Absent workers must be replaced the same morning: in facility management and housekeeping

At 6.10 am the supervisor of a mall reads his roll-call sheet. Four people are missing from the thirty-two on the deployment-chart. Two are floor-scrubber operators for the atrium. One is the food-court washroom attendant. One is the day-shift lift-lobby sweeper. The mall opens at ten, the client's facility-manager walks the floor at eight, and the invoice is raised against the billing-strength on that chart.

This is the daily test of a housekeeping or facility contract. The work cannot be done tomorrow. A washroom without its wet-floor sign at noon is a complaint at one, and a short count on the sheet is a deduction at month-end. A same-morning replacement routine separates a quiet day from a squabble over the monthly invoice.

• Mall: the food-court tables, the atrium floor and the washrooms show dirt first. Shoppers notice by late morning.
• Office tower: the pantry, lobby and washroom-checklist falls behind. Tenants email the building manager.
• Hospital: terminal-cleaning of wards and OT-cleaning between cases cannot be skipped. A gap risks patient safety, and red-bag waste lies longer than it should.
• Apartment complex: garbage compactor, lift lobbies, pump-room and gardens. Residents message the committee group before the supervisor has seen the problem.
• Commercial cleaning contract: floors, glass and common washrooms, billed per head or per area.

The nature of a gap changes with the site. A hospital replacement must be trained in colour-coded cloths, dilution and waste segregation. A mall replacement can be briefed in twenty minutes. Decide this in advance.

Absence peaks on Mondays, on the day after payday, after payday, after festivals and on rainy days. Many workers travel long distances by early bus. A single late bus brings four people late together. Supervisors learn of the absence at roll-call, when it is too late to bring in anyone from outside. Relievers are also tired, since they were used yesterday.

Another cause is the sheet itself. If the deployment-chart shows only the number of heads, not the posts, the supervisor cannot see which post is empty. He fills the visible gaps and misses the washroom nobody is watching.

1. 1

   Hold a roll-call at the gate or the store, not by phone

   Count every person against the post, not against the total. Record late arrivals separately from absent ones. Do it fifteen minutes before shift start.

2. 2

   Make the first call at once

   The supervisor rings the absent worker. If there is no answer in ten minutes, he treats the post as empty and moves to the floating-staff bench.

3. 3

   Call the floating-staff bench

   Keep five or six named relievers per cluster of sites, with phone numbers and the posts each has worked. The first call goes to the one who has worked this site.

4. 4

   Redeploy inside the site if the floating-staff bench is short

   Move a trained person from a low-risk area to the high-risk one. Write the move on the sheet, so the gap behind him is not forgotten.

5. 5

   Inform the client's representative before eight

   Tell the facility-manager what is short and what has been done. A client told at 7.45 is calmer than one who finds out at nine.

6. 6

   Log the shortfall and the hour it was met

   Use a single sheet for all sites. Review it weekly with the area manager.

Date and site:
Post and shift:
Worker expected and reason for absence (if known):
Roll-call time and who called:
First call time and answer:
Reliever called, from which site:
Time post was filled:
Redeployment made inside the site (from where to where):
Client representative told at (time):
Area manager comment and action:

The supervisor completes one line for each gap. The area manager reviews the log every Monday. Look for the same worker, the same bus route or the same supervisor appearing again and again.

A bench of relievers is more than a phone list of strangers. Give a small standby retainer or promise a few days of work per month, so the reliever answers the phone. Train each reliever on at least two site types. Give each a uniform and an ID card, so that he can enter any site at short notice. Rotate them, so no one is always the replacement.

Hospital work needs extra care. Look at the hospital housekeeping agencies page and its notes on workplace health and safety, because a replacement must know waste segregation before he enters a ward.

The facility management and housekeeping hub covers the wider run of pressures for contractors. For leave, weekly off and swaps, see how apartment maintenance agencies set up their routine. To review your own sheets, start with requirements.