How to Sell Outsourcing in a Post-COVID World

Contributed by Doug Flaig, President of Stratus Building Solutions

Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, life is almost back to normal. Yet, there are some aspects of the way we do business that will be forever changed. When the country was locked down at the start of the pandemic, offices closed, and workers had no choice but to do their jobs remotely. After the lockdown was lifted, some companies took their time before returning to business as usual. And some companies still haven’t.

Employees liked the flexibility of working from home — doing their job on their own schedule, and not spending hours commuting to and from the office. Employers liked it because it saved money — lower utilities bills, fewer supplies needed to purchase. Plus, their employees were happy and generally more productive. Even now that most workers have returned to the office, at least on a part-time basis, we’ve all learned that things don’t have to be done the same way anymore. 

Business owners have gotten used to working without a lot of people in the office, and that’s made them more open to outsourcing. Outsourcing is hiring an outside business to do work that had previously been done by your employees. Typically, the jobs that are outsourced are jobs that have to do with running the company, not with the core business the company does. Human Resources, IT, data processing, security, and janitorial services are all examples of jobs that companies have begun outsourcing more.  

As a janitorial company, you can take advantage of the trend by helping businesses recognize how outsourcing their cleaning services can benefit them in several ways, primarily by saving them money. 

Management Benefits of Outsourcing Cleaning Services

Larger companies may employ a team of janitors tasked with keeping their facility clean. Hiring someone involves locating qualified people in a difficult labor market, checking their backgrounds, training them, and paying them wages and benefits. If a company has frequent turnover in their janitorial staff, it may be hard to maintain consistent cleanliness standards. 

If they were to outsource the job to a professional cleaning company, they don’t have to worry about any of that. 

Smaller companies that don’t have dedicated janitors, may rely on other employees to clean. This takes time away from the jobs they were hired to do, resulting in a loss of productivity. Outsourcing to a professional makes sure the cleaning is done correctly, leaving your employees happy they don’t have to do it anymore. 

Even if a company maintains a janitorial staff, they might still be interested in outsourcing tasks that are larger or require specialized equipment, such as carpet cleaning, window washing, or hard floor treatments. 

A professional cleaning company is in the business of delivering consistent cleaning standards to their customers and has a vested interest in ensuring that they execute to those standards.  

The Cost Benefits of Outsourcing Cleaning Services

Outsourcing to a professional cleaning company versus an in-house cleaning team can help offset a variety of costs. This can include:

· Employment related costs:  Worker’s compensation, employee benefits and even payroll tax costs can be saved by outsourcing.

· Insurance costs:  When an in-house team is using chemicals or rental equipment they tend to fall into a higher risk category which can drive up insurance rates.  An insured and bonded professional cleaning company spreads these costs across all customers resulting in a lower cost to the customer.

· Management and time costs:  Someone needs to oversee, manage and train the in-house team.  By outsourcing you take that workload and place it on the commercial cleaning contractor which allows the customer staff to spend their time on higher leveraged efforts.

· Equipment and material costs:  This is a key cost saving area for any customer since the professional cleaning company can rent (or may own) specialized equipment and will be more proficient than an in house team.  This can lead to a lower cost of service overall.

The Importance of Sanitizing and Disinfecting Properly

Since the start of the pandemic, our society has redefined its definition of clean. COVID-19 has taught us the importance of disinfecting and sanitizing to prevent the spread of the virus. Done properly, it helps keep all of us healthy. And for businesses, healthy employees are productive employees. If your company provides sanitization and/or disinfection services, that should be one of your key selling points. Even companies with janitors on staff will appreciate knowing the job is done right, by people who know what they are doing.

Use the Outsourcing Trend to Your Benefit

There are many reasons for a business to outsource their janitorial services in a post-COVID world. As the owner of a cleaning company, making businesses aware of these reasons can wind up benefiting you both.