How to Hire the Right Team for Your Cleaning Company
Perhaps the most important thing to consider when building your cleaning business is hiring the right team for your cleaning company. The individuals you hire will likely be interacting directly with your clients, and as we all know, relationships matter.
The people you choose to hire can make or break your company. If you make the wrong choices, you are likely setting yourself up for failure. Here are a few tips to make sure you hire the right team for your cleaning company.
Define Your Needs
Create a profile or job description for every position in your company. Note the key skill requirements for each. Include behaviors that are necessary for an employee to be successful in each position. Some examples include dependability, ability to prioritize, enthusiasm, cooperation and teamwork, able to work under pressure, initiative, and oral and/or written communication skills. Once you have these defined, create interview questions that align with these skills and behaviors.
Market and Recruit Your Job Openings…..Always
Don’t wait until you have a job opening to start looking for a stellar addition to your team. If you wait, you will be short-handed, desperate for an immediate position fill, and likely overburden your established team.
Part of your strategy for marketing your job openings is clearly defining your benefits package. Benefits are a huge selling point when recruiting new team members. The more competitive your package, the more likely you will be able to hire the most qualified people in the job market. One way to determine what the benefits are is to ask your existing team members why they stay. Likely you will find the reason will be more than pay.
Research the Competition
Do you seem to lose team members to your competitors? Find out why they are leaving and where they are going. This may mean doing an exit interview or survey or simply asking a few questions when they give you notice.
Offer Employee Referral Bonuses
One of the easiest ways to build your cleaning service team is to offer your existing team members a cash incentive for recruiting potential team members for you. Put a retention period on the reward like 90 days to ensure the new hires will stay.
Conduct Thorough Interviews
A good interview will take anywhere from 30-45 minutes. Interviewing a candidate with cleaning experience? You may want to test their skills by having them perform some work duties like dusting or cleaning a restroom. Another way is to ask them, “How would you handle this situation?” and give them some mock scenarios to work through. You want to be confident that the person you are interviewing is an excellent fit for your team. Don’t be afraid to cut the interview off early if it seems as if it will not work out. Be honest and say something like, “I’ve already interviewed several people, and I can see you’re really not going to be a good fit for this position.”
Don’t be too quick to make your final decision when hiring a new team member for your cleaning company. This is someone you and your team will hopefully be working with for years to come. Make sure they are the right fit. If you are looking for other ways to streamline your business, consider using online estimating software available through Compass Wave.