You might be thinking things like:
It’s important to celebrate big accomplishments like this because it unites everyone around achieving common goals.
But when the majority of the work you perform for your clients falls on the shoulders of your cleaners, celebrating the small wins on a day-to-day basis is just as important for creating a positive work environment for everyone.
Because regardless of what motivates each individual cleaner to do their job, helping them feel like they are making progress on meaningful work will make them more likely to stick around.
Small wins are things that will probably mean more to your cleaners personally than to you.
They are the behaviors you’d like to see on a day-to-day basis that lead to good results, as well as the results themselves.
In this post we outline 4 types of small wins you should celebrate, and examples of each you can look for in your business.
You’ll notice that it becomes easy to pick them out when you think of which behaviors have a positive impact on your business. Here are some examples:
Your clients aren’t hoping you’ll deliver excellent quality service some of the time… they want it consistently! So how do you ensure consistency when the day-to-day tasks of cleaning are in the hands of your cleaning staff?
Reward (or at least acknowledge) consistency in their attendance and performance.
You can do this by using your timekeeping records and inspection results.
For example:
Quick communication from cleaners can help them to make you aware that they're running late, can't access the building or have other issues on-site.
Coordinating a team that works remotely is much easier when people communicate openly with each other.
Encourage cleaning staff to talk to you about questions they have and challenges their facing, and give them an easy way to do so.
Here are some example of the types of communication you should recognize/reward:
When a cleaner puts in the effort, it’s a sign that they are dedicated to the job, to you, to their team, and to your clients. If you notice a cleaner going above and beyond at work, it’s a small win worth celebrating.
For example:
Using a cleaner tracking app like Swept lets you execute inspections remotely, ensuring that every cleaner is executing correctly every time.
Last but not least, is stellar results.
If you’re doing an inspection, and the cleaner knocks it out of the park, it’s a win. Even if it’s not perfection, but you notice that one of your cleaners always does a particularly great job at cleaning restrooms (it’s always so fresh in there!) consider it a small win.
Rather than simply mark this inspection point as ‘met standards’, take note that it exceeds standards and tell them they did a great job.
Ensuring that you're keeping track of essential metrics such as time theft can help you to identify and address problems early.
When it comes down to it, the ‘small wins’ are the accomplishments your team achieves on a daily basis. If you’re looking for a win, no accomplishment is too small. If they proved that they had focus, good intent, and put in the effort to achieve it, you can consider this a win and it’s worth recognizing.
It’s by celebrating the little wins, that you’ll be able to energize and retain your employees so that you can keep working together towards the big wins.
>> Wondering about the best way to recognize and reward small wins? Read this post about creating an employee recognition program. <<
Also take a look at our post pandemic Hiring,Training & Retaining Guide.