You have decided to start a cleaning business, but hiring cleaners is not one of your priorities. You are up for a surprise because starting your business, creating a client list, and meeting their needs is just the beginning. A successful cleaning business requires staff with skills, punctuality, and the right tools to help them complete tasks efficiently.
A common issue such businesses face is hiring cleaning staff. Cleaning business hiring is a routine task and a critical decision that shapes the business’s efficiency, reputation, and overall performance. Suppose you can recognize the proper techniques and approaches.
In that case, you can ensure that you are hiring cleaners who maintain high standards of cleanliness but also embody the values and professionalism of your brand.
This article explains hiring the right cleaning staff for any cleaning or janitorial business.
Table of Contents
How do you hire the right employees for your cleaning/janitorial business?
Cleaning companies hiring suitable candidates understand some basic requirements. To build a team of reliable and skilled cleaning professionals, follow these steps:
1. Discover what your small business needs
Before hiring cleaners for your small business, you must understand the specific needs of your cleaning or janitorial business. Some important considerations to make are:
- The volume and types of cleaning services you offer.
- Your operational hours.
- The geographic areas you serve.
- What services will you provide, such as commercial, residential, or industrial cleaning?
- The size of your current workforce.
- Gaps or areas that need new skills.
- Decide where you need full-time, part-time, or independent contractors.
Once you understand your business’s unique requirements, you can quickly identify suitable candidates who can meet these needs effectively.
2. Write a job description that attracts the best candidates
The next step is to ensure that you write a concise and attractive job description to get the attention of the suitable candidates. A compelling job description includes:
- Company profile and values
- A clear and detailed job title such as cleaning technician, janitor, cleaner
- A summary of the position’s responsibilities and duties, including specific cleaning tasks and maintenance activities
- Skills and experience the services require
- Type of employee (full-time, part-time, contract)
- Salary or hourly pay
Please ensure that while your job description provides all the relevant information, it should be at most 300 words. LinkedIn says shorter job posts (300 words or less) attract 8.4% more candidates than longer posts.
Information in the job description should align with the values of your organization. Ensure the job description is informative and engaging to capture the interest of potential candidates.
3. Screen candidates for essential qualities and skills
Once you post the ad, you will receive applications from interested candidates. It’s time to screen candidates for essential qualities and skills. If you are new to the screening process, here are a few things to consider.
Look for relevant experience: You will likely receive applications with varying experiences. It would be best if you looked for candidates with previous experience in cleaning or janitorial roles. If you have some specific requirements, look for their familiarity with cleaning techniques, equipment, and safety protocols requirements for the job.
There is much to pay attention to, such as assessing candidates for punctuality, consistency, and work ethic. In the cleaning business, reliability is crucial as clients depend on consistent and timely service.
Furthermore, when hiring cleaners, look for physical fitness as most roles require physical stamina, so candidates should be physically fit to perform cleaning tasks efficiently.
Checking references is also essential to verify the work history and reliability of the candidates. It will inform you about their performance with previous employers.
4. Onboard and train new employees effectively
Once you hire the right cleaning staff, the next crucial step is to onboard and train them effectively to ensure they are equipped to deliver high-quality cleaning services.
An ideal onboarding and training process includes introducing new hires to company policies, procedures, and safety protocols. Give them hands-on training in cleaning techniques and equipment operation under the supervision of experienced staff.
If they will be working with specific properties or locations, they should be given a tour of where they will be working. Before you put them in service, review client expectations and any special requests.
Also, cleaning staff should receive ongoing training and performance evaluations to ensure continuous improvement.
These four steps can simplify cleaning business hiring. Following these steps, you can hire the right employees for your cleaning or janitorial business.
How do you prepare for hiring cleaners?
Hiring cleaners for your business requires preparation, and there are some prerequisites you must complete before you start hiring and onboarding the right candidates.
- You must have the employer identification number (EIN) for cleaning business hiring. You can obtain EIN through the IRS.
- Your business should be registered with the state labor department to remain compliant for hiring.
