I often have the opportunity to compare notes and strategies with some of the most respected and effective CEOs and leaders within the Building Services industry. Among those that seem to do it best, the unifying element appears to be how they see their people and their willingness to understand and execute what is needed to seed and grow great teams. Without fail, every successful building services contractor shares a deep respect for the individuals that represent their businesses out in the field. In an industry that pays out as much as 70% of its gross revenue to its employees in the form of wages and in an industry where your front line cleaners and maintenance techs ARE the face of our businesses, the people who fill these jobs are very, very important.
Our teams are the faces that Facility Managers and their occupants associate with our companies. Our people must not only make a good impression overall, they must be effective in their positions. All too often, when a janitorial company fails to execute the services you need, it is because they have filled janitorial service jobs with people who are not the right fit and they have failed to offer the training and management needed to grow good people into great employees.
So how is your commercial janitorial service company filling janitorial service jobs and are they positioning their people to offer you effective service and real value? People must be the driving force in any service intense business like the janitorial industry because people will always be the “face” of the company. From culture, to hiring, to screening, compensating and more, effective processes must be the framework of each element of how we find and manage people. Using processes to make filling janitorial jobs more effective seeps into every part of service delivery from getting the most effective service from your Michigan cleaning services to finding quality day porters, office cleaners, reducing janitorial turnover and more.
So you understand how critical people are to the delivery of your janitorial services but how can you determine if a prospective commercial janitorial service company does what they should? There are a few critical things to look for and questions to ask to make sure any prospective commercial cleaning company is poised to deliver effective service through their great teams. The best way to sidestep people issues is to assure that your cleaning company fully comprehends the importance of sufficient training. Any Michigan cleaning company can tell you they train their teams but can they show you? A reputable Michigan janitorial services company is prepared to show you their training process and even document that employees have completed the comprehensive training. It is really good to ask to see this documentation because all too often a cleaning company will have a training “system” that might be useful on its own, but useless if not actually completed by every employee.
There are a great deal of janitorial companies that while they may try very hard to be effective, simply are not set up for success. Whether it’s janitorial jobs in Michigan or elsewhere, people and the process of finding hiring, training and managing them matter most. Delivering quality work with any reliability requires support and systems to guarantee reliability through accountability. Bad janitorial service isn’t always about a lack of caring so much as a lack of experience. Experienced cleaning companies know they need support and processes to really get the work done at a level they can stand behind. How are these guys likely getting it wrong? Perhaps they lack the formal quality assurance programs so they over rely on you the customer to managing their onsite teams. But if you have to do that, you miss out on one of the best reasons to outsource your janitorial services, putting the responsibility for managing them on your janitorial contractor. Also, they may put you at risk for OSHA noncompliance if they are missing a documented safety program. So ask to see this plan because it matters. Likewise, because people are the core of the janitorial industry, if your janitorial services company does not utilize effective, systemized background and drug testing, they are leaving you, your team and facilities vulnerable. Ask to see written documentation from their background check company for each employee that works in your facility.
When searching for a prospective commercial cleaning company to manage your maintenance, the amount of choices can be overwhelming. And yet, many choices isn’t the same as many GOOD choices. You as a Facility Manager must do the due diligence to find those janitorial companies that are set up to succeed. Arm yourself with the best information to make informed choices and ask those questions that will help you find a building services contractor that understands how to fill their janitorial jobs with great people and use processes to screen, train and manage them in a way that benefits everyone.