Cleaning Professionals Doing More With Less

According to a new survey conducted by Procter & Gamble Professional, 85% of cleaning professionals have adopted a “doing more with less” approach in response to current economic conditions.

P&G Professional conducted its “Cleaning in a Down Economy” survey to gauge how decision makers managing in-house or contract cleaning services in the health care, education, retail, commercial, foodservice and hospitality industries have reacted and adapted to recent business conditions.

The findings show that cleaning service managers have often had to tackle the same amount of labor with fewer employees, placing increased demands on staff productivity and cleaning efficiency, according to P&G.

Many managers have been forced to streamline operations, with 76% reporting being under pressure from upper management to keep operating costs down over the last six months. To address these demands, nearly nine in ten respondents have made cut backs, including staff reductions.While these cut backs have not been easy, 97% of the decision makers surveyed feel they have been able to effectively keep expenditures down. In fact, more than nine in ten respondents using this “doing more with less” approach are likely to do so even after the economy improves.

“Managers in charge of cleaning services were faced with belt tightening activities at the same time as the H1N1 outbreak,” said Matt Koloseike, customer development manager, P&G Professional. “We found the past year has opened a lot of cleaning professionals’ eyes to the efficiency benefits of simplified cleaning routines and effective, multipurpose products—both of which are core components of the cleaning solutions, and philosophy, that P&G Professional brings to its customers.”

The survey also found that in spite of constrained resources, cleaning professionals primarily judge the value of a product based on its quality and effectiveness (56%) and versatility of use (36%) rather than its price point More than 60% of those surveyed who would be willing to spend more on a product would do so if it enabled their employees to work faster by getting the job done the first time. Additionally, 43% would spend more if the purchased product could replace multiple cleaning products they currently use.

According to results, 81% did not think having more cleaning products in their arsenal would lead to getting the job done right.