[Clean 'n' Tidy]

Hi all,

Sorry I haven't been on for a long while but have been very very busy.

I was wondering if anyone could advise on the following.

One of my full time cleaners left 4 weeks ago. I am unalbe to find anyone else to cover this position. I also work 25 - 30 hours a week cleaning myself. So due to this I am currently having to let some of customers down and instead of cleaning for them every week I am trying to fit them in every other week. So far they have been really good about it but at some point they will get the hump. I am now having problems fitting them in at all as I am running around like nobody's business.

So I am getting to the point where I may have to let them go. I am reluctant to do this as two of them have been with for over a year. But I suppose I can't be in two places at once.

Has anyone got any idea's on how I can over come this.

Many thanks Kim

[martin19842]

hi there,

i have an advert in the job centre constantly, and then i just build a database of people interested, that might work for you

regards

martin

[Musicman]

Try advertising in newspapers, Job Centre, leaflet drops; ask your existing cleaners if they know anyone and offer them a nice lump sum as a reward if you take them on.

There are also specialist employment agencies such as Instant Muscle where you don't have to pay them a fee.

Overall though you must pay them a good rate of pay.

I hope this helps

Musicman

[Jan K]

Hi Kim!

Think you need to just hang on in there, don't let any of your customers go if you can really help it!

Do you know anyone that can help you on a short term basis? I am sure your customers would prefer to have you put someone in for a month or so, till you can get regular staff on the books rather than try to find someone else themselves!

I do not know what the Jobcentre is like where you are, but I have a permanent ad with them and have had nothing for over a month!

Newspapers are an expensive way to go, but ads in shop windows are a cheap (financially) way to go, but time consuming if you are tied up with cleaning!

I must admit I have found it almost impossible to find staff and most of my girls are coming to me either thro an exisiting staff member or someone I know who knows someone who wants a job, so to speak!

I think we are extremely lucky if we find reliable, honest, hardworking staff, in the line of work we are in!!

Good luck with your continued search!

Jan

[dustdees]

I must admit, I know how you feel!!

I took someone on last week and they didn't even bother turning up for their first job, with no phone call.

I have had a very busy time this week, without friends and family, I would have gone down the pan!! BIG TIME!!!!

Reliable good cleaners, seem to be harder to get hold of than the Pope!!!

Job Centre is pretty good. Here in Reading we can hold an interview day, using one of their office, it's free and then they tend to push the vacancy, for the week before you interview.You can also ask them to put the ad in the paper!!

Have a word with JCP, they can be very helpful.

Good luck with everything, remember you are not the only one!!

Regards
Denisex

[Jan K]

Denise, your jobcentre seem to have a better set up than mine down here, JCP said they were going to push my ad in the Jobcentre's advertising slot in the local paper AND on the local radio station......well if they have it hadsn't done any good there either!

I am wondering if it is solely the time of year........kids' Summer hols, people going away! I have a number of customers who have suspended their cleans thro the hols and 2 or 3 that are coming on the books as first timers after the hols! Luckily I have the staff to allocate to them, but any other new 'uns I will be hard pushed to find someone to do them. Have got a Uni student keen for work top do between her lectures etc, but not till October.

It may pay you to advertise for staff in your local Unis/Colleges. It won't cost you anything and even if you only have a few youngsters doing a few shifts its better than nobody. They won't be liable to pay tax or NI conts as they are hardly likely to be earning enough, and therefore (and this is from the Inland Revenue's own mouth) you won't need to register them with the IR.

Good luck!

Jan

[garyj]

The most annying thing ( which I have found out to my cost in the last few weeks alone ) is that if we employ someone who is a complete waste of space not only are they entitled to severence pay ( 1 week ) BUT a days holiday as well.

I took a chap on who was unreliable and was changing rotas to suit himself, after a few days I fired him. This guy had fiddled time sheets, fiddled petrol expenses and generally f'ed up everything he did. He took advice from the CAB and I took advice from the FSB. It cost me over £250.

This has happened a couple more times since June. The position we are in is if the cleaners mess up or there  faces don't fit we don't have the timescale to go through normal discipline procedures, we have no option but to pay them off or lose the contract. With the rise of no win no fee, this situation is only going to get worse.

Be as careful as you can  as to who you take on, after 5 years in this business when I think I've seen it all, something else crops up.

I don't think anyone would believe me if I told some of the stories since the company was started. AND, I genuinely believe I look after the staff, sadly, they see this as a weakness and take the p.

