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Foreword

There are loads of methods for managing employees, many of which might be effective. Unfortunately, we have only tried one method. We can attest that it worked, based on the fact that we managed to build one of the five largest independent stand-alone pure house cleaning companies in the US in just five years. We believe that the single largest factor contributing to the fantastic growth rates of Denver Concierge has been the company’s commitment to providing exceptional (and continuously improving) service. And in a labor-intensive service industry like house cleaning, nothing is more important than managing employees.

A Matter of Style

About five years ago, I was passed over for an ambassadorship to France. In retrospect, it was probably for the best, because we ended up making a lot of dough by starting a house cleaning company instead. Then two years ago, I was visited by a friend who works for the state department. He’s tired of his work there and expressed an interest in starting his own maid service enterprise. I made him blink some when I told him straight up that he would be lousy at it. His management style just isn’t going to fly in the house cleaning industry. If he applied everything he’s learned at the state department in managing our employees, they would eat his lunch daily.

The point is, not every management style suits every circumstance. In fact, I will step out on a limb on this one and assert that it is simply impossible to scale a house cleaning company unless at least one individual having an equity interest in the enterprise actively manages employees in a candid and direct manner. The enterprise’s long-term success may depend more on this single factor, than any other because, in the house cleaning industry, growth can only be sustained if a company has a low customer churn rate. And a low customer churn rate depends on two factors: 1) good customer service; and 2) a low employee churn rate. Both of these factors cannot exist unless employees are managed proactively in a direct manner by a motivated energetic individual whose financial well-being absolutely depends on the employees performing their duties in an excellent manner.

Counseling Sessions are the Cornerstone

What do we mean by proactive and direct? For us, it means regular, frequent, and usually informal conversations with employees. We call such discussions “Counseling Sessions.”
Maybe you’re already doing them. If so, then all your employees have a clear understanding of what you expect out of them when they come to work. Those requiring improvement in some area understand precisely what you expect them to do in order to improve. And your best performing employees have been recently acknowledged and thanked, and each knows precisely what steps are required to be promoted to the next level.

Counseling sessions represent management’s primary method for influencing employees’ behavior. In our company, we conduct two or three counseling sessions each day. On a monthly basis these sessions involve over 50% of our total professional service employees. Sessions vary in length, but since most of them are conducted during morning dispatch, they generally do not last longer than five minutes each and some last just one minute. The counseling sessions really add a lot of spice to morning dispatches.

Ground Rules for Counseling Sessions

We have some basic ground rules in conducting counseling sessions, the most important of which is that a manager NEVER MEETS ALONE with an employee, under any circumstances, ever. We conduct all counseling sessions with two managers. If this is impossible, then we may substitute a trusted Team Leader for the second manager. Furthermore, if a counseling session ever involves a contentious issue, like a firing or significant reprimand, then we may invite a Team Leader to attend the meeting with two managers. In such cases, we also prepare a written record about the meeting which documents the date, who was in attendance and what transpired during the meeting.

In addition to the obvious benefit of mitigating legal liability, inviting a team leader to observe a contentious counseling session is an effective means of ensuring that what transpired during the meeting is not misrepresented to other employees. Choose the right Team Leader to represent your side of the story, and this can serve as an effective means of promoting the perception among your employees that management is making fair, rational, and consistent personnel decisions.

We never make a personnel decision without considering how the decision will be perceived by other employees. That doesn’t mean that we compromise our personnel decisions, but it does mean that we avoid taking any personnel action without carefully thinking through the likely chain of reactions. For example, when we promote someone, we consider how others will react, like peers who are not being promoted. Similarly, we very rarely immediately fire someone for a mistake. Instead we might ask them to take the next day off, this gives us an opportunity to check facts, think through the likely consequences, and flush our system of every ounce of emotion.

