Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: archercleaningserv on October 07, 2006, 06:05:03 pm
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Hi , been window cleaning 18 years alone , but want to take someone on part-time . can anyone please advise the correct & best way to go about doing this !
thanks , chris. ???
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Hey
are you looking to put them on their own or with you.
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Straight from the horse's mouth, Chris . . .http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/newemployers/index.shtml
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Try New Deal, you take someone on part time ( 24 hours ) for 6 months . You get £40 per week towards there wages, and up to £750 towards training .
http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/Customers/New_Deal/index.html
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I tried that a while ago on the recommendation of some "advisor" at the job centre when I was placing a vacancy.
NEVER AGAIN!!
To qualify for New Deal you have to be out of work for 18 months. Someone who's been screwing the system for that long, getting up late and couch-potatoing all day will not be the person you want. Trust me on that!
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I have had a lad for the last 5 weeks, At the moment he is ok. If anything he is to keen.
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IF YOUR GETTING PAID £75 A WEEK FOR SIX MONTHS THAT CANT BE BAD YOUR KNOW AFTER A COUPLE OF WEEKS IF THEY ARE ANY GOOD AT LEAST YOU HAVE NOT PAID OUT SO MUCH MONEY IF YOU TAKE SOME ONE ON ,TO START THERE GOING TO SLOW YOU DOWN ,DONT MINE IF THEY WORK OUT THEN EARN YOU MONEY BUT IF THERE A WASTE OF TIME YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY THEM
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You interview the person who you take on , if you dont like the look of him you dont have to have him.
With the lad I have he had done it before,
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Only problem with that is the Job Centre tend to send guys who have no
intention of working. To receive their benefits they have to attend x amount
of interveiws.
A friend of mine has offered jobs and none of them turned up.
However looks as if John managed to get a good one.
Doug
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I have had a lad for the last 5 weeks, At the moment he is ok. If anything he is to keen.
Hang on to him John, there's none like that at our local jobcentre!
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we have used Lads before from the Job centre, some good some clearly don't want to work, however i never knew of the scheme that john has mentioned, i'll find out more about that. can't be bad for business cheap labour.
If he's a bit to keen John do you think that maybe he can smell a good earner? do you use wfp or trad? although i wouldn't begrudge showing people a trade you have to also think about protecting your business. could he try pinching some?
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I tend to advertise on postcards in newsagents , and always get a good response! some of them may be eastern european ( but in my experience theyre more reliable ) then its really down to interview and trial ! or ask other local window cleaners if they can reccomend anyone !
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He is only 20 and has been baned from driving . So he cant aford to insure a vehicle of his own ( and he does not drive mine ) So allhe wants is to work for someone , maybee in time he will go his own way but at the moment it ok for us both
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Wavie
How many staff do you have
Dave
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Normally, me and two.
Since May last year I've had Polish lads but one went back to his trade of baker/confectioner working in Edinburgh. Took on a local lad who promised great things, he was asked to leave on Friday after six weeks - I only got one full week out of him plus loads of stories/excuses for the other missing days.
Going back to Polish this week!
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Hi,
Can i ask some of you guys about at which point do you employ staff?
Do you just want help as and when,?
Are your aims to build a round , set someone on to do it ,and build another yourself?.... and so on and so on.
At which pont can you decide if your round is so big you can afford to employ someone without taking a drastic pay cut yourself?
Cheers.
Gary.
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when to decide to employ? when you can afford it!!
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If you are looking for a part time worker, try placing an advert in a University notice board.
If you manage to get the right person he will probably be more communicative and responsible than your average 18/23 year old.
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Gazza, at the end of the day it is what YOUR aims are, and not what anyone else does or have. If you want to employ someone then do so, but if you want to just build yourself a nice income then just do that....there are no set rules to having your own business. Surely that is the whole idea of having your own business, you please yourself what you want to do with it! ;D We subby out and we employ, you get similar results with both ways. You make extra money to what you would have if it were just you, but there are many far deeper issues than just money. Insurances PL & EL, if you have not employed before you will be shocked at the cost of these. Extra National Insurance that you have to by law pay for your employees for example every £20 they pay you pay approx another £24 in addition. Holiday pay, at the moment 20 days per year paid holiday. From 2007 that is likely to go up over the next few years to 28 days!! All this extra has to come out of the gross figure that they bring into your business.Subbying, you can only provide them with so much work, as too much classes them as being employed by you. They also have to prove separate income to the IR away from what you pay them. These are a few downsides, there are more, and it may sound really negative, BUT you have to take all of this and more into consideration ;D
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Thanks Helen,
I knew a lot of what you said...
i was simply a bit curious as to who works alone and who works as a partnership,..
and who wants to expand in the best quickest possible way,
and basically i was enquiring how many of you had staff,
Gary. ;D
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Since May last year I've had Polish lads .
Going back to Polish this week!
Hi Davie,
Long time no post eh? How do you get on with Polish workers? Is there a language problem? How do you find a good one?
Steve
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Hi Davie,
Long time no post eh?
Is that me, or you? ;)
How do you get on with Polish workers?
Great, fantastic, wonderful, super, marvellous, terrific, absolutely love them. They turn up on time, if they're EVER off they'll phone ahead to say they can't make it - but I've had to send one home when he struggled in to work when he should have been safely tucked up with some Night Nurse (to alleviate the flu symptoms!) They shake your hand when they arrive to start a shift, same again at finishing time. Bring me presents of FIERCE Polish wodka when they return from a break back home. For the first time ever I bought Xmas presents for employees to show my appreciation - and I'm tighter than you Aiberdonians, ma loon!
Is there a language problem?
Not really, anyone coming to a new country to work must understand that a smattering of the language will go down well, but my current two both took English at school - so they've got a head start. There are language classes for Poles locally, if you make an appointment at the job centre to get the lads their N.I. number you're asked if they need an interpreter. Check this out http://www.hse.gov.uk/languages/polish/index.htm we're a multi-cultural society, don't you know.
How do you find a good one?
Most of them are. They're desperate to please and are deeply appreciative of the fact they've gained a job in a foreign country. Ask someone about the work ethic here about thirty years ago and that's what's imbued in the Eastern Europeans coming over here. Turn up on time, respect for employers, put in a good days work for your pay, don't try to screw the system. Most have more than one job. One guy just wasn't cut out for our busy-busy-bash-bash way of working - he was a bit too laid back - but he found somewhere else where he's happier.
If you're considering taking on any Eastern Europeans, you need to make sure they get a N.I. and that they register with http://tinyurl.com/y9td48 But you can't do both at the same time because original passports must accompany applications to each organisation and neither accept photocopies. To quote Tommy Cooper. . . Chicken, egg - egg, chicken. AhaHaaHaa
To sum up - it's the best thing I've done, go for it.
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are your customers ok with it?
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There's always been a Polish community in Scotland since the end of WW2. I worked beside four Poles when I was an apprentice in the early 70's. Chris Golabek, Eddie Chernouski and Tommy Dudczik are all good Scottish names, I'm sure you'll agree. They were all around my age, and really were Scots, but I never knew old Michael's last name - he was always Michael the Pole and got by on a handful of English words.
If anyone mentions it, I tell my customers that the Poles beat the locals hands down, most folk agree wholeheartedly and tell me they think well of me for employing these lads.
Some might prefer to talk to me because on occasion the boys can't make out their accents, ;D but I can truthfully say I've had no adverse comments because of their nationality.