How to Attract and Keep Amazing Employees to Create a Successful Janitorial Business

Episode 184 Vince Crooks Skyla Co.

Your ability to attract and keep good employees dictates your ability to run a successful janitorial business without going crazy. In today’s podcast/ blog, Mike welcomes Vince Crooks owner of Skyla Co.

Vince has found that keeping good employees is a challenge. He doesn’t feel like he can pay them enough to stay. People who are really enthusiastic in the beginning tend to lose their steam. A successful janitorial business requires good people, but let’s face it- we are hiring for low wage work that is not glamorous.

It all starts with attracting the right people. It is much harder to convince the wrong person to do a job he doesn’t want to do than to invite the right person into your organization. Job history can be a good indication.

QUICK TIP: If they haven’t done physical labor before- they might not realize how difficult cleaning can be

IT all starts with the ads you run and your interview process. Be loud and clear what your Core Values are when you communicate your job opportunity. You are looking to attract people that already share your Core Values, NOT convince and convert people who don’t share your beliefs.

RESOURCE ALERT: Free Video/Blog on Employee Motivation

So many owners believe it’s all about pay. If only they could afford to pay more, they would get good people and have a successful janitorial business. Believe it or not- pay is a commodity. It’s not what will get and keep the right people.

Your prospective employees are often leaving the last crappy $10/hr job. They expect you to be yet another awful $10/hr boss.  When you fire them, they quit or just don’t feel like coming in, they will just move on to the next crappy $10/hr job.

More money is not the solution. When you hire people because you offer fifty cents an hour more than your competitors, you attract the wrong kind of team members. People who will leave you for the next guy that pays them a nickel more. Attract people who share your core values.

RESOURCE ALERT: More great stuff on finding the best employees click HERE

Your next best employees are going to come form your current best employees. Arm those great employees with stories about how amazing your company is they can share with their friends and family. Stories about the relationships they have, actually having fun at work and the community they fit in with are far more compelling than making a couple more bucks.

Because they’ve often had nothing but crappy jobs, appreciation, love and felling like they are part of something bigger, goes an awful long way and money can’t compete with that. Best of all, community, core values and caring are all low cost or totally free!!

Once you understand the value of community over compensation, the next step is to adopt the mindset of always hiring. Just as successful janitorial businesses are always looking for good customers, you should always be looking for top notch employees.

Create systems and processes that consistently bring you a steady stream of qualified employees. You always want more qualified employees wanting to work for you than you have spots to put them in. This allows you to create a bullpen of good prospects that you can tap when you need an employee now instead of starting over with a stranger from an ad. This will also help you avoid being held “hostage” by sub-par employees that you don’t fire because you don’t have anyone to replace them.

Just as no successful janitorial business is complete without great employees- no Grow My Cleaning Company podcast/ blog is complete without a trip to the…