From a Distraction to a Productivity Tool – Employee Communication

When you’re managing a commercial cleaning business, communication comes in a wide variety of forms:

• Coordinating schedules
• Assigning tag work
• Keeping up with supplies
• Correcting errors discovered by inspections
• Onboarding new hires
• Releasing employees who are consistently dropping the ball…

It’s constant and never-ending.

Can You Hear Me Now?

The key to unlock the possibilities of your business future will be found when you improve employee communication. Now, employee communications may be happening in your business already, through person-to-person conversations, texts, notes left in the supply closet, emails, phone calls, and voicemails. You may feel as though you’re working hard to keep everyone on the same page, aware of your expectations, and constantly following up with them to ensure that they’ve completed the tasks and corrections you’ve instructed.

…but how is all that working out for you?

Many business owners, if they were honest, would say that they wished there was a better way to improve employee communication. They are tired of trying to keep up with what they’ve said to whom, and how they relayed the message. Plus, it’s too easy for employees to claim that they missed that text, didn’t hear that voicemail, failed to notice you called, don’t remember that you’d reminded them in passing, didn’t check their email… it’s just too much!

Commercial cleaning business owners really aren’t looking for more ways to communicate a message, but rather a simpler way to communicate more effectively.

Technology Can Improve Employee Communication

Your employees’ smart phones are likely an ever-present extension to their arm. Calls, emails, instant messaging, texts, etc. are the ways that they communicate with everyone else in their lives. This may be why you see their mobile devices as a significant distraction to their ability to do their job!

Rather than trying to defeat your team members’ attachment to their mobile devices, leverage that mode of communication to provide direction and establish firm time management boundaries.

Using a commercial cleaning software that offers a customized app feature, like the one available from Janitorial Manager, you can provide instant access to the information your employees need to access on a regular basis.

• Rather than having to answer incessant, repetitive questions about what tasks need completed and how to do it, you can upload customized cleaning checklists for each client.
• Rather than trying to call/text/email cleaners regarding failed inspections and having to remember to follow-up on whether it was taken care of or not, you can track the progress on submitted and completed inspections reports in real-time in the app.
• Rather than striving to find someone available to assign tag work or workorder requests to, you can use the app to keep on top of who is available and who is trained to take on those tasks.

It’s frustrating to receive last-minute texts or phone calls from employees explaining that they’re going to be late or not show up at all. It can also put you in a difficult situation to have conversations with employees who are persistently tardy or stretching their hours on their timesheets.

By using Janitorial Manager’s built-in integration with Chronotek, you can track employees’ travel time to each location on their schedule and ensure their ability to clock in and clock out using geo-location. Manual clock-in and clock-out options are also available. This feature of the JM app on your employees’ phones allows you to improve employee communication and gives you accurately substantiated records to base otherwise potentially uncomfortable conversations on.

Pick Up Your Phone

Your employees are going to continue utilizing their smart phones while on the job. Make the most of this reality by incorporating the use of an affordable commercial cleaning software that helps you improve employee communication and moves your business forward. For a FREE demo of the Janitorial Manager app and customizable back office, click HERE.