A positive attitude will point you in the right direction, and the right training programme will take you the rest of the way! Click To TweetIs your housekeeper or house cleaning employee hitting the standards you would like? Training your employee ensures everyone is working to the same standards and understands exactly what is expected of them. If you have never been shown what is expected how can you for fill those expectations?
Whilst talking to your employee is extremely important, only speaking leaves a huge gap for misinterpretation. Practical and guided training is extremely important, as is setting expectations. A well-trained employee ensures you get the best possible out of your employee, your clients are happy, you spend less time supervising, dealing with complaints, clients recommend you to others and your business continues to grow in a positive and effective manner.
You can create your own specific training for new employees, this can be time consuming or there are companies who can work with you to provide specialist training for you.
So where to start? Follow these steps to create a housekeeping training programme.
Do they have the right attitude?
If you are planning to train your new employee you will be able to give them the skills they need, but attitude is much more difficult to alter. A caring attitude is really important to ensure our new employee wants to look after their clients and provide them with the best service they can.
How much experience do they have?
If they have little or no experience but a great attitude you will likely need to spend time with them coaching them from the start. If the person has done a similar job previously they may need less of your time, but this should not be taken for granted, everyone’s expectations are different.
Will they fit with your team or family?
Having the right personality in the team is extremely important, if you have a very social team with lots of big personalities, a quiet and shy person may not fit so well and feel over whelmed by the rest of the team. Every team is different, and you should consider the team as a whole and the skills they all bring.
What should you consider when training your new housekeeper or house cleaning employee?
Time Line
Be realistic in your expectations, it will take time for a new employee to learn the way you work and the it will take them longer to do a job to begin with. Give them time to learn and speed up, try to avoid being frustrated or micro managing if you can, give them the space and time they need to grow.
Check-in Regularly.
Set times when you will check in with them to see how things are going, this way they won’t feel like you are checking up on them or be surprised when you do. You may want to meet regularly in the first month and then once a month after. This is a good time to talk about things and listen to your employee too, there may be areas where they need more support than others. Setting time aside will ensure your employee feels valued.
Training Manual
A training manual is extremely helpful, this can be online or paper. Online gives you lots more flexibility to use other media such as video to illustrate and show the standards you expect from your new employee. Your employee can also reference this material when they aren’t completely sure what they should do in a particular situation. It is important to include how you expect your new employee to interact with clients and their surrounds as they are representing you.
Practical Examples
Work alongside the employee, this could be a more experienced employee, yourself or an external trainer. Working together the experienced person can easily see where someone is struggling and needs a little more guidance. Quickly provide that guidance. If you are able, providing a buddy to work alongside at the beginning may be a good way to assess and help build the confidence of your new employee before they work independently. This will also give you a chance to show your new employee the standards you expect from them all the time.
Assessing your housekeeper or house cleaning employee.
How you choose to assess your employee will depend on a number of factors and you should consider carefully what will work best for you. Below are a few possible options.
- Assess the final product, inspect their work once complete. Be clear with your new employee at the start. And let them know you will be inspecting their work.
- In a hotel situation, you may ask a mystery shopper unknown to your team to stay with you. And carry out an inspection of the room.
- As part of your training, you may choose to carry out written tests on the training material. Remember the language you are working in may not be your employee’s first language. Also offering the option of an oral exam may be a useful way to ensure they have understood as you need them too.
- Observation. This can feel a little awkward for the new employee if they do not know this is how you plan to assess them. So make sure to let them know. And try to make them feel at ease as much as possible.
How can we help?
Polo & Tweed offer a range of training solutions and will work with you to create the best solution to meet your training needs. We can offer our expertise to help provide the right training programme for your staff. And our highly qualified trainers implement solid practical training for your staff. Polo & Tweed are highly experienced in this area. And by employing an external provider you are buying in specialist knowledge and skills. To quickly bring your employees up to a high standard.
A true investment in your staff who can then provide the highest standard of service to your clients. You spend less time dealing with complaints and problems. Your clients recommend you. And you can focus on building and growing your business further. Would you ask a dry cleaner to build a wall for you? I am sure they could but it would take them a long time. And you would probably have to deal with a number of stumbling blocks along the way.
By employing a training specialist you are getting their knowledge and expertise to move forward much quicker. Much quicker than if you were to learn through your own experience. For a full assessment of how Polo & Tweed can help you please get in touch.