It takes more than money to create a satisfactory working environment which generates loyalty and tenure

The above photo is comprised of some fortunate cleaning employees who earned the opportunity to be Queen for a Day. The stretch limo in the background picked them up on a Saturday afternoon and escorted them to a notable casual restaurant for a leisurely lunch at no cost whatsoever. They had never experienced a deluxe limousine excursion, and you can bet their neighbors took envious note, too.

Over many decades in several different ventures, I found that it takes more than money to create a satisfactory working environment which generates loyalty and tenure. Every employer your workers could work for offers them money. Needless to say, your compensation package must be competitive in order to attract good people. That being said, it is your corporate culture that can inspire real job satisfaction that leads to long tenure in your workforce. Liz Trotter, owner of American Maid Cleaning, has built a very successful and stable company and runs a series of leadership and motivation programs called HiPEP – High Performance Employee Program on this very issue.




The Queen for a Day promotion is only one example of the kind of things you can do to separate your company from the norm. The objective is to make it a fun and exciting place to work, in addition to meeting your employees’ monetary needs. The fact is that monetary bonuses can be an incentive, too. However, once the money is spent, the joy is forgotten. Incentives like the one above which your workers may never have experienced last a lifetime. They also make YOU the extraordinary boss who might be very hard to find working somewhere else.

DON’T DISMISS THE VALUE OF RECOGNITION

I also encourage owners to award plaques and trophies as recognition of employees who meet or exceed desirable work habits, including those exhibited by client praise, zero complaints, perfect attendance record, exemplary attitude, leadership and other exemplary behavioral habits. To those who might say, “Recognition means mothering,” I always remind them of events such as the Academy Awards, Grammys, Emmys, Golden Globes, CMA and so on. Try telling those honorees that their statues don’t count!.


If you have not recently reviewed session 17 of our 3Rs Program, MEETINGS AND EMPLOYEE RELATIONS, right now might be a great time to do so. This 40-minute audio-visual session addresses various elements you can employ to create a great workforce who will look forward to coming to work every day and help you to achieve your objective of creating and maintaining a very successful home cleaning enterprise.


This segment of the 3Rs Program also includes the following topics.

 

  • The purpose of weekly staff meetings

  • Meeting preparation

  • Sample Meeting Agendas

  • Recognition & Rewards

  • When and employee becomes a liability

  • Managing crisis

  • How to groom and compensate an assistant manager without breaking the bank

  • How to continue to build on employee relations to improve morale, pride in workmanship, quality of work and tenure on the job.

With extraordinary management style, you can be a king or queen forever!

With 18 years in the cleaning industry and 45 years of experience building his own businesses, Gary Goranson was one of the first business consultants to serve the residential cleaning industry with real experience and solid credentials. Visit him at HouseCleaningBiz101.com.