Summary

• We focus on how training for new employees has changed over the years in the janitorial industry.
• The difficulty of training younger employees today is highlighted due to legal restrictions and lack of early work experience.
• The conversation touches on the hazards of janitorial work and the importance of proper training due to the use of chemicals and equipment.
• We emphasize the need for comprehensive training and operations manuals for new employees.
• The importance of repeated training is discussed, as most people require multiple exposures to information to retain it.
• There is an anecdote about a poorly trained first night on the job that resulted in an accidental alarm and police involvement.
• The need for safety protocols, proper equipment, and chemical handling guidelines is stressed.

Beat The Results of Poor Training

Episode 80

In the realm of commercial cleaning, the landscape has evolved dramatically over the years. Many experienced janitorial services professionals have overcome a complete lack of training by sheer grit. While we appreciate and laugh at some of the things we’ve been through, some are not all that funny when you’re going through them. In addition, the relationship between employers and employees is NOTHING like it used to be. We might argue about whether that’s good or bad. But I don’t believe we can argue that it’s true.

 

Let’s Be Honest About Training

You can complain or you can train. For those cleaning company owners who’ve been in our industry a while, you’ve experienced a lot of changes:

• Mobile phones
• Geo-fencing
• Digital sign-in for job sites vs punch cards
• Security Cameras
• Background checks
• Shifts in employee attitudes

Back in the early days, communication challenges were significant—there were no mobile phones for quick coordination. The act of reaching someone at a job site was a feat in itself. Many of the tools and chemicals used then have largely become obsolete, making way for more effective and safer alternatives. Yet, the fundamental essence of the trade has remained: delivering cleanliness and hygiene, in a more modern and regulated fashion.

Training has always been a cornerstone of many industries. But janitorial and building services contractors often lag on these trainings. Don’t get me wrong. Larger organizations with fully staffed environmental services frequently perform entry-level training for their staff. But the vast majority of cleaning companies do not.

Why Training Doesn’t Happen?

The simple choice is most often the cost. Training staff who may not show up becomes costly. Cleaning company owners know that many states regulate 401K and retirement funds, employment agreements, workman’s comp and unemployment insurance. I’m not arguing against those things. But many state governance structures fail to understand the burdens these place on small businesses.

I work with these cleaning company owners to guide, plan and choose paths for their company growth. I hear the issues every day. And I’ll say it again. You can complain or train.

The Push for Employee Training

With over 40 years in commercial cleaning, I’ve seen a significant shift in how training is approached. In the past, new employees were commonly thrown into the deep end, expected to learn on the job with little or no guidance. When you listen to this episode you’ll hear how a cleaner’s first night on the job, led to a brush with law enforcement. Today, the need for comprehensive training is more pronounced. The addition of legal and safety regulations is a good step. In many cases it requires a more structured approach to onboarding new front-line cleaning employees.

The challenge of training is compounded by the age restrictions in place in certain regions, which prevent younger individuals from gaining early work experience in this and many industries. This gap in early employment opportunities means that by the time individuals are ready to enter the workforce, they lack the foundational skills that could have been developed at a younger age. Safety concerns, particularly around the handling of chemicals and equipment, necessitate that only those 18 and older are employed in such roles, as seen in places like New York.

While we want our work-force to “toughen-up”, we also want them to be safe and confident in the workplace.

Training Pays Off

For business owners operating in the modern janitorial landscape, the development and implementation of a comprehensive operations manual are crucial. Such a manual should include details about the accounts, emergency contacts, safety protocols, and equipment handling procedures. This ensures that employees are not left in the dark and are equipped to handle their responsibilities effectively. Moreover, repeated training and reinforcement of safety guidelines can mitigate risks and enhance productivity.

Today, resources for training are more accessible than ever. From textbooks on basic cleaning and floor care to certification courses and customized training programs, business owners have options to equip their staff with the necessary skills. We share many for free in our podcasts. More structured training is available by working with me directly. Our Custodial Basic training books are also a great value! These are reasonably priced and offer valuable knowledge that can help companies, especially newer or smaller ones, bridge the gap to success. As the industry continues to evolve, embracing these educational tools is essential for maintaining high standards and ensuring safety in the workplace. When you’re looking for more information on how to grow your cleaning company and cleaning team, contact me here!

 

This Week’s Podcast transcript can be found below.

 

00:09 Ray

Joe, we’re back. And boy, we’re talking about way back.

