A Comparative Study of Cleaning Employment Requirements in Government Buildings

Abstract

It is anticipated that office building space will expand by about 171,000 square meters in the second half of 2021. In addition, 1.86 million square meters of additional space are being built. The analysis of the growth in office buildings demonstrates the number of administrative tasks that are required, as well as the importance of the cleaning management area in the management of physical resources. Government buildings were chosen as the case studies because they employ the same cleaning service procurement system. This study primarily focused on the cleaning services in 7 areas, which are meeting rooms, executive rooms, office spaces, restrooms, pantries, elevators, escalators, stairs, hallways, and common areas.

The objectives of this research are to examine the terms of reference (TOR) of cleaning procurement for government buildings as well as the patterns, standards, and procedures of cleaning in office buildings and summarize the format, rules, and methodology of the cleaning services. Research methodology includes 1) literature review related to regulations for procuring cleaning services 2) a comparative study of TOR of eight case studies 3) results and data analysis.

The results from comparing the project specification documents (TOR) personnel requirements showed that there were two positions of cleaning personnel, including a supervisor and cleaning staff. All TORs did not specify the required number of cleaning staff. It was discovered that each case study had a varied number of participants in terms of manpower rate. According to the manpower per area calculation, it was found that 3 projects had 1 cleaning staff per less than 1,000 square meters 3 projects had 1 person 1,000 -2,000 square meters and 2 projects had 1 person per greater than 2,000 square meters. Although the building are not much different, the numbers of personnel are substantially varied. It can be concluded that it could be a result of different levels of service required. Each case study had a different action plan. The work is classified into 7 areas as follows: meeting rooms, executive rooms, office spaces, restrooms, pantries, elevators, escalators, stairs, hallways, and common areas. The cleaning schedules were mostly daily, weekly, monthly, three-month, six-month, and annually. Cleaning in hallways and common areas accounted for the highest number of cleaning tasks (28 tasks). The number of similar tasks found in all case studies were: 2 tasks in the office spaces, 1 in the restroom area, and 1 in the hallways and common area.