5S or 7S of Good Housekeeping has been a popular training topic being given to Local Government Units (LGUs), Human Resource Management Offices (HRMOs) and those applying to become a hotel housekeeping staff overseas. Though fundamental in cleaning and housekeeping tasks, the application and execution of the 5S or 7S of Good Housekeeping  remains a problem since most training do not include practical applications and are not customized depending on need.

What are the 5S or 7S of Good Housekeeping? Why is it so important that training about it is being given to a lot of people?

If you research further, Henry Ford was the one who originally developed what we know as the 5S methodology back in 1972 but was known as the CANDO programme. Japanese businessman and author Shigeru Mizuno then popularized this as a management method and added 2 more “S”, developing the 5S to 7S in the 1980s. The 5S and 7Ss are:

5S

• Sort
• Set in Order
• Sweep (Clean)
• Standardize
• Sustain

Benefits of the 7S if properly implemented

The 7Ss can offer a number of benefits to organizations, including:

• Increased efficiency and productivity
• Improved safety
• Reduced costs
• Increased employee morale
• Improved customer satisfaction
• A more professional image

How to Implement the 7Ss

The 7Ss can be implemented in a number of ways. The following steps can help you get started:

1. Create a plan – The first step is to create a plan for implementing the 7Ss. This plan should include the following:

• A list of the 7Ss
• Specific goals for each 7S
• A timeline for implementation
• A budget

2. Get the proper training – Train everyone involved and make them aware of this management method. Customize the plan according to your home or office needs.

3. Get everyone involved – It is important to get everyone in the organization involved in the implementation of the 7Ss. This will help to ensure that everyone is committed to the process and that the changes are sustainable.

4. Start small – It is not necessary to implement all of the 7Ss at once. Start with one or two 7Ss and then gradually add more as you become more comfortable with the process.

5. Be patient – It takes time to implement the 7Ss and see results. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results immediately. Just keep working at it and eventually you will see the benefits.

Challenges in Implementing 7S of Good Housekeeping

1. Poor planning – one of the main reasons why this management method fail is that plans were not customized according the organization’s needs, plans that do not apply or no plans set in place where there should be.

2. Poorly supervised – goals are not being checked or measured from time to time.

3. Lack of participation – some people tend to think “they already know how to clean” and disregard this type of management method and are not committed in implementing this process.

Housekeeping Training is often regarded as expensive (training fees), time consuming (average of 200 training hours), and sometimes useless – everybody knows how to clean, we were trained since we were young. However, only a few appreciates the value of Housekeeping training because they either need it to apply for a job, or sees the true value and savings of actually learning.

Housekeeping training can help save time and money in a lot of ways. From cutting wastage cost and loss of cleaning materials to optimizing working time, having your household help or office housekeeping staff undergo training can help you stretch your budget.

Training for Household Help

A lot of us think “why should I spend training my household help when they already know how to cook and clean? Why should I when they won’t be staying with us for a lifetime?”. Well, have you done the math on the times you went over your monthly budget for cleaning materials? Have you counted how many times you have to ask your household help re-do the cleaning, which meant using more cleaning products? How many instances did they use the wrong cleaning product? Probably not quite a lot, but let’s put some number in them.

Let us say, your household help went over the budget for all the cleaning materials by One Thousand Pesos (P 1,000.00) per month. That is P12,000.00 a year!  You can always say to them to be careful in using those cleaning products, or use a cheaper alternative, but with no knowledge on how to use these cleaning products EFFECTIVELY, you will still end up buying more. This amount may or may not include accidental spillages, times you hired another household helper as a reliever during their sick days, and the trips to the emergency room because of poor cleaning practices.

Looking at the table above, if your household help received some housekeeping training, you save as much as P 17,520.00 a year!

If ever you choose to decide to have your household help undergo housekeeping training, consider where you will have them enrolled and the hours or days it would take. Whether you will be shouldering the training fee, you have to consider that during those training days, someone has to shoulder daily expenses of the household help. This is something that CMDA Cleaning Academy can help, with optimizing training to fit your household housekeeping needs to fit in the shortest amount of time.

Training for Office Housekeeping

If you have hired your office housekeeping staff from a manpower agency, hopefully they have provided training for hard skills and soft skills that will meet your office housekeeping needs. However, if you have directly hired them, chances are, you will need to train them. What are the tell tale signs? Your office is going beyond the budget for purchasing cleaning supplies, there are persistent housekeeping concerns (like stinky washrooms, washroom and carpet stains), there are times you catch your housekeeping staff doing nothing, there are employees always going on sick leave due to respiratory (asthma or allergy) or gastrointestinal (LBM) problems, or a combination of these cleaning related concerns.

