In commercial cleaning and janitorial services, many of our customers would be surprised at the amount of training available. By that I mean, many assume “Its just cleaning”. Part of that is a matter of respect and the other is often a matter of comparison.

 

Training & Respect

We often hear the platitudes about respect for those in service industries. For those of us in commercial cleaning, we’ve also seen the other side of the coin. Now in fairness, there are many customers who say “please and thank you”. If that’s you, I can’t express how much that means to the building service contractors you know. I’ve also been witness to staff members and client-staff members who are disrespected for having English as their second language. That’s less common than it used to be. But it still happens.

 

Training Failure by Comparison

Many customers, who are employed where our clients perform commercial cleaning, do their own cleaning at home. Spray this. Wipe that. Sweep the kitchen floor and vacuum as needed. When it all “smells good”, they’re happy. If this is the comparison, cleaning seems easy. And if cleaning is easy, it’s of low value. I don’t blame customers who think that based on their experiences at home. But as we described in a previous episode “In a private residence, homeowners can perform all kinds of repairs (and cleaning)”. In commercial settings, we have a professional responsibility to care for the structures and make them as safe as possible through proper cleaning practices. Doing that starts and continues with proper training.

 

Cost vs Value

The costs of training seem deceptively obvious. Because they are. For most Commercial cleaning companies training is minimal to begin with. With an average of over 300% turnover, you can understand why many commercial cleaners don’t spend a lot of time or budget training their front-line cleaners. However, at DOC’s we work with owners, property managers and environmental services teams to achieve excellent training results. Well trained cleaners produce! And, as you’ll hear in this week’s podcast, the cost of NOT training employees can be catastrophic to your finances and your business.

 

Connect with a Professional Cleaning Trainer

Joel coach’s businesses across the US, Canada and abroad. He holds certifications through CMI and ISSA and has traveled across the country to train commercial cleaners. His engaging style and ability to pull people into the training is unique in the industry. Knowledge is only as good as your cleaners’ ability to retain, use and perform with it. We believe that training gives cleaners and owners a sense of accomplishment and knowledge. And THOSE will help to keep your team engaged and performing their duties, well. When you’re ready to refine your team and improve your business, contact Joel here.

This Week’s Podcast transcript can be found below.

Ray

Joel, we’re back, and we are on another version of When Employees Do Dumb Things.

 

Joel

Oh, I got it doozy this time, Mr. Ray. This one’s extra special. I got a call from a client. This particular client had told me that one of their staff members had dumped a gallon of stripper solution into a retention pond. So, stripper solution is a combination of water, the chemical stripper for vinyl tile floors. But in addition to that, it was also the slurry that was created after stripping the floor. So there was the floor-finished product as well, which includes Zinc.

 

Ray

Oh, so it’s in a retention pond?

 

Joel

In a retention pond and was not dumped down a slop sink.

 

Ray

So, there’s this glorious rainbow on top of the pond?

 

Joel

Yeah, pretty much, as well as it mixing in all of the aquatic life that that’s in the retention pond that is now affected.

 

Ray

That’s going to seep into the groundwater…

 

Joel

That’s going to seep into the soils that are in there, yes, the water. It happened to be a facility, not that it should matter, but had several cameras on the outside of it. So, there was no question as to who, what, where, when, and why with time and date stamps and things like that. It shouldn’t matter. Because in the cleaning industry, we should be very transparent. Yes, there was definitely no getting around this because it was too late.

 

Ray

Can I ask a question about this, Joel? When your customer called you, the owner or their employee? Technically, I understand it doesn’t make a difference, but I’m assuming employee.

 

Joel

It was an employee that had the issue. The owner was not on site for this particular job. The owner is typically on site, and the owner was not on site this particular evening when this happened. It was the owner who called me and said, “What do I do? What do I do?” Well, obviously, you pick up the phone. You call your client. He did make the initial contact with his client before they called him. They said it was on their to-do list of things to do that day. So, he did the right thing by calling them first and saying, “Hey, we had a mistake happen last night. They said it was a little bit more than a mistake.” That was the first phone call. Then the environmental agencies have to be called, and HAZMAT’s got to be called. And they ended up having to pump the retention pond and haul all the water away and treat it and scoop up the soils and things like that as well to find out how far had gotten. Sure, thank God it was only one day rather than weeks or months or years. Sometimes we know it’ve happened with a leaky underground gas tank or something like that.

So, it wasn’t to that level. But he did not have the right insurance as well. So, this was an out-of-pocket expense for him, which was right around $60,000 when all said and done. For companies that are out there that think, “Oh, I’m going to either… I’m going to cut back on the insurance is that I have”. Think about your actual operation. What is it that you offer? Talk and have an honest conversation with your insurance agents as to what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, what are you working with? Because all of that stuff really does matter. And we want to make sure that anybody out there that does any type of floorwork understands you can’t take a slurry and even throw it into a parking lot or down a drain outside. It needs to be carried to the waste treatment plant so that they can treat it and ensure that everything is correct and that all the contaminants are removed. It was well, needless to say, a very costly endeavor. The owner had a hard time stomaching the fact that he didn’t have the right insurance. He thought he was going to cut some costs and not have to pay for insurance.

And now he might even be uninsurable. I don’t know.

 

Ray

We are in a hard insurance market right now.

 

Joel

We’re in a very hard insurance market right now. So, something like that could actually cost him to have to close business or re under another name and all new insurances and everything else because of a problem like this.

 

Ray

Can I hit the high point just to make sure that we’ve got this? We are dealing with poor insurance choices or improper insurance choices. (Correct.) The need for training. We’ve now had interactions with the EPA. I assume it’s the EPA?

 

Joel

The DEC, Department of Environmental Conservation.

 

Ray

DEC. OK, thank you. Then he had around $60K in costs. Maybe fines on top of that.

 

Joel

That’s a very fair assessment, yes. The fines have yet to be announced to him. Sure.

 

Ray

Wow.

 

Joel

And it goes back to the most key principle in our industry. The lack of training that sometimes happens (for) frontline staff. You need to make sure that it’s done. You need to explain to people that this is how it has to be done. I don’t care if the other way is easier. You have to do it a certain way because training now could potentially cost this person their business, their livelihood, and every person that works for that company, their potential job.

 

Ray

Right. Joel, it’s a great reason to have a coach.

 

Joel

Without a doubt.

 

Ray

Thank you. (You’re welcome.)