[geefree]

Been reading a few articles lately about window cleaners taking the mick out of the boss..... YOU!....

Stealing customers, not doing all the houses listed per day,... secretly building a round of their own,

How do you guys who employ, manage to trust these guys, who think of this as a stop-gap job until a "real" job comes along.... or worse,  treat it as a stepping stone to going off alone. ?

When the time comes i intend to get a couple of part timers, on a self employed basis, and " share " them with another cleaner,thus avoiding paying stamp and income tax for them,

but the problems highlighted above are more of a concern,... i know some say , pay them right with incentive bonuses etc,..

but do you guys hold all the cards,? ... do they collect for you also ?

if so , they know what you earn and what you pay them, hence them thinking " i will do this for myself!"

I would welcome the employers comments please 

[MNWC]

Get yourself a descent contract of employment 

[lyndy]

It's really hard to find good staff,me and the mrs set
up about a year ago,we did the work but have taken someone on as we have other work,we started him on a really low wage but now he's hourly rate is that good can't see him leaving,we leave a work sheet in the van he turns up does the work collects the money,mind you we had 2 w****rs before him that took the p,but you will know within a few days if they any good

[chris sloan]

Who are these nutters applying for jobs, one muppet caused me nearly 200 quid of damage in two hours

[Skyglide]

Hate to sound negative, but experience of employees or self employed helpers has always been hassle and losses of some sort, bar one person who I sourced from an agency.

With hindsight it would have been simpler and more net profit going it alone. Six years in this business building, focusing and improving to be robbed or let down by people. Sad, but very real, beleive me.

[Londoner]

Thats why I am a one man band. I could easily take on employees, I have or could get the work easily but I just don't want the hassle.

[e newlands]

finding the right staff is a big problem reliability trustworthy good at his  or her job ---masive problem anyone with these three attributes tend to work for themselves or are already working
putting people on pricework is good rather than a daily rate but then i find myself spending more time checking work as corners are often cut to earn more pennies
trying to find someone who can think for themselves is also a problem i have to spoon feed them all
stay on your own or work in a gang so you can watch monitor as see what the deadheads are doing

[creggan]

had alot of problems with my wifes brother who was working for me from november until april.he was telling me that certain houses on the daily list didnt want cleaned,etc.he was cleaning them and keeping the money. caught him out 1 day as i watched him all day.he got the sack,and a bad name aswell after that

[ronnie paton]

Employing can be hard and test you but once you find some good uns look after them be fair and hopefully it will run kind of smoothly

this is how i see it, i now work very little get paid good money and enjoy  kinda semi retired life style at 31, now i couldnt do that if i was doing all the work has..............i would be working all he time.

depends whtat you want from your business i suppose.

[gordonswindows]

It is not that the staff are useless or lazy or whatever it is your(our) expectations of them.

We expect them to care about our equipment,our customers our business yet treat them like they ARE useless,lazy or whatever.

We have all had to learn our trade how to wash windows use poles pumps and so on yet we say to a new employee here do this with this and be quick about it, don't skive and I might just grudgingly pay you.

How many threads have there been on here about customers getting dropped cos of the way they treat us? Yet we expect new staff to be loyal hardworking and thankful while we treat them with contempt mistrust and scepticism

There are good staff out there, there are people who want to work Tesco and Asda are full of them as are the call centres and the councils so maybe it is time to look at ourselves and see WHY we attract the " useless the lazy and the whatever"

Ask how you recruit where you recruit. Why is it usually a pal a relative or a bloke you know who knows a bloke that gets a job. How and where do Tesco Asda and the rest recruit? Is it maybe that you (we) think it's not a real job that it's only a stop gap and we are a bit mmm let's see .....embarrassed to offer a real job in the paper or the job centre?

Until we lift our trade in our own eyes we can't expect others too. We act professional we charge as professionals so let's hire as professionals.

