Top Five Cleaning Challenges Facility Managers Face—And How to Solve Them Fast

Today’s facility professionals face tons of facility cleaning challenges. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly), these janitorial pain points remain pretty consistent over the years. Here’s the top five cleaning challenges facility managers face and how tools from Kaivac can solve them.

Facility Cleaning Challenge #1: Labor

No surprise here. Finding, hiring, and retaining qualified staff remains the number one challenge for the in-house cleaning/facility management industry, according the Cleaning & Maintenance Management 2025 Benchmarking Survey Report.

Cleaning industry statistics support that report. Industry turnover rates average approximately 75% annually and can top out at 400% for contract cleaning staff.

There is a solution for this constant, consistent workforce churn. Tools and machines from Kaivac help facility managers deal with understaffing while retaining the workers you have. Here’s how.

Kaivac machines clean much faster than traditional tools. For instance, the No-Touch Cleaning® system works three times faster than hand cleaning with mops and rags. This time savings turns Kaivac tools into workforce multipliers, allowing you to do more with fewer employees.

Facility Cleaning Challenge #2: Employee Training

Directly related to the first challenge, constant labor churn means an endless cycle of on-boarding and training new hires. This eats up time and money, precious resources for any facility manager. Yet training is too important to skip as untrained employees put themselves, the client, and expensive building materials at risk.

Kaivac tools help ease training woes. The machines are easy to learn and master. The KaiNect™ app further simplifies training. Loaded with quick start and comprehensive videos, the KaiNect app puts training right in employees’ hands. This builds worker confidence and satisfaction, allowing them to deliver fully clean spaces on day one.

Facility Cleaning Challenge #3: Sustainability

Sustainability remains important to organizations. Green practices boost indoor air quality, burnish organizational reputations, and most importantly, protect human health. Meeting sustainability goals, however, can be difficult.

Unless you are using Kaivac machines. Kaivac tools remove 99.9% of targeted bacteria using water alone. For organizations that still want to use chemicals, KaiO™ multipurpose cleaner meets Green Seal® standards. This designation ensures that the product is effective and still lives up to standers.

Kaivac has two other products with Green Seal certification. The AutoVac Stretch™ and the UniVac™ are both certified for Environmental Innovation. This award is based on reduced environmental toxicity, waste minimization, use of verified environmentally preferable products, and conservation of energy and water.

Facility Cleaning Challenge #4: Restrooms

Restroom maintenance remains a challenge for facility professionals. Heavily used and hard to clean, restrooms continue to generate the most complaints from building occupants.

Of course, people demand clean, fresh smelling, fully stocked restrooms every time they walk in. Providing that consistency is hard. Workers are over stretched, traditional cleaning tools are insufficient, and unpleasant odors persist.

Unless facility managers switch to the No-Touch Cleaning system. This state-of-the-art restroom cleaning powerhouse allows workers to maintain restrooms quickly and completely. The No-Touch Cleaning system blasts soils and smelly bacteria out of hard-to-reach areas, including grout.

The tool works three times faster than manual cleaning with a mop and rags. Workers can deliver sparkling clean, fresh smelling restrooms faster and with less physical effort, delighting them and your customers.

Facility Cleaning Challenge #5: Flat or Decreased Budgets

Another no-brainer, budget constraints once again pose a challenge for facility managers. Constantly asked to do more with less, savvy managers jump on any opportunity to stretch their dollars while still delivering safe, clean interiors.

Here’s where Kaivac tools really outperform the competition. With unsurpassed productivity, multiple capabilities, and confirmed chemical savings, all Kaivac machines deliver a rapid return on investment. Even supposedly inexpensive mops cannot compete with savings generated by Kaivac technology.

Plus, all machines are easy to troubleshoot and fix in house, saving even more in downtime and maintenance bills.

Facility managers face challenges every day. Let Kaivac help you overcome them. Find out more here.