of the corporation. My old company
includes a division charge and an administrative charge on every bid. This extra cost was
approximately 7% above and beyond local admin cost and in addition to the budgeted profit
.Most of the assessment was directed to the division and regional manager’s bonuses,
and you guessed it, the sales presentation staff.
“It’s sell or be sold!” The sale is what is most important! This is a phrase often tossed around in sales
meetings and seminars. The sales presentation subordinates all other activities in
Corporate cleaning. You’ve seen the slick brochures demonstrating how the corporation
supports the local cleaning staff with professional services and support, all to insure
professionalism at the local level.
We had great corporate support in one area.
We had access to plenty of legal counsel to protect the company from our own employees
and, when necessary, the customer. In most civil litigation there are often several
defendants. I learned that should we encounter a legal dilemma, we were much better off as
the B or C defendant, leaving the customer as the A. I became quite well versed in the
legal ramifications of the cleaning business.
As
for operations training, it was non-existent. I received negligible support and training
at the corporate level during my tenure at the university. Corporate training consisted of
occasional newsletters and outdated "canned" videos. This actually worked to my
advantage because I learned “the hard way”; however, most local managers
don’t benefit from the longevity that I enjoyed. In essence, I had to become an
expert or fail.
The demand for profits far outweighs all other
considerations of doing business when corporate headquarters “calls”. When I first arrived on campus in 1980, my
university was a brand new account, and for the first year or so we were allowed to
operate—for the most part—to the university’s benefit. Things began to change in the mid eighties. (I
suspect this coincided with the companies’ “going public”; we were now
required to “look good” for the stock analyst. Once, in the mid nineties the
university demanded that we cut back our cost by nearly one third. (I suspect that someone
ran across one of our spreadsheets!) Even in this cut back state, we were required by
corporate to make further cuts in labor and supplies. Even in this scenario, the
university suffered more than the cleaning corporation. They just found other ways to cut
back.
You
would think that we would at least have benefited from the capital investment garnered
from stock sales, but our budgets for equipment and other capital expenditures actually
decreased. When I first started with the company we were allocated 7% of sales for
supplies, when I left that number had shrunk to under 2.7%.
Corporate
branches are not empowered to spend more than a few hundred dollars per item. For major
purchases, like equipment, they must turn to a regional manager--whose job description
includes holding down cost. At our 3.5 million square foot account, we were lucky to get
$5000 in new equipment each year! This was an account that at times produced more than
$50,000 in profit a month! In the early
nineties, we were also compelled to buy our cleaning products from a company subsidiary.
Although some of their products were good, some were not, and some were more expensive.
This requirement was enforced by the division vice presidents, who coincidentally,
received a share of the sales. Even when we demonstrated that this system was hurting our
quality and consequently our customer, we were forced to continue. (I was almost fired
over this issue).
Managers
who ran over budget, or in some cases even on budget, were fired very quickly; even if
their motive was quality, or account retention. You had to run under budget or else. The
call for really deep cuts usually came towards the end or beginning of a new quarter, but
we actually planned on the calls that came at the end of the fiscal year. In almost all of the conversations that I had with
upper management, quality was never discussed. The topic of discussion was always
“where can we cut and how deep” or “how can we cut back on supplies or
equipment”? The local manager is left to explain away problems and “deal with
the customer”. Our regional manager from Dallas visited once or twice a year, usually
to play golf with a customer. I saw him make half a dozen inspections in twelve years. You
see them a lot when you are a new sale, or when the account is in jeopardy. (The only time
that the practice of labor cutting is discarded is when the account is about to be lost).
The
intention of our local managers was usually good. We wanted to provide quality, after all,
we were the ones who had to deal with the customer each day, and when the quality was not
there, our customer’s could be very unpleasant. The problem was we were not empowered
to produce the level of quality that we desired. Of course this is the complete opposite
of their sales presentations, which promote the corporate experience as one of
communication and interaction between heavily supported branches and corporate
headquarters.
Owner managed
business is the solution to the corporate problem!
Like so many others, I fled the frustrations and contradictions
of corporate cleaning. I now have the power
to “put my money where my mouth is” when it comes to producing quality. I
don’t have someone else “taking the beating” when quality suffers. I can
actually do many of the things that are “promised” in the slick corporate sales
presentations.
“Empower your local property
managers!” Promote that sense of
ownership in local staff that is so important to effective property management. They are
trained professionals to whom you pay a lot of money. Let them find the best available
services for your client. When your next opportunity to bid janitorial comes around, look
for the experienced owner/ managed businesses. Check references and be sure they have a
good “track record”… and you can’t go wrong. Owner managed cleaning
companies are looking for business, not just sales.
The author of this
article, Bobby Blain, has more than twenty years of experience as an owner and manager
in the janitorial field. He has managed a number of accounts in the millions of square
feet. He currently serves as a consultant to architects, building owners, universities and
municipalities. Most recently he designed the bid specifications and training manuals,
then conducted a cost analysis for the new Bergstrom International Airport in Austin,
Texas. He has consulted for numerous universities and businesses including Greenway Plaza
in Houston and Williams Square in Las Colinas.
