Commercial property owners and managers are frequently tasked with making sure every square inch of their facility is clean and properly sanitized. This can be no small feat for some businesses to handle with on-site employees. Not to mention that a lot of employee man-hours are better spent focusing on business operations over custodial work.
This is why a lot of commercial property managers face the debate over whether or not to hire a janitorial staff, outsource to a professional cleaning company for after-hours janitorial services, or employ a day porter.
If these terms all sound similar, but you are not sure what the difference is, then you might be wondering what the difference really is between a day porter and a janitor?
Are Day Porters/Matrons Also Janitors?
While it is true that some commercial buildings often use porters and janitors interchangeably. Though professional cleaning services and businesses who outsource their custodial staff, are well-aware that there is a difference between day porters/matrons, and janitors or custodians.
What Is A Day Porter/Matron Service?
In today’s gender-neutral world a day porter or day matron is a term that can be used interchangeably just like the terms “Actor” or “Actress.” A day porter service can be a team of individuals in a larger commercial property. They are somewhat of a “Brand Ambassador” for a commercial property, a management company, or the facility in general.
On some commercial properties, a day porter can also play a sort of managerial role as they are tasked with ensuring that all building areas are professionally maintained and clean. Day porters typically work from a specific task list, which can change from one day to the next based on the needs of the commercial property, or directives from the property’s management team.
A professional day porter service isn’t just hired to help clean up. They are contracted to help clean and maintain a property as a representative of the company with the company’s best interests in mind. This includes professional cleaning practices, as well as policies, and the core values the company or property embodies as part of their overarching brand image.
In some instances, a professional day porter service might also meet and interact with the company or commercial property’s key stakeholders, to ensure that they reflect their core values as they pertain to the cleaning service.
What Is A Janitor Or A Custodial Staff?
While a porter service might be involved in cleaning and servicing professional needs on the spot, a janitor or custodian tends to focus on sanitation and maintenance duties. They tend to service larger areas with a broad menu of services. Some commercial property custodial staff will even report to a day porter or a day matron as an employee might to a supervisor. Even if the day porters themselves are from a third-party cleaning company.
One example might be a day porter who actively restocks bathroom supplies and organizes the kitchenette in the employee break room. While the janitor wipes down and deep cleans areas when there’s less foot traffic during main operating hours. In this way, a day porter service focuses on keeping things organized, and the janitor deep cleans various areas.
Custodians and janitors often use a variety of cleaning products and equipment. This might include:
- Professional-grade vacuum cleaners
- Mops & push brooms
- Floor buffers
- Sidewalk sweepers
- Squeegees
- Carpet cleaners
- Microfiber cleaning cloths
In some commercial properties, some specific janitors or custodians have handyman skills to help fix any necessary repairs. This might include basic HVAC system maintenance, woodwork repair, drywall repair, carpet shampooing, or even minor painting projects.
What Are The Benefits Of A Day Porter?
There are several advantages to having a day porter or day matron servicing your building or commercial property. This starts with the fact that as the building owner or property manager, you can customize the porter service to meet your property’s unique needs. This can include things like how often you want them to service-specific things and areas, as well as empowering them to serve as a liaison between the property management staff and the on-site custodial staff.
At the same time, a day porter can also be given very specific cleaning tasks to carry out with the kind of sharp focus and attentiveness that you simply can’t get from a typical building janitor. This might include things like:
Maintaining the professional appearance of lobbies and other high-traffic areas.
Maintaining the building’s appearance by cleaning, disinfecting, and restocking bathrooms.
Boosting employee satisfaction by maintaining a clean building throughout the day.
Ensuring that guests and clients are greeted by a professionally clean & maintained building.
Is It Better To Hire Or Contract A Third-Party Day Patron Service?
Some commercial property managers like to keep everything in-house and under the same corporate umbrella, which in some cases is understandable. Though unless you are familiar with day porter services, it can be hard to know what to look for when interviewing and inevitably hiring one or more day porters to help service your commercial property.
When you contract a day porter service through a professional cleaning company like Building Services Inc. you get the peace of mind that comes from knowing that you are getting one or more highly trained professionals. These are individuals who have been vetted by experienced managers and who have received the highest level of training. This also means access to specialty equipment as well as specific skills that might be needed in the future.
Professional cleaning companies like Building Services Inc. also carry the highest levels of liability insurance and handle all the employment contract details. Should a day porter on your assigned staff call in sick, we have a vast team of other trained individuals who can be ready to step in at a moment’s notice.
We also have a diverse staff of professionally trained and experienced janitors with decades of experience cleaning commercial properties. When you contract your entire building’s janitorial service through us, you can rest easy knowing that the day porter service and the custodial staff will work together seamlessly to clean, sanitize and disinfect your property using industry-best practices.
