Protecting Your Team. Part 1, The Restroom.

Episode 90

Protecting your team while doing their job covers a lot of topics. Initially, we tend to think of this from a PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) view. Over the years, the frequency of issues has less to do with exposure to germs and bacteria than exposure to “bad actors”.

Protecting Your Team is a Sensitive Topic

Your cleaning team is an easy target. By that I mean if something is lost, missing or damaged in a commercial setting, blaming the cleaning team is easy and convenient. That’s not to say a cleaner is never at fault. I IS to say that making them the scapegoat is easier than accepting responsibility. And because protecting your team also means protecting your company’s income, you will likely be faced with competing priorities.

HR Policies to Protect Your Team

I cannot stress enough the importance of having robust policies in place to deter such behavior. Many companies have responded by implementing strict guidelines that prohibit entry into restrooms marked for cleaning. These policies are essential, but the question remains: how can they be effectively enforced? As the owner or manager for your team, I urge you to add this topic to your training. Additionally, I suggest noting where security cameras are placed during your inspection to quote service as well as future “spot inspections”. You may want to address this with your client, depending on the setting or tenor of your meeting. There are suggestions I share with my clients on how to approach this topic for best impact and honesty.

What About Security Cameras?

Safety and privacy are critical issues. Surveillance in hallways adjacent to restrooms can help identify those who disregard rules for entering restrooms. This approach, combined with detailed incident reporting, enables cleaning companies and your customers to take the necessary steps to investigate and address inappropriate conduct.

Protect Your Team with Training

Training and preparation play crucial roles in equipping employees to handle these situations. The concept of “knock and block” is a time-tested and initial step in restroom cleaning protocols. Effectively using this tactic allows your cleaner to announce their presence and block entry with visible signs and equipment. Despite these measures, employees may still encounter individuals who ignore warnings and enter restrooms inappropriately. It’s vital for companies to train their staff on how to respond in such scenarios. You should also ensure they know the correct channels for reporting incidents. This not only supports the employee’s immediate safety but also contributes to creating a respectful workplace culture.

Handling these incidents extends beyond internal policies and procedures. It involves communication with clients, especially in multi-tenant facilities or public spaces where the offending individuals might be customers or clients themselves. I assure you the sensitivity required in these communications often involves discussing uncomfortable topics. When I train cleaning staff, there is a special time to address this with the team leader or cleaning company owner. Helping my cleaning clients to communicate effectively is mission critical. Helping you get this right will ensure that employees feel supported and protected. It will also go a long way to prove your professionalism to your clients. This includes having clear guidelines in employee handbooks and fostering a company culture where staff feel comfortable reporting issues without fear of retaliation.

Protecting Your Team and Your Company

Business owners and managers are best served when they cultivate an environment where employees feel safe discussing sensitive topics and reporting incidents. In my experience, training and open communication can empower staff to handle difficult situations effectively. Prioritizing the safety and well-being of employees, does comply with legal standards. Going a step further, it also demonstrates your commitment to maintaining a respectful and secure workplace. When you need help presenting and training your team, contact me here.

 

This Week’s Podcast transcript can be found below.

 

00:08 Ray

Joel

 

00:09 Joel

Yes, Ray.

 

00:12 Ray

We are dealing with the injustices done to employees this week.

 

00:15 Joel

This week? (Well) Don’t we deal with it every day? We deal with it often.

 

00:20 Ray

We’re talking about the always done to your customers’ employees.

 

00:24 Joel

This industry can be very, very tough. Let’s deal with the easier of the two situations because the one when I do a lot of trainings throughout the United States, and we talk about restroom cleaning. This comes up every single time. It’s what can we do about stopping men crossing into restrooms when females are cleaning the restrooms, when there’s barricades and restrooms closed and the men then proceed in and expose themselves.

 

00:49 Ray

Okay, wait a minute. I got to ask this question. I’ve been in any number of public places. A library, a restaurant, and you step in and the little placard’s there, restaurant’s being cleaned. I get it. I’ll be back. It’s not that urgent. What you’re telling me is not only does that person walk through, but they notice that there’s a female cleaner in there.