There are poor and unsuitable employees out there but if they turn up for an interview it is up to you to pick the right one and then spend no, invest time in training them after all a painter will train four or five years a postie a few weeks and a checkout operator gets an induction day, an on the job buddy to support and weekly staff training and they earn less than our lot do.

A once famous person said ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country well I'm not famous but I suggest that we ask not what our employee can do for us but what can we do for our employee.

Gordon

[dave0123]

but if they turn up for an interview it is up to you to pick the right one

Problem is.. most of them lie in the interview  :

[edward1]

gordondwindows/
 you are right to an extent ,but also sounds like  you have those rose tinted specs on.
but there are a few good employees if you look carefully enough.

[Ian B]

The problem with our business is that it is not regular 9 to 5 work, and it would be difficult to employ someone at 35 or 40 hours a week. So you end offering part-time, and that's not very secure for a body looking for a job. One way is to employ someone who is already on benefit. This is quite legal if you go about it correctly. I had a lad come and work for me who was on benefit, and was only aloud to work up to so many hours a week (which will be agreed by the benefit office he is with). My lad worked 20 hours a week, and so he got his benefit as well as working, and it suited me very well. He worked upto his 20 hours (over the week), and then I was on my own. Another way is to get in touch with your local jobcentre, and ask for subsidised employment schemes. This is a scheme where, if you are prepared to employ someone at 25 or more hours a week for six months they will pay you a subsidy, depending on the number of hours, This is paid direct to your bank. Of course, certain criteria must be met: guarantee of work for six months, public liability insurance etc. These people are classed as long term unemployed. After the six months your agreement is finished, and you can either carry on employing them in the normal manner, or get rid of them. I was offered three to choose from when I applied, I was offering 30 hours, and I think I was going to be paid £40 a week. I chose not to do it on that occasion, but I do think it's a possibility to consider.

[Clive McDonald]

spot on gordon, i'm awfull. Kennedy the president was the once famous person, although a few have paraphrased it since.

[P @ F]

I just went down the expansion road and got bitten on the arse , first i took this guy on as a part timer to see how things went , we both worked wfp from the one van , he worked well never had a problem , i then got him his own van and system and sent him on his way , i got a few complaints to start with but i just put it down to people not liking change , and it all seemed to come from the usual whingers any way.
One day though i just happened to pass by a fair size account i gave him to do , it did not look right so i stopped and had a look , it was shocking so i did it again myself , he then drove past and stopped , he asked what the prob was , i asked him when he was doing this job, he said i have done it it was spotless when i left !
I told him well a lot of drunks must have just passed by and chucked their burgers and vomit up the windows,he shook his head at me and drove off .

To cut a long story short i ended up doing all the work he had done after that event again .

He is now history , but that did not stop him applying when i readvertised position , when i said no he went on a mad one and called me a few choice names .

Then another guy applied,told me of 10 years in the job and who he worked for , i rang them for refs and none of them had heard of him , he then gave me abuse , did he think i was just going to let him loose in my van with no questions

Now i have an expensive advertisment doing nowt at the end of the road

 Rich P @ F
 

[darren clarke]

u intrested in selling one of the vans you dont use?

[Clive McDonald]

There was a very good reply on this, two partners and then a third who bought in which helped finance vans took people on.One partner and one employee per van expanding as they went.

[concept]

Get yourself a descent contract of employment 

 

[P @ F]

Darren , sorry mate , i would have a few days ago , but i have had a new guy with me this week and he is a real grafter , i converted my vw back to a 2 man van , all i have to do is wait until the end of the month he should i hope have passed his test by then !

Will keep you in mind if it goes pear shaped though

 Rich P @ F

Heres the back of it

[kate1]

Hi OP

I dont know if you have read my thread on Midas?

Midas will tell you exactly where your employee is, how much cash hes due to come back with, as its in live time.  One of our window cleaners came over to Midas for this exact reason, money going missing, and jobs being missed.

Of course, Im not saying that everybody experiences these problems