[D4ch0l]

Hi guys,

As in the topic, I am wondering if you find your staff working harder when you pay them more than minimum wage.

I am trying to draw a price guide and been thinking on paying my employees £7/h. It will certainly reflects on the price for the service provided, but I am hoping that through fair paying to my staff I will be able to provide quality service, rather than a bodge job.

What do you think about it ?

[Neil Jones]

I pay £7 per hour, it's hardly mega money for them still and I wish I could pay them more but it's just impossible to. I think they do recognise that it's not minimum wage but I still have a high turnover of staff for a few of the jobs I do.

One in particular is a night shift for 3 hrs at two different locations, I had 6 people attempt to do it since October/November and I pay the current person the most I can now at £8.50 per hour. If he packs in, I'm sacking it off!

[D4ch0l]

Thanks Neil for your reply. As mentioned I am working on my price guide and was wondering if you could share your opinion on what I came up with so far.

I am thinking about having full time staff if possible and paying them £7/h after probational period. Then including all bank holidays, and paying annual leave + E-NIC, the total cost of having a cleaner comes up to £8.43/h. So if I charge £10.43/h for my services. My profit will be £2/h. Then there is cleaning products which we'll be supplying within the price (excluding consumable such as bin bags/toilet rolls/soaps etc) + liability insurance and employers liability insurance. So profit is being reduced even more, but from my point of view it won't be a lot.

So here is my price guide.

41hrs and more £9.93       
21-40hrs = £10.43      
11-20hrs = £10.93      
1-10hrs = £11.93

Do you think it makes sense or is it stupidly cheap? I would be very grateful if someone could help me with that.
I know that some of you don't want to share your rates just in case competitors see it and undercut you, but you can always send me an email which would be a great help for me.
You can find it under the icon of envelope on the left just below the little picture.

Hope to hear from you guys very soon.

Many Thanks,
Adam

[Drewheald]

Hi Adam

People are always asking about pricing!!

The answer is simple.... be in the range of your opposition....or you wont have a business anyway.

I have many friends who cover the whole of the UK, and to be honest I was surprised at how little the rates change.

Your rates are about the same as mine, except that were I am is very competitive so I have to bear that in mind.

you want to be around the 35-40% margin if you can but as i say it's dependent on were you are.

Hope this helps

Drew

[D4ch0l]

Hi guys

Thanks for your reply Drew.

The problem is the opposition doesn't want to tell me the prices over the phone unless you will arrange an appointment. I have tried to ring some of them but with no success. This is why I ask you guys to at least tell me if my price guide make sense.

So if you could only say, yes they look alright or you are to cheap, then it would be great. I know each cleaning is different and prices may vary and I take it in to my account.

Thanks,
Adam

[Drewheald]

were are you based

your prices are ok

[D4ch0l]

Hi guys,

What do you think about full time vs zero hours contract, which works out better for you?

My feeling is that potential employees will appreciate full time job more and then again will work harder to secure the job. However, from financial point of view it is more profitable to have staff on zero hours contracts. Has any of you guys tried both? What is your view on this one?

See, the reason why I ask all these question is because, my idea of running the business is of course to keep the customer happy but through slightly different approach. Instead of focusing on the customer as such, I would like to concentrate more on my staff to keep them happy, and then again hopefully it will reflect on their performance, which will lead to long relationship with customer who will get quality services.

Is it to idealistic?

Many Thanks,
Adam

[Drewheald]

People who genuinely care about what they do don't really care too much about how much they get paid, or what type of contract the are on.

You are making this more complicated than it needs to be!

Trust me...you cannot re-invent the wheel in cleaning...it's all been done before

More and more employers are choosing zero hours contracts as in our industry i see them as essential

[Neil Jones]

Zero hours for me, it has to be, contracts end, cleans don't need doing and then what do you do?

[alfie11]

People who genuinely care about what they do don't really care too much about how much they get paid, or what type of contract the are on.

you on acid ? 

[Tony Hodgkinson]

Be very careful with zero hour contracts because legally you have to offer your cleaners a certain amount of hour per year to equal what they would earn on the Dole.

Because we are not a large business most of our cleaners are self employed. All you need is contractors insurance and leave them to deal with their own NI and Tax.

[M W.]

Hi guys,

As in the topic, I am wondering if you find your staff working harder when you pay them more than minimum wage.

I am trying to draw a price guide and been thinking on paying my employees £7/h. It will certainly reflects on the price for the service provided, but I am hoping that through fair paying to my staff I will be able to provide quality service, rather than a bodge job.

What do you think about it ?

Na. imo half will take the p*ss,

select the leaders/motivators, and look after them. let them push the straglers. give the leaders their just reward.

[Ian Gourlay]

The Living wage is over £* an hour,

I do not know if you watched Pararama a few weeks back it was about Zero hours Contracts , tax credits etc #

People on minimum wage still have to pay rent electric gas water just the same as you have overheads throw in zero hours contracts and they can be in a mess

Often people on zero hours contracts do not have a store of food and often go days waiting for next pay cheque with no food.

I do understand from a small business Zero Hours contracts do help survival  and because the industry as a whole does not pay decent money ompanies and even households are getting their cleaning on the cheap, To correct it it will need everybody paying a decent rate. In my opinion if you take some one on Zero Hours contracts that should be from households where there is a maIN EARNER

[Office Cleaning Company]

Although it sounds harsh M W is right.

Unfortunately in cleaning you are not going to be able to pay big bucks so it's largely irrelevant dwelling on the paltry sums involved, however giving more money to staff in my experience does not work, selecting and trying to keep good staff is a better spend of your time/money.

I would not employ anyone full time (although this is a misnomer as all employees now have the same rights) - taking on any employees is a big risk.

As an aside it appears you may have not have costed in the amount to pay someone to cover the work whilst the employee is on holiday.

Also you are the one taking the risk (expect bad debts / late payments / staff endlessly letting you down etc) not the employee, weigh that into the equation when thinking about giving away potential profit.

Regarding your prices - I dont know where you are based but in London they are on the high side.

Hope this helps