Excessive workload of the cleaning team in the case of office building z

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

DO THI NGOC THUY

EXCESSIVE WORKLOAD OF THE
CLEANING TEAM IN THE CASE OF
OFFICE BUILDING Z
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2021


UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

DO THI NGOC THUY

EXCESSIVE WORKLOAD OF THE
CLEANING TEAM IN THE CASE OF
OFFICE BUILDING Z
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: DR. PHAN THI MINH THU

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2021

2

Table of Contents
Figures.................................................................................................................................................... 5
Tables ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................. 7
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 8
1.1.

PROBLEM CONTEXT ........................................................................................................ 8

1.2.

SYMPTOMS ....................................................................................................................... 12

CHAPTER 2: PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION .............................................................................. 16
2.1.

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS .................................................................................................... 16

2.1.1.

Increasing and high frequency using cleaning spaces and areas ................................... 17

2.1.2.

Over the workload of the cleaning team ....................................................................... 18

2.1.3.

Taking time for waiting service lift to move from floor to floor .................................. 20

2.1.4.

Irregularly inspection and general assessment from property management team ......... 20

2.1.5.

Infrequency cleaning restroom and public areas ........................................................... 21

2.1.6.

Unreasonable shift work arrangement. ......................................................................... 22

2.2.

PROBLEM VALIDATION ............................................................................................... 24

2.2.1.

Excessive workload of the cleaning team ..................................................................... 24

2.2.2.

Ineffective quality control ............................................................................................. 25

2.2.3.

Inappropriate shift work schedule ................................................................................. 26

2.3.

PROBLEM DEFINITION ................................................................................................. 29

2.3.1.

Problem Definition ........................................................................................................ 29

2.3.2.

Justify the importance of problem................................................................................. 30

CHAPTER 3: CAUSE VALIDATION ............................................................................................. 31
3.1.

POTENTIAL CAUSES ...................................................................................................... 31

3.1.1

Increase the scope of work ............................................................................................ 31

3.1.2

Different cleaning works in different type of properties ............................................... 31

3.1.3

Reduction of cleaning staff ........................................................................................... 32

3.1.4

Poor quality of equipment and green cleaning concern ................................................ 35

3.2.

MAIN CAUSE VALIDATION .......................................................................................... 36

3.2.1

Final Cause – Effect Map.............................................................................................. 37

CHAPTER 4: ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS ................................................................................ 38
4.1.

Set solution 1: ...................................................................................................................... 38

4.1.1.

Re-assessment the workload of the current cleaning team ........................................... 38

4.1.2.

Amend the work shift schedule corresponding to the operation hour of the building. . 41

4.2.

Set Solution 2 ....................................................................................................................... 42

4.2.1.

Using overtime work schedule ...................................................................................... 42

4.2.2.

Amend the work shift schedule corresponding to the operation hour of the building. . 43

3


4.3.

SOLUTION VALIDATION............................................................................................... 43

4.4.

ACTION PLAN ................................................................................................................... 45

4.4.1.

Objective ....................................................................................................................... 45

4.4.2.

Timelines and Estimated Cost....................................................................................... 45

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 47
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................... 48
CHAPTER 5: SUPPORTING INFORMATION ............................................................................. 51
APPENDIX 1: DAILY REPORTS (MAY TO DECEMBER 2020) ............................................... 51
APPENDIX 2: SUMMARY OF INTERVIEWS .............................................................................. 56

4


Figures
Figure 1: Organization chart of the office building Z .............................................................. 11
Figure 2: The responsibilities in managing outsourcing service of each team of property
management group ................................................................................................................... 12
Figure 3: The complaints to Property Management Group from May – Dec 2020 ................. 13
Figure 4: The number complaints to Operation Team & Technician Team from May to Dec
2020.......................................................................................................................................... 14
Figure 5: The ratio of complaints to each outsourcing service ................................................ 15
Figure 6: Number of main building users from May to Dec 2020 .......................................... 18
Figure 7: The initial cause and effect map ............................................................................... 23
Figure 8: The updated cause and effect map ........................................................................... 28
Figure 9: The final cause-effect map ....................................................................................... 37
Figure 10: Workload Conceptual Model ................................................................................. 38
Figure 11: New Shift 1 (06:30 – 15:30) ................................................................................ 42
Figure 12: New Shift 2 (10:30 – 19:30) ................................................................................... 42
Figure 13: Five hours with full of cleaning staff working in peak time when combining new
two shifts .................................................................................................................................. 42
Figure 14: Applying 2 hours working overtime. ..................................................................... 43
Figure 15: Component of two set solutions ............................................................................. 44
Figure 16: Timelines for action plan ........................................................................................ 46

