Janitorial System Concerns And How To Handle Them

Posted July 17th, 2018.

When you hire a janitorial service for your company, you may not even think about any security concerns. You might think that since they are professionals, they have protocols when entering your company, keeping your building and everything within it safe.

But think about it: they have as much access to your building as you or any employee working for you. Plus, they usually come in when work hours are over, and there is no one around. So before signing up with just any cleaning service, you might want to go and do a little research to help determine if they are the right fit for your company. Remember, security is your utmost priority, and you need to know how they will handle security concerns if they were to arise.

Who Is Cleaning For Your Business?

It is crucial that you set up strict internal practices for your company. You want to ensure that your facility will be safe and secure when they enter your building. Observing specific protocols help to keep security concerns at a minimum. Applying these practices does not only mean that you are confident that their cleaners are trustworthy and are financially protected against security issues, but it also eliminates the possibility of internal risks from the beginning.

Detailed Background Checks:
Janitorial services should perform background checks to acquire the best employees. Background checks help to sift out anybody whose intentions are not entirely favorable and instead employ people who have been honest and law-abiding.

Training:
You want to have cleaners trained in necessary security protocols. And by training all new hires, they set the expectation of prioritizing safety and security.

Uniforms and IDs:
Another way that their janitorial service can exhibit their dedication to safety and security involves ensuring that the cleaners are easily identifiable. Such an approach includes visible uniforms and ID badges, to ease office clients’ or employees’ minds when they run into one of them.

Bonded and Insured:
Should something unfortunate happen, and one of the employees from the janitorial services damages your assets or even steals from your company, that is where bonding and insuring come into play. By bonding and insuring their services, the cleaning company can guarantee that you will get reimbursed.

Common Janitorial Service Issues May Create Concerns

There are specific complications that janitorial services face that can increase potential security concerns. Let’s learn more about those.

Costly Employee Turnover

Employee turnover at a janitorial service can have a massive impact on your company’s security. These cleaners that no longer work for you or your janitorial service has had access to your company’s building and even have a mental map of its layout, which increases the chance of having your security breached.

Aside from jeopardizing your company’s security, having a high employee turnover is quite costly to your business. So you might end up paying more for lower quality and have a higher security risk. It is not cheap to hire and train new employees.

Failure To Make Entry Protocol

Every building has security features, be it physical keys, access cards, or even a keypad system that needs a specific code for every employee. You must make sure to communicate with your janitorial service to help create a plan for their entry.

For example, the janitorial employees need to access the building before it closes, unless you are comfortable with after-hours access. For optimal security, have them scheduled to come in at a time, before the shop closes. And once they are in, they can access the janitorial closet with the key that you have provided.

A lockbox can also help. You should have a lockbox containing keys to all locked doors in your building. This allows the cleaners to have access to all areas within the building, and once they finish for the night, they lock up all of the keys back into the lockbox, lock the janitorial closet, and exit the building. There is no need to give anybody else keys to your building, which keeps everything secure.

Do you have an alarm at your business? It’s your responsibility to train your cleaners on how to use the alarm and what they should do if they were to dispatch the police to the location accidentally. And there are different alarm systems; ones where you only input a single code, and others, where each person gets an individual code. This allows you to identify who is coming and going and at what times.

Do You Need To Consider HIPAA?

Some standards are uncompromisable for security when you are in the medical field or provide related services. You must secure specific information, but if the janitorial services are not adequately trained on how to clean without violating HIPAA, you could be subject to fines and even have jail time.

What Is Your Best Option?

To avoid from all of the security concerns mentioned in the passages above, your safest option would be to hire a commercial cleaning service.

With the commercial cleaning service, they hire their own employees and manage a thorough background check. To provide a substantial level of security for their clients, look for companies that are licensed, insured, and bonded. And of course, make sure cleaning companies that have local Better Bureau certification and also have created certified training programs provide the highest standards of service. Having direct experiences is a must if your business needs any specialized services. And do not forget to look into satisfaction guarantees and client references; these are a must as well if you want to make sure you are getting the service you want and need. Finally, one last way to ensure the cleaning company’s responsiveness is to request a dedicated account manager. So any issues or concerns can be quickly and efficiently addressed with that single point of contact.

Having a janitorial service should not stress you out when it comes to security. To establish a protocol and work with a service focused on keeping your location secure, please feel free to contact us. Fox Cities Janitorial is here for you!