ISSA, a trade association for the cleaning industry, has compiled a Cleaning Industry Management Standard.
Other highlights of the standard:
-An organization shall have a written quality plan "for determining whether cleaning service requirements are met and for identifying improvement opportunities.
-An organization shall measure and document its performance through surveys, inspections, customer evaluations and examination of complaints received.
-An industry-accepted methodology needs to be established for determining the number of labor hours needed to accomplish work requirements. A system should be put in place to estimate job costs; cost controls should be used to ensure that work is completed within workloading, budgeting and costing parameters.
-Staffing levels shall be based on workloading and one or more of the following—budgeting; costing data; customer requests; and industry benchmarks.
-Individual cleaning assignments should be set forth in written plans; standardized task procedures should be used across the organization and should be documented.
-An organization should use similar equipment and supplies in similar facility types, and should use inventory management and supply control systems. Equipment maintenance and repair should occur as the result of a planned process.
