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The true cost of having your staff do the cleaning.

If you’ve been weighing your options on whether to do your own in-house janitorial work or outsourcing it, you’ve surely realized that there is more to it than just some additional labor hours and buying some cleaning supplies.

We created a handy worksheet to give you an idea of the costs involved. It includes the 8 main cost categories for janitorial services, with some examples of what each can entail. Download it now.

Labor Costs

You will need to provide more than just a “cleaner”. A cleaning firm can provide a variety of experts. Depending on the size of your facility you may need:

  • Day and night custodians
  • Day and night Managers
  • Carpet technicians
  • Floor specialists
  • Window professionals
  • Equipment repair mechanics

Fringe Benefits

In addition to wages for cleaners and salaries for management, there are costly fringe benefits to provide to employees, such as:

  • Holidays
  • Vacations
  • Sick leave
  • Healthcare

Just the healthcare benefit management alone is a huge cost these days.

Equipment Costs

A cleaning company owns, maintains, and operates expensive equipment such as:

  • Carpet cleaners
  • Vacuums
  • Buffers
  • Mops, buckets and wringers
  • Floor scrubbers
  • High access tools & ladders

A cleaning company will always have backup equipment and can provide parts quickly if onsite equipment breaks. We keep up with the latest technology in cleaning facilities.

Cleaning Materials

A cleaning company buys in bulk to save money, enabling you to lower your consumable supply costs and allowing them to always have back up stock on hand. This can range from:

  • Cleaning chemicals
  • Bathroom supplies
  • Kitchen supplies
  • Cleaning equipment
  • Uniforms
  • Safety equipment
  • Air fresheners
  • Garbage bags

Taxes & Fees Associated with an Employee

We will take care of:

  • Federal, state, and local taxes
  • Unemployment
  • Medicare

Insurance

Just in case anything happens, we’ve got you covered. We have business insurance to cover liability, including:

  • Commercial auto
  • Commerical liability
  • Commerical crime
  • Workers compensation
  • Theft protection

General and Administrative

  • Accounting
  • Labor relations
  • Management time
  • Payroll
  • Training
  • OSHSA
  • Training
  • Safety,

Our workers are trained and familiar with the chemicals and equipment they use, along with the best practices for using these products.

A cleaning company can do the costly complicated admin of hiring and firing (just in case!). They can provide the exact number of employees as needed. You will not be understaffed or overstaffed at any time.

As you can see, cleaning has some more visible costs like equipment and supplies, but as the worksheet and this post show, there are many extra costs just out of sight and mind. These extra costs can stay hidden until you notice they have already eaten into your budgets and bottom line.