Counseling sessions can be less intimidating when they are informal. But informal doesn’t imply that they aren’t carefully thought out and planned. In fact, you can’t hold effective counseling sessions, without preparation. Don’t squander your best advantage: you know about the counseling session, while the employee may not. And if you suspect that the employee is expecting a confrontation, consider delaying the meeting for a day to put them off guard. In terms of planning, we try to avoid mixing contentious issues with fact finding sessions. We gather the facts directly from the employee, confirm them with anyone possible, plan our course of action, and only then hold the counseling session.
Sometimes an employee will manage to turn the tables on us, and request his own counseling session involving a matter which catches us off guard. When this happens, we suggest that the matter be discussed tomorrow instead, in order to give ourselves time to prepare the best reply. In fact, almost anytime any employee asks me for, or about, something, I arrange a time to discuss it the following day. And I always make a note of such matters and make sure that I initiate the response at the time promised, so this is not a matter of procrastinating. It’s just a matter of being deliberate and thoughtful about personnel decisions and employee matters, because they are really important.

Counseling Poor Performers

It’s been our experience that most employees will do whatever reasonable thing we ask, as long as we ask clearly and politely. When we counsel poor performers, the goal of the counseling session is always to clearly state what it is precisely that we wish the employee to change, and then to extract a promise to improve.

The promise is important, because, first it indicates an admission by the employee that there exists an issue, and secondly, it indicates an intention to improve. If either of these two elements is lacking, then it may not be possible for the employee to improve, which would make the employee a candidate for termination (which would require a separate counseling session). So, we start the session with the intention of encouraging the employee to improve, and end the session with a useful sense about the employee’s prospects for improvement.
Generally, we make every effort to avoid playing court. Sometimes the session can be as short as:

“Maria, you seem distracted lately. The Team Leaders think that your cleaning is getting sloppier. Can you please do better? Thank you, please do. Bye.”

We never give employees ultimatums in counseling sessions, but we might go so far as to say,

“Delores, how are you? How long have you worked here? Have you passed your General examination? Do you remember the company’s seven unforgivable mistakes? One of them is that we never use green scratch pads. The client informed us that she saw you using her green scratch pad on the front of her cupboard. That’s against company policy. Can you please promise me that you won’t ever use a green scratch pad again when you are working for our company? This is not a small thing. Do you understand that this is a warning? Good. Thank you. Bye.”

When the counseling session arises directly from the performance evaluations, we clearly tell the employee so:

“Sam, how long have you worked here? Do you like this job? So, you know that we evaluate Cleaning Associates every two weeks? Since you started, we’ve hired three other people who have now all passed you in terms of efficiency. According to the Team Leaders, you are still the slowest person in our company. Maybe they haven’t told you so before, but I’m telling you now. According to the Team Leaders as a group, they say you’re the slowest one. Maybe you should drink a little more coffee. Do you drink coffee? OK, but you understand that it’s not fair to the other team members for you to clean one bathroom while they clean the rest of the house. Do you think you can improve? Can you go faster? Good. Please do. I hope when the next evaluations come out, they show that you have improved. Thank you. Bye.”

If necessary, two weeks later we might have one last counseling session with Sam:

“Sam, do you remember two weeks ago when we met to discuss your performance evaluations? You said you could improve, but according to the Team Leaders, you are still the slowest one. They give you OK marks for quality and say you have a good attitude, but still you are slow. It’s not fair to the other employees who are working hard, because if you’re not doing your share, then they have to do it for you. What do you think we should do? Do you like this job? If you don’t like cleaning houses, and your heart is not in it, then it will be difficult for you to improve. Are you sure that your heart is in this job? OK, if you like the job, and you want to improve, then I’m sure you can. What is it that you can do differently to go faster? OK, I’ll speak with your Team Leaders this week about showing you ways to improve. As long as you are trying your best, then they won’t mind spending extra time showing you how to become faster. But if they do that, and you don’t try your best, then they are going to punish you with low ratings again in the next evaluation. So, do you want them to spend some extra time with you? Good. I’ll talk to them. And you’ll try your best now, right? Good. Thank you, Sam. Bye”

We didn’t give Sam any kind of ultimatum, but as he leaves the meeting, there really should be no doubt in Sam’s mind that he is now behind the eight ball. Following a meeting like that, my money would be on Sam as a Quit, with “No Call, No Show” for the next morning, which isn’t a bad result, if that is his choice. But we have our own “Sam” who survived a couple counseling sessions like those, and ultimately improved sufficiently to be promoted to Team Leader–another happy ending.

