Staffing the Woodward Academy Housekeeping Team

Abstract

The determination of success for a housekeeping department for an educational institution includes both equipping and training the appropriate size staff within the department and meeting established expectations for assigned spaces and buildings. These two items are linked by the amount of space to be cleaned and the level and frequency of the cleaning activities required. Woodward Academy was founded in 1900 in College Park, Georgia. The majority of academic spaces on the campus are less than 20 years old. The primary focus of the housekeeping department on the campus has been the classrooms and the restrooms. The current staffing level for the housekeeping department may not be adequate to meet the needs of the administration and faculty. A facility building and space audit needs to be completed for the campus. There is no record of an audit on file from the previous ten years. Each building on the two campuses located in College Park, GA will be audited, both for cleanable space, and categorization of space. Then, each space will be assigned a frequency of cleaning and a level of cleanliness to attain, using standardized cleanliness level descriptions. These decisions will be made following a survey of the building owner and/or department head with the facilities department. This data, combined with an industry standard space category matrix, will yield a recommended staffing level, based upon the time required to complete routine cleaning activities within each space. Finally, this recommended staffing level will be compared to the current staffing level, to determine the variance. Based upon that variance, recommended changes will be identified and/or recommendations for further investigations will be provided.