Blueprint employee performance plan lightbulb

Hiring a full staff of custodians is enough of a challenge for most building service contractors (BSCs) or in-house managers in the cleaning industry. Factor in the difficulty of retaining the strong candidates that a team manages to land is yet another conversation. To ensure a custodian feels valued and has a path toward professional growth, management needs a keen sense of awareness on employee performance — while also conveying that to its staff. 

By establishing an employee performance program, teams can take the proper steps to having an organized team that top employees will want to commit to. To help get such a plan off the ground, Crowd Comfort outlined five critical steps to establishing a janitorial employee performance program.

1. Having a consistent evaluation system. To separate the all-stars from the regular or underperforming team members, there needs to be a level playing field for what constitutes a job well done. In the custodial realm, this can include imperial metrics that make performance clear. Examples include tracking confirmed cleanings, which organize designated tasks for facilities with alerts on when they are completed by a specific employee. Additionally, quality assurance ratings are templates managers can utilize to evaluate how well tasks are done with an official score.

2. Recognition Frequency. The next stop involves how often employees should get recognized. It can be tricky to walk the tightrope of giving enough recognition, but not to oversaturate it to the point where employees feel like the compliments are so frequent that they aren’t genuine. A proven timeline for many departments is quarterly recognition. Holding a ceremony with awards or promotions four times per year is a good launchpad for future inspiration from workers while not having to wait too long to get their props. 

3. Deciding Award Parameters. The main key here is not to overpromise and underdeliver. Any award or award ceremony should be pre-planned in accordance with a set budget. While a ceremony doesn’t want to make any employee feel inadequate, it can be ok to have tiers for awards based on performance. For example, Crowd Comfort highlights an example where the top 10 performers on a staff based off set metrics get a $200 gift card, while the remaining top 25 percent of employees get $100. In this instance, all worthy employees get some credit, but the flame is sparked for those looking for greater recognition the next quarter. 

4. Keeping Staff in the Loop. In order to avoid complaints, it’s important to lay out the parameters of an evaluation program or what the top performers can receive as reward. Having a consistent group chat or email schedule can help mitigate confusion. It also doesn’t help to brand it around the facility with posters and other types of promotion. 

5. Program Evaluation. While it’s important to make sure employees are being properly recognized with a performance program, it’s important to evaluate the performance of the program itself. Ways to determine this is to see if there’s been a noticeable improvement in efficiency for initiative among staff to take on new roles or seek promotions. Feedback from the team itself can go a long way as well when it comes to being heard. 

For more tips on retaining top talent in the cleaning industry, click here.