10 Tips To Keep Cleaning Staff Motivated
The cleaning supervisor or site manager is debatably the most important person in any cleaning operation. They can motivate cleaning crews to take pride in their work or have the opposite effect. Either way, management style affects the business and the bottom line. And good management affects staff turnover.
How can a manager motivate, instruct, communicate, and lead the cleaning staff?
In every job I had- from cleaning floors to managing teams across the nation, motivation was the key factor in driving high performance and results from my teams and even myself. Motivational leadership is my passion. It works.
Cleaning services company owners often face the problem of keeping supervisors and cleaners motivated. Cleaners start out doing a great job on day one, but once left to their own devices, performance sometimes goes downhill without someone watching constantly.
Harvard Business Review looked at how to motivate staff, remotely. In some ways, this is similar to cleaning services, as cleaners are deployed and left to get on with the job. Adapting is key, but success depends on how it’s done. The study found three positive motivators:
- Play: This includes opportunities to interact with colleagues.
- Purpose: Cleaning is meaningful work. In commercial and industrial cleaning services, many clients won’t be able to operate in an environment that hasn’t been cleaned. Domestic cleaning enhances a home and the lives of the family who inhabit it.
- Learning: Ongoing training keeps staff engaged and interested while increasing their personal development
To optimise performance, effective strategies that motivates, instructs, communicates, and leads cleaning staff to embrace the vision of the cleaning company is key to getting cleaners on the same page as management and keeping them away from looking for a job on Facebook.
Inspire Better Performance in Cleaners
From experience, at CleaningNZ we have found that there are some essential and easy-to-implement elements to motivate cleaners:
1. Identify their strengths and weaknesses.
2. Give praise for strong points and achievements. And give rewards publicly.
3. Recognise weak points- and encourage improvement.
4. Offer instant recognition- when and where it’s due.
5. Facilitate interactive discussions, toolboxes or briefings and keep equipment up to date.
6. Emphasize the importance of taking breaks.
7. Bring in temporary help to support the team during peak workloads.
8. Offer “Employee of the Month” certification, competitive salaries, vouchers, commissions, and perks. Social events as a perk give a chance to play a while and help everyone get to know each other a bit better, giving managers insight into what motivates staff.
9. Maintain a sense of humor and a friendly relationship with staff.
10. Conduct a staff interest survey to gauge whether the cleaner is in the most appropriate position.
Whether you are looking to motivate and energize your cleaning supervisor, or manager, or if it’s the cleaners, these 10 tips will work. But keep in mind that your unique personal style of management will play a role, and it’s important to be sincere and bear in mind that cleaners are real people with lives outside the workplace too.
Why Motivate Staff?
The New Zealand Business Performance Panel believes that – aside from creating a happy work environment, motivating staff reduced staff turnover and costs, and helps the business reach targets sooner.
Investing a little or a lot of time in motivating cleaning staff is the raw material of personal energy that makes people and cleaning companies successful. De-motivation or poor morale is a cancer that can infect many people in the cleaning services company- even owners and managers. Fairness and goal-setting are just two elements that can play a big part in driving performance upwards.
Motivate cleaners and other staff daily. It soon becomes a valuable habit. Or you may be looking for new staff regularly.
