Cleaning Business Employees – Hiring and Managing Staff
To get anywhere beyond a $30,000 annual salary in the cleaning business it is necessary to hire staff.
It is just not possible to be highly successful if you have to divide your time between cleaning and managing a business. Ideally, as the business’s owner operator you can train and schedule small cleaning crews to do the work while you focus on marketing, dealing with customers, invoicing, ordering supplies and other activities related to the day to day running of the business. Being an experienced cleaner is important though to be able to train staff and help them out when you get really busy periods.
Look after your staff by ensuring that they have access to and are instructed on using the appropriate safety equipment.
In some aspects of cleaning, staff may have a higher chance of being exposed to pathogens such as Hepatitis B. Make sure that your employees have had all the relevant vaccinations to protect them from such workplace hazards.
Ergonomic injuries are common in the cleaning business and you should make sure that workers avoid back injuries by lifting properly. Injuries from repetitive motions can be reduced by giving staff a variety of work to do throughout the day.
Be clear about working arrangements with your employees right from the start. You must have an agreement that sets out their working hours and wage information among other details. Also let them know what you expect from them in terms of their responsibilities such as punctuality and dress codes.
The paperwork and obligations (taxes, insurance etc) involved with hiring staff can sometimes be too much hassle for a small cleaning business operator and many are now using subcontractors. You should check with the IRS or relevant authorities in your area to make sure that you are in compliance here with certain conditions so that they won’t view them as employees instead of subcontractors and hit you with penalties for wrongly classifying them.
Some cleaning service owners now perceive one of the biggest threats to the industry to be price undercutting by illegal operators, often those using immigrant labor. If you are operating in a border state where cleaning companies are employing immigrant labor then you have to work out how to tap into this labor resource in a way that is ethical and legal.
To take your cleaning business to the next level you need to be able to step back from doing the cleaning. The only way to find time to work on growing your businesses is to hire a team to work for you and learn how to manage employees in a way that makes you money and makes employees content and want to keep working for you.