5 Mistakes Cleaning Business Owners Make That Kills Employee Morale
The simple definition of morale, according to Merriam Webster is: The feelings of enthusiasm and loyalty that a person or group has about a task or job.
Morale among your employees is extremely important as well as extremely fragile. When morale is low, productivity and profits will suffer, along with your company's ability to retain good employees. When morale is high, your company will enjoy increased productivity, engaged and happy employees, and an overall positive environment.
Like many things in business, it all starts at the top, with the cleaning business owner. Without leadership and commitment, morale will certainly suffer. A Gallup poll indicated that only 13% of workers worldwide are engaged at work. If our math is correct, that means roughly 87% of workers around the world dislike going to work and doing their job. This is a striking statistic considering the cleaning industry's track record on employee retention and turnover. So what is causing employees to dislike their jobs? A good bet would be that a large portion of the problem may be contributed to morale.
How to handle employee morale in your cleaning business
Here are 5 of the most common mistakes many cleaning business owners make when it comes to employee morale and what you can do to solve the problem.
Mistake #1: Overloading your cleaning technicians with more work than they can handle - especially your BEST cleaning technicians. In an industry where being short-handed is common, it's tempting to allocate too much work onto your employees. And in most cases, this work goes to your best employees because they're always willing to help out and never say no.
Solution: Be realistic when delegating responsibilities and avoid overloading and overwhelming your employees. Overworked and pressured employees will burn out quickly, cut corners, or perform poorly. It's time for you to hire additional cleaning staff to take the burden off your current staff.
TIP: If they do volunteer for additional work and duties, be sure to acknowledge them for it.
Mistake #2: Lack of appreciation, recognition and reward. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, employees that quit their job voluntarily cite lack of appreciation as one of the major reasons for leaving. When employees don't feel appreciated they will be less inclined to work as hard in the future.
Solution: Celebrate even the small achievements and make it fun. Give small gifts or awards to recognize them for a job well done. And be sure to spread the appreciation around to all deserving employees - not just a few of the outstanding ones.
Mistake #3: Lack of growth opportunities. People become bored with their job when it's the same thing day in and day out.
Solution: Provide advancement opportunities for those that want to further their career. For employees that are happy in their position but tire of the repetition, offer learning opportunities. Provide mini-training sessions, have them take turns leading a training session, send them to a class and let them report back to the group, and/or delegate important new tasks to keep them engaged. And for those who love writing and social media, seek out employees that can contribute blog and social media posts.
Mistake #4: Lack of communication and information. When employees don't know what is happening within the business, morale will suffer because they'll feel you don't care enough to keep them informed.
Solution: Keep your employees informed with what is happening with the business, good or bad, and what their role is in the growth of the business. Accomplish this by having weekly meetings, training sessions, or a Friday pizza party. Be sure to encourage feedback and questions and then listen carefully to their ideas, suggestions and concerns.
Mistake #5: Allowing low performers to continue working without action being taken. Typically, 20% of workers produce 80% of the results. And when your top producers see others are not pulling their weight, their morale will drop off.
Solution: Hold all employees accountable for their own performance. For those that are not working to company standards, coach and counsel them immediately. If that doesn't work, take the necessary disciplinary action. When your good employees see you taking action, they know you have high performance standards, which will keep them motivated to continue the high quality work that they do.
Don't make the mistakes that will cause your employees' morale to suffer. The most important thing to remember is that you must take a genuine interest in your employees, encourage them, show your appreciation, and provide them incentives and opportunities to grow. Once you accomplish this, productivity will increase and everyone will enjoy a high spirited and cheery workplace.
 |
EBOOK: Ebook: Employee Bad Behavior Are you are dealing with employee behavior problems? This 15-page Ebook is packed with the information you need to start solving the problems and getting your company back on track. It's free to members and you can download it here: Not a member, sign up and start enjoying the membership benefits today! This page gives details of everything you get with membership: //www.myhousecleaningbiz.com/public/10.cfm |
