Hiring qualified janitorial staff members means looking for individuals with high motivation, personal ethics and organizational skills. Sometimes the ideal candidate walks in with these skills honed and ready to go, and sometimes they have to be trained and mentored.
Ultimately, whichever employees you hire serve as the face of your business.
They represent your brand and your potential to everyone they come into contact with. The jobs that they do (or don’t do!) and the level at which they perform are what establishes your customers’ perceptions of the quality of services that your business can provide.
So, the question is, how can you be sure that your employees are performing to your standards?
The Answer: Management Software.
In the cleaning industry, technology has essentially become a de facto manager of sorts for employees. With the right software tools, you can:
- Track employee time cards, performance reviews and other pertinent details
- Schedule and conduct cleaning performance inspections
- Receive, respond to and assign client work order requests
- Monitor and manage expenses
- Input and pull reports on inventory and supply tracking
- And more!
In short, the right management software makes running your business, managing your employees, and protecting the image of your business, easier.
How Management Software Raises the Bar for Your Employees
- Tracks Performance and Attendance
The ability to accurately track and record employee behavior is incredibly valuable! It is essential that you have the ability to permanently document (and reproduce the documentation) behaviors that violate company rules or customer expectations. Your management software should allow you to quickly and clearly create a record that contains:
- The employee’s name
- The date and location of the incident or infraction
- The acting manager’s name
- The type of incident
- Any corrective action taken, and
- Additional notes.
This documentation can play a pivotal role in not only ensuring that corrective measures are being taken at the time, but also protecting your business from attempted legal action following a termination of an employee. Considering the high turnover of employees in the industry, you will likely have ex-employees re-apply. Having instant access to records will help protect you from making a poor re-hiring decision of someone who may not represent your business well.
- Enhances Customer Service
The scheduling features of your management software should help support your employees in providing responsive service to your customers. Via internal communication and assignment capabilities, you can finally avoid the run-around of calls, emails and sticky-notes that often result in missed tasks, and an unprofessional environment. Instead, convenient mobile alerts and reminders let your team members know when something has been assigned to them. For example, when you receive a work order request (submitted via the software!) you should be able to instantly confirm receipt within the portal to your customer and promptly assign the task to an available employee to address. Every action within the software is tracked, providing a permanently observable trail towards either a dropped ball or a finished task. This accountability feature enables you to follow-up, commend or correct employees who are not completing their tasks.
- Identifies Issues Before They Spiral Out of Control
Unfortunately, there will be times when you experience issues with theft, neglect or carelessness. Tracking supply expenses real time allows you to quickly identify discrepancies, downward trends, excessive expenditures or concerning statistics within your management software.
Knowledge is power, and being able to identify who (and the right questions) to ask – based on work orders, employee assignments/responsibilities, supply tracking, and expenses – you have the power to effectively address potential thefts, lack of training, apathy, or carelessness quickly.
A Virtual Manager Behind the Screen
An effective management software should work in a supporting role to your organization’s leadership team. It should provide you with the ability to keep impeccable records and documentation, provide high quality customer service and responsiveness, and identify potential problems faster.
If your management system isn’t providing you with the knowledge, control or success that you need, we should talk! Connect with Janitorial Manager to learn more or to schedule a free guided tour of our software today!