Custodial Service: An Overview

Custodial service encompasses the work done by janitorial crews and individuals, which consists of cleaning and maintenance duties. Most large offices, schools, corporations, and other large organizations maintain at least a small staff to handle the basic chores. Custodians will usually be responsible for duties such as removing the trash, mopping floors, and whatever specific cleaning work may be needed by a particular business. Sometimes these workers will be employed directly by the company or contracted out.

There are few hard and fast rules when it comes to being qualified to work as part of a custodial service. Employers are typically looking for hard workers, with educational considerations being secondary. For this reason, it makes an ideal job for recent immigrants and those who have little education, even of a vocational variety. Workers should be in good health, however, as the hours are often long and there is little reason to be off one's feet. Vacuum cleaners, brooms, mops, toilet brushes, and other tools may be used as part of the trade, but these require little skill to operate and training can be done swiftly.

Some smaller companies may choose to divide custodial service amongst the employees rather than hiring a separate staff. For instance, a small retail establishment may have the sales staff and stock clerks perform cleaning duties like maintaining the bathrooms and cleaning the carpets as part of their job description. This is common practice in the restaurant industry as well, where the serving staff and the busboys will usually be responsible for light cleaning duties as well. This division of chores may include putting up a weekly schedule, indicating who is responsible for which chore on a certain day, eliminating confusion.

Those looking for work in the custodial service industry should search for jobs on popular online job placement sites, as well as local classifieds sections. There may also be large contracting companies in the area that can evaluate potential employees and hire them as needed. Many such companies will establish a need for a high school diploma or a GED as a mandatory minimum requirement, though this is not the case in all situations. 

A company looking to hire custodial service should first decide whether it makes greater financial sense to hire an outside firm to come in and do the cleaning, or hire employees outright for the job. Hiring an outside staff will likely be much less expensive, but if the cleaning duties are ongoing and throughout the day, it might make more sense to hire directly.