How to reduce staff turnover in housekeeping
Because housekeeping is a labour intensive but lower paid occupation staff turnover can be incredibly high. If this is a concern for your company you are not alone. This is one of the biggest problem areas in terms of employee engagement for most large businesses. So how can you tackle such a huge issue and keep your housekeeping staff for the long haul? We discuss exactly why your staff are leaving and how to reduce staff turnover in housekeeping.
Why are my housekeeping staff leaving?
One of the initial challenges lies with what your housekeeping employee’s intentions were when you hired them. Were they interested in progressing in their career as a cleaner or were they using it as a stepping stone to move to another position? A lot of cleaners use the opportunity to get into a business say for example a hotel and they move to the front of house position.
Whilst no one would condemn them for wanting to progress within the business it does leave another space to fill in the housekeeping department. Perhaps your housekeeping staff were just using the job to fill in some spare time before they moved onto a completely different role in a completely different company. Whatever the issue is we think it’s clear that this is more of a hiring issue.
We know what you’re thinking.
I don’t have enough candidates to choose from to be picky.
Whilst this is true in an industry which is increasingly hard to recruit for. The key here is to ask the right questions during your interview process to really gauge what your candidate is thinking, from here you can try and persuade them otherwise.
Questions to ask in your recruitment process
1). Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?
2). How can you see yourself progressing in the role?
3). If you could work in any other department in the business what would it be?
4). Why would you like to work in the department which you mentioned previously?
5). Who would you most aspire to be in the company? Head of housekeeping, head of sales, or lead receptionist?
From these questions, you should be able to tell whether their heart is in the right place for the cleaning career or if they are just using it to get their foot in the door for another position. If you notice that they are not dedicated to cleaning this is where you step in. You need to persuade them that a career in cleaning has as much progression as any other department.
A lot of people leave cleaning jobs because they see it as a dead-end job with no room for progression. Your job is to make them aware that there is a good opportunity and advancement in the profession that they have chosen. Compare its importance to the department in which they said they would like to work. This will show them that you value housekeeping as a crucial aspect to your business making them feel more engaged.
Engage your housekeeping staff from the moment they accept your job offer
To reduce staff turnover in housekeeping you need to keep up communication with them before they’ve even started. During the time from which your candidate accepted your offer to their first day, a lot of things can happen which can lead them to not show up on their first day. We all know what a headache this can be. You are back to square one, wasting time and money trying to recruit for yet another cleaner.
Truth be told because a lot of cleaners are paid minimum wage, they don’t think that it will be such a big deal if they don’t show up. You can combat this with timely nudges sent straight to their device. The Oplift preboarding app is perfect to reduce staff turnover. The app allows you to send notifications to an employee’s mobile or tablet device, they pop-up just like a Whatsapp notification. This alerts can link straight to an article, video or external webpage.
Here’s an example of how they could work:
2 weeks before they start - Send them a welcome video message from their team leader.
1.5 weeks before they start - Send them an onboarding article which explains where everything is and what they can expect on their first day.
1 week before they start - Send a digital checklist with everything they’ll need on their first day e.g. uniform, cleaning products, notebook, intranet login.
4 days before they start - Send them a video from their colleague giving them tips and tricks to make their first week easier and more enjoyable.
1 day before their first day - Send them good luck message saying how you can’t wait to welcome them to the team.
Keep their morale high with incentives and recognition
Doing the same tasks day in, day out can really destroy motivation, add to the fact that housekeeping staff are not paid much and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. We know that you don’t have the budget to boost all cleaner’s wage packets. So you need to think of more creatives ways to incentivise them and keep their morale high.
Reward and recognition software
The first is to use an employee reward and recognition software platform. On these platforms, managers and colleagues can send badges to one another when they’ve done a good job. The Oplift platform allows your staff to hand out stickers and trophies. Stickers for smaller achievements and trophies for the big milestones. Perhaps one of your cleaners completed their cleaning schedule in record speed time. Reward them with a sticker. This sticker will be kept in their ‘you’ section of the app to reflect their work and to be used for performance reviews to help them progress in their careers.
