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The following article is based on a presentation by Libby Garcia-DeLucien at the 2021 Maid Summit, hosted and organized by ZenMaid. Libby is the CEO of WootRecruit, a hiring software company for the cleaning industry. She is also the owner of Organize It, a professional organizing company and Sweeps by Organize It, which offers Residential Cleaning Services. Libby is also a certified Cleaning Business Fundamentals (CBF) coach.
As the owner of three businesses, hiring is a huge priority for Libby Garcia-DeLucian. With a system for speedy hiring, she’s not just fully staffed, she’s often overstaffed. But this wasn’t always the case.
Like many business owners, she struggled with hiring and keeping employees in the early days of her business. The stress of making sure she had enough people to service her clients often made her want to quit. Where were all the good candidates hiding? Why didn’t people want to work? Why did they stop showing up?
What Libby eventually discovered was that a better hiring process could prevent many issues she had with hiring and keeping employees. She needed to be proactive, instead of reactive.
Libby’s system for hiring fast is made up of three strategies. She says she has seen companies master these strategies and fill their open positions in six days.
Here are the three strategies Libby uses to hire employees quickly:
Strategy 1: Know who you want to hire
Who is the perfect employee for your maid service? Just like you have an ideal lead for your advertisements, have an ideal employee in mind when you write your job listings.
If you’re having trouble figuring out who is your ideal employee, start by focusing on a generation. There are four generations in the workforce right now: Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Gen Z. Which one fits best for your business?
You could also have primary and secondary targets for hiring. Libby prefers to hire Baby Boomers and Millennials.
What attracts a baby boomer doesn’t necessarily attract a millennial, so conduct some research to understand how you can become an employer they want to work for. For instance, Baby Boomers tend to focus on benefits and pay, while Millennials value culture and work-life balance.
Also, employee preferences can vary by city. Try to understand the specifics of your hiring area and review job listings to see what other businesses are offering their employees.
Strategy 2: Write “sexy” job descriptions to attract your ideal employees
Once you know who you want to hire and what they’re looking for in employers, write job descriptions that highlight their preferences.
Go beyond listing duties and responsibilities. If you’re targeting Millennials, include information about your company culture. If you’re targeting Baby Boomers, highlight that you offer top pay and list all of the benefits you provide.
While traditional benefits are usually out of budget for new or small companies, you can get creative with perks and incentives, especially if you barter or partner with other local businesses. Some ideas include:
- One-week of paid vacation after a year of employment
- A day off for birthdays or work anniversaries
- Quarterly chiropractic adjustments or massages
- Restaurant vouchers
- Oil changes
- Gym visits or memberships
Don’t list anything you can’t actually offer. Employees will lose trust and quit if you make false promises.
Strategy 3: Aim for a hiring process with the speed of Amazon.com
Each time you fail to respond quickly to a job applicant, you’re losing money. People are likely applying at multiple companies and a slow response could drive them to your competitors.
Aim for same-day or next-day delivery of responses to job candidates and bring them in for interviews as fast you can. This speed can be difficult if you have a manual hiring process, so automate the process with software such as WootRecruit.
Businesses are competing for talent, so if you know who you want to hire, and they’ve responded to your ad, don’t let them get away. Act fast, fill your staff, and watch your business grow.
For more tips on how to develop a speedy hiring princess to grow your maid service business, watch Libby’s full talk below:
Learn more:
For more resources on how to grow and perfect your cleaning business, check out the replays from the 2021 Maid Summit, hosted by ZenMaid. The summit featured more than 60 presentations from other maid service owners who shared tools and strategies to help you achieve the highest levels of success in your business.
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