Counseling Exceptional Performers

A service company’s star performers represent its foundation. So, one of the primary benefits of a system for evaluating performance is finding and developing star performers. The companies which do this most effectively manage to keep their best employees, and that’s a good part of what sifting employees is all about.

Unfortunately, sometimes it is easy to overlook the positive aspect of checking and evaluating, because the greatest short-term benefit from these activities can be derived by focusing on poor performances. But in the long-term, if management fails to also recognize and reward exceptional performances, then star performers will revert to offering merely acceptable performances.

In terms of recognizing exceptional performances, don’t underestimate the power of “Thank you.” I try to say it at least once per week to every employee, and everyday, if I can to our stars. Once one of our managers asked me, “Why are you thanking them all the time? All they are doing is their job?” My reply was, “Why not? What does it cost? Do you know of a cheaper way to make them smile?” And smiling is so contagious. OK, aside from thanking them, we also promote the stars, which means we pay them well. But once we promote them, we keep thanking them.

Counseling Average Performers

When an employee has worked for us for quite a long time and is never an outlier, neither good nor bad, then we invite them to discuss their plans for the job. It’s sort of a way to say:

“Hey, we haven’t forgotten about you. We appreciate your work. We’re watching you. You’re not doing badly, but there are others who are doing better. Do you like your job? Do you understand, that in order for you to advance here, you’re going to have to improve your quality, and you have to work harder too. Then the Team Leaders will take notice and recommend you for promotion. That’s how it works here. Do you have any questions? Thank you. Bye.”

Fishing Expeditions

Sometimes when we are unsure about whether or not something transpired and who may have been involved, we’ll go on fishing expeditions.

“Hi Maria. Is everything going OK? Is there anything about yesterday which you would like to tell me? I don’t understand your times yesterday—the ones you wrote on your time summary. Is this really your departure time? What time did you arrive at this house then? How many minutes does it take you to get from your first house to your second house. And do you think this time here is accurate? Do you feel that your team followed the rules yesterday about recording time? I am quite happy for you to take lunch, but you have to report it. Do you understand what effect it has on the Cleaning Associates pay, if somebody reports times wrong? OK. I’m going to ask Angela to check your times everyday this week. Do you think you can be careful to make sure they are more accurate? Thank you, Maria. Bye.”

It couldn’t have been a perfect counseling session, because we lacked perfect information, and because Maria is tough as nails. She understands the game. She’s not going to incriminate herself. So the purpose of the fishing expedition, in her case was to warn her that we might be onto her, so that she might moderate her behavior, at least on the margin.

Promoting Employees

We conduct a promotions interview, before actually promoting individuals. We came around to this concept after announcing a promotion for someone on a Friday who had planned to (and still did) quit on the following Monday. As usual, everyone except me knew she was quitting ahead of time. Maybe that’s why they were all smiling slyly as I was announcing the promotion.

“Yesenia, you are doing a wonderful job. I’m very happy you work here. Do you like it here? How long do you plan to work here? Good. Ten more years would be fine. We wish to promote you to Team Leader effective Monday. Congratulations. As you know, the position involves a lot of responsibility. You have to check houses. You have to send Cleaning Associates back when they don’t clean well. If you don’t then it won’t be long before you get the reputation of being a pushover. Then you’ll start getting complaints from customers, and then we’ll have to take the promotion away. Do you understand that? Good. What questions do you have for me? OK. Angela will make an announcement today. Your pay will change starting Monday. Do you understand the Team Leader pay? Maria will explain it to you. Angela will give you new shirts on Monday, so please bring all your Cleaning Associate shirts in, and she will exchange them with Team Leader shirts. Thank you, Yesenia for your wonderful work. Congratulations. Bye.”

Demoting Employees

You have to have a way to undo promotions, in order to give yourself the option of developing through promoting. For the right person, an early promotion can cause them to come alive. Push, cajole, test, promote. If it doesn’t work out, demote.

