Are you better off hiring employees or hiring independent contractors? Now there’s an easy way to determine which is right for you.
There are pros and cons to hiring employees. There are pros and cons to hiring independent contractors. Interestingly, the pros and cons of either won’t be the same for every commercial cleaning business.
There are some significant differences between contractors and employees. If you just want to get the job done with as little fuss as possible, contractors might be right for you. Employees might be a better choice if you want more control over things like your company image and how work gets done.
Some differences, like these, are easy to see. Then there are those factors that live just below the surface. Are employees more loyal than contractors? How do your customers feel about a potentially rotating team of contractors? And the really big question: do employees or contractors work better and more efficiently? While that might have been impossible to answer in the past, now you can use data to find out.
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Hiring independent contractors or employees: What’s best for your cleaning business?
You can read more about the differences between hiring independent contractors or employees here. For our purposes, in this article, we will look specifically at efficiency and quality of work. Essentially, how quickly can your team get through a task checklist while maintaining the high levels of quality your customers expect?
You may have a reasonable estimate, but with QR codes, you can track the actual data. How long does a team spend in an area? Are they performing all the duties on the checklist? And how much time does it take them to go from one area to the next?
Here’s how it works.
With QR codes, such as Janitorial Manager’s Scan4Clean, you can place QR codes in every area your team services. You can even use them in individual rooms, such as restrooms or office breakrooms.
When your employee or contractor enters an area, they scan the QR code to “sign into” the room. This gives them a checklist of duties for that area, and it gives you a start time. They check off each item as they work through the task list. If needed, they can also upload images. When they finish, they scan the QR code again to “sign out” of that space.
That process repeats until the shift is over or that particular facility is done. So now you have enter and exit times for each space, the length of time between spaces, and possibly images of the completed work. That’s a lot of information.
Once you compile the times, you can separate employees from contractors to find out which group works more quickly and effectively in individual areas and a facility as a whole. This information can help determine if hiring independent contractors is the right option for your cleaning business.
Using your knowledge wisely
It’s important to point out that several factors can impact how quickly a team – either contractors or employees – moves through a space. They may face interruptions from customers, power outages, or equipment issues. Your team may encounter additional cleaning issues, such as a spill or stain, that take extra time to deal with. They may need to refill cleaning products between rooms, change mop heads, or engage in other maintenance tasks that take time.
Additionally, efficiency isn’t just about cleaning a space as quickly as possible. It’s also about doing the job right. Fast only helps you a little if your team isn’t dusting the HVAC vents, cleaning the inside of the break room microwave, or paying attention to dwell time for disinfection.
That said, you still have an estimated cleaning time for each room. And when you compare it to the actual cleaning time, you can better understand how your teams are functioning. Collect this data over several shifts, and you can compare the work your employees and contractors do.
If you find there are significant differences, that could answer the question of whether hiring independent contractors or employees is best for your commercial cleaning business. Again, though, there’s more to it than which group works faster or more efficiently. That could be a matter of training, which you have some control over with employees.
In other words, using QR codes to collect and compare data gives you some vital information about how your commercial cleaning business is running. Use that data in conjunction with other information to determine the best path forward to reach your business goals.
Harness the value of Janitorial Manager to streamline your cleaning operation like never before. Learn more today with a discovery call and find out how to make your cleaning operation more efficient and cost effective!