Tables
Table 1: The number of the complaints from May 2020 to December 2020. ......................... 12
Table 2: The number of the complaints to the Technician and Operation team ...................... 13
Table 3: The number of the complaints to each outsourcing service ...................................... 15
Table 4: The number of complaints from the Tenants and the Landlord ................................ 15
Table 5: The number of the cleaning staff in the period of May to Dec 2020......................... 19

Table 6: Operation hour of the office building Z ..................................................................... 22
Table 7: Work Shift Schedule of cleaning team ...................................................................... 22
Table 8: The gap of number cleaning staff as per agreement and allocation .......................... 25
Table 9: The scope of work and staff allocation as per agreement .......................................... 32
Table 10: Number of cleaning staff need as per agreement and number of cleaning staff
allocation from May to Dec 2020 ............................................................................................ 33
Table 11: The number of floors occupied by tenants from May to Dec 2020 ......................... 33
Table 12: An illustration of cleaning staff as per agreement in August 2020 ......................... 34
Table 13:An illustration of cleaning staff allocation in August 2020 ...................................... 34
Table 14: An illustration of cleaning staff as per agreement in December 2020 .................... 34
Table 15: An illustration of cleaning staff allocation in December 2020 ................................ 35
Table 16: The result of survey verifies the main causes .......................................................... 37
Table 17: The number of floors occupied by tenants from Jan-May 2021 .............................. 40
Table 18: The gap of number cleaning staff as per agreement and allocation in Jan-May 2021
.................................................................................................................................................. 40
Table 19: New work shift schedule solution............................................................................ 41
Table 20: Result of survey to identify the suitable solution. ................................................... 44
Table 21: The difference of current cost and new cost per month........................................... 47
5


ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to express my sincere gratitude and special thanks to my supervisor Dr. Phan
Thi Minh Thu for her dedicated support and guidance, encouragement and excellent advice
during my thesis research.
Furthermore, I would like to extend my thanks to Dr. Tran Phuong Thao and Dr. Ly Thi
Minh Chau for their valuable comments and constructive suggestions.
I also take this opportunity to express a deep sense of gratitude to Prof. Dr. Tran Ha Minh
Quan and ISB’s Director Board give me an excellent opportunity to approach much valuable
knowledge and work with many professors in the MBA program.

A special acknowledgment goes to the whole Cleaning team, Operation Manager,
Building owner, and Tenant of office building Z who saves time to participate in the meetings
with me. My thesis report could not complete without their precious support.
Last but not least, I would like to thank all my classmates in the MBA program for all their
support and sharing during my study in the International School of Business - University of
Economics Ho Chi Minh City.

6


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Office Building Z is the new grade A office building in the center of Ho Chi Minh
City which offers an ideal office business destination for western firms developing their activity
in Vietnam and South East Asia region and at the same time for Vietnamese companies doing
the international business operation. From the grand opening phase, the property management
of the office building Z received the same complaints and increased for months in the cleaning
team from Tenants and Landlord. This issue affects the quality of service in general, decreases
customer satisfaction and loses the opportunity to extend the office lease agreement as well as
new potential tenants. Given the urgent situation of the office building, this thesis attempts to
figure out the main problem and the root cause by using qualitative research. This thesis
research analyzes the potential problems, potential causes and recommends the solution with
an action plan for the stakeholders of the office building Z. This research includes four main
parts. The first part presented the background of the company and its building operation
management practices. The second part identified the potential problem by theories and intake
meetings with stakeholders. The analysis showed that the company is facing the excessive
workload of the cleaning team, ineffective quality control and inappropriate shift work
schedule. However, the excessive workload of the cleaning team problem is significantly
impacting the building performance. The third part, the research also identifies the main cause
of the problem which is the reduction of cleaning staff. The last part is recommendation
solutions and action plan which is the combination set solution of re-assessment workload of

the current cleaning team and amend the work shift schedule corresponding to the operation
hour of the building. Although the cost of the new solution is higher than the current cost for
the clean team, however, the benefit of the recommended solution is much higher. This will
enhance the quality of cleaning service and building performance as well as improve the current
customer satisfaction and building reputation, especially cleaning is one of top concerns in the
pandemic of Covid-19 circumstances.

