Staffing & trust · updated August 2026
Same Crew or Rotating Crew: Why Consistency Is a Security Control
41% of building service contractors report annual turnover above 50%. That is the number behind “a different person every month.” A rotating crew never learns your space, and it is a security issue as much as a quality one: the building does not screen your night cleaners, so a stream of unfamiliar people holds credentials to your office with no continuity of accountability.
What the Data Actually Says
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Building service contractors reporting 50%+ annual turnover | 41% |
| Reporting under 10% | 20% |
| Reporting below 30% | 45.3% |
| Median tenure, janitors (BLS, Jan 2024) | 3.5 years, down from 4.3 in 2014 |
| Median tenure, service occupations overall | 2.7 years — lowest of any group |
| Average cost per hire (SHRM) | ~$4,700 |
A widely repeated claim that janitorial turnover runs at 200% traces back to a vendor blog post with no primary source behind it. The real figures above are bad enough without inflation, and knowing the difference is a reasonable test of whether a vendor knows their own industry.
Why It Costs You Money Even When You Do Not See It
At roughly $4,700 cost per hire, a vendor running 50% turnover on a six-person account burns about $14,100 a year in churn. That cost is priced into your rate whether it is disclosed or not. A vendor with genuinely low turnover has a structural cost advantage, and it usually shows up as better people rather than a lower price.
The Five Commitments to Put in the Agreement
- A named crew roster for your account, provided to you and updated in advance of any change.
- A maximum substitution rate — the proportion of visits that may be covered by someone other than the named crew.
- A named backup crew, already badged into your building, so an absence does not become a missed night.
- A stated supervisor-to-cleaner ratio.
- Advance notice of any personnel change, with the replacement screened and badged before their first visit.
The Security Framing
Think of it this way: consistency is not a comfort feature, it is an access control. Every substitution is a new person with credentials to your space, whom nobody at the building has vetted and whom your team has never met. Capping substitutions is the same category of control as time-fencing a badge. Key and credential protocol.
Last reviewed August 2026. Figures for prevailing wage and regulatory schedules change on 1 January and 1 July — we re-verify this page each cycle.
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