How I find, screen, and hire remarkable employees, part 1

One of the first things I did when deciding to have someone work for me was to decide how I wanted the business culture to be.

I knew how terrible managers could be. The basics were that they could be mean and incompetent.

The main two items important to me were that there were no managers in my business, only leaders. Pretend you are going into battle. Do you want to be managed or do you want to be led?

The second important item was kindness. The owner, leaders, employees and customers had to be and act as kind as possible. We don’t hire mean people and we don’t accept jobs from mean people (customers).

I will fiercely protect my employees from mean people. My employees are way more important than any single callous customer. When hiring cleaning employees I make sure they know this.

My employees are treated with kindness and protected (you’ll see what I mean when you get your first unpleasant customer).

This differs totally from what a lot of businesses are like. Businesses with managers.

As of this writing, I use Indeed.com to find good people. I place a very specific ad which lets potential employees know about the business:

How I find and hire great cleaning employees.

The people that work for me are exceptional. Trustworthy, super reliable, hardworking, kind, happy employees. Three quarters of them are university students. That makes it challenging to schedule when school is in but that’s ok.

I have a couple of steps I go through when I hire people. I’ll outline part of it here and present the super important part in the 2nd article (how to screen).

Like you probably do, I use Indeed.com to hire. I think the Indeed ad is the first important part of my hiring process

I have two more important articles about hiring great cleaning employees. Here is one of those articles. Here’s how to find, keep, and work with amazing employees (Hiring part 3)

Here is the ad I use with added comments in red:

House Cleaner – We do pizza days, gift cert. drawings, b-day off Attention getting headline.

Please be aware that you will need to work an occasional Saturday or Sunday if hired.

I’m Don, the owner of First Impressions Cleaning. You’re important (yep, you), so when you apply for this job I will respond as quickly as I can. Sometimes in just minutes.

* You’ll love working for us. I know, right? If you gotta’ work, it might as well be for nice people. Kindness is key in our business. We will treat you with kindness and respect. You’re important and we’ll make sure you know it.

* Cool Job extras! Free gym membership to Vasa Fitness gym. Monthly drawings for $50 restaurant gift certificates. On your birthday we give you the day off, with pay! You can earn paid vacation days. Monthly Free Pizza Days – We deliver to where you’re working and you don’t even have to tip! And even more fun stuff I haven’t thought of yet. The extras cost me about $100/month.

* We don’t have managers, only leaders. Would you like to work for a business that doesn’t have managers? We want that too, so we only have leaders. What’s the difference? Managers’ tell you what to do and leaders show you what to do by doing and supporting.

* Hours are generally 8:30 AM to 1:00 or 2:00 PM. We don’t want you going home exhausted, so we keep the days short and the pay high. We probably will need you available to work Saturdays and one Sunday per month to help us with our vacation rental cleanings. We only provide part time work unless the employees want more hours.

* The job pays $19.25/hour. You’re paid weekly on Fridays. Wohoo! Weekly pay.

* You keep all tips. This can be $10 to $20 per cleaning but is not guaranteed of course.

* Income bottom line: you’ll earn between $200 to $400 per week + gas money before taxes for about 4 to 20 hours of work. Sometimes less, sometimes more. It kinda depends on you. Want to work more? Let me know.

* This position is a “grow into” position meaning you will start out with fewer hours and as we add clients you will get more work. Shouldn’t take too long.

* As the business grows there will be opportunities for advancement for the right person. I’m keeping an eye out for “The One.” I now use one of my cleaners to help me with scheduling and payroll. So freeing.

* You have to drive to your jobs so you’ll also receive gas and wear and tear compensation of $2.88 per job. You need to have an automobile and automobile insurance. I don’t know if this is a fair number. Just guessing.

About You:

* You don’t have to be experienced. We’ll guide you in learning your job.

* You’re extremely reliable. Calling in sick or being late drives you a bit batty.

* You’re incredibly customer-oriented.

* Like our leaders, you’re kind, friendly and enjoy interacting with people (our customers).

* You’ve done or do something interesting outside of work or you have some type of after high school education. Our first hire was a returned lady missionary. Our second hire had finished high school seven months early. The owner collects rare cactus’s and has kept aquariums for years. I don’t hire couch potatoes.