 

00:11 Joel

Way back in the early days before cell phones. When there were smoke signals. Oh, and lots of keys.

 

00:19 Ray

Nobody ever said, “Call me later, I’ll be at the job site”. Because you couldn’t get them.

 

00:23 Joel

No Yeah, there was no calling anybody. And then customers’ phones. Yeah, that was interesting. Trying to check in to say that you were somewhere when you couldn’t get an outside line. And yeah, you’d have your time cards that you had to punch in and out.

 

00:37 Ray

So why are we bringing those days up to business owners who are operating now?

 

00:41 Joel

Because it goes with how I was trained on my first night. For a new employee and the things not to do. (Do tell.) You know, way back in the day, like I said, there was not cell phones when we started. Even a lot of the chemicals and equipment that we used back then aren’t even used today. But tell me, how do you use a pumice-stone and old Dutch and things like that? I mean, you were expected to know these things before you came to work. And most people, when they come to work for a commercial cleaning service, they might clean their apartment or their house. But outside of that, commercial cleaning is nothing like cleaning your apartment or your house.

 

01:20 Ray

And I will jump in there. Given the way the legal realm has so much impact on every workspace now. It is so hard to get people who are younger, and by younger, I mean 14, 15, 16, starting a job that by the time they are 18, 19, 20 or older, that might be their first actual job. It is hard to start people to be trained at that point when you haven’t given youngsters the ability to work.

 

01:48 Joel

Correct. Even the way that things have changed in the janitorial world, being from New York, we can’t have anybody under the age of 18 work in this industry. Because they’re around chemicals and equipment. Some of the pieces of equipment that we use could be very deadly in the hands of somebody who’s not well-trained. But I do digress.

 

02:05 Ray

But we are talking about still working in this environment. These are things that all of our listeners are going to have to deal with. So please.

 

02:13 Joel

Correct. There’s more training in our industry now than there was 40 years ago. But yet there’s still a lot of companies that don’t train enough for whatever reason, don’t have enough employees on a given night. They’re stressed. They have several places they have to be, yada, yada, yada.

 

02:28 Ray

Don’t see the value of it immediately.

 

02:30 Joel

Don’t see the value. That’s huge, too. One of the very first times, actually the very first time I worked for a larger company, I was in a position where I was going to fill in for people that were either out sick, jobs that weren’t currently filled. Maybe somebody was out on medical. Maybe they were on vacation. Maybe they were on suspension. Whatever it was. It was a set building that needed to be cleaned, and I was the person that had to go in. So, I had to basically learn every account that they had. Well, Well they didn’t have any type of training manual that told you the different companies. You got in your car and you followed a manager to an account, and they pointed at a building from the parking lot and said, “That’s the building you’re going to clean tonight.”

 

03:12 Ray

And you said?

 

03:13 Joel

“Great. What do I do?”

“Well, here’s the key. You’re going to enter in the front door. Oh, there’s an alarm panel. This is the number you’re going to do. You hit this and then you have to hit this. If the phone rings, then you use this password and then you tell them that you’re with the cleaning staff. Then you go to the left and down at the end of the corner is where the janitorial closet is located. You’re going to then get all your stuff out. You’re going to start, you’re going to come back to where the main door is, and then you’re going to start and go down the halls.”

 

03:45 Ray

This sounds like a training nightmare.

 

03:48 Joel

It was a training nightmare. And then they furthermore said, “Oh, the second door, I mean, the third door, maybe… No, I think it’s the fourth door on the left. Don’t go through that door.”

 

03:59 Ray

Which door?

 

04:00 Joel

Yeah, the third, the second, I think the fourth. They didn’t even know. They just sent me at a building. Said, “Here you go. See you later, maybe. It was a bank.” Oh. Can you guess what was behind the door that I’m not supposed to go through?

 

04:13 Ray

Could I say the vault?

 

04:14 Joel

The vault. (The vault.) You got it. I have a key for the vault room that I’m not supposed to go in. I went into the facility, was able to disarm the alarm with no problem. No phones were ringing. Go to the custodial closet. Go to fill up the mop bucket. Yes, I’m that old. Metal mop buckets, and the bottom was rusted out of the mop bucket so you couldn’t put water in it. So how is it I going to mop all the floors in there? So I found a towel so that I could get down on my hands and knees and clean the floor that way.

 

04:45 Ray

High marks for effort, man.