We didn’t come around to the concept of demotions until we had been in business for a couple years. For the first couple years, if a Team Leader didn’t work out, we fired her. As it turns out, that was probably a waste. At our company, there is no way someone can be considered for the position of Team Leader unless they work hard, have an excellent attitude, and have perfect quality. But the attributes required for being an exceptional Cleaning Associate are only a few of the prerequisites for being a Team Leader. There are loads of other attributes required for being a good Team Leader, like good judgment, management skills, map skills, client management skills, teaching skills, the ability to check houses, and the strength of character to send Cleaning Associates back when they don’t clean well. So when an employee wipes out at the Team Leader position, he may very well still make a good long-term Cleaning Associate. So now for those who don’t cut the grade, we demote, instead of terminate.

I never imagined it would work. I first tried it with Delores. She had finally been promoted to Team Leader after 18 months as Cleaning Associate. She had a wonderful attitude, but as it turns out, rather weak management skills. She lost some clients. We really didn’t wish to fire her, so we gave her the option to be demoted instead. She chose to stay on as a Cleaning Associate (which in our company entails a huge pay cut). Of course, I was surprised, but after that, I quit giving failed Team Leaders the option. Now we just demote them, knowing that there is a pretty good chance they will quit. In fact, over half those we have demoted have stayed. The precedent for staying now makes it acceptable among the cleaners to stay on once they have been demoted. We even have one employee who has been demoted twice, and she still works for us.

Then there is the temporary demotion as punishment for Team Leaders. We started punishing mistakes a couple years ago with temporary demotions, like one or two weeks as a Cleaning Associate. This has become a tactic which we use judiciously. We know when we deploy it that the Team Leader might quit. So when we bust someone down for two weeks, we do so accepting that it might be the end for them. As a means of deterring deviant behavior, it has worked quite well for us.

Team Leader Timeouts

For mistakes in judgment, or losing a client we sometimes temporarily bust Team Leaders down to Cleaning Associate for one or two weeks. For more serious altercations, a series of wipe outs or an attitude problem, then we might come around to thinking that the Team Leader doesn’t value the position as highly as they once did. When we get this feeling, then we ask them to take a week or two off work (without pay, of course). This gives them a chance to look for another job, maybe even take another job for a few days. After comparing us to other companies, the value of a job with us becomes clearer to them.

It’s safer to do this with Team Leaders, because their pay is significantly higher than Cleaning Associates’ pay and they generally will find difficulty transferring their seniority to another company. About 90% of the Team Leaders who receive this punishment actually return (as opposed to Cleaning Associates, who generally don’t return). A prerequisite for returning is that they make us promises to improve their performance. And by and large, we find that they do perform better afterwards.

Firing Employees

Firing employees is such a final act, so if you are uncertain about whether to fire someone, then delay the decision until you are more certain. Before reaching a final decision, check your facts, and develop a hypothetical explanation to the employee’s peers. If you find difficulty in developing such a hypothetical explanation or justifying the reason for firing the employee, then you may wish to reconsider your decision. Once you’re fully prepared and are certain of your decision, then there can be no response from the employee which could change your mind during the final process of carrying out the termination.

We don’t do impromptu firings, and we seldom mix fact finding discussions with firings. Sometimes that means that we meet with someone today to discuss a situation, and then meet with the employee again tomorrow to fire him. Sometimes when we do this, the employee quits after the first meeting, which is much better than firing him, of course.
Generally, there are two types of reasons to fire employees. One type is for a violation of a company policy. For reasons like this, we usually try to be as kind as possible, but in such cases we generally tell the employee the precise reason, because we want everyone in the company to understand the cause, in order to set an example. The second type of reason is for failure to perform to company standards. In such cases, we never lie to the employee, but we often tell the employee something very general, and we always try to be as kind as possible. It serves no purpose to be critical, or offer any sort of blow to the employee’s self confidence, and if he rejects our reason, then it can sometimes cause the employee to become angry.

We always have two managers present when we fire employees, and if the employee is being fired for a violation of company policy, then we may also ask a Team Leader to be present.

