EXCERPT FROM OUR WEEKLY EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER:

Don’t be afraid to ask questions: 

When we receive complaints or even proposals from clients, then cleaners sit down with an account manager to work out the details of an improvement of a conflict or the setting up of a schedule and telling cleaners when to work, and what to do at that specific clients request. We received a complaint that cleaner failed to empty out the dishwasher for three straight days and later we found she did not do this, since was not going to clean for those three days. Our account managers are your link to questions about jobs and client needs.

Never be afraid to call them and ask if you are unsure you have work or what your obligations are. This particular cleaner failed to call the account manager, even though she was confused if she was working. Instead, she chose to just not come to work, this was not the correct approach. REMEMBER WHEN YOU HAVE A QUESTION- ALWAYS ASK!

Tardy porters:

We have discussed clocking-in and out at the right times and being accountable for your actions but it still is a common problem. If you mess up there will be consequences, at first you will receive a verbal warning, then after each infraction you will get written-up. After 3 write-ups you will be fired. Yes, everyone makes mistakes but constantly making the same mistake may cost you your job.A porter that is a new hire for a Mary McDowell School is constantly showing up and hour late to his shift. At first, he received a verbal warning from his account manager, reminding him the importance of him arriving on time. For the Mary McDowell Schools, the porters talk to the school custodians within the first 30mins that they arrive at the school to communicate tasks to be done for the day. This porter is always 1 hour late, this makes it so the chain of communication to lead to high performance is instantly broken. What is worse the client knows he is late all the time and alerts us about it and we have no answer as to why he is late.REMEMBER, we know that mistakes happen and so does life but if you are constantly making the same mistakes, you will face the consequences.

Hiring process:

We are very selective when we are hiring here at Busy Bee. We have a strict set of guidelines that we want, that you all know since you went through it. Not every cleaner may be the best cleaner but the most important thing is your attitude. And by attitude they are willing to learn, take directions and to be 100% reliable. The process starts with an interview, then a 30-day trial period, then if you have all the qualities we want you’re hired! So good job guys, since you all are reading this newsletter you clearly passed the test! For the last couple of weeks we have deemed Thursdays hiring days, where we always have a ton of people coming in for interviews and trialing to see if they could make the cut. It’s not just one or two people, but hoards of people come into the office, sometimes 20 at a time! As you can imagine this is very difficult for our office staff as there is only a handful of them and plenty of eager job hunters! One of our office staff members: Jennifer has been heading up the efforts to pick through the bunch the select few we want to hire.  We recently asked Jennifer about her experience and here is the interview:

Interviewer: I heard that you had a hiring frenzy the other day, maybe you could share with me the difficulty that we have hiring people at Busy Bee?

Jennifer:  No problem! And thank you for this opportunity to share, it means a lot to me.

I: What is one obstacle that you have learned to handle, and how have you?

J: Well, the size of the office is quite small. The staff and all out desks can barely fit! This is our biggest difficulty as it limits how many people we can interview and have in the office. This makes for a workspace that is often cramped with multiple conversations, phones ringing and no space to move around. I’d say that this is the biggest obstacle that I have had to face in the process of hiring new cleaners.

I: What is one thing you wish you could change about the process?

J: Since we have so many candidates we often have to do very quick interviews and don’t have a lot of time to make our decisions and often I don’t have enough time to ask all the questions I wanted to.  I wish we had more time to do more thorough interviews.

I:What aspects so you personally find most important in a potential cleaner?

J:  The most important qualities I look for are in a cleaner is previous cleaning experience and schedules that are open to work a lot of hours!!