Janitorial Jobs Hiring
In today’s episode Mike coaches Derrick Marks of We Got Next Cleaning. www.wegotnextcleaning.com on Janitorial Jobs Hiring.

Derrick just landed a new large account starting in a month and needs to hire 3 new cleaners so he’s eager to hear the best way to tackle Janitorial Jobs Hiring.

First things first, kudos to Derrick for keeping his cool and planning ahead on this new account. A lot of the time we get so excited about getting a new job but we don’t plan enough time to staff it properly.

If you don’t have the staff on hand to service a new account, always set the expectations right by telling them you can’t service it for a reasonable amount of time to staff it. Starting your new relationship off on the right foot (is honest) is always better than running the risk of not being able to keep your word.

BONUS TIP: Better to under promise and over deliver.

Before we get into the immediate issue at hand, let’s take it back a few months to touch on how to best avoid this situation to begin with.

BONUS TIP: Always have “a bench”

There’s such a high turnover in the cleaning industry it behooves us to have 3-4 people on call in case of an emergency situation where you are short handed and need fillers to complete a job. They can be past employees you have a good relationship with, other cleaning company owners that might have extra people looking for temp work. Always be on the look out for good people to add to your workforce.

If you don’t have that “bench” the easiest place to find people is a subcontractor company. They have a large workforce of people you can use that will come and service your accounts in your uniforms etc.. But you will end up paying more for those workers, so it’s a great “in case of emergency” solution but not great long term.

Try to always have people or subcontractors in your area with an agreed upon rate to have filler people while you work on your Janitorial Jobs Hiring process.

Now to fix the Janitorial Jobs Hiring problem going forward you should always have a system to attract clients and employees. And you want those systems to be working all the time.

A big mistake many owners make is attacking the immediate problem only as they come up “I have to get more customers” so they turn on their customer attraction system and do nothing about attracting the right employees.

Then they realize they need to staff those jobs and turn off the customer attraction while they try to hire employees. And back and forth.

What needs to happen is systems to be running all the time for BOTH.

You always want to be looking for employees. That way you also build your bench and fill in your turnover rate.

Now, let’s get into where to find these employees…

BONUS TIP: Don’t use craigslist

Places like indeed.com are better for finding quality employees, you may have to pay a little for the privilege but It will save you money in the long run.

Before you start your Janitorial Jobs Hiring you’ll need to think about who your ideal employee is, are they white, black, hispanic, etc…are they married, single, is this their full time job, part time job?

Once you know that information it’s easier to know where they hang out and that’s where you want to advertise your jobs. Single moms looking for part time work hang out in different places than 30 year old hispanic men with families. And of course Employee referrals are the best place to find your best employees.

BONUS TIP: Like-minded people tend to hang out together. If you have a excellent employee, ask them for referrals!

The good news is if you put out a decent add you could get about 40-50 applicants. The bad news is, now you have 40-50 applicants to wade through to select the right one.

Combat the overwhelm by putting in place the right system for sifting through the masses.

Step 1: Simple instructions

In the headline of your ad you want to include a simple instruction for them to follow. Something like “Include 3 good reasons I should hire you”. The purpose is two fold, first, it gives you a good idea of whether or not they have an attention to detail and and can follow instructions and second of course it gives you a little insight into their personality.

Step 2: A quick phone call

This is not meant to be a full interview. It should only be 5 minutes or so with the same 3-4 scripted questions. They should be designed to weed out obvious NOs. It should include a core value check, use questions like, what attracted you to this job? Do you have transportation, do you speak english?If their immediate answer is just paycheck you might want to think twice about adding them to your team.

Step 3: Group interview

This should be a recurring group interview, still scripted, invite all weekly applicants (pick a day and time for it to do it). Not only does it free you up from having to spend hours on end interviewing 10 people a week but it also creates an environment for the other applicants to see how desirable your jobs are and motivates your current employees to work to keep their jobs.

Step 4: One on one interview

This one is pretty self explanatory but again make sure they are who they say they are. Ask core value related questions. If you have recurring problems with employees ask questions that would ensure you weed problem people out.

Step 5: On the job trial period

Have them work for you for 2 weeks. It’s easy for someone to fake you out for a day or two but harder not to see their true colors after 2 weeks. Of course you pay them for their work but keep them as 1099 until they’ve graduated.

For more great info on Janitorial Jobs Hiring, check our these other awesome podcasts:

https://oldsite.growmycleaningcompany.comcleaning-company-hiring/

Finally Derrick kills it in the Lightning Round

Always go after what you want, don’t let anyone tell you you can’t achieve something

Don’t hire family

Know your business – your numbers, equipment and supplies so when you bid on a job you aren’t doing it for free.