The world has been through a lot lately.

And one good thing to come from it all is a new-found respect for the sanitizing, disinfecting, and the janitorial industry as a whole.

That being said, with this new focus on cleaning and disinfecting, comes a lot of new rules, products, processes, and heightened awareness of their importance. This means training your new cleaners may take a bit more effort now. But don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. After all, your cleaners are the most important people on your team!

To ensure your training program is as effective yet efficient as possible, here are 12 tips to help you save time and money while delivering quality training to our world’s new expectations for quality

1. Hold Group Training Sessions

First and foremost, we wanted to share that the WHO (World Health Organization) is providing free online courses in COVID prevention, and best practices to keep safe spaces as we cautiously re-enter a state of normal. We think it’s a great idea to go and check some out HERE. Of course, we have also been doing as much research as we can on training yourself and your cleaners on keeping disinfected, but more importantly safe, spaces. Check out our webinar on safe spaces HERE.

One of the biggest challenges with training is that it requires a huge investment of time from you/your management team, and while you can take steps to retain them, it’s not uncommon for cleaners to disappear in the first week or two of a new job.

During Swept’s humble beginnings as a cleaning company, they would start the training process before any cleaners were officially hired. More specifically, they would invite candidates who passed the phone interview to attend a group training session. It was clearly explained to cleaners that this was part of the hiring process and that they needed to attend to be considered for the job.

Then they would then use a scorecard to keep track of how well candidates did during the group session. Did they arrive on time? Have they dressed appropriately? Were they engaged/asking questions?

Click here to make a copy of our cleaner training scorecard »

2. Don’t Start From Scratch

Not every sector of the cleaning industry is going to require the same training, similar maybe, but different enough that you’ll want to have a program in place that is right for the area you plan to focus in. Just to give you a sense of the scope of differences, here are some Post-pandemic crash courses for Fitness Centers, Restaurants, and Medical Facilities.

So, before you begin planning out the content you’ll cover during staff training, do a Google (and YouTube) search of training materials that are available online. You can save yourself a lot of time and ensure you’re delivering a thorough training program by using materials that someone else has created that are a good fit for your company, staff and contracts.

A few we have come across in our own research include:

• CleanCheck Training System by Spartan Chemical
• Cleaner Training Videos by AMRE Supply
• Online train-the-trainer courses by Cleaning Masterclass

Disclaimer: we’re not suggesting you rely solely on generic, one-size-fits-all training videos for your training program! But before you start entirely from scratch, see what’s out there that you can reuse and combine with your own content to create a comprehensive program in less time.

3. Explain the “Why” Behind the “What” and the “How”

Whether you decide to create your training program from scratch or lean on pre-existing materials found online, it’s important to ensure your training covers not just the what to clean and the how to clean it, but the why we do things the way we do.

This is important because if an employee doesn’t understand the importance of a task or procedure, they aren’t likely to make it a priority on the job. Take the time to talk about your reasoning for processes you’ve put in place.

For instance, if you want your cleaners to use Swept to  report problems they run into on-site, explain that this is important because:

1) It helps protect them when something goes wrong (ie., by making you aware of the board room being locked they cannot be blamed for not cleaning it,)

and…

2) it allows you to proactively reach out to the customer, which means you are more likely to keep them as long-term, happy clients, and long-term, happy clients mean steady, predictable work for that cleaner.

4. Standardization Helps Memorization

Now, everyone knows there are a LOT of different ways to get a job done, and everyone has ways they like to do things. However, developing and promoting a “standard method” for each task can be a massive boost in helping your cleaners retain everything they are learning. Rote memory (or Rote Learning) is a wonderful teaching tool that assists in retaining several complex tasks!

For example; Promoting an “order of events”, or “right way” for cleaning a public restroom, or a step-by-step on how to properly steam disinfect with a fogger, will not only help your cleaners, but also help those who remember to help each other.

5. Use Short Videos to Tell Stories

If a picture is worth a thousand words then a useful youtube video is worth…well…you do the math!

A great piece of advice that we borrowed from Mike Campion at  Grow My Cleaning Company is to use videos to tell stories throughout your training. Mike talks about how having employees act out examples of both the correct and incorrect way to do things is a great way to engage the cleaners and make the information stick. The skits can then be recorded and used as training videos for future cleaners.

The key with videos, however, is to keep them short (we’re talking like 30 seconds,) so that the information is easily digestible and you hold the employees’ attention.

6. Use Quizzes to Measure Understanding

Now we know this isn’t university, and nobody has time to sit through a few dozen pop quizzes over the first few months of cleaning for your company. That being said, short and to-the-point quizzes are a great way to identify when a cleaner might need additional training in a certain area. Keep quizzes short and the questions fair (no trick questions!) to help your cleaners be successful when taking them.

Remember: Your goal isn’t to make them feel like they are back in school, but rather to ensure you’re not sending them out in the field before they are ready. This is good for both you and them, so be sure to communicate it that way.

With increased expectations post-COVID, you’ll need to ensure your cleaners are up-to-speed on all EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) approved disinfectants, and antiviral cleaning procedures. Not only because the list  gets updated regularly, but also because the EPA has even made it illegal to make false claims toward having this knowledge and these products.

