Top 12 Head Custodian Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the competitive landscape of facility management, a head custodian's resume must showcase a blend of technical proficiency, leadership, and meticulous attention to detail. Spotlighting the skills that actually move the needle shows not only your ability to keep buildings running smoothly, but your commitment to a safe, efficient, steady-as-she-goes environment.
Head Custodian Skills
- Sanitation Protocols
- Maintenance Scheduling
- Inventory Management
- Safety Compliance
- Team Leadership
- Equipment Operation
- HVAC Knowledge
- Plumbing Basics
- Electrical Repairs
- Project Management
- Budgeting Skills
- AutoCAD (for space planning and maintenance scheduling)
1. Sanitation Protocols
Sanitation protocols are the playbook a Head Custodian follows to keep spaces clean, safe, and healthy. This spans proper chemical use, cleaning frequencies, waste handling, and infection-prevention practices for everyday operations and high-risk scenarios alike.
Why It's Important
Strong protocols protect health, reduce illness transmission, meet regulatory expectations, and build trust. People notice when a building is cared for. They notice when it’s not.
How to Improve Sanitation Protocols Skills
Raise the bar with a practical, evidence-led approach:
Assess and plan: Audit current routines, products, and touchpoints. Map gaps. Write a clear cleaning and disinfection plan by zone and risk level.
Train relentlessly: Refresh staff on chemical safety, correct dwell times, dilution, PPE, and spill response. New hires get onboarding; veterans get refreshers.
Use EPA-registered disinfectants: Stock broad-spectrum products appropriate for the surfaces and pathogens you face. Keep Safety Data Sheets handy. Label everything.
Target high-touch hotspots: Door hardware, railings, switches, faucet handles, shared equipment—clean them more often, especially during outbreaks.
Adopt smart tools: Microfiber systems, electrostatic sprayers where appropriate, color-coded cloths and buckets, ATP testing for verification—choose what fits the setting.
Close the loop: Make it easy for building occupants to report cleanliness issues. Log them, act fast, and track turnaround.
Monitor and adjust: Inspect work quality, spot-check product dilution, and tweak schedules seasonally or after traffic changes.
How to Display Sanitation Protocols Skills on Your Resume
2. Maintenance Scheduling
Maintenance scheduling means planning, sequencing, and tracking cleaning, preventive upkeep, and repairs so facilities run without chaotic surprises.
Why It's Important
Good schedules prevent breakdowns, reduce downtime, and keep safety risks at bay. Workloads stay balanced; budgets stop bleeding.
How to Improve Maintenance Scheduling Skills
Make it systematic and visible:
Inventory assets and tasks: List equipment, spaces, and required frequencies. Prioritize by risk, compliance, and impact.
Use a CMMS: A reliable maintenance system handles calendars, work orders, checklists, and history. Even a lean tool beats spreadsheets once the team grows.
Standardize PMs: Turn recurring tasks into templates with steps, parts, and time estimates. Less guesswork, more consistency.
Communicate changes: Share schedules and outages early. Use team messaging and posted notices to avoid surprise downtime.
Review and refine: Track completion rates and repeat failures. Shift frequencies and staffing where the data points.
How to Display Maintenance Scheduling Skills on Your Resume
3. Inventory Management
For a Head Custodian, inventory management covers tracking, storing, and replenishing supplies and equipment so cleaning and maintenance never stall.
Why It's Important
Right stock, right time. You avoid outages, reduce waste, free up storage, and keep spending under control.
How to Improve Inventory Management Skills
Digitize tracking: Use barcodes or simple inventory software to know what’s on hand, consumed, and on order.
Audit routinely: Cycle counts beat year-end surprises. Reconcile records with reality.
Tighten supplier cadence: Set par levels and reorder points. Keep a backup vendor for critical items.
Train the team: Standard check-in/out, labeled shelves, first-in-first-out, and accurate usage logs.
Lean it out: Stock enough to be safe, not so much it gathers dust. Consolidate SKUs where it makes sense.
How to Display Inventory Management Skills on Your Resume
4. Safety Compliance
Safety compliance means aligning daily work with health, safety, and environmental regulations—policies, training, documentation, and culture included.
Why It's Important
It guards people, prevents incidents, and meets legal obligations. Fewer injuries, fewer fines, fewer headaches.