- All businesses are required to report new hiring to their states. Depending on your location, you must disclose employee information to your state’s new-hire reporting agency.
- You must have the right payroll and record-keeping solutions in place.
- Get all legal requirements completed, such as workers’ compensation insurance, employment contract or at-will agreement, employee handbook, etc.
- Collect the necessary information via personal data form for payroll purposes, disability, family leave, and other federal policies.
Get your business in shape to allow employees to work in a safe environment. For this, you must create standard operating procedures for tasks, set up workplace safety programs, order uniforms and safety gear for cleaners, etc.
Also, you must create a channel for cleaners to report issues, ask questions, or seek assistance when needed. It is essential to address any concerns or grievances promptly and professionally.
Traits to look for when hiring cleaning staff
When customers hire a cleaning service, they expect the staff to be polite, dedicated, and experienced. This is why, when hiring cleaning staff, you should look for individuals with the right skills and personal attributes.
Here are vital traits to look for when hiring cleaners:
1. Experience and skills:
While if you are hiring freshers, then knowledge is not necessary, previous experience and cleaning skills can be a bonus. Assess their familiarity with cleaning chemicals, equipment, and techniques relevant to your business’s needs.
2. Reliability:
If your cleaners work unsupervised, it is a paramount trait. Dependable employees are reliable as they adhere to schedules, meet deadlines, and maintain consistent quality in their cleaning services. You can use the references in their application to know about their past job attendance and reliability.
3. Adaptability and problem-solving skills:
It is common for cleaning staff to encounter unexpected situations or challenges. It would help if you looked for individuals who can adapt to changing circumstances and solve problems effectively. When cleaners can solve problems, big and small, independently, they can work without supervision.
4. Friendliness and approachable:
Interaction with clients is part of the job if your cleaning business offers residential or commercial cleaning. Your employees must be courteous, respectful, and able to handle client requests or complaints professionally. Evaluate a candidate’s customer service skills before you hire them.
5. Trustworthiness and integrity:
Given the nature of the cleaning work, it often involves being in clients’ private spaces. Therefore, the trustworthiness of the cleaning staff is crucial. Background checks are essential, but you can also gauge interview integrity by discussing hypothetical ethical dilemmas.
What after you hire the right cleaning staff for your cleaning business?
Once you have hired the right cleaning staff, it is time to integrate them into your workforce. The cleaning business, like every other business, must adhere to rules regarding wages, overtime, leaves, etc. One challenge cleaning businesses face is that they must keep track of the time and attendance of distributed cleaning staff.
One crucial aspect of managing your cleaning team is tracking their attendance, which helps you monitor their punctuality and adherence to work schedules. Truein offers comprehensive time and attendance tracking with face recognition for full-time, contractual, and distributed staff.
With Truein’s accurate timekeeping, your cleaning staff can clock in and out electronically using their smartphones. When the need for manual time cards or paper-based attendance registers is eliminated, errors and the possibility of time fraud are reduced. It features GPS geofencing, enabling cleaning business owners to track their staff’s attendance in real-time.
Supervisors can instantly see who is on-site and when they arrive or leave. This ensures better accountability by providing that your cleaning staff are at the designated work locations at the scheduled times. This also helps prevent unauthorized breaks or absences.
By ensuring that your cleaning staff is aware that their attendance is tracked in real-time, you can motivate them to be more punctual and responsible, improving overall work performance.
Truein fosters transparent communication between you and your cleaning staff, as they can view their attendance records, making the process fair and trustworthy. Accurate attendance tracking helps you avoid overpaying for hours not worked, leading to cost savings for your cleaning business.
Truein also features customizable policy templates that cleaning companies can customize according to their business requirements to comply with labor laws and regulations. You need Truein to ensure your cleaning business is basing workforce attendance management on modern solutions. To learn more about its time and attendance management features, robust reporting features, and payroll integration, visit here.
