Good custodians are hard to come by, but when they’re not able to show up for a shift, finding qualified substitutes to replace them is even harder. If you are able to find suitable substitutes to cover your full-timers, there are still a plethora of obstacles for them to overcome in order to successfully fill in and provide quality cleaning that meets your standards

In this blog post, we’ll explain why substitute custodians are necessary, pain points surrounding their integration to your team and describe strategies for efficient and effective substitute custodial training.

Why Do We Need Substitute Custodians?

When we think of substitutes, we don’t tend to think about cleaning roles. However, it is a major issue in facilities operations, for a number of reasons:

1. Understaffed Custodial Teams: Custodial budgets are tighter than ever and many organizations have difficulty hiring and retaining custodians, making understaffed teams more of a reality than rarity.
2. Absenteeism: If someone on your already depleted custodial team isn’t able to work a shift, that can quickly become a major bottleneck in your facilities operations.
3. Additional Help: Even if your custodial team is fully staffed, sometimes a busy day or event requires extra hands on deck— especially for K-12 events or sporting competitions.

Substitute Custodian Difficulties

Substitute custodians are tasked with a difficult job they’re likely unfamiliar with, and as a result, come with significant challenges. Some of these include:

1. Identifying Substitutes: You won’t have much notice when one of your custodians is absent, so it’s critical to have quick access to substitutes, otherwise you may be scrambling to find a last-minute replacement.
2. Inconsistent Work Quality: Not all substitute custodians have the same level of training, which can lead to variations in the quality of their work. This can be  especially problematic in settings where cleanliness and hygiene are crucial, such as life science facilities and schools.
3. Unfamiliarity with Facilities: Substitute custodians may struggle to understand the nuances of the spaces they’re assigned to clean, which may cause them to struggle to locate supplies, understand routines, or efficiently navigate their facilities.
4. Schedule Disruptions: Substitutes may not be able to follow preassigned schedules the same way as regular staff, which can lead to delays and backlogs. This may also trickle down to full-time staff and cause a staff-wide issue.
5. No-Shows: If a substitute custodian doesn’t come in for their shift, then it can become extremely difficult to find a replacement for them within a reasonable amount of time, which can lead to severe understaffing or additional overtime pay for other custodians.

How to Improve Your Substitute Custodian Process

While it can be difficult for substitute custodians to perform as well as full-timers, it’s not impossible. With an effective training process in place, you can reduce the time spent training these temporary employees and improve their quality of work. Some key tips for streamlining your substitute training protocol are:

1. Set Expectations With An Established Program: A preexisting program can include cleaning procedures, locations to be cleaned that day and contact information for questions they may have on the shift. Some organizations have pre-built training videos for first timers and substitutes they show at the beginning of their shift.
2. Data, Data, Data: Substitutes often don’t complete the work they’re tasked with, so having a data trail of the cleaning work they did with the locations they did it in is key to tracking their performance. Cleaning validation software enables custodians to log their work throughout the day with their mobile device with imagery of completed work by location.
3. Utilize Other FM Employees: Stand-in custodians don’t need to exclusively come from third-party staffers, they can also come from in-house. If possible, repurpose other staff from different areas of facility management—they’re likely to have a better preexisting knowledge of the cleaning, making them quicker to train and more capable of higher-quality work.
4. Hire Top Performing Substitutes: If a substitute is a standout worker and immediately fits into your team, consider bringing them on full-time. They’ll come with preexisting knowledge of your operations and relevant experience—two traits that are in high demand.

Substitutes are a challenging yet vital part of facility operations. In a perfect world, their efforts wouldn’t be required, but tight custodial budgets coupled with hiring and retention difficulties make them much-needed employees.

While there can be difficulties in training, scheduling, and ensuring their success, there are many ways to reduce friction surrounding their implementation. Leveraging technology is the best way to do this, and armed with real-time cleaning validation software, your substitute custodians can be more effective and efficient than ever.