 

04:46 Joel

I had a lot of effort that night. Not very good on results because I wasn’t really trained all that well. As I got started and started doing the work and I go down the hall that I was told, Well, maybe it’s the second, the third, the fourth door, I’ll go through it. To this day, I don’t door I wasn’t supposed to go through. I went through one of the doors I wasn’t supposed to go through. And I looked in there and go, “Oh, it doesn’t look like I’m supposed to be in this room because it was a vault.”

 

05:10 Ray

It was a vault.

 

05:12 Joel

I closed the door and I continued on. Well, what I didn’t know and wasn’t told was that a silent alarm was going to pass to that door.

 

05:19 Ray

Sure. Yeah, it’s the vault.

 

05:20 Joel

So now you’re in a building cleaning by yourself, and all of a sudden you hear, “Freeze. Up  against the wall!” Yeah, the cop showed up. (Oh, jeez.) “Who do you work for?”

 

It was my It was my first night. I couldn’t even remember really the place. I’m scared. I’m nervous. I got cops with guns drawn, all this type of stuff, worried about what’s going on. I don’t remember where I work. I said, I’m the cleaner. Well, who’s your boss? I don’t know. I knew a first name. I didn’t even catch the person’s last name. Because it was my first night. How many people are you going to remember? I was just amazed that I found the custodial closet. What phone number? Where is it? Well, it’s over on this road, and I don’t know the phone number. And how do you get a hold of… I don’t know. Again, there was no cell phone. Needless to say, they could see I was cleaning the facility. They found out where I worked because I finally calmed down. And obviously, they called there. It was an answering service. The answering service got a hold of somebody. They found out that, yes, there was supposed to be somebody.

 

They didn’t know who was assigned to the building that night. But yes, this was one of our accounts, and it was one of our employees. And yes, I was wearing their smock. That’s how I was trained on my first night. That night, the manager that dropped me off never came back that night. Don’t know if they even got a message to say that there was a problem. And I actually showed up for work the next day because he needed the job. I was a young husband, and we had bills, and we had a child on the way, and all this type of stuff.

 

06:44 Ray

So by comparison, owners today.

 

06:46 Joel

They should have in place some type of an operations manual with:

The names of the accounts

The key things about the building

Alarms

Emergency numbers to call

Have the names of their supervisors

Where they work

 

Things like that in case something like this comes up. But also, you should work with the employee and not just set a new employee on their own. It’s the first night. People get the first night jitters. Sure.

 

We don’t remember everything. A common thing, I’ll have a lot of managers or owners of businesses (say) “Well, I told somebody.”

 

Okay, how many times did you tell them?

 

“Well, I told them once.”

 

The average person takes 7-13 times to retain information. Usually, a question I ask people is, “How long did it take you to learn your ABCs?” Everybody tells me they don’t remember. And I ask, “But did you get it on the first time?”

 

“Well, no.”

“Well, you were told it. Why didn’t you get it right on the first time?”

 

New employees are exactly like your ABCs. They’re not going to get it. You have to spend time with them. You just don’t drop them off somewhere and say, Clean.

 

07:47 Joel

You don’t just drop somebody off without giving them safety protocols. And, Oh, here’s the PPE you should be wearing, and this is the product that you use on this surface. And don’t mix the chemicals. And there’s all kinds of OSHA guidelines training that they have to do because a lot of people will say, Oh, this cleans well, this cleans well. If I mix them together, it’ll be a super chemical. All they’re doing is making mustard gas or something like that. You never mix chemicals.

 

08:11 Ray

Joel let’s bring that back to what can the business owner do. Considering some of the materials that we have produced, specifically for early direct simple training techniques. Several of those are on the other side of the paywall. Most of them are very reasonably priced.

 

08:27 Joel

We have

 

three textbooks right now that that are behind the paywall for basic cleaning, carpet care, hard floor care that are available for sale. That would be one of the first things that they could do.

 

Another thing is they could reach out to me to either get a customized training program that we can come to their site.

 

Or they can even go. There’s different classes and certification classes that are available out there, some that I actually teach, that they could go that route as well if they want to go and get certifications for their employees.

 

But as a newer startup business or one that’s under a certain price point, that might be a little pricey to start with, and you can work towards that. That’s why we have some other options that are available for the newer companies or ones that are struggling to break the $250,000 to $500,000 mark.

 

09:17 Ray

And those books are a fantastic place to start. They have a ton of information in them.

 

09:21 Joel

They do.

 

09:21 Ray

Thank you, Joel.

 

09:22 Joel

You’re welcome.