In terms of the actual termination meeting, when we fire someone, we always tell the employee so first thing in the termination meeting, then if do we give an explanation, it will be very brief, and then we discuss the employee’s future and the steps required to wrap up the termination process. Following is an example of how we would go about firing an employee for working too slowly. Keep in mind that such a meeting is most likely to have occurred as a last resort, following one to three counseling sessions during which we encouraged the employee to improve. We might approach it like this:

“Hello, Sally. I’ve asked to speak with you today, because I don’t think this job is perfect for you. So we have decided that you shouldn’t work here anymore, starting now. So we are going to pay you two hours for coming here today, and all your money we owe you, but you are not going to clean for us anymore or even today. But everyone here likes you. You have a wonderful personality and we want to do whatever we can to help you find another job. This work is very difficult work and we find so few people who are really well-suited for it. Some people have natural talents which make them suited for such work, and some have talents for other types of work. I think that you have exceptional interpersonal skills. You have a wonderful personality and a very nice smile. I think you could be very good in a job like sales. And if someone calls me tomorrow and asks me about you, I would be very happy to tell them so. You were always on time and you have a perfect attendance record, so there are a lot of nice things I could say to a prospective employer about you, if they call me. And maybe you could even do fine at a different cleaning company. You know, we wash floors by hand and that is very hard work. Maybe at a different company, the work would be easier and it would go fine. So even if another cleaning company called me, I would say very nice things about you. A lot of people who have worked here in the past have been in the same position—the job wasn’t perfect for them, and after they left they found a job which suited them better. And some of them have even come back and told us later that they were much happier at their new jobs. And if we could help you in any way to find another job, then we want to do that. Angela is going to give you her business cards now. You can give these to prospective employers as a reference and if someone calls Angela, she will say very nice things about you. Employers often call and we always do everything we can to say something nice about people who have worked here, because we care what employees think about our company and we care about everyone who has worked here, and it always helps when we can say something nice about someone, and for sure for you we have so many nice things we can say about you. So I hope you take us up on this offer and give Angela’s card to prospective employers.
So, Angela says you have three company shirts. We need those back. Are they at your house? So, where is your house? Can you go to your house now and bring those back, and by then Angela will have your final check ready. Do you have knee pads, too? OK, if you wish to return the knee pads then she will also give you your deposit for those. OK, then we will see you in an hour or so. Angela will have your check ready for the past two weeks, including two hours for today, and will give you cash for your knee pads deposit. Thank you, Sally.”

We want two things from the meeting: first, to terminate the employee as efficiently as possible; and second, to have the employee leave the meeting feeling as good as she possibly can about herself. With this in mind, the firing speech is comprised of several important elements. First is the firing. We don’t build up to a big climax or engage in a long justification of why we’ve reached the decision. We just say it up front directly in the kindest way possible. The purpose of this is to clearly indicate that you have made an irrevocable decision. Generally, I avoid any in-your-face words like, “You’re fired.” Neither do I wish there to be any doubt in the employee’s mind regarding the purpose of the meeting—by two sentences into the meeting, I want her to definitively understand that her employment with our company has been terminated.

Secondly, I make sure that the issue of final compensation is closely linked to the firing phrase. I do this because it’s surprising how often we find that an employee is sufficiently happy about collecting her pay early so as to actually be pleased overall about having been fired. When this situation arises, it can make the process more pleasant for everyone, so I always mention it up front.

Thirdly, I want to be sensitive to the fact that, despite previous discussions with the employee about her performance, she still might be entirely surprised by our decision. So after making it clear that we are firing her, I then proceed with a long filibuster which includes everything nice I can think to say about her. The filibuster fulfills three objectives:

1. gives the employee time for what I have said to sink in;
2. offers as many countervailing complements as I can think of in order to soften the blow; and
3. the additional words steadily add weight to the decision, and momentum to the process. It’s like filling a bucket. As the bucket becomes fuller and fuller it becomes ever more evident that your decision is not a matter of negotiation. If the employee manages to interrupt the filibuster and protest, then it’s as though the contents of the bucket are being emptied. Then the bucket has to be refilled again. If you engage in a long discussion, back and forth, then the process starts to drag out. Since firing sessions aren’t enjoyable for anyone, there is no benefit in allowing this to occur. So the filibuster is important because it offers time for reality to sink in, and it fills the air with non-confrontational words while the employee comes around to the idea that the decision is final.

