If you, the owner, left your company for 4 weeks could your company survive?  If you had no one to clean houses, no employees, for 4 weeks could your company survive?  Unless you have less than 2 employees, not including yourself, I would suspect that  the real answer to the first question should be yes and the answer to the second should be no.  So the next question is how much quality time are you giving to the very people who could shut down your company?   How much time do you spend developing their growth opportunities on a monthly basis?  Not just cleaning related but subjects that include interrelation development, personal growth and management skills.  When is the last time you have asked your employees to give some thought to enhancing their lives and skills and then gave them some helpful tools to do just that?  This is truly what one calls a win/win situation, as Stephen Covey discusses in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People in Habit #4.  It is a common practice of successful people to seek out win/win situations.

You have the ability to make a difference in your employee's lives.  When you do they will be with you as long as you want them.  "How do I do that?" you ask.  It's all about you, the owner, and your willingness to put in the effort to make that happen!  It is understanding that your employees are the core of your company, the core of excellent customer service and, ultimately, the core of your success.   It is you on a mission to make sure your core is healthy and performing at a high level.

The best companies encourage regular, open communication with their employees.  Ultimately, every action taken by a company communicates a message to its employees.  Effective communications are essential on a routine basis.  Communication should include updates about the organization, progress in goal attainment and reasons for policy changes.  Ongoing reports from the owner on business strategy and policies will demonstrate respect for the employees' role in the success of the company, provide direction and foster trust.  Trust will automatically build as a result of proactive efforts and a major accomplishment, but to maintain that trust it is important to be upfront and transparent about both positive and negative issues.

Your communication with your Team Leaders and Cleaners should include a focused structure and provide for feedback from the employees.  Given the minimal physical contact of this employee group due to working in the field, face-to-face meetings are of utmost importance.  They will relay not only the information you are seeking to share but your commitment to your employees and their success through development.  You, or one of your managers, should be holding short, weekly one-on-one meetings with each of your cleaning teams.  Never miss a meeting.  Think of something to talk about.  Those are the moments that bond your employees to your company.  Those bonding moments will allow you to have a negative conversation with the very same team without hurting their feelings and having them resign/walk.  Along with your weekly one-on-ones you should hold monthly group meetings.  Be sure that these meetings are scheduled with sufficient notice to reschedule any conflicts regarding your client's scheduled cleanings.  Your clients will be delighted with the professionalism of your company and by the fact that you are giving attention to 'their maids'.  The meeting should be conducted with a set agenda that includes the owner's announcements, company goals versus actuals and discussion, training by the team leader(s), feedback from employees, special award/recognition programs and informal networking.  It is always great to start out a meeting with an ice breaker, dependent upon how large your company meetings are.  These meetings can make a big difference in how employees start to look at themselves.  If you show you care about your employees by giving of yourself and your time, they will come to care about their company and want to talk about what they think, share how they feel, be proactive in solving their personal problems and let you know their opinions on what could be done to resolve problem areas within the cleaning environment.
 
While your company is taking baby steps enroll your employees in self help building business classes such as 'Building a Winning Team' or '7 Habits of Highly Successful Cleaners' offered by Rags to Riches at www.successmaideasy.com  As you grow and delegate more daily management to managers and team leaders, you must be in a continuous grooming mode with your staff through professional development activities.  Enroll them in community college courses or workshops, Small Business Administration seminars and owner workshop level seminars at Rags to Riches Online Webinars to give them the foundation they will need.  Job shadowing of other employees, teams or the owner can prepare your cleaners for other roles.  Your confidence in them will grow as well as their self-confidence.  Give them your support and they will do so in return.  This example will have a trickle down effect in your company.  Your employees will see what is going on and be encouraged to aspire to other roles in your company.  Not only do you want your cleaners to work toward becoming a Team Leader but as you grow, they should be the top candidates for your in-office staff positions.  As you invest in them and provide development opportunities, they will be ready for the next move in growing with and supporting your company-just another win-win situation.


Sharon Tinberg and Sharon Fliess
Rags to Riches Success Maid Easy