Top 10 Ways to Keep Your Workplace Cleaning Staff Motivated and Happy

In the office cleaning sector, it often becomes difficult for cleaning companies to retain their quality employees. The work performed here is often hectic, time-intensive, strenuous, and low-paying for cleaning staff, which also leads to customers complaining about poor services. But, with proper motivation employees in the cleaning sector can be retained.

Keeping the workforce happy and motivated in the cleaning sector is one of the biggest challenges faced by workplace cleaning businesses. The quality and work enthusiasm level among Office cleaning staff directly affects the customer service level and reputation of office cleaning agencies.

When it comes to the Australian cleaning industry, keeping cleaning staff happier and motivated to work is also getting difficult for the owners due to low-paying labour contracts, poor wage rates, penalties and excessive overtime. No doubt, the productivity of office cleaners in Australia is the highest when compared globally.

As per the data, the Australian average price for site cleaning is 800 square metres per hour compared to a US average of 400 square metres and slightly higher in European countries.

Also, these rates have not been achieved by office cleaners in Australia with a reduction in their cleaning service standards. Top cleaners like Clean Group in Australia are providing the highest standard of corporate cleaning services at affordable prices today.

Despite this, increasing employee motivation and satisfaction with their work is a tough nut to crack for many workplace cleaners in Australia.

A cleaning staff with high levels of motivation is likely to outperform those that are less motivated. The employee satisfaction rate is also higher when employees are motivated and happier in a cleaning team.

The reputation of your cleaning business can be easily damaged by a poorly motivated staff, which might result in the loss of existing customers and fewer opportunities to grow your business.

There could be many reasons for poor motivation levels among office cleaning staff members. Some of the most common causes for low motivation among cleaning staff, identified globally include lack of inclusion, recognition, disliking of the immediate supervisor, poor communication, boredom, poor work environment, etc.

Understanding the basic principles or strategies of employee motivation is important to keep your cleaning staff motivated.

So, here are some of the best ways to keep your cleaning staff happier and motivated while delivering office cleaning services.

Celebrate Good Work with Cleaning Staff, Pass on the Performance Feedback Clearly

You, being a cleaning business owner should not forget to celebrate the good work done by your cleaning team. This “play hard” of “work hard, play hard” celebration should also not stop at your place of work door. Nothing makes people happier and amped up like a party.

So, you as an office cleaning company owner should always try to celebrate the success of every cleaning member with the whole team by throwing a team lunch, coffee party or Friday happy hour fun, etc.

Further up, apart from celebrating the good work, it is also important to pass on the feedback related to work to your cleaning team, regardless of whether it is positive or negative.

You should not be afraid to share feedback with your cleaning staff as it helps them to work upon their weaker areas and build a positive mindset. Sharing feedback is also an important part of making your cleaning team members motivated as they feel involved and important.

Make Clean and Transparent Communication

Keeping multiple communication channels open is so important for a cleaning business to make sure your frontline workforce feels they have many ways to connect and share their views related to working with the seniors in the organization.

Often, employees are confined to their department heads and HR team, which makes them feel intimidated if they want to raise a voice on important organisational issues.

When it comes to office cleaning businesses, transparency and open communication also play a major role in keeping your employees enthusiastic and motivated towards the work.

Your cleaning staff should be clearly informed when you notice a positive change in their work or when their productivity is improved.

To acknowledge or appreciate such change, having transparent and clear communication is very vital. Also, when you are looking to share feedback on poor performance, it should also be communicated clearly to the cleaning staff.

As far as rewarding your cleaning staff is concerned, cash incentives, movie tickets or a paid day off from work is never a bad idea!

Show Appreciation and Genuine Recognition to Your Cleaning Staff

A well run regular appraisal process is very important for office cleaning companies to identify talent, improve standards and ensure correct remuneration levels.

It also serves as a correct motivator for the cleaning staff. Receiving quality appraisals on time will also help them to express their aspirations and set their development plans for self-improvement.

Offering loyalty bonuses or providing extra holidays to your cleaning staff is also a great way to appreciate their commitment or loyalty towards you. These are certain things that make your staff think twice about moving if they decide to give up on your firm.

Hence, genuine recognition or appreciation is important to keep the motivation level high of the cleaning staff. When you appreciate or recognize the hard work of your cleaning staff, which is physically demanding or repetitive in nature, it boosts their motivation level.

Rewarding your cleaning team regularly also helps you in keeping your top performers motivated. Top corporate cleaning agencies like Clean Group provide regular appraisals to their qualified and experienced cleaning staff to keep them motivated towards the work.

