Staying on top of industry trends is one of the keys to a successful business. But which janitorial statistics are the most important?
Imagine you’re trying to hire a new employee, but you’re having trouble getting someone to accept your offer. What could be the problem? Wages? Turnover fears? Job growth? It’s hard to say if you’re not current on janitorial statistics.
Whether or not you’ve thought about cleaning business statistics in the past, the reality is that today, businesses measure just about every metric they can. Why? Because doing so helps track industry trends, which gives you insight into potential problems either now or in the future. In other words, keeping up with janitorial statistics provides you with the knowledge you need so your business can stay current, relevant, and ultimately, profitable.
Manage bids, projects, clients, and more with Janitorial Manager. Find out more. Schedule a free demo today!
The numbers that count
A common question at this point is, where do you begin? There are lots of metrics available, and some of them might not seem very useful at first glance. The truth is, some of them may not be unless you’re trying to understand something concrete. However, there are a few janitorial statistics you might want to follow on a regular basis.
1. Compensation
Even in today’s difficult job market, people have choices about where they work. You may offer the better job or be the better company to work for, but if your salaries aren’t in line with the current market, you’re going to have a tough time attracting and retaining workers. Better yet, get ahead of the curve and offer wages that will attract the best people to begin with. Don’t forget that compensation varies by locale, so make sure you’re looking at local as well as national statistics.
2. Turnover
Tracking departures is critical to identifying and rectifying any retention issues you have. Why do you need to look at national averages for this? Because you’ll want to see how you compare. The cleaning industry is known for high turnover, so if your turnover rate is 35%, that’s not bad compared to the average. Turnover statistics may also point to other trends in the industry, such as changes to wages, benefits, industry growth, or other important janitorial statistics.
3. Job growth
Job growth can indicate the stability of the industry as well as how stable it’s expected to be in years to come. Janitorial services is a somewhat recession-proof business—there are always offices to clean—but that doesn’t make your business invincible. Job growth statistics can help you to see danger before it gets here.
Where to find the numbers
The best place to get an overview of current janitorial statistics is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Their information gives you the basic statistics you might want to know, as well as previous statistics in case you want to see how things have changed.
There’s also a relatively new resource called Data USA that has consolidated government data into a simple, easy to understand interface, so you don’t have to go searching for data from different sources.
You can also stay on top of janitorial statistics through trade magazines, like CleanLink and Services.
Keep track of all your cleaning jobs with Janitorial Manager. Schedule a free demo today!
How to track your metrics
Probably the primary factor in the boom of metrics over the last ten or twenty years is janitorial management software. Like many other industries, the cleaning business is moving towards digital administration, in part because of the data that the software is often able to provide.
Janitorial Manager, for example, allows you to run reports about employee turnover, customer satisfaction, time to complete a job, which seasons are busiest, which clients are most profitable, which supplies are most used, and many other things. With paper and pen, it would take weeks (at the least) to learn this information. Now, with products such as Janitorial Manager, you can learn about your janitorial statistics in just a few clicks.
An important word of caution, though: Sophisticated as some software is, metrics won’t enter themselves into the system. If you’re serious about tracking metrics—which we highly recommend—you need to commit to inputting your data on a regular basis. Since much of the software available, including Janitorial Manager, have mobile capabilities, this shouldn’t be too hard, but especially as you begin to record your own statistics, it’s a good idea to set aside time each day to make sure that all of the data is up-to-date. After all, the only useful statistics come from accurate metrics.