Q: How many maintenance staff, custodians or grounds personnel should I have per square foot?
This is one of the most common questions I have heard over the years. We are opening this discussion for thoughts, ideas, pros and cons.
A: Our college just went through institutional optimization.
Institutional optimization is motivated by a desire to raise the college’s ability to provide distinguished educational programs and to provide support to all the students it serves. The process is therefore comprehensive, covering the full array of activities at the college and considering every area with an identified commitment of human, financial and material resources, in order to identify strengths and limitations in achieving program goals. Through a shared commitment to shape our college for the future, we will adopt a set of actions that position the college to thrive in the 21st century.
You can Google it. We spent many, many hours going through every building and classroom on campus to make sure we had enough staff/personnel to take care of the needs of our small college. It shows strengths, weaknesses and what areas need to be better staffed.
The process has been worth it.
One question I often pose back is: "What levels of cleanliness, safety and functionality do you intend to provide?" We showcased some of the questions and data from a roundtable that asked key questions around this topic, while providing some of the data from our surveys and sources such as APPA.
APPA is one of the most recognized sources and often refer to the "Four Core" areas of operations. APPA provides some examples under the four major categories and often provide templates in addition to research they have conducted. They typically will break down level of service into a scale of "Showpiece" vs. "Crisis Response."
Other questions to consider:
- How old is your equipment? New does not always equal easy; old does always not equal outdated. Each has its pros and cons.
- How complex is each property?
- What is the daily routine, and how often are daily routines interrupted?
- What varieties of the same type of system exist between sites? Same type of equipment, but different manufacturers, each with different requirements per site?
- What skillsets are needed?
- What shifts can employees work?
I have seen studies that give numbers such as 20,000 sq. ft. per custodian as the ideal vs. 32,000 sq. ft. being the reality. Studies show 90,000 sq. ft. for MEP, but 110,000 sq. ft. is the reality for some. As Toni mentioned, know your needs and know your properties, as this will drive the answer that is applicable for you.
A: You beat me to the punch — I was just typing up how we utilize APPA metrics to provide a baseline to the decision-makers, and then let them pick what level of awesome they want us to operate at.
Ready to start your journey to CMMS? Download our Buying Guide: Operations Management Software.