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1.

PROBLEM CONTEXT

With the negative effects of the Covid-19, 2020 is considered as a year of tough and
challenges for many country economies in the world in general and Vietnam economy in
particular. The Vietnamese government has put great efforts to monitor the spread of the Covid19 pandemic rapidly. Although the Covid-19 pandemic has strongly negatively affected
Vietnam's economy in general, Vietnam is one of few countries whose GDP growth in 2020
by 2.91% (14).
The improvement in infrastructure and administrative procedures of the Vietnamese
government attract more foreign investors to Vietnam as well as the moving waves of
manufactures of many big companies out of China has made Vietnam one of the prioritized
investment areas for foreign investors. (15) Therefore, the demand for office space has
increased either in the central business district or downtown of the city. According to a report
of Nhip Cau Dau Tu, the office market in the two biggest economic cities Ho Chi Minh City
and Hanoi City still grows despite the Covid-19 pandemic impacts which means the demand
for office space has not cooled down. (16)
According to Real Estate Market Updates for the first quarter of 2021, the Ho Chi Minh
office market has signs of recovery in the first quarter of 2021 after the pandemic (17).

Source: CBRE Vietnam Research, Q1 2021

8


The company A Global established in 1993 in one of the member countries of the
European Union is mainly engaged in real estate development in the countries of Central and
Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. The portfolio of activities A Global includes the
implementation of office buildings, residential complexes, shopping zones, as well as industrial
complexes.
The company A Global established its affiliate in Vietnam named the company A Vietnam
as well as the owner of the building located in Ho Chi Minh city in 2010 with the strategic
vision to join in the real estate market in Asia. In 2020, the first project of A Global in Vietnam
which is the grade A office building located in the center of Ho Chi Minh City has completed
and released to the market after 10 years with extreme efforts through all regulations and
administrative procedures.
The focus customer segment of the office building Z aims to be the ideal placement for
western business entrepreneurs developing their activity in Vietnam and South East Asia region
as well as Vietnamese companies doing the international business operation. This first office
building project is also aiming at a foundation goal for the development of other office and
commercial projects of the company in Vietnam. Therefore, it is extremely important to
improve the performance of the office building Z which not only builds the brand image
reputation of the company but also improves the competence of the office building Z to others
office building of competitors.
This office building offers 90% of the gross floor area for office function 10 % of the gross
floor area for food and beverages shop and conference center. The office building Z certified a
green certification for property wards which emphasizes the energy-saving design. The office
building Z offers to its tenants high performance of air conditioning system, energy and waterefficient systems, fire and life safety, technology security system control as well as green
landscape friendly to the environment.

The company B Global is one of the world’s leading property management companies all
over the work with over 36,000 people working across the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific
and Africa, including Vietnam as the company B Vietnam.
The relationship between A Vietnam and B Vietnam is a Principal-Agent Relationship is
that signed a written contract by both parties. According to Kyle at el, the principal is the one
who hires and the Agent is the one who does the work (2). The company A Vietnam play a role
9


as Landlord/Owner hires the company B Vietnam as a full-service partner as property
management of the office building Z with maximizing the profit of the property and asset value
in the long term which includes in managing and taking care of the building, control operation
cost, income flows…etc. as well as enhance the performance and reputation of the building.
The Company B Vietnam assigned a group with 16 employees to office building Z to work as
the property management group to manage and operate this office building. This property
management group is not only managed by the company B Vietnam headquarters but also the
company A Vietnam as the Landlord/Owner.
The number of property management group who are working in the office building Z is
16 members divide into 3 main teams: Technician Team, Operation Team, and Accounting
Team.
▪

The whole team is led by the Property Manager who takes the important role of the
property management team takes overall responsibilities for the daily operation of this
office building in a professional manner which includes the supervision of the fit-out stage,
pre-opening stage, and opening stage of the building. The Property Manager report directly
to Company A Vietnam and the headquarter the company B Vietnam.

▪

The first team is the Technician team has 11 members, which is leading by Chief Engineer.
Technician team takes responsibility to manage all technical system of the office building
Z such as carrying out the maintenance and operation plans which comply with the
recommendations of the manufacturers and ensure that all the equipment of building is in
good efficient and safe conditions manner.

▪

The second team is Operation Team has 3 members is leading by Operation Manager.
There are two parts of the duties of the operation team. The first part is customer service
which responses to all requirements, complaints, messages, requests, etc. for tenants and
visitors in a professional and timely manner in the building. The remaining part of the
operation team is managing the subcontractors or vendors who provide services to operate
the office building Z which includes cleaning vendors, security vendors, pest control
vendors, and landscape vendors…etc.