Notice that I waited as long as possible to give the employee an opportunity to respond. And when I finally did offer the opportunity, I made sure that it was regarding a tangible matter which relates to the final process of being fired, not an invitation to discuss the irrefutable reasons underlying our decision.

The promise to say nice things about her was not an idle promise. We generally do so as a matter of company policy, to the fullest extent possible.

Despite the script, employees sometimes ask specifically why they are being fired. We generally avoid being led into such discussions and the first time we are asked we might offer an obtuse reply like, “You have wonderful qualities which make you better suited for many other types of work.” We would thank her, and then lead the discussions back to wrapping up the process.

Still, if an employee is a little bit angry, then she may repeat the question. This usually causes us to deploy an Add-On Plan B Section to the meeting. When I sense that an employee is angry, I usually take it as an indication that she feels some injustice has befallen her and has something which she wishes to say. So, I ask the Team Leader to leave if there is one present and then provocatively remind her that my decision to fire her is based on performance evaluations prepared by the Team Leaders. Then I invite her to give us any sort of feedback about our company which she wishes. Now she has a decision to make. If she really is feeling bitter, I’ve offered her an opportunity to retaliate against her supervisors, the company, or me. If she understands that I am pumping her for information, then she might resent it and so then decide to clam up and get out of there. If she dislikes one or more of the Team Leaders, then she is quite likely to rat one or more of them out, with something like: “Maria says I’m slow, but she spends half the day in customers’ houses speaking to her boyfriend on the phone.” Or she might say, this is really a lousy company and I don’t agree with your policy about washing floors by hand. Or she might say, “You are a really lousy manager. You have no idea what is going on in your company, and you don’t know anything about me.” Any of these responses represent exceptionally good progress, because they have provided the employee an opportunity to vent. No matter what, I never offer any semblance of disagreement. I thank the employee for their valuable feedback, even insults, in the most agreeable way possible. I never argue, because arguing only serves to prolong the meeting. And I always say “thank you,” because it’s not often that you find someone who is capable of arguing with a thank you.

Final parting insults, even a little door slamming, anything short of going postal, can be good therapy for someone who has just been fired. We don’t wish to deny the employee any satisfaction which they might be able to derive from such behavior. All that notwithstanding, I do always make sure that each employee we fire is conscientiously escorted entirely off the property.

Finally, just a few miscellaneous loose ends about firing: in terms of useful information, exit interviews of fired Cleaning Associates has yielded some real gems. So we don’t squander the opportunity of an impromptu exit interview, when the opportunity presents itself. Regarding uniforms, we don’t like having them in circulation once an employee has left the company. We fear that they might be used to misrepresent employment status. So we are careful to track and retrieve uniforms.

Summary

1. Managing a scaled maid service enterprise requires that at least one owner actively manages employees in a candid and direct manner
2. A system for managing employee performance evaluations complements regular counseling sessions by allowing them to be held more frequently and on a more timely basis.
3. Take constant care regarding counseling session procedures, and extra care when conducting contentious counseling sessions.
4. Positive feedback is important because it encourages and sustains star performances.
5. Promotions and demotions are a two-way street.
6. Be careful, kind, unemotional, and resolute when firing employees.

What’s Next?

We split the Booklets, “Managing House Cleaning Employees” and “How to Evaluate House Cleaners’ Performances” into two booklets, because it turned out to be a lot of material. But the two concepts complement each other to such an extent that it might be difficult to apply one concept effectively without the other. For that reason, if you didn’t despise this Booklet and you have not yet read “How to Evaluate House Cleaners’ Performances,” we encourage that you consider reading that Booklet as the next step in implementing this material.

Additionally, a system for training service employees can complement counseling sessions. A common and valid defense for poor decisions is that the employee simply may not know or understand a policy or procedure. Your first clue that your service company has a training deficiency is a recurrence of a performance issue across a number of employees. The cure is a revision of your training, and the House Cleaning Alliance’s Training Designer allows you to make corrections and improvements to training material continuously.

The House Cleaning Alliance’s “How to Clean . . .” booklets represent literature intended for professional house cleaners with an emphasis on thoroughness, not speedy cleaning.

Kaizen: continuous improvement.

Today we are good . . . tomorrow we’ll become better