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6 Ways to Hire Janitorial Employees

27 April 2021

Most business partners, employers, and subcontractors find hiring their employees difficult. The reasons range anywhere between the questionable quality of work, poor performance, and late clock-ins. And I agree, you can’t determine how a person will work under you until they are. Some people are just terrible at their jobs and have zero accountability. It is challenging but not impossible to find the right person for the position. Follow these six steps, and I guarantee your business will run smoothly; you will take in more profits and be successful, in general.

 

Step 1: Commit

The first step to anything is to commit. It is essential to be as committed to hiring employees as you are to growing your business. Be all in or all out. Half measures won’t help you here. If you find an employee doesn’t match the standards you’ve set, don’t just give up. 

Hiring employees will free up your time that you can then spend on running and operating your business. Creativity follows commitment. So, find creative ways to bring on new employees whenever the need arises.

 

Step 2: Find Out Why Someone Would Want to Work for You

This step most of us forget when looking for employees and partners. We need to ask ourselves -Why would somebody want to work with our company? It shouldn’t just be because of the great pay, the 3-weeks holidays, and other incentives that come with the position. Provide your employees with excellent work culture, motivate them to be successful and commit to their training and growth. It’s what has worked for me so far. I don’t dictate the cleaning times of my employees who clean after hours, provided the job is complete before the set agreement within the contract. I let them have the option to work with a partner and don’t breathe down their necks. This way, they have more control over what, when, and how they do their jobs, provided it’s to the client’s preferences and standards.

 

Our company has attracted people looking to build a life around or apart from their current job. To attract the best, you must be an employer that’s better than the best. Set and live up to the standards you have for your employees to have the best ones come work for you.



Step 3: Design Your Avatar

What is an avatar? It’s an ideal employee you want in your company. You need to have an exact idea of the kind of person you want in your company, be it in cleaning, operations, or any other department. Designing an avatar makes it easier to identify the right person for the job when you’re going through hundreds of job applications. 

These are the factors we aimed for in the avatar of an ideal employee:

  • Knows English - This was non-negotiable to make communication easier given that One Janitorial operates over a large geographical area.
  • Must own a cell phone with data. It made it easier to contact them. Data made it possible to facetime with them while they were at the location, do virtual monthly inspections, deal with service issues faster and get photographs to send as proof to the clients.
  • Has a partner to work with - Could be a husband, wife, son, daughter, sibling, or friend. We’d train both of them so they could work together to get the job done faster. Eliminates or dramatically decreases no-shows and absenteeism because if one was sick or unavailable, their partner could pick up the slack.
  • Has a purpose - We only hire people looking for a part-time job for a purpose, whether it is to send money back home, invest in a good car, or fund their kid’s education. Purpose guarantees good performance.
  • Belongs to a community - This makes the hiring process faster and easier since word of mouth in the community helps bring in more people for the job and, in a way, also guarantees good performance. The community could be immigrants or the local church community, for example.
  • Holds a full-time job - The reference from their full-time job gives you an understanding of the person’s work etiquettes and whether they’ll be able to manage working two jobs efficiently. We also only hire part-time employees to eliminate overloading individuals, and this avoids future issues. 
  • Has experience - It doesn’t matter how little the experience, but an experienced employee is easier and faster to train.
  • Location - as a rule, we do not hire employees who may have to drive more than 20 minutes to get to a site. It reduces commute time and improves productivity.
  • Has a car - Any employee working for us needs to have a vehicle in good working order, and preferably their partner needs to as well.



Step 4: Post Your Ad

Post your ad where it can garner attention. It could be flyers, newspapers, Facebook, anywhere that can get you, potential employees, especially if a community is not part of your avatar.

 

Step 5: Interview and Make a Decision

For every person you hire, you should interview at least ten people. Don’t rush the process or hire the first person you find agreeable. 

  • Do not look past red flags because that will only create issues for you down the road. Look for people who match the avatar you’ve made. 
  • Set up Barriers. Have interested people call you instead of you calling them. Have them send 1-minute videos of their work or introducing themselves and why they would be a fit for the role. Have them fill out a questionnaire. This way, you’ll get people who are good at what they do and follow instructions down to the T.
  • Get references: Look at the resumes carefully. Their tenure at their workplaces is a huge indicator of the kind of employee they will be. If they have tenures that range from 2 to 7 months at their previous jobs, they’re not going to stick around. Look for people with more than a year or two of experience, so you know they’re not going anywhere.
  • Interview Questions: Frame the right questions for the job. They can range from simple ones like- “Do you have any experience in this field” to more specific questions like- “How long does it take you to mop a floor” or “When should you change a mop bucket.” The answers they provide should be at par with their experience level. 
  • Trust your gut: Once you’ve narrowed it down to two or three people who are the perfect fit for the job, trust your gut. Select the candidate who is most likely to be successful and keep the other two on file for the future.

Step 6: Get Them Excited 

Now that you’ve found the one, you need to keep them excited about choosing your company. Send them a formal email that outlines expectations and all other employment details to review and sign. It will help them understand expectations beforehand. Forward any training videos you might have, have them fill out all the essential paperwork. If they’re a subcontractor, you’re still going to need an employee form. Following these six steps can help you make a better, more informed decision.



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