▪

The last team of the property management group is the accounting team which is
accountable for monitoring the payment process, operation expenses, payment collections,
inventory, and billing invoices to all the tenants.
10


Figure 1: Organization chart of the office building Z
Additionally, many subcontractors are engaged with the property management team to
provide their services in the office building Z such as cleaning, security, fit-out contractors of
tenants, landscape, maintenance all building technical systems, marketing, garbage collection,
pest control…etc. All whole group works together to make sure the operation of office building
run smoothly to satisfy all the Tenants and Landlord.

These subcontractors are outsourcing services that work permanently based in the office
building Z include the cleaning team, the security team, the other service suppliers work on
demand include garbage collection vendor, landscape vendors, pest control vendor,
maintenance contractor and other technical vendors/suppliers. The below chart shows which
property management team manages which vendors/suppliers.
With the limited scope of this thesis paper, the author pays attention to the cleaning service
of the building, therefore, the author will mainly focus on describing the scope of work of the
cleaning contractor.
The company A Vietnam hires a cleaning service as outsourcing contractor who provides
the cleaning service in the office building Z. The scopes of work of the cleaning team are that
provide clean all the building areas such as basements, elevators, parking areas, public areas,
restrooms, surrounding of the building, ground floor, typical floors, corridors, roof floor,
staircases and depend on each scope of work, the cleaning work finish different schedules daily,
weekly, monthly and quarterly.

11


Figure 2: The responsibilities in managing outsourcing service of each team of property
management group
Each team in the property management group plays its important role to operate the office
building smoothly and make sure to reach the expectation of tenants.
Last but not least, the last stakeholders are the building users who are tenants who are a
customer of the company A Vietnam, building visitors who are tenant’s guest,
couriers/workmen, contractors, all property management groups, outsourcing service
contractors…etc.

1.2.

SYMPTOMS

Since the office building Z was put into operation phase in May 2020, there are many
complaints from Tenants and Landlord regarding the service and facilities of the office
building.
As a table below, there is the number of complaints about the period May 2020 to
December 2020. All these complaints are received by customer service via emails, hotlines as
well as messaging applications from both Tenants and Landlords.
Property

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Management

Total in
2020

Group
Total

5

12

6

11

12

9

15

17

87

Source: Daily report 2020 – Customer service
Table 1: The number of the complaints from May 2020 to December 2020.

12


Figure 3: The complaints to Property Management Group from May – Dec 2020
The trend chart illustrates data about the number of complaints received by customer
service from May 2020 to December 2020. It can be seen that the trend fluctuates and intends

to increase significantly from 5 complaints in May 2020 to 17 complaints in December 2020.
In order to figure out the stakeholders who are getting involved in such complaints, a deeper
analysis of the report from customer service was conducted. Most of the complaints came from
Tenants and Landlord regarding the operation team and technician team from May to
December 2020.
Team

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Total

%

in 2020
Technician Team

2

5

2

5

2

4

7

8

35

40%

Operation Team

3

7

4

6

10

5

8

9

52

60%

Total

5

12

6

11

12

9

15

17

87

Source: Daily report 2020 – Customer service
Table 2: The number of the complaints to the Technician and Operation team
The column chart below demonstrates the number of complaints regarding each team. The
number of complaints regarding the operation team was typically higher than the technician
team in every month of 2020. Accordingly, the number of complaints regarding the operation
team is about 60% in the meanwhile the number complaints regarding technician team are 40%

13


in total. For instance, the number of complaints regarding the operation team was 8 complaints
significantly higher than the technician team in September 2020.

Figure 4: The number complaints to Operation Team & Technician Team from May to
Dec 2020.
For the reason that the percentage of complaints regarding operation team is higher than
technician team as well as the expectation of Landlord aims the office building Z to be the ideal
placement for western firms developing their activity in Vietnam and Southeast Asia region
and at the same time for Vietnamese companies doing international business. Therefore,
customer satisfaction is an extremely important and highly strong concern of the company as
well as be serving the purpose of this paper, the researcher pays attention to investigate the
problems to figure out the reason why the number of complaints regarding the operation team
fluctuates and intends to increase.
The operation team has the responsibility to responses all requirements, complaints,
messages, requests, etc. for tenants and visitors…etc. as well as managing the service vendors
including cleaning, pest control, landscape and security vendors at Building. As the below table
shows that the number of complaints regarding each team vendor from May 2020 to December
2020.

