Even with a quality control program in place, facility audits are a smart move to address any ongoing issues and prevent surprise expenses for facility managers. Also, when conducted by a third party, audits allow you to look at your facility from a broader perspective to identify any areas where you might be able to improve your processes or products.

In a recent episode of Straight Talk!, Randy Burke, CEO and founder of DCS Global describes three types of audits you can implement in your facility to help improve and enhance your cleaning and maintenance programs.

Visual Audit

This type of audit focuses on the cleaning quality visually available to the auditor; how clean the building appears when they look around. The value of this type of audit is that the inspector first gets a clear idea of the expectation and standards, and then evaluates where the facility lies within those parameters.

Typically, the auditor selects a random sample (about 20 per cent of the building) and looks for issues or areas of concern where cleanliness is not meeting the expectations and criteria. The facility gets graded accordingly, and facility managers can take the results and adjust their cleaning practices and standards for better performance. This is a great audit to conduct monthly so that you stay on track and on top of any ongoing issues, as you continue to up your cleaning standards and refine your practices.

Hygiene audit

Rather than simply a visual inspection, this type of audit looks at levels of sanitization and how they are being addressed in the building, testing areas in the building against the standard. This can be an intense audit, and it can be difficult for the building to meet the set expectations on the first go around. If a building does not reach the standard the first time, typically, two more audits are scheduled to complete the process.

There are a few sets of standards that can be used, but as an example, there may be a set score assigned to a passing grade. For example, the standard may require a score of 300 or less, with 70 per cent of the readings falling under 300, to qualify as meeting the standard.

When the unannounced audit is complete, the results are shared and reviewed with the service provider and building management, and a follow-up audit is scheduled. Often, once a building “passes the test,” it leads to the beginning of a certification process resulting in audits being carried out every six months going forward. Getting a third-party inspector to assess your sanitization levels is an effective way to increase health and safety of your staff and visitors.

Green cleaning audit

This type of audit is often a condition for association membership or as part of a certification process, and it measures the success of your green cleaning program. Along with products and procedures, this audit looks at training and material readily available to cleaners, equipment and tools, and environmental impact as part of its criteria. Room types are also taken into consideration. For example, with less than five room types, all rooms must be inspected, and with more than five room types, 10 per cent of the rooms must be inspected. This is to get a comprehensive representation of the practices in our building.

Following the parameters set by the governing body, the inspector conducts a visual cleaning audit to achieve a cleaner and greener facility, with as little impact on the environment as possible. As sustainability becomes even more important for businesses, these types of audits can help you to develop and execute a functioning, eco-friendly cleaning and maintenance plan.

Audits are a collaborative process, helping to make the cleaners’ job easier by identifying obstacles like access, density, poor specifications, and more. When a building operator receives a negative audit, it can seem like bad news, but it actually helps to identify and eliminate issues like underpriced contracts, labour training and turnover issues, ineffective cleaning schedules, and more.

The final advantage to conducting facility audits is that it affords building managers the opportunity to track improvement from one audit to another, using the data as a reference to continue to improve standards and practices within the facility.

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