How to Improve Safety Compliance Skills
Train for the job at hand: Chemicals, equipment, ladders, lockout/tagout, bloodborne pathogens—train and retrain.
Audit and inspect: Use checklists, correct hazards on the spot, and log follow-up actions.
Talk about it: Short tailgate talks, clear signage, and an open-door policy for reporting hazards without fear.
Follow current standards: Keep procedures aligned with applicable regulations and update as rules or products change.
PPE without compromise: Stock proper PPE, fit-test when needed, and verify actual use—not just availability.
How to Display Safety Compliance Skills on Your Resume
5. Team Leadership
In custodial work, leadership looks like clarity, steadiness, and respect—coordinating people and workloads while keeping morale strong.
Why It's Important
Teams that know the plan move faster, make fewer errors, and take pride in the space they maintain. The building reflects the leadership behind it.
How to Improve Team Leadership Skills
Say it straight: Clear expectations and simple instructions beat elaborate speeches.
Model the standard: Show the pace, quality, and attitude you expect. People mirror what they see.
Give ownership: Let crew leads make routine decisions. Trust builds speed.
Coach and recognize: Quick feedback, specific praise, and course corrections delivered with respect.
Invest in growth: Cross-train. Offer certifications. Build a bench for peak seasons.
Encourage collaboration: Pair staff to solve recurring problems and tighten handoffs between shifts.
Stay flexible: Adjust plans as events pop up or weather swings. Less rigidity, more results.
How to Display Team Leadership Skills on Your Resume
6. Equipment Operation
Equipment operation covers safe, effective use and care of machines and tools—auto scrubbers, burnishers, extractors, vacuums, pressure washers, mowers, and more.
Why It's Important
Well-run equipment speeds work, improves outcomes, and cuts repair costs. Poorly run gear does the opposite.
How to Improve Equipment Operation Skills
Service on schedule: Build PM checklists—filters, belts, batteries, blades, calibration. Log everything.
Train operators: Hands-on demos, quick reference cards, and sign-offs for each machine.
Use correct consumables: Stick to manufacturer-recommended pads, bags, detergents, and parts.
Mind energy and noise: Favor efficient, low-noise models where possible. Better for budgets and building comfort.
Enforce safety basics: Guards on, cords managed, PPE on, lockout/tagout respected.
Retire clunkers: Track downtime and repair spend; replace gear when the math says so.
How to Display Equipment Operation Skills on Your Resume
7. HVAC Knowledge
HVAC knowledge means understanding how heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems operate, how to perform basic maintenance, and when to escalate to licensed technicians—all while protecting indoor air quality and comfort.
Why It's Important
Comfort and air quality are non-negotiable. Early detection of issues prevents costly failures and keeps energy use sane.
How to Improve HVAC Knowledge Skills
Learn the fundamentals: Airflow, filtration, refrigerant cycles, controls, and seasonal maintenance.
Pursue credentials: Industry-recognized certifications (for example, NATE or similar) validate skills and open doors.
Shadow pros: Ride-alongs with technicians reveal real-world troubleshooting patterns you won’t get from manuals alone.
Study manufacturer guides: Model-specific maintenance steps, fault codes, and parts lists are gold.
Stay current: Keep tabs on filtration upgrades, IAQ monitoring, demand control ventilation, and refrigerant transitions.
Practice preventative care: Filters, belts, coils, drains—set and keep a schedule, then document results.
How to Display HVAC Knowledge Skills on Your Resume
8. Plumbing Basics
Plumbing basics include understanding supply, drainage, vents, and fixtures—plus the confidence to handle common issues and the judgment to call a licensed plumber when limits are reached.
Why It's Important
Quick fixes prevent damage, downtime, and complaints. Small leaks aren’t small for long.
How to Improve Plumbing Basics Skills
Know your building: Locate shutoff valves, cleanouts, and risers. Keep an updated map.
Spot early signs: Slow drains, water hammer, discoloration, damp drywall—treat them as alarms.
Do the fundamentals: Replace fill valves and flappers, clear simple clogs, reseat traps, swap aerators, apply thread sealant correctly.
Carry the right tools: Basin wrench, adjustable wrenches, pliers, augers, plungers, flashlight, non-contact moisture meter.
