Janitor help: I'd love to hear from those who work with union janitors, but don't outsource it to a company.
I run operations for a family office CRE firm that focuses on office space.  We are trying to overhaul our janitorial program to incentivize them clean better, but also make them feel more appreciated.  I'm already planning on doing the following:

* Upgrading their break room since it is somewhat depressing with couches, better/cleaner lockers, brighter paint, etc.
* Getting them new or replacing outdated equipment
* Helping them reorganize their supply closets.  These things are packed to the gills, but just thrown together.  I would like to get them shelves or something to help them out.

Do you have any other ideas or thoughts?  The main issue is that I have to use union workers... no way around that.  They each cover ~45,000 SF (if I recall from the contract) and we have about 8 or 9 full timers.  The landlord is loved and respected by these guys and all but one person has been with the buildings for 15+ years.

The thing is that they don't do a bad job, but what is done is minimal.  A lot of room for improvement.  What would you guys do to incentivize them?  I'm thinking of:

* Free lunches dependent upon passing inspections
* Amazon gift cards as rewards (like $50-100 bucks) for a string of good inspections.  They can also be nominated by employees and tenants in the building for these ad hoc for exceptional jobs

Any brainstorming thoughts would be very welcome, thanks!
[{"id": "coqza7h", "text": "I had a similar problem. My janitors are not Union. 6 janitors each covering about 50k sq ft. Some were better than others.  What I did was begin rotating janitors to new areas. We do this every month. A few had been cleaning the same spaces for months or years. People get complacent in one spot, things stop getting noticed, and quality goes down. There was some growing pains.  People liked where they were working, AND They didn't like walking into a mess left by the previous janitor in that space. I try to stress accountability and pride in work - and rotating like this has helped. ", "replies": [{"id": "corxqm8", "text": "Good call, thanks.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]