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The spirit or morale of your household is set by you. It's more than a matter of trying to get along with your housecleaner; the human relations between you and your housecleaner are grounded in job satisfaction and job performance. Friendliness without these other foundations inevitably results in poor morale.
Here are six specific ways to motivate your housecleaner:
1. Start with yourself and set high standards
- Remember that you’re the boss. A good boss is supposed to be wise, fair and decisive. In this setting these qualities are expected of you as the manager of this small enterprise — your home. Your housecleaner will find it hard to be motivated to excellence if the boss is disorganized, ill-prepared, disinterested or inept.
- Have the house ready so the housecleaners can start upon arrival. If, for example, you have to pick up the house before they can do the cleaning, be sure it’s done. Don’t make them clean around any chaos.
- Have all the needed supplies on hand, plus a spare bag for the vacuum or a new one installed beforehand.
- Be sure your equipment is in good condition: no clogged vacuum wands, no empty spray bottles. Have a spare vacuum belt available, plus any tools and instructions needed.
- Be sure to have meaningful work to be done. Even if you have to take time to plan, don’t have just “busy work” to be done.
2. Give housecleaners all the information necessary to be in control of their work and to be able to deliver a responsive performance. The housecleaner has to know what you want done, how you want it done, where things go, what not to touch and so on. This is how job satisfaction starts. There’s almost no better way to destroy morale than not letting someone know how to satisfy expectations. One can try hard but never have it turn out to be right or enough.
3. Let your housecleaners know how important their work is to your home and/or family as a whole. Tell them how their contributions improve your home life, reduce stress, afford you valuable extra time, etc. Allow them to see your household as if they were responsible, through their performance, for some of the success of your household.
4. Allow the housecleaners to participate in the planning of the job. They are more likely to feel responsible for the results if they helped plan the job itself. Don’t detail them to death with what you want done, in what order and how to do it. To be motivating and satisfying, work needs some element of challenge, skill and judgment.
5. Establish and sustain rapport by leaving your housecleaners a note every time they visit; address them by name. Thank them for last week’s extra work; explain that because the sink’s a mess this week they can skip it; swear undying loyalty; tell them Aunt Bunny is coming and the spare room needs special attention; pass on a good joke; tell them there’s a treat in the cookie jar. Try to keep your notes upbeat. And you’ll get answers. This is a dialogue — and dialogue is critical to managing and motivating.
Leave your note every single time — not just when you have extra requests or a reminder or a complaint. Consider how you’d feel if the only words you ever had from your employer or client were negative. A note with no special instructions — such as “nothing special today, just the usual great job” — is just as important as the ones that are chock-full of instructions. But when you do need to work out a problem, it will be much easier on you both if it’s part of a regular weekly note.
6. Probably the most effective motivators of all are the simple expressions of thanks and appreciation for work well done: “Fantastic job!” “I could not have done that better myself, and you know how particular I am about my kitchen.” “Thank you so much for working so hard on those horrible shower walls.” “Thank you for all your efforts. You make our home and life so much more comfortable and pleasant.”
Praise doesn’t have to be lavish, but people do need to know their efforts are noticed and appreciated. A good manager knows this and never fails to act on it. Invariably, a simple “thanks” will guarantee an even better job done the next time. Especially don’t forget to acknowledge the effort put into a special request or project. Rewards and small considerations are great if they are sincere and appropriate. Cookies, holiday cards or candy are all effective ways to express appreciation or thanks.
Excerpted from Jeff Campbell's Speed Cleaning.