Some examples of online tools you can use to create quizzes online (for free!) are SurveyMonkey and Typeform, but a quick Google search will give you many more options to choose from.

7. Communicate What Success Looks Like On-Site

Before you send a cleaner into the field on their own, be sure that at some point in your training process you have given them clear guidelines for measuring their own success. We recommend providing them with not only  cleaning instructions for each location they clean (more on this in a minute,) but also a copy of the checklist or scorecard you use for  inspections could also be helpful. This is also a great time to describe any opportunities there are for movement within your company if they are consistently successful in their current role.

8. Build a Personal Relationship With Each Cleaner

You may be thinking, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!” but it’s not as difficult or time-consuming as you may think. Believe it or not, good communication and a healthy rapport are very important to retaining cleaners.

One of the main reasons cleaners (or anyone for that matter) leave their jobs is because they feel anonymous within the organization. To begin preventing this from day one, take the time to ask cleaners a bit about themselves during training:

Where did they grow up?

What are their hobbies or interests outside of work?

What are their goals for the next few years?

Be genuine and you will show them that you care about them as an individual — you’ll be much more likely to earn their respect, trust, and loyalty!

9. Create an Employee Handbook

You may not be ready to create an employee handbook for your first few cleaners, but if your team is growing and you’re beginning to hear the same questions from cleaners all the time, consider writing down the answers and over time, putting together a document that covers FAQs and can be emailed to employees.

To make sure employees will actually use the handbook, keep it short and sweet, and don’t print a hundred copies! The handbook should be a living document that gets updated as things change at your company, so keeping it as a digital file that can be emailed to members of your team rather than a hard copy that becomes outdated quickly.

Some things to include in your employee handbook could be:

• Company history
• Company mission, values, etc.
• Company hierarchy & contact information
• HR procedures like calling in sick, requesting time off, etc.
• Information around payroll
• Review of key training components
• Employee expectations, code of conduct, etc.

10. Provide Post-Training Cleaning Instructions

At Swept we firmly believe that just because a cleaner is trained doesn’t mean you shouldn’t continue to proactively support them and answer their questions on site. It’s not fair to expect cleaners to remember every little instruction you gave during cleaning for every building that they clean months later, so providing cleaning instructions to for each site that you service is crucial to their success.

Here’s an example of  cleaning instructions that will help your cleaners succeed:

In the same way, situations will inevitably come up that weren’t covered in training. Provide cleaners clear instructions on what to do or who to contact when things don’t go according to plan and you will have fewer cleaners leave your company and more satisfied customers too.

Click here to get a copy of the  Problem Reporting Template we created using a free tool called Airtable.

11. Follow Up Regularly

Before the pandemic, it wasn’t strange not to hear from cleaners working in the field for a few days or weeks. Of course now, you may find that you’ll have clients requesting much more frequent updates, and that means it is a great idea to check in with your cleaners on a regular basis. Not just to satisfy clients, but to ensure your cleaner is happy and informed! Communication is many things, including the key to safety!

We recommend checking in with them to find out how things are going. By taking feedback from cleaners about how well they feel your prepared them for work in the field you can:

1. Perfect your training program over time
2. Make your cleaners feel more supported
3. AND you’ll find opportunities to improve service for your customers

We also recommend checking in with cleaners throughout their entire time with your company, but of course, you’ll want to start  getting feedback on other areas of working for your company (not just training,) to find out where else you can improve and help them be successful.

12. Make it a System

At the end of the day, the key to an effective training program (that doesn’t drain you of all your time and sanity,) is to make it a system. As you hold training sessions, take note of how long they take you.

Are there areas you could save time by turning an individual training session into a recurring group session? (ie. one that happens weekly or monthly for all new cleaners) Or by having someone else (like an admin assistant or supervisor) handle a portion of the training? Remember that as a business owner your time is precious — and expensive. Every hour you spend on training is an hour that your business is paying for.

Over time you should come to know how much your spending on training, which will also allow you to calculate what it costs you if you lose a cleaner once they’ve been trained (this will help you prioritize cleaner retention efforts down the road!) and how much time and resources you need to budget for training each month.

Download our Training Program Planning Checklist

Not to be confused with the checklists you’ll provide to your cleaners during training (although they will look similar,) this checklist is designed to help you plan your training program. We’ve listed everything that generally goes into a comprehensive training program in hopes that it can provide you with a starting point for putting together your own training materials and modules.

Click here to download the Training Program Planning Checklist »

It is a time where it may be difficult to separate fact from fiction, but we all need to be dedicated, diligent, and believe that things will be changing in a positive direction soon.

In reaction to the global issue, the expected levels of sanitation have been raised across the board for years to come. The best move is to put long-term plans into place to make these practices your “new normal”. Again, the Swept team will be here throughout this journey to support you. We have your back!

Swept is dedicated to highlighting stories that keep everyone in the janitorial industry as up to date on world events and in-the-know as possible. Having started as a commercial cleaning company ourselves, our hearts go well beyond the janitorial software we offer. Learn more about Swept’s cleaning company software here. And to keep up on all the trends in the janitorial services industry, subscribe to our blog!

Take a look at our post pandemic Hiring,Training & Retaining Guide.