14


Operation Team

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Total

%

in
2020
Cleaning

2

7

4

5

7

4

8

7

44

Pest control

1

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

2

4%

Landscape

0

0

0

1

2

1

0

1

5

10%

Security

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

2%

Total per month

3

7

4

6

8

5

8

7

52

100%

Source: Daily report 2020 – Customer service
Table 3: The number of the complaints to each outsourcing service

Figure 5: The ratio of complaints to each outsourcing service
It can be seen that the highest percentage of complaints is 84% regarding cleaning vendor
which is extremely high. The other percentages are 10%, 4%, and 2% for landscape, pest
control, and security vendors respectively.
Moreover, the complaints to the cleaning service are mostly from the Tenants who work
in the building. The table below shows the number of complaints from the Tenants and the
Landlord during the research period.
Complainer

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Total in

%

2020
Landlord

0

1

0

1

2

2

1

3

10

19%

Tenants

3

6

4

5

8

3

7

6

42

81%

Total

3

7

4

6

8

5

8

7

52

100%

Table 4: The number of complaints from the Tenants and the Landlord
15

84%

In order to find out the problem caused the increasing of complaints to the cleaning service,
the author analyzes the components of complaints in details. According to daily report of
customer service, Tenant complained about dirty on the elevator wall on 11th May 2020. This
complaint also happened again on 14th July 2020 and 14th October 2020. Furthermore, the most
complaints about the bad smell of restroom happened many times, specifically: the first
complaint about the smell was on 17th May 2020, then customer service received the same
complaints regarding bad smell on 24th June 2020, 17th July 2020, 31st Aug 2020, 22nd Oct
2020 and other few times in November and December 2020. One of other complaints to the
cleaning service was that trash bins are full of garbage also received by customer service in
few times during research period. Last but not least, the Tenants also complained about the
spilled water and dirty on the floor of restroom many times in Jun 2020 and happened again in
the following months during research period.
Although all the complaints from the Tenants and Landlord are also about other service of
the building, however, the cleaning service is the most service that received highest rate of
complaints. The situation is not only impact to Tenant’s satisfaction but also the performance
of the building generally. Furthermore, due to Covid-19 disease pandemic, people are pay
attention to the cleanliness of working areas, therefore, people expect the quality of cleaning
service reach the standard and reduce the risk of spread Covid-19 disease as much as possible.
CHAPTER 2: PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
2.1.

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS
To figure out the problem that caused the increasing of number complaints regarding the

cleaning team, few meetings have been conducted from 17th February 2021 to 27th April 2021.
The face-to-face meeting has been conducted for six people including the Operation Manager,
Supervisor of the cleaning team, Team Leader of the cleaning team, Cleaner, the representative
of Landlord and Tenant.
The purpose of meetings is to understand the opinion of those stakeholders about

increasing the same complaints in the cleaning team for months at office building Z for the
period of May 2020 to December 2020. After those meetings, there are some possible problems
as below:

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2.1.1. Increasing and high frequency using cleaning spaces and areas
The office building Z is a grade A office building located in a prime location in the heart
of the city which is quite convenient walking distance from other business facilities and other
business centers. The office building Z offers a professional working environment as well as
management service with international standard that attracts more new potential tenants to rent
office space for operating business. In fact, there were more tenants move-in the office building
Z from May 2020 to December 2020 as well as the number of building users also increasing in
that period.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Tenants who complained are the building users. The lease
term agreement between the Tenant and Landlord is about at least three years. The complaints
of the Tenant may not strongly affect the business of the building at this moment. However,
those complaints will strongly impact the business of the office building Z when the lease term
is expired. Since those complaints of the Tenant will impact the Tenant’s satisfaction in terms
of deciding whether the Tenants continue to extend their lease term or not. Moreover, once the
office building Z is fully occupied 100% of all space areas, there is no more new tenants movein until the lease term expires in 2023 afterward.
The below table shows that the number of employees of the tenant who are working in the
office building Z plus the number of visitors who came to the building. This is excluded the
delivery who are temporarily visiting the office building Z and contractors who came to the
office building Z to work after working hours.
The number of tenants and visitors has increased which leads to an increase in the number
of building floors is occupied during the research period. Therefore, there are more spaces and
areas for the cleaning team to handle.

