🎯 Cleaning-Business Guide: 7 Hiring Trends and Strategies to Thrive in 2021

We're all looking forward to 2021 in every aspect of our lives. We're exhausted by all the news, viruses and political races that 2020 brought.

So, what's happening in the world of recruitment in 2021? And how can your cleaning business prepare to take advantage of upcoming trends in cleaning HR?. Let's take a look at what I see coming that'll be important to thrive - not just survive - in 2021.

1. A More Diverse Workforce

Diversifying your cleaning workforce has become more crucial than ever. I've heard from other successful cleaning-business owners like Mark Baker from Motivated Maids that he's including everyone in the workforce, finding talent where he normally wouldn't look, and growing his Canadian cleaning service to be one of the largest in the country.

Applicants to cleaning-technician jobs agree that they tend to prefer applying to companies where diversity, equity, and inclusion are in place. So try hiring people you wouldn't normally, and use a system to do the sorting, rather than yourself. I see this error happening again and again, where the owner is the bottleneck of growth by not putting a system or process in place that allows office staff to do the hiring.

2. Better Company-Employee Relationship

Most job seekers are looking for employers who can handle Covid-19 types of life changes with more compassion and flexibility. Therefore, your recruitment strategy for 2021 should include a focus on building and enhancing the company-employee relationship. Building this relationship with your employees is always a win-win.

From my own experience, one of the best ways to attract top-tier cleaning talent is being intentional in making it a better place for work. I see this with my own employees who, every so often, bring me their friends and family members interested in applying to work with us. This saves time and resources, rather than having to start from scratch when hiring a new cleaner.

3. Company Culture and Branding

Make 2021 the year to finally implement that dream company culture you had in mind.

I define company culture as the personality of your company with your workforce and clients.

This starts from the moment they visit your website and apply for a job, until they meet you for an in-person or Zoom interview. All the touch points matter.

One of my favorite company cultures today is Trader Joe's. I love their funny signs, colorful walls, quirky Hawaiian shirts, 🌺 their unique way of doing things, but most importantly, their people. If you approach any of them, they have this cool vibe and real knowledge about their store. I think, as cleaning-business owners, we can create great company culture. We might not have all the cool things that a brand like Trader Joe's does, but we have the PEOPLE, the most important assets in our businesses.

4. Use of Applicant-Tracking Systems for Hiring

As technology keeps evolving with mobile and browser technologies,  it's very important that your office implements an applicant-tracking system for your cleaning business. Business owners don't have time to sort manually, looking for the right candidate who meets certain requirements or can work legally in the U.S.

At Pipehire, we've implemented a hiring funnel and  scoring system for cleaning employees, which takes the guesswork out of the job. Within our funnel, you can see their recruitment score, which helps you quickly select the right person for the position so you can move forward with an interview, vs. looking at hundreds of resumes before making a decision about who moves on to the next stage.

5. Full Online Identity Lookup to Make Better Hiring Decisions

If you were to look into your applicants' social-media accounts, you wouldn't hire many of them, right? In 2021, employee social-media monitoring will be more important in order to understand our workforce and make better decisions for our cleaning business.

Also, continuous MVR monitoring of current employees and new candidates will become more important as technology and motor-vehicle departments make the data more accessible. This monitoring will reveal if they've been convicted of driving under the influence, traffic violations, or even unpaid parking tickets while working with you and entering your clients' homes.

⚠️ We tend to forget to monitor our current workforce where there's a higher risk of failure than a new candidate that has not even started.

6. Remote Workers vs In-House

As more industries and jobs transition into remote work, cleaning businesses are no exception.  More cleaning-business owners have opted for working from home without any issues during 2020.

I've been doing it for 10 years with six people spread across several continents, and I love it! Most office-location issues are solved with a co-working space, a virtual mail address and a regular 5x10 storage unit for cleaning supplies and distribution. I've even coached a couple of owners into hiring their own virtual assistants, and they are finding success in their journey using the lean maid business model. Tracking remote workers' time isn't rocket science; many cleaning businesses use Hubstaff to see what their teams are working on and track their time.

I believe most cleaning businesses can transition to full remote work if they are OK with not micromanaging their staff. 😀

7. Onboarding Process and Candidate Experience

Customer experience is key for our business, but don't forget  candidate experience. Why? Because they're like clients, looking to buy into a job's promise and put in their trust and effort to get a paycheck, and be able to provide for their family and achieve their dreams. I see this process very fragmented and poorly designed for most of the industry. I'm constantly looking at cleaning businesses' websites and finding that their careers / jobs pages are the last thing on their mind. They're outdated and they sometimes ask people to fax or email resumes.

I've learned that my business brand and experience will attract or deter the BEST candidates. I'm not looking for any candidate, I'm looking for the BEST because they want to work for the best cleaning company they can find locally. I have found this to be so true and so overlooked. Paying attention to this brings me better cleaning-tech leads, thus making the hiring process easier and getting better results overall. Now, add to the best candidates a scoring system and funnel, and you have a well-oiled machine to hire and recruit A players.

Don't underestimate your careers page, your job form and how they get handled afterwards. These interactions will bring better and more stable cleaning techs as you keep growing your business.

Make 2021 your best year ever, thrive don't survive. 💪