“I am often asked, “Willem is it hard to find cleaners?”
My answer is always the same, “No, but it is hard to find good cleaners”
If I put an ad on SEEK for cleaners to join the iClean team I am always inundated by a plethora of applications. Sadly, most of these applications look the same. Very few stand out.
The most valuable use of my time is to find the right people to join the team, because here’s what I have discovered being in the contract cleaning industry for over twenty years; your business won’t fold if you lose a good person, but it can certainly have major problems if you hire the wrong person.
So, how do you find good people?
One of the best methods I have found is to cull the huge list of applicants is to send each applicant an email asking three to five questions:
- Why do you want to join our team
- What do you do well? What is your superpower
- Who could we call to discuss your cleaning ability?
- Where do you want to be in five years time?
- What’s the most valuable lesson you have learned in your life.
Make sure you always ask open not closed questions. Questions that start with “Who”, Why”, “Where”, What” or “How”. This makes candidates have to think about their answers and at the same time you can assess their English and communication skills.
Some people won’t reply. That’s fine. You don’t want them on your team anyway.
I always look at all the responses in detail, because I find that there is often gold in the replies. Mind you, with Ai now, you still need to be careful. I have seen incredible cover letters that look like they were written by a professor of English literature only to discover the applicant could hardly string a sentence together
That’s why I create a short list of candidates and bring them in for an interview. Some will never make it or come up with excuses. And that’s okay, you don’t want them on your team anyway.
After the first interview I usually have a good idea as to who I believe we should hire but I always let my team make the final decision at a second interview. After all, they will need to work with the new recruit.
One final comment. I have discovered that it’s not possible to motivate people. Instead, it is only possible to people who are already motivated to be the best version of themselves.”
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