17


2,000
1,800
1,600
1,400
1,200
1,000
800
600
400
200
0
May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Figure 6: Number of main building users from May to Dec 2020
Moreover, as a result of increasing the number of people in the building, it leads to high
frequency using restrooms, elevators and public areas. The cleaning team can not handle many
areas in a timely manner; therefore, it causes increasing complaints from tenants.
Regarding this matter Mr. D – Operation Manager gave his opinion that:
Most of the complaints are about the cleaning service and facilities. The number of tenants who
are working in the building, as well as visitors, is extremely high. And because of that, the
number of people who are using the restroom quite high that the cleaning team cannot clean it
in a timely manner. For private concerns and building regulation, tenants and visitors will use
the passenger elevators to go up and down, some of them bring dust from outside the office
building Z and the material of elevators are glass, therefore, the passenger elevators are visible
to see dirty.

Ms. P – Team Leader of the cleaning team shared that:
Every time we received complaints, we took over and solve them right away. There are more
and more people working in the office building Z and using the restroom more often than we
need to frequently check up all the areas.

2.1.2. Over the workload of the cleaning team
According to the report of the property management group, the number of cleaning staff
is slightly increased in the meantime the number of the cleaning spaces and areas dramatically
increased in the research period.
Ms. P – Team Leader of the cleaning team explained:

18


There are too many works for our team to work. One staff takes four typical floors but we don’t
have enough personnel to work. However, the actual number of personnel is less than the
number of personnel in the contract agreement. Our staff is stressed because of over workload,

many of them already left the job here.

Therefore, this leads to over workload of each cleaning staff. The below table indicates
the number of cleaning staff in the office building Z from May 2020 to December 2020.
Month

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Number of
cleaning staff

5

5

6

7

7

8

8

8

Source: Vendor report 2020 - Operation team
Table 5: The number of the cleaning staff in the period of May to Dec 2020
Moreover, Ms. P – the Team Leader and her coworkers of the cleaning team sincerely shared her
opinion about this matter that “we have many works to do during our shift, we don’t have much time to
rest. We only have one hour to have lunch and rest at lunchtime. We normally keep walking and go up
and down every four hours. My colleagues are all women. This kind of work scope is too much for them.
They are very tired to keep their job done well.”

Additionally, each cleaning member has their own duties for some specific floors, when
it rains, the building users left shoe marks with dirty mud at the main lobby and outdoor when
going in and out during the rain. The cleaning supervisor needs to arrange more staff members
from the other building areas to support clean it frequently and quickly as much as possible.
As a result of this situation, the cleaning staff missed their own task areas which leads to
increase complaints about the cleaning service of the building Z.
Ms. T – Supervisor of the cleaning team also explained:
The workload of our team increases in the meantime that we didn’t have enough cleaning staff
to take over. When it rained, the main entrance lobby often got dirty. The cleaning staff who
was mainly taking care of the main entrance and passenger lifts couldn’t clean dirty shoe
imprints of people who go in and out of the office building Z in a timely manner. I needed to

arrange for some other staff who were working on other building areas to go down the lobby to
support staff in the lobby to quickly dry the wet floor in order to avoid accidents for tenants and
guests. On the other hand, there was splashing water in the basements during the rain. That such
water was from the vehicles from outside which drove to the basement for parking. Therefore,
I also arranged for some other staff to go to basements to clean water there timely.”

19


Furthermore, the convenience of online food delivery encourages people to order more
foods and drinks during working hours nowadays. The office building Z users often spills those
such foods and leakage water from drinks and beverages on the floor. Moreover, the volume
of trash from food and drink is whereby increasing respectively. This also causes increasing
the workload of the cleaning team.
Ms. A – Cleaner said that:
Sometimes, our tenants ordered food or coffee, milk teas outside, and carry them to their floor
offices. They drop water and food on the floor in the public area and main entrance especially
at lunchtime, or sometimes they drop their ice cream or coffee on the floor of passenger
elevators.

