Building owners, stakeholders, and commercial property managers are well aware that general office cleaning can potentially affect office performance. Beyond being a potential distraction to employees, it can sometimes send the wrong message to visitors and clients to have janitors bustling about during the day. This has many property managers contemplating whether it would be better to schedule professional cleaning services at night after the building’s normal operating hours have ended.
This is an interesting debate and one that goes on in a lot more professional spaces than you might think. To help you understand whether day or night cleaning services are best for your building, we decided to take a closer look at the pros and cons of each.
The Advantages Of Day Office Cleaning
A lot of businesses and professional office spaces choose day office cleaning for a variety of key reasons. This often includes things like energy savings and efficiency, daily office cleaning as well as maintaining a pristine work environment throughout the day. It can be especially helpful in offices and commercial properties that see a lot of foot traffic on any single given day.
Energy Efficiency
During the day, the natural light from the windows and the overhead lights of the office when it is in full swing give cleaning technicians all the light they need to see what they are cleaning. If cleaning technicians come after hours, chances are the sun will be down, and the normal office lights will need to be turned on. Not to mention the building’s heating levels will need to be maintained at normal daytime levels.
By having cleaning technicians service the building during the day, you can keep your office’s energy consumption at nominal levels, without having to worry about using up additional power on lights and heat in the evening. While it might not seem like a big deal, night cleaning can add 3 to 5% in energy costs during the dark, cold months of winter.
Increased Employee Efficiency
A lot of office spaces and commercial facilities have bathrooms, break rooms, workplaces, offices, and kitchenettes where employees come and go. Not to mention meeting rooms where they can host clients for presentations and business negotiations. While these areas might start out clean at the beginning of the day, they can become quite messy and disorganized as the hours pass. Having a professional custodial staff or day porter service on-site can go a long way toward maintaining a professional level of cleanliness in these critical business areas.
Rapid Response Time For Emergencies
Let’s face it, even the best maintained commercial office space, will still see its fair share of spills, messes and things like toilet overflows in the course of a given calendar year. Not to mention high-traffic areas such as toilets, washrooms, lobbies, and pantries can get untidy during the day. Maintaining a day office custodial staff not only helps keep your professional spaces clean, but it also means you have highly trained professionals at the ready any time an accidental mess occurs.
Fewer Nighttime Security Concerns
A lot of commercial properties and expansive office spaces have some type of security staff in place. When you schedule nighttime cleaners to come in, the security personnel have to account for them. This includes things like having cleaners tag out, monitoring them to make sure they don’t accidentally go into sensitive areas, and resetting accidentally tripped alarms.
This is especially important in certain sectors, like technology R & D where things like round-the-clock security need to be in place through the business offices. It is also applicable to offices that have several floors in hand. Choosing night office cleaning means having more people present at the office during the night. Aside from any number of security personnel, cleaners will also be present in the area.
You and your security staff don’t have to worry about any of these foibles when you have a daytime cleaning crew on hand. It lets your security personnel and security technology lock down the building without worry.
The Advantages Of Night Office Cleaning
While day office cleaning has become the norm for a lot of professional spaces, offices, and commercial properties, there are still a fair number of property managers who strongly favor night time office cleaning. This includes reasons like:
Less Risk Of Disturbing Operations
It’s a plain fact that a lot of cleaning appliances make noises when used. Especially things like vacuum cleaners and auto-scrubbers. Sometimes these noises can become disruptive and can become troublesome to employees. Cleaning appliances such as vacuum cleaners can be very noisy when used. Thus, using them during office hours can raise complaints from employees.
Not to mention that the presence of a cleaning tech can also interrupt important projects. Even the most discreet cleaning technician will make a little noise when dusting and wiping down surfaces. This can be an unnecessary distraction for some employees. Especially those who perform sensitive tasks.
When you schedule nighttime cleaning services, the technicians and all their potentially noisy equipment are out of sight and out of mind.
Improved Health & Safety For Employees
Cleaning technicians sometimes need to use harsh chemicals and equipment that can be potentially dangerous, if encountered by untrained individuals. To keep the surroundings clean, having these chemicals around at an almost constant rate is necessary. These chemicals are the reason why cleaners have to wear a mask, or perhaps have protective gloves when they do their work.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that most employees do not wear the same personal protective equipment that a lot of professional cleaners have. This makes them prone to inhaling the toxins that come with cleaning agents and can become troublesome in the long run.
When you schedule nighttime cleaning services employees never have to interact with harsh cleaning products or potentially dangerous equipment.
Efficient Use Of Man Hours
There’s no doubt about it, when you have daytime cleaners moving around performing their essential duties during normal hours of operation, there are going to be times when the cleaners have to stop what they are doing for employees. There are also going to be times when your office employees have to wait for the cleaners to get finished.
While this might only be a minute or two here and there, the inefficient use of man-hours can start to add up over the course of a week, a month or even a fiscal quarter. When you schedule nighttime cleaning services employees and cleaning technicians need not ever meet.