 

01:09 Joel

Or they know there is because they’re a tenant of the building. They know time the restrooms get cleaned on that floor or next to that break room or whatever. And they know who’s in there. And yes, unfortunately. And it happens the other way, too. Yes, this type of stuff happens quite often. I’m often asked in these training classes, “What do we do? This has got to stop.” And it does. A lot of companies have instituted policies, both not just a cleaning contract or an in-house, but company have installed and instilled a lot of HR policies about when restrooms are shut down for cleaning. And that nobody is allowed to enter them when there’s signs up or barricades or whatever.

 

01:51 Ray

Forgive me, but how do you enforce that? You can’t put cameras in the restroom.

 

01:54 Joel

Well, you can’t, but in today’s day and age, there are a lot of cameras that are in the hallways outside the restrooms. (All right.) If I’m in a restroom and somebody enters, I can say, Oh, well, on this date, about this time, I had the sign saying it was closed for cleaning. You go back to when you file a report and it goes to HR. If you’re a cleaning contractor, you have to make that difficult call to your client to say, “Hey, this is what happened that needs to be investigated.” When you can narrow down the time frame and they can look at a camera, they can see who’s walked into that restroom.

 

02:28 Ray

So, your customer is contacting you saying, “Joel, what do I do?” You’re walking them through this process, or you’re in the middle of a training session working with someone’s whole team. Can I assume in part so that employee doesn’t get completely rattled?

 

02:41 Joel

It’s to help them not get rattled. Because it’s unsettling for an employee to be there doing their job and have done everything that they’re supposed to do. And one of the first things in training people to clean restrooms upon getting to the restroom after they put their personal protective equipment on is we call it knock and block. “Housekeeping”. And if nobody calls out, you open it up. You prop the door open, and there’s different types of things that go up. Placards, there’s suspension springs that will go through. Sometimes the restroom carts right in the entryway is right in the entryway. It’s very obvious. But people still move it out of the way for various reasons. Maybe it’s an emergency and they can’t go to the next one or whatever. Maybe they really are trying to do a shock factor to an employee. But they should really not be going in there. And with these policies that are out there, it has to be investigated. Different states handle it different ways. I mean, I’m from New York State, and they have a whole anti-harassment and hostile workplace policy. These are real things that have to be dealt with.

 

03:46 Joel

When that employee tells their boss and their boss goes to the HR Department and within that company, and then we would also then have to go as far as contacting the customer. Because if it involves their client or clients of theirs, if they’re a retail place or something like that, or a multi-tenant facility, they can at least try to track some of this stuff down and investigate it and either void people from the area completely or who knows, because if it’s one of their employees, I can’t really ask what happened to the employee. You just hope that they’ve been disciplined appropriately for whatever they’ve done. Times have changed because of this. The only thing that we can do as building service contractors, and what I tell my clients and even my own company, is make sure your employment handbook covers this topic and how to handle it. Who does that employee go to? And then where does that manager go? And when it has to cross over to another client, who’s making that phone call? Because it’s a very delicate subject to deal with. Because of that, you have to handle it at a high level. You can’t just handle it at entry level. But you need to train your frontline employee to know what to do when that situation arises.

 

04:59 Ray

Okay, I have a clarifying question to ask before we wrap this up. This could be a really sensitive topic for obvious reasons. Any employee could simply accidentally walk into the restroom, didn’t happen to see the sign, “Oops, I’m sorry.” Turn around, walk away. That’s not what we’re talking about.

 

05:15 Joel

Correct. We’re talking about someone actually coming in and using the facility, exposing themselves.

 

05:20 Ray

Okay. On a very serious note. When your customers call and understanding that it’s not just a matter of dealing with the legalities, but dealing with a staff that needs to be comfortable that you as the owner are actually looking out for them in the workplace. What do you tell your customer, the owner?

 

05:39 Joel

You have to, again, it goes back to having the employment books in process and continuously training and developing people to understand what’s in those, as well as the work that they do.  Because it’s all about company culture. If you are creating a culture that people can come and talk about difficult topics when they come up, that’s what you need to do. These are topics that most business owners wouldn’t want to call their client about. I know I don’t like having to make calls like that if they come up. And even over the years, I work for other companies where it’s come up.

 

06:11 Ray

Joe, thanks for tackling the tough ones. I appreciate it.

 

06:14 Joel

You’re welcome.