Cheap gifts and competitions
If you don’t have an employee review or recognition platform incentivise them with small gifts. These don’t have to cost a lot but they work wonders when boosting housekeeping happiness and productivity. An example could be the person who receives the most positive reviews by the end of the week will receive a chocolate hamper.
Show them how they can progress and give them a clear career path
To reduce staff turnover in housekeeping don’t just shove them into the role and hope for the best. Make it clear what you expect from them in terms of progression and how you will know if they are exceeding expectations.
Don’t just tell them how they can progress. Show them how they can progress. Get them to meet each level of seniority in the housekeeping team and ask them to explain how they reached that level. Hearing a journey from ‘the horse’s mouth’ as it were, is much more powerful than you simply telling them.
Show them the criteria which each level of seniority has to reach before they can progress into the level above their current position. This will help your cleaners visualise exactly what they need to achieve to progress within their career. It is also crucial to mention what the pay increases can be if they develop.
By fully communicating that there is scope to learn, grow and develop in the role it will make your cleaners more inclined to stay.
Offer competitive wages
This is just a fact that you can’t escape from. If a competitor is offering more money per hour even if it is 50p then your staff are more likely to want to work there. Do your research and see what other companies in your area are offering their cleaners, look at their perks and bonuses. If your perks, bonuses and pay are better than theirs then great! Emphasise those in your job advert and in your interview process. If they’re not you’re going to have to rethink how you reward your housekeeping staff.
Keep them connected to the bigger picture of the company
Housekeeping staff can feel like they aren’t valued and because of their early shift hours, they can feel like they get left out. When an employee feels disconnected from the wider business it can destroy their morale and leave them incredibly disengaged. Of course, you can’t do anything about their unsociable hours, or about the fact that they are busy on their feet all day.
But what you can do is engage them on a company app which they can access on their own mobile device. The idea is to make them feel part of the family no matter where they are. By using an engagement app you can keep them up to date with all of the latest news, let them know what training they can complete, have a place where they can view their rewards and let them know that they are recognised for their hard work. Leaderboards on the eLearning platform can also encourage healthy competition, it lets them play with members of the team that they might not have even met before.
Some of the biggest complaints on Glassdoor from housekeeping staff
Lone working - The majority of housekeeping staff complain about the loneliness of the role and how they miss interacting with others. Tip: To counteract this you need to implement a solution which makes them feel like part of the family as mentioned above.
Bad management - A common complaint from housekeeping staff is mentioning how badly they are managed. They discuss how they are spoken to in a derogatory way and treated in an unacceptable manner. Tip: As Marcus Buckingham once said: “People don’t leave companies they leave their managers.” If managers are the root cause of the issue then none of the tips above are going to help. You need to carry out more reviews of your housekeeping management and put penalties in place for anyone not behaving in the appropriate way.
No meals on shift - A lot of cleaners were disappointed that they didn’t receive any meals on shift. This was especially frustrating when they were working incredibly long hours with no break at all because of the pressure. Tip: Offer your cleaning staff lunches or breakfast meals to make up for their intense hours.
Feedback is ignored - Housekeeping staff on the website felt neglected. Any feedback they made to management was completely ignored. They felt that all control was held tightly at the top and they were treated as a commodity rather than a person. Tip: Have a dedicated place where your employees can write their feedback. Ensure you reply to their comments and any feedback you take on board post it in your internal comms. This will show that even if isn’t their specific feedback you take action on, you have still listened to the housekeeping department as a whole and made changes to suit their requirements.
If you are struggling to reduce turnover in your housekeeping department have a chat with us about how we can help you. Our platform has a 99% usage rate, has seen 75% more employees wanting to progress into another role in the business and has increased employee happiness and engagement.