2.1.3. Taking time for waiting service lift to move from floor to floor
Continues with the investigation to find out whether there are any more problems that
cause the increase of complaints at the office building Z, the meetings disclose some other
potential problems.
At the office building Z, there are four passenger lifts moving from the ground floor to the
top floor that is exclusive use for tenants and visitors. There is only one service lift which serves
for commodities transportation, transport of heavy goods or high quantities of the good. This
service lift serves contractors, delivery, cleaning team, security team, technician team,
workmen, and tenant cleaners. Furthermore, due to the private security purpose of the office
building Z regulation, the use of a staircase is not permitted, except for in case of fire. With the

large number of stakeholders who need to use the service lift move from floor to floor, it causes
time consumption for the cleaning team to go up and down to work.
Regarding this matter, Ms. A - Cleaner shared that:
Sometimes our team member has to wait for the service lift for more than 10 minutes to go up
and down. If there are some contractors delivered heavy large furniture and equipment that we
need to wait longer. We are not allowed to use the staircase to go up and down each floor,
therefore, it takes time for us to finish our task.

2.1.4. Irregularly inspection and general assessment from property management
team
Last but not least, one of the possible problems comes from the property management
team, especially the operation team who manages the cleaning team at the office building Z.
Most of the service is outsourcing at the office building Z that includes security service, pest
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control service, landscape service as well as cleaning service...etc. There is a lack of
management of the operation team for cleaning team which causes the same complaints for
months.
Ms. N – representative of Landlord – who directly manage all property management team
at the office building Z as well as one of tenant shared her opinion regarding on the increase of
complaints from tenants:
I think the property management team doesn’t check the cleaning areas regularly. They do not
focus on eliminating problems before the problem has the chance to happens. They often
respond to the situation when it has happened already. Moreover, they access vendors at the
end of every month therefore they are not often following up the performance of vendors within
the month. All property management assessment for vendors services is “good” in general in
the meanwhile Tenants complaints about the services increasingly.”

2.1.5. Infrequency cleaning restroom and public areas

Most of the complaints of the cleaning service are about the dirty restroom, more dust in
the elevators and bad smell in the restroom.
Ms. D – one of tenant of the building shared her opinion about what she complained about:
Our office based on 4th floor and a part of 5th floor which shared floor spaces with other
companies. I and my colleagues often saw the dirty toilet, water on the floor and bad smell in
the toilet. Sometimes, I saw the trash bin full of trash. I think the problem is that they (cleaning
team) do not clean the toilet more often to reduce the dirty and bad smell. And because of
Covid-19 at that time, we care more about the cleanliness and hygiene matter than ever.

Ms. N – representative of Landlord – who directly manage all property management team
at the office building Z as well as one of tenant shared her opinion about the dirty and bad smell
in the restroom:
I think cleaning team do not clean the area more often and missing some areas that tenants can
see. Moreover, they do not put their efforts to work, such as they need to clean the restroom
deeply every time and visit the cleaning area more often. As I know, they only check the
restroom for every 2 hours. Also, there are two restrooms on each floor, one for female and
another for male. Cleaning team checkup schedule for each floor is about 2 hours/visit,
therefore, they cannot clean all dust and dirty in timely manner.

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2.1.6. Unreasonable shift work arrangement.
The operation hour of the building is from 08:00 to 17:00 Monday to Friday and from
08:00 to 12:00 on Saturday. Moreover, all the building services and facilities need to be ready
before the operation hour.
Building operation
hour

Monday to Friday

Saturday

08:00 – 17:00

08:00 – 12:00

Source: Building Tenant Handbook
Table 6: Operation hour of the office building Z
However, the shift schedule and staff allocation of the cleaning team are not suitable for
the operation hour of the building. In fact, the working schedule of cleaning team is from 6:30
to 15:30 in the morning shift and 13:00 to 22:00 in the afternoon shift. There are 9 people
working in the morning shift and 5 people working in the afternoon shift.
Monday to Saturday
Working hour of the cleaning team

Number of the cleaning staff

Shift 1 (Morning Shift)

Shift 2 (Afternoon Shift)

(6:30 – 15:30)

(13:00 – 22:00)

9

5

Source: Internal sources
Table 7: Work Shift Schedule of cleaning team
Apart from some of employee of tenants work late, the normal working hour of all tenants
in the building is from 08:00 to 17:00, therefore, almost of building users often leave the
building around 17:00 to 18:00.
It can be seen that two above schedules are not reasonable. After building operation hours,
there are not many people in the building, especially from 18:00 to 22:00. According to the
work schedule of the cleaning team, there are only 5 cleaning staffs working from 15:30 to
18:00. As a result of this, these five cleaning staffs cannot handle all the scope of work of the
cleaning service, it leads to increase the complaints from tenants. Furthermore, as the possible
problem analysis about the raining season above part, there were the raining season which
normally happened from late in the afternoon, that caused more works for the cleaning to do.
The cleaning team would miss other cleaning areas to focus on cleaning the main entrance and
the basements which cause the complaints from tenants about the cleaning services.
As a result of interviews, the initial cause and effect maps have been created as Figure 7 below:
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Problems

Symptoms

Effects

Increasing and high frequency using
cleaning spaces and areas
Losing lease
agreement extension

Over workload of cleaning team

Taking time for waiting service lift to
move from floor to floor
Irregularly inspection and general
assessment from property
management team

Increasing same
complaints for months
in the cleaning team.

