Every once in a great while I do find a little wisdom on the internet when it comes to cleaning services. Seldom do I ever see anything relative to the attitude of management when it comes to the benefits of hiring cleaning services. The excerpt below is an anomaly because it very succinctly points to the cost savings smart managers can realize. (Regretfully, I did not record the source when I saved it.)
Money and Time Considerations
Some business owners seek cost efficiency by outsourcing to companies providing cleaning services.
They do this because they understand attempting to use in-house resources can take valuable time away from core business needs.
Outsourcing cleaning services allows in-house resources to continually support the primary business rather than dedicating them to cleaning and maintenance issues.
I wish that more business owners and managers were this savvy. I have seen this type of benefit, over and over again, with my clients. They have more of a payback as a result of the professional cleaning services we provide than the cost of those services to the business.
This benefit comes in the form of high employee morale resulting in increased productivity, happy customers that share their experiences with others, and the lifting of stress from managers because they no longer spend their time and energy disciplining employees for not cleaning.
There is, however, an underlying attitude regarding the use of employees for cleaning that has been left out. The statement focuses on the result businesses can attain with a professional cleaning service; it does not delve into the attitudes people have about cleaning that make it seem reasonable to have employees do the cleaning.
There is a common erroneous presumption that anyone can clean. This is like saying that anyone can dance, anyone can do math, anyone can be an artist or an accountant or a chemist.
When I started my business, I naively presumed that I could teach anyone to clean. Boy, was I wrong. I found that some people just don’t see dirt. I learned that the level of perceptual detail to even identify places that need to be cleaned cannot be taught. I also found that some people can’t move their bodies in a fashion that would allow them to complete the work efficiently.
Why go to the bakery? After all anyone can decorate a cake.
Why hire a seamstress? Anyone can sew.
Why hire a bookkeeper? Anyone can add and subtract.
Why hire a window cleaner? Anyone can produce a streak-free window
We all have different skills. Yet, when it comes to cleaning, it seems that the mantra “any dummy can clean” is a hard one to dispel. When a business thinks that their employees can do the cleaning it is with this erroneous presumption. Don’t be a dummy with your business.
The Cue Card is a quality control communications tool we leave for the client after completing our service call. It serves a couple of different purposes. ACCOUNTABILITY
It not only documents that the service call was made on a certain date but also ensures accountability on the part of the worker by requiring them to (much like an artist) sign their work (see right side of form). CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
The form allows our customers to ask questions or give us feedback on our services. The Cue Card below came in recently.
It was filled out by a number of the employees of the organization. As you can see the first one states:
Our office morale has dramatically improved
We experience this type of response over and over again. Employees approach us while we are doing our work and tell us how grateful they are for our services.
I will never forget one client that was part of a national chain. They changed managers almost every year. Usually when a new manager arrives, one of the first things they will do is examine expenses and fire our service. In this case, however, as soon as a new manager arrived; the employees would go to them and let them know that our service was not disposable. They conveyed what it was like before our service began and let the new manager know that they did not want a return to that situation again. As a result of the advocacy of these employees, we survived (six) 6 new managers. It was only when corporate took away local control of some areas of decision making that we were fired.
If you need to improve employee morale; hiring a restroom cleaning service like Washroom Wizard! is an extremely good way to start.
I recently read an article about a job seeker who received two job offers. The offers were almost identical. This made comparison very difficult. The final decision making parameter became the condition of the restrooms. The assumption that the job seeker made was that the employer with the cleaner restrooms valued their employees more.
For employers this situation begs questions such as:
What kind of employees are you attracting?
What is your rate of turnover? Could it be lower?
How valued do your employees feel?
What about employee moral? Could it be improved?
So, what was the real significance for the job seeker to use restroom cleanliness as a parameter in the decision making process for accepting a job? Within a year the company that was not selected for employment because of the condition of their restrooms went out of business. The job seeker continued to be employed by the company with the cleaner restrooms and did not fall among the ranks of the unemployed again.
Are you missing out on good employees due to the condition of your restrooms?
