Selecting a Housekeeping Vendor.

In today's environment, it's a complex decision

Searching for the best housekeeping vendor can be tricky. Decades ago it was as simple a question as who could offer the best price on products. That's when labor was cheap, regulatory considerations were minimal and maintenance budgets were less scrutinized. Now, it's who can offer the best value and service to lower your overall maintenance costs--i.e., how do you choose a vendor that will help you maximize your cleaning resources so you can stay within budgetary constraints?

Asking some basic questions will help guide your search:

1. How often do you see your vendors? If the answer is, "When I call them or when they want to write an order," you probably should be looking for a new supplier.

2. What kind of training do vendors offer to the housekeeping staff? Can they assist you with employee certification needs? Do they offer in-service training programs? Are instructional videotapes readily available?

3. Can your current vendor be viewed as a partner that understands your operation in depth and will assist you in making it work?

4. Does the vendor sell everything the maintenance staff needs, e.g., floor care, restroom care, carpet care and cleaning equipment?

5. Does the vendor offer such exceptional delivery services as next-day delivery or emergency same-day delivery?

6. Does the vendor help with inventory management to hold down costs?

7. Does the vendor offer a convenient ordering process, including faxed order forms, reports on your ordering history and ordering via the Internet?

8. Does the vendor offer computerized maintenance programs to help you measure staffing/labor costs, evaluate cleaning frequencies, standardize tasks and, in general, help you get the most out of your staff and budget?

Answering these questions to your satisfaction is just the beginning. You should then consider your facility's needs in depth.

The Importance of Training

Your first consideration in housekeeping, as in any service activity, is a well-trained staff. It's no secret that housekeeping staffs are turning over in most long-term care facilities as rapidly as other staffs--and, as with any department, the existing housekeeping staff is expected to pick up the slack until someone new is hired and trained.

When the new person is hired, he or she is usually handed over for on-the-job training to an existing staff member who must now perform two jobs: his or her own daily tasks and new employee training, often performing neither task very well.

A worthwhile vendor should be able to help you train new employees and make them productive within a couple of hours of their arrival. To accomplish this, the vendor should have customized training programs with visual aids (job cards, training manuals, etc.).

Safety as a Priority

In today's legal and regulatory environment, safety is a must if you are to stay in business. Among other things, safety means making sure that the products the housekeeping staff uses are safe for residents and staff and properly labeled. The vendor should share the responsibility of providing the information, tools and services needed to create a safe working and living environment for your facility. The vendor should be able to:

1. provide the products and training your staff needs to safely handle potentially hazardous body fluid spills;

2. offer proper labeling along with MSDS information on all cleaning products;

3. provide clear instructions on safe and proper use of cleaning and laundry products, as well as disposal guidelines;

4. help you and your staff understand and comply with state and federal regulations;

5. provide you with an understanding of the risk of slip-and-fall litigation and the necessary preventive practices (you will want to ask about the availability of Underwriters Laboratories' approved products that are slip-resistant); and

6. provide safety training so that your employees will meet Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards in the workplace.

Too Expensive?

Though all this might sound as though it's describing a very expensive vendor, doing business with such a vendor, in fact, can lower your overall housekeeping costs. An array of quality, name-brand products produced with stringent quality control and backed by a company that has the size and strength needed to deliver quality services is part of the equation--but, actually, products are only 20% of the typical maintenance budget. The other 80% is labor--and the better trained and more highly retained the staff, the cheaper the cost of staffing. It all adds up to greater cost-efficiency.

Guaranteed billing, which our company happens to offer, is another helpful feature (see sidebar).

A Business Partner

In the last analysis, only consider vendors you feel have the potential of becoming a business partner for the long term. Expect them to help you prepare for the challenges of living with tighter financial restrictions, higher labor costs, increasing regulations and a greater customer demand for cleanliness. Choose a vendor who can deliver both the products and management solutions you will need to help better optimize the cleaning resources of your facility now and in the future. Remember, it's not just about buying cheap products anymore.

Anne Werring is a product manager, Hillyard, Inc., St. Joseph, Mo.

Guaranteed Billing

Guaranteed billing involves a monthly charge per resident-day for all housekeeping (as well as laundry and dietary supplies). This replaces variable costs with a guaranteed fixed cost, thus standardizing the monthly housekeeping, laundry and dietary budgets for all cleaning products, laundry needs and consumable goods. This also helps reduce the cost of procurement. Guaranteed billing eliminates the cost of maintaining inventory on hand--and the customer is billed at the end of the month after the product has been used. You receive one bill each month, and your accounting department will only have to cut one check.

Anne Warring