Employee Turnover In The Carpet Cleaning Industry
Employee turnover in the carpet cleaning industry is a very large problem. In search of profits employees are often undervalued and under paid. Expedited growth in a company due to things like mass advertising can also cause employee turnover as well as mass hiring which poses the same problems. Carpet cleaning isn’t the hardest of all professions but it is manual labor and does require stamina and motivation to do a great job every time. Employees require training and an apprenticeship of sorts in order to become experts in the field.
Hiring and maintaining the best employees is crucial in this professional industry.
When someone hires a carpet cleaner they expect to have someone capable and experienced show up. If that cleaner has only been working for a few weeks, many problems could occur. Spill diagnosis, problem identification, mixing ratios, equipment repair and maintenance, even patience and wisdom come with experience. The longer an employee is around, the longer he/she will feel vested in the company and want to do the best job possible. I highly recommend profit sharing at the end of the year. This boosts morale, especially since it lands in a crucial month in the slow part of winter.
Also we can’t forget the obvious, pay employees a fair wage. Don’t try to squeeze every dime out of them. Make sure they can go home proud of themselves so their wife and kids will look up to them. Carpet cleaners work hard and deserve fair compensation.
Another big problem with some of the larger carpet cleaning franchises is that they charge their employees for the cleaning agents and equipment they use. Any time an employee has to decide whether or not to use something that will help them do the best job possible, it is a hit to the pride. They either give up the money or the quality but they can’t have both. In either case the quality of the job suffers. Making someone pay for something the employer should pay for also makes people feel they are being taken advantage of.
My company, the Commercial Steam Team, has had almost no employee turnover since we started the company in 2003. That’s because we believe in our staff, support them, and treat them like family, not like tools to use and discard. In fact only one employee has ever left the company and the reason he did was to finish law school. I am proud of how we have run our company and will continue to do so.