The Guardian has written that ‘Employers in the UK are facing the worst staff shortages since the late 1990s, amid the rush to reopen from lockdown and a significant drop in overseas workers owing to COVID and Brexit.’ It has become a trend to raise an alert for the significant labour shortages. Even when you are looking for new cleaning and security staff.
We have come up with 5 tips to help your business deal with these staff shortages:
Retention
To ensure that your business doesn’t face a loss in staff, you need to provide incentives. This will help retain your current cleaning and security team. Offer them competitive salaries, new benefits, and more flexibility with their working hours. Showing your employees warmth and appreciation can help ensure that they want to stay with your company. Appreciating their efforts and acknowledging their successes will help to build loyalty and trust with your team. Saying ‘thank you’ will also go a long way. It may seem simple, but showing your gratitude will help to motivate your staff.
If you are looking to hire new staff, offer higher wages than your competitors. This will help make you stand out and ensure that you appeal to the best talent.
Professional Help
You don’t always need to hire an in-house cleaning and security team. Sometimes it is more beneficial to look for a professional cleaning and security company. They will be trained to industry standards and are more likely to perform a higher quality and more efficient job. They will provide their own safety equipment and it frees up your time to focus on more important tasks. Furthermore, a professional company is far more likely to work at a time that suits your business. They can also be available at short notice if necessary.
Identify Your Needs
When looking at hiring a professional cleaning or security service, you need to review your business. Understand what your needs are and provide a detailed list to the professional company. This helps them know what their top priorities are and helps you know what jobs need to be done. Ask yourself questions like:
- Do you really need someone on-site at all hours, or could you make do with office hours only?
- Is it possible to implement a policy where you declutter the premises yourself? Therefore, reducing how much time is spent cleaning.
- What needs cleaning every day? Are there things that don’t need to be cleaned as regularly?
If you have a full understanding of what your business needs, it makes it easier to find the right service.
Compare All Options
If you already use an independent cleaning or security company, make sure you have compared all available services. Look at different prices, times, and locations. Which company is really best suited to your business needs? Collect quotes from various services and compare what they offer to the price they are asking for. Do they meet your budget? Are they offering to do everything you need at a high quality? It is important to review every option you have to ensure you are getting the best service for a reasonable price.
Ask Questions
When collecting quotes from various different cleaning and security companies, you need to ensure you are asking questions. Keep an open mind and be flexible in your search. Find out if they have worked for a similar business to yours. Do they have a testimonial that you can look at? Customer reviews are useful when comparing services. If they don’t provide a good customer experience, then they probably won’t be the right service for you.
Example questions to ask a cleaning company:
- How much do you charge?
- Is insurance included?
- What products do you use? (Are they eco-friendly?)
- What services are included?
- What training do you provide?
Example questions to ask a security company:
- Are you insured?
- Have you worked in this area before?
- How do you train/monitor your guards?
- Do you arm your guards?
When providing a service, each company should be able to give you clear answers. It is then up to you to compare what they offer and their prices to find the best service.
Final words
Even though businesses are struggling to find appropriate staff and services, they must not rush a decision. By following these tips, businesses will be in a much better position to find the right cleaning and security staff. They will be able to retain staff and compare each company to find the best one to meet their needs. In the long run, it will save time and money.
