Cleaning and Employment
Opportunities
Every
now and then you may need to run an ad in your daily or local newspaper to find
new employees. Have applicants fax or e-mail their resumes in for your review.
Next, make sure you complete a phone screening before bringing anyone in for an
interview. When talking to an applicant on the phone, you might find out that
the person is not a perfect fit for the opening you have. However, you should
save all resumes and applications for one or two years. You may need to hire
quickly, or a building manager might call you with a large job you had bid on
some months ago and forgotten about. This would mean that your company needs
some additional staff, fast. You may also have to replace an employee who
leaves without telling you two weeks beforehand. This is just part of what
happens in the cleaning service business we are in. You will also have employee
turnover as you gain new contracts and lose old ones. Sometimes, with small
contracts, you can bring in a “mom- and-pop” team to do the job. I find that
they make good cleaning teams for small, long-term contracts. However, you have
to be careful about hiring too many members of the same family, or the friends
of your regular employees. Again, try not to put friends or family on the same
job site. Too often they bring personal issues to work and, this may make your
business look unprofessional, so try to hire new good hard working employee.
The
people I find to be very good, professional employees and the best for this
type of business are building cleaning supervisors. These are people who got
back into the building cleaning part of the business because they were laid off
from a supervisor position and are out of work. Even if you do not have a
supervisory position open, hire as many of these out-of-work former supervisors
as you can, starting them as regular building cleaners. If the person needs a
job badly enough, he or she will work as a building cleaner again while helping
you and your other employees learn more about what it takes to clean and
supervise a building. Eventually, you may be able to promote the person back to
supervisor. These people know what it takes; they have already been there over
and over again. This building cleaner/future supervisor will be a big asset to
your cleaning business as it grows. The more cleaning supervisors or former
supervisors you have on your staff, the more successful you will be, the faster
you will grow, and the sooner you will become a millionaire (if that is your
desire). Try never to hire an inexperienced building cleaner, as they will cost
you money and time to train. If you do hire someone without experience, put the
new employee with your best supervisor for the first thirty days, so that the
new worker can learn quickly from one of your best.
There
are many experienced building cleaners out there with good cleaning experience
that they’ve learned from other cleaning companies, who may or may not ever
want to be a supervisor. When placing your want ad in the newspaper, always ask
for “cleaning supervisors” or “highly experienced” building cleaners.
Experienced building cleaners will answer your ad and other types of building
cleaners with cleaning supervisor potential will also call you. This will bring
you not only supervisors but experienced cleaners who want to become the best,
and who will maybe start supervising for you soon. With all of this experience
on your team, do everything it takes to keep these employees happy so they will
stay with you. You should try to give them all the hours they can work or
handle and a good paycheck that is a little better than your competitors’ pay.
These are valuable employees, and you should always remember that if you lose one
of them, it might take weeks to find a replacement. This could make or break
your bottom-line profit for the month.
Placing
marketing ads in your local newspaper is always a good idea. It is an
inexpensive way to let future employees and customers know that you are running
a small construction or cleaning business in their area. Placing a small ad in
the newspaper, giving some details of what your business does, will make your
phones ring a few times each week.
Now it’s time to train your employees so they present that polished image of you and your company. You should train your employees well so they know what is expected of them each day and how they are supposed to execute the tasks assigned to them. Otherwise, the people you hire might not provide the level of service you want or might upset, disappoint or discourage your clients. A simple job could turn into a public relations nightmare, costing you time and money.
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