Protect and prevent: Insulate pipes, maintain backflow devices, and winterize where needed.
Respect safety: Wear PPE, power down where required, and verify no contamination risk before opening systems.
Escalate wisely: Gas lines, main drains, persistent leaks, and anything past your license—call the pros.
How to Display Plumbing Basics Skills on Your Resume
9. Electrical Repairs
Electrical repairs for a Head Custodian focus on diagnosing simple issues and handling light-duty fixes safely—outlets, switches, fixtures—while honoring code and knowing when to bring in a licensed electrician.
Why It's Important
Done right, it prevents fires, outages, and equipment damage. Done wrong, it’s dangerous.
How to Improve Electrical Repairs Skills
Build core knowledge: Circuits, breakers, grounding, GFCI/AFCI, load limits, and basic code concepts.
Put safety first: Lockout/tagout, test before touch, insulated tools, and proper PPE—every time.
Use quality tools: A dependable multimeter, non-contact voltage tester, and appropriately rated hand tools.
Follow manuals: Equipment guides and wiring diagrams save hours and prevent mistakes.
Preventive checks: Look for heat discoloration, loose terminations, tripped breakers, and overloaded strips during routine rounds.
Know your limits: Service panel work, major rewiring, and anything beyond scope belongs to licensed electricians.
How to Display Electrical Repairs Skills on Your Resume
10. Project Management
Project management means scoping, budgeting, scheduling, and delivering custodial and facility upgrades without blowing timelines or disrupting operations more than necessary.
Why It's Important
It turns a pile of tasks into a predictable plan. Less scramble, more finish.
How to Improve Project Management Skills
Set sharp goals: Define scope, success criteria, budget, and deadlines. No fuzziness.
Plan the path: Break work into milestones, assign owners, and sequence around building use.
Use simple tools: A practical task board or project app for timelines, checklists, and files keeps everyone aligned.
Meet briefly, often: Short stand-ups beat long postmortems. Spot blockers early.
Manage risk: Identify material delays, staffing gaps, or access constraints and set contingencies.
Collect feedback: After closeout, capture lessons learned to sharpen the next run.
Track time and cost: Monitor burn rate and adjust scope or sequence before overruns snowball.
How to Display Project Management Skills on Your Resume
11. Budgeting Skills
Budgeting skills mean forecasting needs, controlling costs, and stretching dollars across supplies, equipment, and labor without sacrificing quality or safety.
Why It's Important
Money wasted on overstock or emergency repairs is money you don’t have for the priorities that matter. Budget discipline keeps operations resilient.
How to Improve Budgeting Skills
Learn the basics: Forecasting, variance analysis, fixed vs. variable costs, and return on investment.
Adopt a tool: Use a simple budgeting spreadsheet or finance software to track actuals vs. plan in real time.
Review monthly: Catch drift early. Adjust par levels, shift buys to bulk cycles, and rebid when prices creep.
Prioritize ruthlessly: Fund safety and compliance first, then mission-critical operations, then nice-to-haves.
Forecast from history: Use consumption and repair records to predict seasonal spikes and replacement cycles.
Invest in yourself: Short courses in facility budgeting or procurement sharpen your edge.
How to Display Budgeting Skills on Your Resume
12. AutoCAD (for space planning and maintenance scheduling)
AutoCAD is design software for precise 2D and 3D drawings. For a Head Custodian, it helps map floor plans, track assets by location, plan renovations, and even align spaces with maintenance routes.
Why It's Important
Accurate drawings make space planning and work coordination far easier. You see the building as it is, not as you hope it might be.
How to Improve AutoCAD (for space planning and maintenance scheduling) Skills
Standardize layers and blocks: Create templates for rooms, fixtures, assets, and wayfinding to speed updates.
Use purpose-built toolsets: Features in architecture-focused toolsets streamline walls, doors, schedules, and annotations.
Connect to your CMMS: Link drawings to asset IDs and work orders so space data supports maintenance planning.
Automate repetitive work: Simple scripts or custom routines can update tags, generate legends, or batch-plot sheets.
Control versions: Store drawings in a managed repository with naming conventions and change logs. One source of truth.
How to Display AutoCAD (for space planning and maintenance scheduling) Skills on Your Resume
