How To Qualify Cleaning Staff Applicants
The thought of hiring again for most business owners is a nightmare. They hate the process, they get frustrated by all the time wasters and therefor put little effort into a recruitment process.
Hiring Cleaning staff is far easier if you pre-qualify the applicants.
This qualification process is primarily aimed at cutting down the list of 100’s of applicants to establish a shortlist of qualified candidates who PERFECTLY match your Employee Avatar.
Where You Advertise:
Where you advertise already acts as a qualifying tool – If you are advertising in the local Mums and Bubs Magazine, it’s pretty safe to say you aren’t going to get many Students applying for your job. Advertising online is becoming an increasingly popular and effective method of employment advertising and qualifying: online job boards, Seek, Craig’s List, Indeed, LinkedIn, Jora – you name it. Certain job boards are better than others, some of which also have some recruitment features that help you qualify employees further; by asking questions specific to the job requirements, therefore, automatically culling those who don’t meet the requirements.
While some job board services are free, other you need to pay for to advertise. However, free isn’t always better, and just because you paid to list a job does not mean that platform will return the best applicants.
Be specific in your Job Ad:
Your Job Ad itself holds extreme importance in the qualifying process. If your job says “Cleaner Wanted, $x/hr. Start tomorrow” you’re going to receive a wide range of applicants, many of whom won’t tick any of your boxes. That’s because you haven’t told them who you are looking for.
Therefore, being broad and unspecific in your job advertisement will just lead to a longer, more drawn out process of elimination. This is simply time wasted.
So unless your business is constantly hiring, it’s important to advertise for a specific position/role or site.
So, in order to avoid this long and unnecessary process you must be specific in your advertisement. Below you can see an example of a specific, detailed job advertisement where it clearly outlines what is required from applicants to move to the next stage of the process.
- Outline Specifics of the Position Hrs, Time of Day, Day of the Week etc.
- Tell them about your business, and why they should want to work for you.
- Tell them how to apply
- Layout what are the ideal employee would be
- Use tripwires to cull those that can’t follow instructions
Tripwires. Haven’t heard that term before. Tripwires, are requests or specifics that you place within your ad that gives the Applicants actions to take. If they read the ad fully, take the time to understand the role, and apply as per your requests, they’ll be one step closer to an interview.
However, those applicants who are simply just uploading boiler plate CV’s in mass, for any job, will simply overlook these tripwires, and essentially unqualify themselves.
A Resume or CV can be made up pretty easily, specifically in the Cleaning Industry and in most case, most business owners don’t really employ purely on experience. They often want trustworthy, reliable, consistent, considerate, keen workers who can be trained, who listen, who are respectful and want to be part of their team for the long run.
You simply can’t establish these characteristics with a CV. However, people who can listen, keen, read your ad at length. People who are respectful and want to join your team, respect your time, so only apply for work they want as they don’t want to waste your time.
*We are interested in employing a Commercial Cleaner with plenty of experience in servicing a commercial client in [insert location] in the evening from X.XXpm Monday – Friday. Suitable candidates should have their own vehicle and license and a smartphone/device (Android/iPhone).
This position will be a Casual/Part-Time/Full-Time position for suitable experienced cleaners. Work is to be performed between 6.00pm – 11.00pm Monday – Friday and is for approx X hrs per shift.
The suitable candidates must have cleaning experience but more importantly the attitude to provide a high service level to the client and be able to provide reliable, consistent and long-term cleaning. A [insert qualification or licenses] would prove very valuable.
Opportunities exist to receive more hours in the future for a committed reliable cleaning team or covering others shifts on occasion. Full field support with a roving supervisor available to assist you at all times.
Looking for someone who is keen to be part of the team and understand their role in providing clean & hygienic offices for the client.
Our aim to provide services to the client and ultimately their satisfaction and praise is the main purpose of this position. This position relies on someone who finds these hours extremely suitable for their lifestyle or requirements, and someone who lives with 20min of [Insert Location] would be looked at above others.
Full support, monitoring, and training provided in all cleaning aspects, security procedures, and standards.
We are a modern cleaning service provider who uses technology to monitor, train and support staff.
IMPORTANT! Please email a Resume and Cover Letter. Cover Letter should outline why this particular position suits you and why you would be suitable for this position. You need to stand out against the 100’s of applications we receive. Add the following Ad Number: 0077 onto your Cover Letter.
Failure to provide these simple requirements will remove you from being considered.
Please do not apply if you are looking for a short-term position. This position is for a long-term staff member.*
How Can You Do Even More Pre-Qualifying In Your Ad?
While this may seem like a lot of cutting down, there are always going to be plenty of applicants applying for the job. However, you can obviously choose how many pre-qualifiers you want to include in the job advertisement.
Once you’ve decided on the applicants who tick all of your initial boxes, the next step in the process which can really help to narrow down the search is to organise phone interviews.
Phone interviews help determine people’s verbal communication skills. After all, they are often working remotely and you need to be able to communicate with them well.
Once you have narrowed down those who took part in the phone interview, you can commence the interviews, which you should only need to interview around 5 applicants in person. Similar to a game show, the final round of the process is only for those who deserve a seat in your office.
The Final Round
These final applicants should be those who perfectly reflect your employee avatar. Your final applicants should be those who will be the most loyal, trustworthy, passionate, respectful and valuable employees.
This process may seem excessive and meticulous, but wouldn’t you rather recruit once a year for a position, rather than every couple of months?
Take the time to qualify you staff through your recruitment process and your business will benefit in the long run.
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