Create a Fun, Friendly Work Environment

Motivation and a positive mood go hand in hand. This is because your mood directly affects your enthusiasm and energy level, concentration ability and overall well being of your body.

If you as a workplace cleaning owner are looking to boost your employee motivation level up, then you should focus on making your place of work environment a fun and friendly place to work.

Workroom cleaners’ natural job often requires them to work at difficult client locations or work areas like older buildings, etc. which makes them exhausted and less motivated towards their work.

So, it is wiser to create a workroom cleaning work environment where your staff actually want to spend time. That’s the reason we are continually seeing innovation in office interior design to make them more like home or a jovial place to work. Creating an atmosphere that is fun and frolic will motivate your cleaning staff members and influence them to come to work every other day.

Reinforce Growth and Development

In the workplace cleaning sector, employees are required to get proper training so that they can deliver exceptional corporate cleaning services. Fostering growth and development culture in your organisation as an office cleaning business is also vital to boost the morale and motivation of employees.

Providing just annual appraisals is not something you should always think about when looking to boost the motivation level of employees. Providing growth opportunities for advancement to your most valued employees is a must for a cleaning agency to keep its cleaners motivated.

It makes them feel that they are on the potential track of advancement within your firm. It will not also motivate your employees but also reduce the turnover rate.

Keep Your Cleaning Staff Inclusive and Provide Them with a Sense of Ownership

You should also focus on keeping your cleaning staff members involved in every major organizational decision-making to make them feel involved. It can be described as giving them proper organizational visibility. Sharing the key organizational responsibilities with your cleaning team is also a great idea to up their morale and motivation level.

Educating them about how their hard work in cleaning services can contribute to the overall success of your office cleaning business is also a good way to up their morale. Giving your cleaning staff a voice by providing them opportunities for growth and a sense of ownership is important to boost their motivation level.

When you delegate responsibilities to your cleaning staff, they’ll feel more about the success of your firm and would be willing to go beyond their capacity to get the best results for your business.

Provide Your Team with the Best Cleaning Tools and Supplies

Cleaning large corporate buildings, apartments, hospitals, strata, etc. is not an easy task at all. The janitorial team needs the best cleaning tools, chemicals and other supplies to work properly and make the place properly sanitized, neat and clean.

Things like poor and outdated systems, inferior and ineffective cleaning chemicals and substandard equipment decrease the morale of the employees working at your corporate cleaning agency.

Hence, you should make sure that you provide all the latest cleaning equipment to your staff members along with proper training. Set them up for your office cleaners to get comfortable, not disgruntled.

Schedule Training & Development Programs for Your Cleaning Team

It is very possible that staff members at your cleaning agency are having all kinds of modern cleaning equipment and supplies, but it doesn’t matter if they don’t understand how to utilize those resources properly.

Providing the right kind of training & knowledge is very crucial for your staff to be able to use advanced cleaning tools or equipment properly and handle them more effectively.

Giving proper training also has a positive impact on your overall cleaning process without compromising on quality. Office cleaning staff can learn how to complete each cleaning task effectively and efficiently if they are provided with proper on-job training.

An experienced cleaner who knows what’s required to get the cleaning job done at the client location can train the new employees in your cleaning firm easily.

Organize Get-Togethers and Regular Events

In the workplace cleaning sector, your greatest business asset is your workforce so treating them properly is very important. As an owner, you should organize regular events and get-togethers for your cleaning staff to make them feel special.

As they say – sharing is caring, organizing regular events also gives your colleagues an opportunity to know each other well, You can also discuss some of the important team issues during such meetings with your employees without troubling any of the management groups.

The future direction, goals and objectives of your organization can also be shared with employees in a fun, light mood to your employees rather than formal one-way presentations.

Make Flexible Schedules and Put Clear Expectations

Recognition and appraisals are not the only ways you can use to benefit employees in your office cleaning business. As we nature the nature of cleaning job is very difficult with hectic schedules and long working hours, hence; you as an owner can consider the option of drawing flexible schedules or rotating assignments for employees working in different shifts or groups.

The decision to prepare flexible schedules will create a sense of trust among your cleaning staff that you do care about their lives, apart from work. Many employees are burdened with family responsibilities and commitments to other organisations, so preparing flexible schedules is great to keep the motivation level up of your employees.

Apart from making flexible schedules, you as an owner, should also clearly communicate your performance requirements with the cleaning team. Those expectations should be consistent over time. Read more the ultimate office cleaning checklist for employees.

You should also try to avoid arbitrary changes in your job requirements. Make sure your job expectations are administered in a consistent manner in your firm.

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