President and CEO of Servicon, a leading custodial and Infection Prevention service provider.
Driven by employee enthusiasm for the opportunity to work from home, it looks like hybrid work is here to stay. In fact, one survey of 1,000 people showed that 70% of people who currently work from home have a positive experience, and 86% say that they would like to work remotely at least once a week.
Indeed, the hybrid model is the new American dream for many employees. However, 61%—or an estimated 80.6 million—full-time U.S. employees do not have jobs that can be done from home. This includes professions such as doctors and nurses but an even more significant percentage of what is being termed “societal maintenance professionals,” i.e., essential workers in trades such as manufacturing, food service and commercial cleaning without whom society as we know it cannot operate.
Is Inequity Fixable?
With workers of all genders, ethnicities, ages, education and income levels desiring to work from home, imagine what this means for a future where more and more workers opt for professions where this is possible. Mckinsey’s “The American Opportunity Survey” revealed inequalities, with younger, more educated and higher income employees more likely to be given work-from-home options than those in poorer communities.
How can we even the work field? Can we find a way to provide these essential trade workers more flexibility, autonomy and equity? How can we offer them a better working future?
As a society, I believe we need to shine a light on this imbalance and consider ways to create more equilibrium, or we risk an operational shutdown of epic proportions. The conversation needs to start with acknowledging some of the complex issues that must be addressed. I’d like to start that conversation using the cleaning industry as an example.
Facts And Challenges Of Essential Work Life
Location, Location, Location
As with real estate, location is everything for essential workers. The duties of those in custodial, food service, manufacturing, healthcare and many other essential societal maintainers must be performed on-site.
If custodial technicians are not in these facilities to perform their duties, other essential industries are forced to shut down due to unsanitary, dangerous conditions. The challenge of just covering for absent workers is difficult, for each custodial technician must be trained specifically for the location they service. And, moving to a part-time staff would result in unwanted pay cuts for full-time workers.
Physically Speaking
Work like cleaning is physically demanding, requiring a lot of movement—from bending and stretching to wiping and scrubbing. It is not a job that can be completed at a desk or with a computer. Cleaning also requires specialized, real-world training. While there are some robotic options for large-area vacuuming and floor cleaning, they still require an onsite technician to manage.
Security Mandates
I know from leading a business that provides commercial cleaning services for the aerospace industry that national security is not to be taken lightly. Custodial technicians, supervisors and managers in this sector have to undergo rigorous security and background checks.
Access is limited, prohibiting flexible employee substitution, and the work demands the job to be done on-site. This lack of flexibility extends to many employees such as engineers and others who perform high-security work that must be performed in a secure location.
Timing Is Everything
Custodial technicians in healthcare and life sciences are on call for emergency cleanups. A busy night in an emergency department means cleaning up dangerous bodily fluids immediately, not a day or two later. Similarly, a breach in a pharmaceutical or other life sciences laboratory cleanroom can shut down production. Not returning it to cleanroom standards immediately can mean the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Paying The Price Of Wage Increases
It’s easy to suggest that increasing pay can level the working field. But often, this is not feasible for service industry organizations, especially those with large workforces that are already paying above minimum wage.
A pay increase of as little as 50 cents per hour for a workforce of 1,000 full-time workers would cost over $1 million in a year. Given slim industry margins, this is additional money many service companies likely don’t have, and clients are usually not willing to absorb. This $1 million would equate to workers only getting $20 pretax dollars more a week. This would do little, if anything, to provide workers with what the statistics above show they crave.
Looking For Answers
These issues above pose definite limitations. However, I can’t—and won’t—believe that nothing can be done to provide more flexibility and autonomy for these maintainers, our essential workers who keep society and our economy running.
Overall, I find that few employers know what members of this workforce want because they aren’t surveyed due to logistical challenges or are simply overlooked.
After my own success with an internal task force to help identify ways we might be able to solve these issues, I encourage others to talk with their workers in order to determine what is important to them. If working from home is not viable, then ask your employees and yourself what other favorable work options might exist. If other labor partners join in this most worthy goal, we can help create a better working future for everyone.
We are far from the finish line. In my next article, I will share some of my company’s findings as well as the tools and practices you can utilize.
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