The Cleaning Staff Hiring Process
After determining the number of cleaning staff required and the types of cleaning services you offer, you are in a position to write a detailed job description outlining job responsibilities, qualifications, work hours, and any special requirements.
Once you start receiving applications from interested candidates after posting the job opening on relevant platforms such as job boards, your company website, social media, and local classified ads, you should know how to screen for suitable candidates.
1. Setup the initial interview
Review resumes and applications to shortlist candidates based on qualifications and relevant experience. Conduct phone or video interviews with shortlisted cleaning candidates to assess their availability, communication skills, and initial fit with your company culture.
If you are satisfied after discussing their previous cleaning experience and willingness to perform various cleaning tasks, you can schedule an in-person interview.
2. In-person interview
Invite promising candidates for in-person interviews and use structured interview questions to evaluate their cleaning, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills.
3. Check references and background checks
Cross-checking the provided references would help verify candidates’ work history, reliability, and professionalism. As cleaning companies often work in clients’ personal spaces, it is necessary to conduct background checks to ensure candidates have a clean criminal record.
4. Final interview (optional)
Conduct a final interview with top candidates to discuss terms of employment, including pay, benefits, work schedules, and company policies. At this step, you extend formal job offers to selected candidates and ensure they understand and accept the terms and conditions of employment.
Common problems and solutions for hiring cleaning staff
Cleaning companies hiring have some common problems. Familiarity with these problems can help you create the right strategies and solutions to overcome these challenges.
Let’s have a look at some common problems.
1. You take too long to reply to candidates
Cleaning staff turnover is common, and there is always demand for janitorial service providers, so you must quickly reply to eligible candidates to avoid challenges in finding the right people to join your workforce.
Therefore, you should promptly reply to potential candidates and offer them competitive wages and benefits to attract and retain them. Also, you should create a positive work environment and recognize and reward good performance.
2. Using manual data entry for candidate tracking
If you are a small business and have limited hiring needs, then you can trust the good old spreadsheets to maintain records of candidates. However, to become efficient in hiring candidates, you must find an alternative to manually inputting applicant information. Remember that tasks performed manually hinder scalability, making it challenging to expand your operations.
Automate application screening and data management with software solutions so you spend less time entering data into spreadsheets and more time maintaining your business.
3. You handle hiring on your own
As a business owner, you have several responsibilities to take care of. You cannot assume the sole responsibility for reviewing resumes and contacting candidates, as it will slow down the hiring workflow.
Suppose you struggle with finding time for other responsibilities because you are busy scheduling interviews and reviewing resumes and applications most of the time. In that case, consider hiring a virtual assistant (VA) or utilizing software to streamline these processes.
Conclusion
This guide provides steps to establish an effective cleaning staff hiring process that ensures you select and retain qualified individuals who can meet your business’s or client’s cleaning needs. Hiring candidates with the right traits and qualifications can build a strong and reliable cleaning team that effectively meets your client’s needs.
To efficiently manage your cleaning staff, maintain professionalism, and ensure the smooth operation of your cleaning business, use Truein for its robust time and attendance recording features.
FAQs
1. What's an alternative to hiring a cleaner?
An alternative to hiring a full-time or part-time cleaner is considering professional cleaning services or outsourcing your cleaning needs to a cleaning company. These companies typically have a team of trained cleaners who can provide one-time or recurring cleaning services for your home or business.
Hiring a cleaning service allows you to access cleaning expertise without the responsibilities of hiring and managing an in-house cleaner. It can be a cost-effective and flexible solution for many individuals and businesses.
2. When should I hire more cleaning employees?
There can be various scenarios when you can require more cleaning employees. This includes:
Increased demand for your cleaning services- If the workload exceeds the capacity of your current cleaning staff, resulting in longer response times or compromised quality of service, it’s time to hire additional employees.
Seasonal variations may also require hiring more staff during peak periods to manage the increased demand-
Suppose your current cleaning staff is consistently overworked, experiencing burnout, or taking frequent leaves of absence. In that case, it’s a sign that you need to hire more employees to distribute the workload effectively.
