Tired of a Revolving Door of Cleaning Employees?
In today’s episode Mike coaches Keith Schram of Three Way Cleaners on finding and keeping a better caliber cleaning employees. Like so many of our awesome Cleaning Nation members, Keith’s major struggle has been finding employees that are legal, have good transportation and good work ethic. In fact, he just recently hired an employee that demanded a raise 3 days after she was hired!

The secret sauce to finding good cleaning employees is ATTRACTING the RIGHT employees rather than chasing and begging the WRONG employees to do good work.

BONUS TIP: You don’t want to be in the commodity business when it comes to cleaning employees
The major misconception we all make when hiring employees is thinking that you are simply training dollars for hours. Even worse, once we hire those employees, we often see them as a commodity.

Does this thought sound familiar? “I’m not going to learn your name for 30 days because everyone flakes out, you don’t trust me and I don’t trust you. So if and when you leave I will just get another warm body for ten dollars an hour”

PAINFUL TRUTH: If all or part of the above statement sounds familiar…YOU are part of the problem!
Perspective Shift…
To your employees, YOU are a commodity. You’re just another jerk boss offering another crap $10/hour job until that they don’t want to do. And they will leave as soon as:

Something better comes up
It’s no longer is convenient for them
They were up drinking too late and they don’t want to show up
Worse still, whatever you pay, someone can always pay more.

KEY POINT: Attracting GOOD cleaning employees ISN’T about the money!
So, if it ISN’T about the money, what IS it about?!?!

It is about being part of something bigger than themselves. Part of a community.

The foundation for creating that community is your core values. Your core values are what drive your company, your decisions within that company, will attract the right people and almost as important will repel the wrong ones.

Discovering Your Core Values and How They Affect Cleaning Employees
YOUR core values are YOURS. What you believe in- deep down. This is not your company mission statement or how your service is different, but what you really believe and live your life by.

For example, if your core values are Have Fun, Make Money, Be Real and Help Out. Yes, these have been and still are Mike’s core values. Your job postings should focus on those core values. Make it 80% what you and your company is about and 20% about pay, requirements and job description.

KEY POINT: When people are reading your ad, they should know right away if they will or won’t be a good fit with your company and your culture.

Want more? Check out this blog on Core Values and this free video on Managing Cleaning Employees

Ever considered the difference between Apple “geniuses” and Best Buy employees? That goes way beyond training and hiring it’s all about culture and core values (or lack of them).

HINT: The difference isn’t because one pays more than the other
Apple employees didn’t come for the money, they came to be a part of something they believe in. They want to be a part of being cutting edge and innovation. They are motivated by what Apple is doing. They can’t get that exact experience anywhere else and that’s why they get well over 100 applications for every employee they hire.

Cleaning Employee and Conflict Resolution
Another great benefit of building your company culture around your core values is when your cleaning employees do something to violate those core values (like demanding a raise 3 days after they’re hired).

When you build your company and rules based on a common theme and truth, the conversation isn’t around reprimanding them for their error, but more about how that fits into the core values that attracted them to your company and they signed up for when they came on board.

So back to the example of Keith’s employee demanding a raise 3 days after she started…The conversation would sound more like this: “Hey, part of what we believe in is being real, when I hired you we had agreed to x amount of $ per hour, was that not really what you agreed to?”

That’s a much better conversation and more likely to have a positive outcome than “Are you out of your mind? You just got here!”

Ultimately, living your core values out loud and basing your company culture around them helps you, your employees and even your customers to be on the same page when it comes to running your company.

If you haven’t already, take the time to discover your core values and implement them in your business! You will see the world of difference it makes in not only your life, but your employees and customers too.

Keith dishes out the good stuff in the Lighting Round