Your Guide to Properly Training Cleaning Staff

Proper employee training plays a big part in the development of modern businesses. This is especially true for cleaning and similar business branches. 

Being a cleaning business owner myself, I learned that proper employee training is one of the crucial factors for success. The employees are the face of the company, so you want to make sure they go through proper training and education, which are in compliance with your company’s standards and practices.

In this guide, I’ll be sharing my experience and knowledge as a cleaning business owner.

The goal of proper training goes far beyond the actual cleaning and revolves around optimal results, effectiveness, and understanding of every client’s specific need. 

Therefore, make sure to read the following guide specially created to train your cleaning staff properly.

Training Cleaning Staff

Find a concise, individual approach for every employee and understand their mindset. Doing this will help new employees apply essential rules and instructions quickly.

1. Creating Standards

I recommend creating specific standards for your cleaning staff to follow, which are in accordance with the company’s policy. You can always look up what other companies are doing while dealing with this particular issue. 

Contact a lawyer just to ensure you are heading in the right direction without technical issues. Creating this sort of document is essential and it should represent the first step in proper training.

2. Setting Hiring Standards

Besides creating documented standards, it is vital to look for a good attitude rather than cleaning skills, when hiring new cleaning staff. Why? You can easily teach newcomers cleaning abilities, but you can’t create a positive attitude (teamwork, desire for learning new skills, friendliness) if the person simply doesn’t have it.

Strive to hold a worthwhile interview and check whether the person is a good fit for your cleaning company. 

Questions to Ask When Hiring Cleaning Staff

• What are the most frustrating events related to your prior work experience, and how did you handle those situations?
• Would you help a fellow cleaner if he called you at the last minute?
• Did you ever work in a team, and how big was the most prominent team you worked with? 
• How did you get along with your colleagues?

These are just some examples; you can always come up with your questions. Just make sure to find out how the person acts under pressure and handles stressful situations.

3. Training and Educating on Company’s Practices

Define training areas and work equally on every single one. I highly recommend working on the following segments:

• Practicing the universal cleaning procedure
• How to apply the cleaning products and tools your company uses
• Safety measures and avoiding risks
• Following the company’s policy and standards
• How to read the standard property appearance document

It’s a good idea to match old and new employees for some of the onboarding tasks mentioned above. That’s precisely the topic I’ll be covering in the next part.

4. Work in Pairs

One of the most common advice for training your new employees is to set them up in pairs. Setting a new cleaner to work with an older, experienced cleaning crew member will help both of them.

The new member will surely learn most of the cleaning methods from an experienced individual. On the other hand, the older crew member will renew and boost their practice while sharing experiences.

Also, remember that it would be best to pair up cleaners for at least two weeks to see potential results.  Just be patient and give the new employees enough time to adapt to the new work environment.

5. Proper Coaching

Proper coaching doesn’t apply only to new employees, but should instead be part of your company’s policy in order to progress. 

Effective coaching skills will help you bring your newest employee onboard without any struggle. Besides that, coaching skills are most important for improving the performance of the entire team.

To be a good coach, you must first realize one thing – that coaching isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor. All of your employees are different in one way or another, and this also applies to the newcomer. To get the coaching done properly, you will have to tailor your approach to each individual. 

Benefits of Proper Coaching

• Performance improvement
• Skill improvement
• Knowledge transfer

Consistent coaching will produce a talented and agile workforce, which is essential for the company’s growth.

The most successful companies frequently attend numerous seminars on self-improvement, especially in employee coaching and training, as this particular segment requires constant growth.

6. Reviews and Evaluation

Performing evaluations and seeking out client reviews is one of the most effective instruments for proper employee training. 

Some companies send out comment cards for clients to fill out. This kind of feedback is highly beneficial for improved employee training.

Also, you can always invest in opening an individual line for complaints and praises, if the scope of work is getting vast and it’s hard to keep track of every client. This way, you’ll have a clear view of every single employee.

7. Frequent Training

As mentioned before, constant practice is a big part of training your cleaning staff. 

I recommend opting out for at least an hour every week to share their experiences, troubles, questions, and concerns.

How Do You Train a New Cleaner? 

Training a person that’s new to the industry comes as a challenge in every company, whether you’re a cleaning business or a construction company. But everyone has to start somewhere, right?

Training a new cleaner does come as a challenge, but there are numerous benefits to it. Most notable being that you’re getting a young and motivated employee who in most cases, becomes loyal to the company.

To train a new cleaner just follow the guide on training cleaning staff I wrote, but make sure to give the new cleaner more attention and be patient. You want to emphasize learning the theoretical part in the first week. Remember, this is a person that has never done this job before. 

Make sure to let the rest of the team know that their colleague is new to the industry. It will set their attitude in the correct direction and make them help the newcomer more often. You want your veteran employees passing the knowledge to a new cleaner. 

 

Why is Employee Training Important?

Proper training of employees is vital for any business to survive, not to mention thriving and maximizing the profit without sacrificing the quality of the service.

One of the main reasons I support investing a high amount of revenue into further development, is improving the skills of the entire staff while constantly sharing new knowledge on the given subject.

After all, any given business needs to educate and train the new employees that should bring your company profit.

Most surveys state that companies that invested a significant amount of money in education and practical work were more than happy with the earned income and the improvements in several areas.

Continued Training and Support is Essential

In general, proper training and education of employees in every work branch is essential for optimal results, satisfying productivity, and effectiveness. 

Being supportive and understanding is also an essential aspect of proper employee training. Employees will be grateful, perform better, and they will get to learn much faster.

I recommend following this simple guide to go through the whole training process properly. In the end, you want your cleaning staff to perform at its best, and none of that is possible without proper training.