Benchmarking Metrics – how do my janitorial costs compare to others?

See how much you can accomplish without inputting any data!

A good benchmarking tool should have the ability to provide a query of the data base without requiring any input of data. Facility Managers and others in the real estate profession often ask the question, “How well are you managing your facility or your portfolio?” With an interactive benchmarking tool, you can get your answer in just a few steps (we illustrate the concept using the FM BENCHMARKING tool):

  1. Select the metric you are interested in or are being requested to provide info:
    Figure 1 — Query Edition — Analysis Options. Provided courtesy of FM BENCHMARKING.

  2. Select the report (for example, if you had selected Janitorial for the metric, you might want a report for cost per unit area):

    Figure 2 — Query Edition — Report Options.Provided courtesy of FM BENCHMARKING.

  3. Select filters relevant to your facility. In this example the facility is an office building:
    Figure 3 — Query Edition — Filter Options.Provided courtesy of FM BENCHMARKING.

  4. Select any additional filters you may want, such as Class of Office Building, Degree of Desired Cleanliness, Median Janitorial Wage Rate for Your City, etc.
  5. Produce the benchmark comparison you need to answer the question regarding your cost performance…
    Figure 4 — Query Edition — Janitorial Cost per Cleanable SF.Provided courtesy of FM BENCHMARKING.

  6. Then determine your own costs to see where you are on the above graph. Or, you may use this type of analysis when bidding contracts for a new janitorial contract, to help you understand not what the costs of the potential contractor should be, but to see the impact of adding/subtracting a filter, such as changing the desired degree of cleanliness.

The next steps depend on what action you need to take, if any. If your costs for janitorial services are at $1.00 per cleanable square foot (SF), then you are already at first quartile performance and just need to continue to manage the contract to assure that the services are being provided per the contract terms. If your costs are above $2 per cleanable SF, then you need to consider what steps can be taken to reduce the costs including rebid of the contract or reductions in cleaning frequencies, or other options.

Articles are based on data from FM BENCHMARKING, which until the pandemic had been the online benchmarking tool for facility managers and CREs. Data tracked by FM BENCHMARKING includes cost and labor data as well as best practices for more than 95% of typical facility costs. For questions about benchmarking, please contact Peter Kimmel on LinkedIn. Peter was one of the principals of FM BENCHMARKING and now is consulting in the industry.