Nowadays there is serious lack of workforce in Hungary, which reached the cleaning industry as well a long time ago. As a cleaning company we think that we also have to make efforts to make our company appealing to employees and to keep them, too. Cleaning is a monotonous activity that has to be started all over again every day.

But to avoid our employees getting apathetical, to ensure that they start the tasks with the same enthusiasm from Monday to Friday, we have to provide one quite important factor for them: they have to believe in what they do, they have to find appreciation where they work and they have to feel that their honest and thorough work is needed.

New colleagues can experience at our firm that they are kindly welcomed already during the first interview in the office as well as later on, in the field by sector managers. And when they get into the team, they can see that for us it is not only important to “obtain” the workforce, but also to keep it.

In order to be able to provide high standard services for our clients, we have to provide continuous challenge and monotony-free days for the people working for our company. Therefore, if we see that one of our employees starts to fulfill his/her task somewhat superficially in a given area due to routine (which is fully understandable after several years), then we offer another new location for him/her which means variety, a new challenge for him/her and it will result in more care on his/her side.

Years ago candidates made all efforts to get a cleaner position at our company. However, in the last three years labor market has changed a lot. Nowadays many try to work abroad or, in the hope of more money, stick to black work, so it is more difficult to search for employees. 

But what is our secret? How can we keep most of our workforce?

Here is our “recipe”:

- We organize informal programs (theater, dinner at a restaurant) several times a year where our team gathers, so that they cannot only talk about work or things at home, but can also enjoy a joint experience. They are much more easygoing in private life, they show a different face so the atmosphere will also be more informal at work the next day.

- We regularly announce campaign cleaning at various institutes where people with disabilities are taken care of. At such occasions, although our employees do not get remuneration (and of course attendance is not mandatory), they apply in large numbers to help those in need.

- Where ever we can (Budapest and in the countryside) we attend running races, whereby we also support people living with disabilities by paying the registration fee. We have employees who bring their own children in a wheelchair and run the distance to show an example to the others.

- We regularly send our employees (mainly those in administrative fields) to training annually, so that they can assist further development of our company with what they have learned there.

- We motivate our employees with seasonal competitions and award achievements with in-kind or financial prizes. We usually announce these at extensive cleanings and they do not only get a prize for occasions, but those undertaking the most in a given period get an extra prize based on their collected points.

As it can be seen from the above list, we treat our employees as humans.

We know that they live from money, but they mention already at the first meeting how good it feels for them to get such a kind, familiar welcome. And, although we can ensure a living for nearly 200 people, we still pay attention to turn to each of them with great patience.
 
The owners meet every employee personally at least once a month (or even more) and exchange a few words with them one-on-one. They consider it important to know their background, so that if a problem arises, they can solve it together. 

As it can be seen from the above, joint commitment and stable team spirit can be enhanced in a team with tiny extra things.

Published: 2016-09-28

Authors: Horvát Mónika, Lami Bakos Györgyi – Horvát Service Bt.