These signs have a corresponding monetary value for each, and they come off as company expenses. Losses and wastages can amount to up to P 2,000.00 a month, which would mean it could go as high as P 24,000.00 a year! Unproductive hours of your housekeeping team cost you money as well. An hour based on Metro Manila’s minimum wage today is about P 67.00. If every day, for 22 days in a month, a janitor is unproductive, that is P1,474.00 a month or P 17,688.00 per year! That’s the amount of money your company pays for someone to do nothing, and still, have problems with the office cleanliness.

Looking at the table above, if your office housekeeping staff received some housekeeping training, you save as much as P 48,132.00 a year!

If ever you choose to decide to have your housekeeping staff undergo housekeeping training, consider where you will have them enrolled and the hours or days it would take. Whether you will be shouldering the training fee, you have to consider that during those training days, someone has to shoulder daily expenses of the staff. This is something that CMDA Cleaning Academy can help, with optimizing training to fit your household housekeeping needs to fit in the shortest amount of time.

Housekeeping has diversified over the years. The term “housekeeping” has even been interchangeably used between household help, hotel housekeeping, and office janitors. Like “Cleaning” and “Sanitizing”, the term housekeeping must be differentiated according to the type your space needs. After all, each category provides different levels of training and cleaning, and of course, cost.

Essentially, Domestic Housekeeping focuses on managing the cleanliness of homes or one’s residence, while Institutional Housekeeping focuses on managing the cleanliness of hospitality institutions such as hotels, cruise lines, resorts, and such. Meanwhile, Commercial Housekeeping focuses on offices, stores and shops.

The Difference: Domestic Housekeeping

Domestic Housekeeping directly involves household work involving homes. Carried out by a domestic household help (or domestic helper or home caretaker), services revolve around cleaning bedrooms, toilet and bath, kitchen and dining areas and common areas. It may also include cooking and washing dishes, laundry and ironing clothes.

Domestic housekeeping contracts have long durations, regardless of frequency of service. Cleaning can be done on a daily or weekly basis, but you will be dealing with the same person (ideally) either for a year or longer.

Domestic housekeeping skills training is very rare. It is not provided in any level of education, and usually, household helpers are expected to already know the basics of cleaning, and are only trained to perform the level of cleanliness the employer wants.

Salary: P4,500 per month (PH) as per Wage Order No. RB XI-DW-02 DOLE
In practice – P6,000 per month or more depending on arrangements

The Difference: Institutional Housekeeping

This is a common housekeeping service as we see them in hotels, resorts, inns and such. Carried out by “housekeeping” staff, services strictly involve cleaning of guest rooms, toilet and bath, and common areas only.

Housekeeping staff are hired because of their housekeeping skills executed on a daily basis on multiple guest rooms, as well as soft skills that include interacting with guests. That being the case, they enjoy benefits such as longer contract durations, social welfare benefits, and bonuses.

Training for Institutional Housekeeping is very common. It is present in some units in Hotel and Restaurant Management courses, it is available in TESDA courses, as well as in workshops.

Salary: P14,000 – P15,000 per month (as per Jobstreet)

The Difference: Commercial Housekeeping

On the other hand, Commercial Housekeeping deals with managing and maintaining the cleanliness of offices, stores and shops. They are employed to keep common areas such as operation floors, conference rooms and washrooms clean.

Majority of the commercial housekeeping personnel are janitors and are in-house employees, enjoying company and mandatory benefits. For some small offices and stores, they hire a commercial cleaning company for one-time weekly or monthly general cleaning of their space.

Commercial housekeeping staff requires training ranging from general equipment use (vacuum, steamers, etc) to cleaning and organizing spaces (arranging stuff specific to an office). There are housekeeping training available that covers both.

Salary: P12,000 – P14,000 per month

BONUS: Industrial Housekeeping

There is a profession such as an Industrial Cleaner who manages the cleaning and safety of industrial workspaces such as factories and industrial plants. They do daily cleaning to keep the operations area safe for working, and then occasionally would do a monthly cleaning to remove accumulated oil and dirt that can be hazardous to employees.

Due to the unique requirements of each factory and industrial plant, companies employ and train industrial cleaners to match their needs. Primarily, they need to have Occupational Safety and Hazard (OSH) training as accidents can occur in these workspaces.

Salary: P19,000 – P21,000 per month