The running of a cleaning business takes time and effort. The problem isn’t in finding customers. Finding clients is the easiest part. Hiring employees from cleaning companies is a lot more challenging than marketing a cleaning service. The more significant challenge is identifying and sustaining efficient employees.
Finding the best people is often one of the most challenging elements of running and sustaining an effective cleaning business. When I started setting in motion the Neat – a top house cleaning business- I realized how accurate this statement was. After figuring out how to recruit cleaning staff, Our company thrived. Today, our team of cleaners comprises 25 who serve over 150 regular clients weekly.
‘Clients do not come first. Employees are first. If you care for those who work for you, your staff will also take care of customers.’
— Richard Branson, Founder at Virgin GroupSub 2% Recruitment Rate
In June of this year, we received 694 cleaner job applications and only 28,28 job offers. This is equivalent to a 4 percent rate of recruitment. Most of the time, only 50% or less of new members will complete our one-month test.
We want to add just 1% of applicants to our cleaning employee roster in a typical month. Over the long term, we’re close to the 1% threshold.
Attitude and Professionalism Trump Everything When Hiring Cleaning Company Employees
In cleaning, professionalism and attitude are the most crucial things to determine in a prospective candidate. A person with ten years of 5-star hotel cleaning experience but lacking professionalism will probably fail. No matter how knowledgeable the cleaner is, they always arrive late or never show up.
Our multi-step recruitment process will test these characteristics at every stage to select the best cleaning staff. We filter out candidates that aren’t suitable using as little time as we can.
Building a Scalable Recruitment Funnel
We were to examine the 700 resumes we receive each month, select them for shortlisting, and then individually reach out to them to arrange interviews. The time and expense load would be immense.
Our approach is to utilize technologies and automated processes until we’ve found potential candidates who are an ideal match. At this point, we put time and money into interviewing and onboarding.
Where to Source Great Candidates?
We find candidates through several job sites. We currently use (or have utilized) all these websites: Indeed, Facebook, Monster, Reed, Total Jobs, Adzuna, and Job Today. The referrals you receive from current cleaning companies are highly efficient. We award bonuses each time a new cleaning service is recommended to us. It is essential to constantly check your recruitment channels since the performance of your recruitment channels can change over time.
As you expand your business, you must follow the candidates’ sources. Most job boards let you invite candidates to your web page for jobs on your site. Use Google UTM tag to add URLs to your web pages to aid in separating the various sources of candidates.
Examine both the number of applications you receive and the quality (we refer to this as the number of job opportunities made).
Our 7-step Recruitment Process to Hire Great Cleaning Company Employees
Since professionalism and attitude are the primary qualities we seek when hiring new employees, Our process burdens the applicant. What is their approach to answering questions during the interview? Are they calling at the right time to schedule their consultation? Do they make any calls at all? How long does it take them to reply to a request?
We employ all these questions and others to determine if an applicant is suitable for our business. An unqualified hire could create more problems later on, so it is essential to select only the most qualified.
- Online Application Formulation: Given the number of applications we receive, we don’t examine each application individually. Instead, we direct all applicants to our online application form. We ask them about their experiences and confirm their satisfaction with the job’s requirements. For instance, we need our cleaning staff to travel within specific regions for work, so candidates only looking to work locally would not be a good fit with us. We utilize a program known as Typeform, which allows us to redirect applicants to different “Thank You” pages after they have submitted their applications according to their answers. To automatically shortlist candidates, decide how you want an applicant to answer your questions. After that, according to those criteria, you can direct candidates to a different page. Our form will automatically shortlist about 30% of candidates.
- Self-Schedule Interviewing Once the candidate has been selected, we have another program known as Calendly to insert a specific code on the website, permitting them to reserve a time and date for a phone interview. It also lets us reduce time and avoids back-and-forth emails to determine a suitable time to call. When potential clients book the time they want, they’re sent an acknowledgment of the booking and an hour-long reminder. All this is done automatically without taking a moment or effort.
- Telephone InterviewThe Cleaning industry has become known for lacking candidates turning on time for interviews. This is a significant expense for the employer, so we employ several strategies to reduce the chance of this. The first is to request candidates to contact us rather than our calling. Amazingly, only 20% of those who schedule a phone interview contact us. They need to clarify why they don’t remember or choose not to contact us. When we place the burden on the candidate, we save time and effort to make calls that do not connect. If a candidate gets us at the right time, they’re likely interested in learning more about the position and can follow directions, which is an essential part of the work! Additionally, as only 1 out of 5 applicants make contact for an interview, our policy is to “quintuple” book each time slot. An 11 a.m. telephone interview slot could be filled with up to five candidates scheduled for that same slot. On average, we anticipate one call to be completed. This also means we can spend time on something other than waiting around. If two calls are made simultaneously, calling the second candidate within a few minutes is possible. This is not usually an issue but an enormous time-saver for us.
- Job offer: In a tight labor market, once you have an outstanding candidate, you must get them moving swiftly. In 99 percent of instances, we will know if we’d like to give them a job after the interview. If so, we immediately let them know the details of what to do. This usually involves sending them a contract and an invitation to go through an ID verification. About 30% of people we talk to get a job offer.
- Reaction to Job OfferingYou’d believe after a request is made, our job is over! We check the applicants before allowing them to be onboard. We inform them they must sign the contract and hand the ID copies within 24 hours. If they don’t meet the timeframe, that’s a red flag for us. It could be a problem with their follow-up, needing the required documents, or their readiness to take the job. We will take this as a signal to pass on our next applicant.
- One-month trial: As a new employee, you’re close to getting there! You’ve begun your first job. However, you must complete your one-month trial. After the one-month period for new employees, we look again at attitude, professionalism, and client reviews. Are they punctual in their work? Did they take any sick days? What’s their general reaction to feedback? We often find that only a fraction of all new members make it through this test.
It’s About the Value, Not the Cost
You probably think the process is too lengthy and complex to employ a new cleaning company employee. In a sense, you’re right.
Our primary focus is on providing a superior service, which is expensive compared to our competitors. This is why our service needs the best service to justify the higher.
When you’ve discovered the top cleaners, they’ll remain for a lengthy period. You can also refer other top cleaners to us. They also, most importantly, help in marketing.