While it is a business that is in great demand, especially around the holiday season, it gets tricky to manage one.

Cleaning services are something businesses and homeowners seek to get the squeaky-clean and fresh feel in their property. While it is a business that is in great demand, especially around the holiday season, it gets tricky to manage one.

If you own or manage a cleaning company, it is evident to feel overwhelmed at times. Supervising and keeping track of every cleaner, looking after their tasks, and then performing inspections. All these tasks and managing a smooth workflow and client communication are quite a lot on your plate.

Well, we are not here to point out your evident problems. We are here to provide you with solutions for your management and supervision problems. While a cleaning services management system can solve it all for you, let us dive into one crucial aspect - performing the inspections.

Cleaning Inspections and Checklists

Cleaning inspections can be daunting, but they help improve the quality of your services. However, with so many pointers to take care of, you might skip a thing or two while working on it. To avoid slip-ups, having a janitorial inspection checklist or a janitorial inspection form can help. This checklist will help you get through the inspection process smoothly, without skipping any crucial tasks.

Things to Consider Before Creating an Inspection Checklist

To make things faster, here is a cleaning inspection checklist that we have created. We created it based on the experience we acquired working with cleaning companies, managers, and cleaners. So, let’s have a look at the main components of an inspection checklist and how it can help you:

1) How Frequent Are the Inspections?

Cleaning inspections are frequent. However, the frequency varies from project to project. For instance, if you have a one-time cleaning project, you will perform the cleaning inspection at the end and call it a day! However, for regular or long-term projects like cleaning a building, you need to consider the frequency of cleaning inspection.

Will you perform the inspection daily, weekly, quarterly, or monthly? Or will there be surprise visits?

Also, if the area is large, performing the cleaning inspection in one go might not be possible. So, decide first in which areas you need to carry out the cleaning inspection. Then decide on the frequency for each.

Once you decide, it gets easier to create a cleaning inspection checklist. Things you will look after will be different in a daily inspection than a monthly one. With the inspection frequency set in your mind, creating an inspection checklist doesn’t seem like such a daunting task.

2) Different Types of Inspections

The other thing to consider is what type of inspection you will perform. If you work for healthcare facilities, labs, and hospitals, you require a different method of cleaning inspection. These methods use fluorescent marking chemicals and Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) to trace germs or dirt.

The inspectors use these products in the cases of medical cleaning. For regular inspections, you can create a simple checklist. In that case, you can manually scan the areas and mark the things done.

On the other hand, for the above process, the checklist is different and has some extra pointers.

3) Different Components of the Inspection Process

Now that you know how often you will perform the inspection and what process you will follow, it is time to decide on the components. Once you do that, you can rest assured that nothing will be left unattended.

To decide on these, first, you pick the areas that need an inspection. For example, you start with the kitchen. Now, assign the components to this area. You can mention these components as the pointers that you need to check and inspect during the process. Here, they can be - clean and disinfect the cabinets, kitchen counters, the refrigerator, the oven, the coffee machine, etc.

Whatever work needs to be done and assigned to the cleaners must be added as the components of that area. This way, you have a cleaning inspection checklist template that you can use for all clients and projects after edits.

4) Rating System to Follow

How will you rate the work done and the performance of the cleaners? There are different methods to do it. You can give a rating to their work based on the percentage completed successfully or go for a star rating. You can also rate them from 1 to 10 or follow performance measures like Poor, Good, Excellent, etc.

A rating system is crucial to keep track of the performance of a cleaner through a period. If your cleaning company does not follow such a system, there is no point in performing cleaning inspections. So, decide on the rating system you will use and keep room for it in your cleaning inspection checklist.

5) Following a Janitorial Inspection Checklist Template

Do you find yourself creating a fresh cleaning inspection checklist every time inspection is due? Isn’t that a lot of work? Well, avoid working hard and start working smart! Once you have all the crucial factors in mind, create a checklist and use it as a template for all other inspections. Of course, as we mentioned above, your projects are different and might need different types of checklists. Fret not! You can create two or three templates that cover pretty much all your project types. Mark them as per the project and inspection type to sort out later.

It saves so much of your time and doesn’t let you skip on any crucial things in your cleaning inspection checklist. So, get yourself a janitorial checklist template and use it to save time and effort during future inspections.

If you have had enough of making the checklists manually, it is time to start using a janitorial management system. The system not only allows you to create inspection checklists but provides 360-degree solutions when it comes to cleaner or janitor management. Life gets easier with such a system in place.

If you are looking for such a system, contact Novagems. Their Janitorial Services Management System is an all-encompassing solution for your management and supervision problems.

Now that we have looked at the different things to consider while creating a cleaning inspection checklist, here is a template you can use:

The Ultimate Cleaning Inspection Checklist:

The checklist below divides your work area or room-wise. So, you can visit each room one by one and check the cleaning progress. Let’s look at these pointers now:

Reception Area

• Clean and disinfect the reception counter

• Disinfect the seating in the waiting area

• Clean and disinfect the coffee table

• Dust and clean shelves, cabinets, and fixtures

• Spot-clean all furniture

• Sweep, Vacuum, and Mop the floors

• Sanitize the Computer and other equipment

• Dust and Clean the HVAC system

Entry and Exit Points

• Clean and disinfect the doors and walls

• Clean and disinfect the door handles

• Clean and reinstall doormats

• Dust the planters

• Clean the lighting fixtures

• Sweep and mop the floors

The Kitchen

• Clear, disinfect, and clean the countertops

• Declutter and disinfect cabinets and drawers

• Clean the refrigerator

• Clean the oven and coffee maker

• Take the trash out

• Sweep and mop the floors

Bathroom

• Clean and sanitize toilets

• Wash sinks and faucets

• Unclog drainage

• Clean the mirrors

• Refill soap dispensers

• Restock toilet paper and tissues

• Take the track out

• Disinfect and clean the floors

• Clean doors and door knobs

Besides, there can be many areas and places that you can add to the list and add components based on the nature of the job. Once you have created a perfect cleaning inspection checklist, use it as a template and keep changing it according to the clients and work done.

So, this was all about creating the perfect cleaning inspection checklist. If you are the manager in a cleaning company looking for solutions to perform a successful inspection, this checklist will help.

For a feature-packed solution to track, manage, and report your cleaning staff, you can also look into Novagems’ Janitorial Management System. The system provides an end-to-end solution for all your management and supervision needs. Our system will help you manage cleaning schedules and send out work orders in real-time. You can also send inspection reports to the clients with pictures and videos. The cleaners can also report issues using their version of the app. All this, packed in one system! Get it today! We are just a phone call away!