Staff letting you down............ on the whole, they don't care, they want maximum money for minimum effort, thats what the majority do.
Welcome to the cleaning industry.

[Clean 'n' Tidy]

Thanks Guys.

I will try the job centre. I have already tried the local paper. You tend to get lot's of people that turn up for interviews but as soon as you give them the job and organise work for you they then don't turn up.

So far all the staff I have are really good.

Cheers
Kim

[dustycorner]

I agree with Gary,

No matter how well you treat your staff they will always be a divide between you and them simply because you pay the wages.
We also has the small business men/women labour against the false assumption we are all loaded because we run our own business. Staff generally do not see the impact of their actions ranging from not giving any notice to being free n easy with your cleaning equipment or materials.

To anyone looking a recruit new staff i would suggest the following, apologies if i'm teaching my granny to suck eggs

1. Take your time don't employ the 1st person who comes into the office

2. Beware the prospective employee who promises to be all dancing all singing

3. Make an availability sheet part of the interview have them sign off on it

Cheers Mark.

[dustycorner]

I agree with Gary,

No matter how well you treat your staff they will always be a divide between you and them simply because you pay the wages.
We also has the small business men/women labour against the false assumption we are all loaded because we run our own business. Staff generally do not see the impact of their actions ranging from not giving any notice to being free n easy with your cleaning equipment or materials.

To anyone looking a recruit new staff i would suggest the following, apologies if i'm teaching my granny to suck eggs

1. Take your time don't employ the 1st person who comes into the office

2. Beware the prospective employee who promises to be all dancing all singing

3. Make an availability sheet part of the interview have them sign off on it

Cheers Mark.

[Clean 'n' Tidy]

Hi Mark,

I agree with you. If I place an advert in the local paper I usually get about 3 - 5 people apply each week. My problem is that I am fussy on who I take on. I am not one of these companies that will employ the first person. Sometimes it can take me a couple of months to find someone.

I have tried taking on people that have turnt up for interviews but 9 times out of ten they don't turn up on the day. Or if they do turn up they are useless.

Anyway I think I will have to try the local rag again. As I could loss some of my customers due to not having enough staff.

Kim

[CMS]

Just for reference the Job Centre have a system where you can place and manage your vacancies online. I find it quite useful.

Click on the link below.

http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/cms.asp?Page=/Home/Employers/AdvertisingaVacancy/EmployerDirectonline

[Tim Downer]

Hi all

I know a couple of weeks has passed since your problem of staffing. Have you thought of using Blue Arrow or any other agencies?

We were really busy last week with too much work for the staff i had. Took on 4 Blue Arrow staff last week for 4 days. Work was completed, client was happy and so was I. Their work was ok too which pleased me.

Regards

Tim

[Clean 'n' Tidy]

Thanks guys for all your advise.

I registered yesterday with the Job Centre online. Guess what had my first call to day. I have inteviewed the lady and all seems ok. Will try her out next week and hopefully soon be able to off load some of my work.

Rgds
kim

[Jan K]

Hi Tim!

I tried contacting a local ageny and had a visit 3 weeks ago......have had no contact from them since not even after emailing........!!!!

Quite a few years Blue Arrow, didn't have a particularly good reputation down here, although that may have changed.I take it you have had good experiences with them?

Cheers!

Jan

[Tim Downer]

Hi Jan

Yes, had too much work last week booked in for the staff i had, so i thought it would be worth the chance on seeing what blue arrow were like.
I had 4 Polish temps come over.....English not too bad, but they understood what i wanted doing. Very pleased with their work.....and they are happy to do anything i ask.
Had one girl today cleaning the garage doors on one of our sites. She had about 6 to clean in a row and realised while it was raining, that she was still out there cleaning them.!!
Actually they are as good as, if not better than half of my staff. As you know from previous posts in the past, i pay my staff £9.00 per hour....Blue Arrow cleaners are £8.50 per hour!! Bonus!!

Regards

Tim

[Jan K]

Hi Tim!

I called Blue Arrow yesterday, and I was very impressed with the information they gave me and their prices. Although their charges would eat quite hard into my profits, it would only be short term and Blue Arrow would be foing all my footwork for me...........at the end of the day, if I have them to call on at short notice, even that would be a weight off my mind, rather than having to turn business away (a little profit is better than no profit!!)

Cheers Tim, for pointing me in their direction!