Decreasing
Customer
satisfaction

Losing new potential
lease agreement

Infrequency cleaning restroom and
public areas
Unreasonable shift work
arrangement
Figure 7: The initial cause and effect map

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2.2. PROBLEM VALIDATION
After depth-interviews, it is essential to review some theory frameworks to prove and
conceptualize the problems that lead to the symptoms at the Building.

2.2.1. Excessive workload of the cleaning team
Regarding the increasing of cleaning space and areas as well as high frequency using
cleaning space areas, Teran and vanDommelen-Gonzalez found that the changes in the areas
and spaces workers have to clean as one of the main contributors to their increased workload,
particularly the impact of changes in density or space design such as the increase in the number
of floors or overall square footage that workers clean, that layout of the floors is changing over
time due to more workspaces per floor or remodeling trends with an open office space plan. As
a consequence of these changes, there are more works for cleaning workers to do. (1) It is
confirmed that increasing the number of cleaning spaces and areas associated with high
frequency using the restroom, elevators and other public areas are the most factors to increase
the workload of the cleaning team. Moreover, there were more people come to the building for
working and visiting during the research period which makes more workload for the cleaning
team such as more restrooms to clean, more spaces areas to dust, more trash bin to collect, and
need more time and efforts to work...etc. It can be seen that the more increasing and high
frequency using the cleaning spaces and areas, the more increasing same complaints about the
cleaning service.
According to Lumen Learning, one of the effects of organization downsizing cause
increase workload and pressure on the remaining employees. The remaining employees are not
only complete their own job function but also pick up the additional task of the other employee
(18). Moreover, in the finding of Teran et al. also found that reduction of cleaning workers has
resulted in an increased workload. The current clean workers are assigned additional work tasks
to complete in the same amount of time as a result of changes in the cleaning areas that make
increase the workload (1).
In fact, there are an increase the number of cleaning spaces and areas that needs to clean
are significantly, however, the number of cleaning staff are slightly increased during the
research period. There is the big gap between the number of current staff and the actual number
of the cleaning staff need which results in increased workload for cleaning team. The current
cleaning staff need to handle more the cleaning areas of the other people that they are supposed
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to work to maintain the general cleaning service of the building. The below table show that this
gap:
Month
Number of cleaning
personnel needed as
per agreement
Number of cleaning
staff allocation
The gap

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

8

9.5

10

10

10.5

10.5

10.5

11

5

5

6

7

7

8

8

8

3.5

2.5

2.5

3

4.5

4

3

3

Source: internal source
Table 8: The gap of number cleaning staff as per agreement and allocation
Another finding of Teran et al. is scheduling decisions do not include a variety of tasks
that takes up janitor’s time contributes to increasing workload (1). This study indicates one of
the current problems at the Building Z. the Cleaning staff takes much time to wait for the
service lifts in order to move from floor to another floor, it makes the cumulative cleaning task
as a result of this problem as well as job stress of staff. This matter was not considered in the
scope of work of the cleaning team at the beginning, therefore, this is also considered as one
of the factors that cause increasing the workload of the cleaning team.
2.2.2. Ineffective quality control
According to Kyle at el, routine inspection is about awareness of the overall condition and
operations of each property which allows for a more extensive check of the system, equipment,
and conditions of the building. This helps to find the small problem before they get worse (2).
Moreover, according to Hanson J, the most important element of quality assurance control is
inspection which can identify whether services need to improve, declining or stay the same

(19). Given the fact that irregular inspection of the property management team is not only
impacts to quality of the cleaning service at the office building Z but also increases the
complaints from tenants.
The research of Silke J. Forbes shows that customer complaints measure customer’s
dissatisfaction with the quality of products and services (20). Also, the result of the study of
issues in building maintenance indicates that cleaning service is the most area commented by
tenants/clients since it is the most visible and touchable areas by the building users (8). As the
discussion with the tenant of the office building Z, they often saw the dirty and dust in the
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