How to Prioritize My Custodian's Work Schedule
A custodian's job is never done, and small custodial teams can often find themselves with more work than can be accomplished in a single day. Knowing how to prioritize your custodian's work schedule can help ensure that the most important tasks are consistently completed, while still making time to complete less vital activities.
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Instructions
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1
Brainstorm with the custodian to create a comprehensive list of all custodial tasks. Always include the custodian in this step, as he can shed light on details and tasks that you may have overlooked on your own.
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2
List the tasks that are most important to customers according to the tasks' time requirements. In this step, you begin to separate the tasks according to their relevance and priority. Determine which tasks are vital to enhancing your customers' experience with your business and which tasks relate to specific customer requests and preferences.
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3
List tasks that are only important to internal stakeholders, such as employees, according to the tasks' time requirements. These are the tasks that are left over from Step 1 after taking out the activities that directly contribute to the customer experience. Attach this list directly under your first list to create a master list of activities by priority and time requirements.
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4
Create flow charts for complex activities and determine the critical paths. A flow chart can help you to visualize the steps required in performing a large activity and can show you where your task priorities may need to be altered. A critical path is a series of contingent steps that accomplish a single outcome while taking more time than any other chain of activities. It is vital to ensure that each step in these processes is completed on time to avoid work lags and stoppages.
As a simple example, if you have listed floor mopping as a high customer priority and fixing a broken water hose as a lower priority, a flow chart might reveal that the hose must be fixed before the mop bucket can even be filled with water, which moves the hose fixing priority above the floor mopping.
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5
Define emergency situations. Custodial work can be unpredictable at times, and a number of situations may arise that require immediate attention. Make a list of these emergency items and make it clear that these issues take precedence over the planned work schedule.
As an example, a custodian in a grocery store may have a full day of work planned, but if a customer spills a gallon of milk in an aisle, that task should immediately supersede all others in priority.
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6
Create a prioritized work schedule using the information gathered in Steps 2 through 4. Using the lists you've made, you can now create work schedules that accomplish the quickest and most important tasks first, moving on to the most time intensive and least important.
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Tips & Warnings
Include a bit of slack time in the planned schedule so that emergencies can be handled without sacrificing some of the day's planned work.
References
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