Jan

[tommy]

I use 5 star personnel they are based in spalding but they send staff anywere
you need them.
I have used them for shop fits in burton and  office cleaning in london new build in derby they supply a lot of cleaning companys. they are polish staff  but they are hard workers.
most do speak some english but they have there own supervisor on each job who speaks good english.
the cost is £8 days-£9 nights there is a mileage charge to take into account
when you cost the job but it means i can take any job and send there staff
to anywere i need them.

I did not know if i was allowed to but there phone number on so i have not
but you can soon find it on yell .com.

[Tim Downer]

Hi all

Yes the advantage of using agency is that we can supply cleaners at short notice, so that we do not have to let our clients down. Fantastic when you have staff on holiday, sick, and during the odd week of too much work!! Then when its quiet or staff are back from holiday, you don't need to have them.

Having said that, if i look at my records and i then find i am using them a lot, then i will employ more staff.

Regards

Tim

[Jan K]

The good thing about employing staff through agencies, is after a few months for a small fee you can take them on permanently without the need to use the Agency.......13 weeks with Blue Arrow I was told.

[Tim Downer]

Jan,

Thats interesting!!

How much is the "small fee"

Tim

[Jan K]

Dunno Tim, I haven't even got off the starting blocks with them yet, tho they are sending me a quote!

[Paul Kettless]

Hello all,

My wife and I have exactly the same problems as you guys describe.  Even the local rags can be quite costly after time, with little reward...

We found that advertising in the local parish council newsletters, and a simple card in the "corner shop" works very well.  Just sometimes, the kind of person that you are looking for would not even consider going to the job centre to look for a cleaning job.

We know, and I have just touched my computer desk (wooden) have found three of our best girls this way. honest, trustworthy and most immortantly, relaible.

Just my thoughts

Kind regards
Paul

[Jan K]

Hi Paul!

Looks like that's the way to go then..........especialy as Blue Arrow didn't get back to me or send me the info they promised.......obviously these Agencies aren't interested in us small businesses......they probably can't be bothered making the effort for so little income from people like us......the biggest problem I have at the moment is finding the time to go posting cards in shops........the ironing side on my business has gone thro the roof.........back ache here  come!! lol

Plenty of time.............

[tommy]

5 Star Personnel will send 1 or 2 people
but you need to have a full days work for
the people they send as they charge for 8 hours + milage.
I had a call last week for a rush job that afternoon which i could not do but  i can send some agency staff i have used before which the client had no problem with as he had been let down.one call to the agency 4 hours later/ 120 miles from there office
they had 4 staff there and even after paying them i still made £200 on the deal . next time the client will phone me first.

[*Chris Browne]

  i do not have any  problem finding cleaners, the problem is
   as said earlier, is finding good reliable ones that turn up!!

  

[garyj]

We don't have the problems we used to getting staff, in fact now its very easy. The problem now is finding staff who speak enough English to understand what is required of them!!

[dustdees]

garyj,

Hear hear!!

Most of the enquires I have had recently, seems to be non english speaking males, whi have had no residential cleaning experiance.Most seem to have commerical experiance even though my add states that comm is not suitable.

Has anyone tried putting a small insertion on their websites?

Regards
Denise

[Jan K]

Well it looks like my current problem of finding staff has been solved for the time being. I seem to have found myself a source of employees who are in existing cleaning jobs and are either looking to change or looking to top up their existing hours.

I have been approached by one of my existing cleaners whose friend works as a cleaner for a residential home (paid minimum wage, works awful hours). She starts with me tomorrow.....as a knock on effect one of HER colleagues is also looking for work and I am due to contact her with regards to starting with me in the near future.

I prefer to employ people who have been recommended to me by my existing girls as long as their references check out ok.

[dustdees]

Nice one Jan K, at least you are out of stalemate!

Love
Denisex

[Jan K]

Hi Denise!

Looks like it....we all get there in the end.....perseverance and true grit lol!

Jan x

[Clean 'n' Tidy]

Hi all,

Seams like advise about the job centre could be true. I employed a lady to start today and she hasn't turnt up (what a surprise). But I would like to say that I did get one lady who does not speak a lot of english but is willing to work all hours. I have just rang her up as the lady who was suppose to turn up today has and she is very willing to help out a short notice. Well wll see how we go.

I just can't understand people that do not have the decent to give you a call and say that they do not want the job.

Sorry guys just letting off a bit of steam.

rgds
Kim

[Simon H]

Hi Kim

I know how you feel  happens to us all the time

I think we run on a ratio of about 10-1 of people who say they want a job to the ones who actually do

Regards

Simon

[NBwcs]

Hello Tommy, are from the Spalding area?