Staff turnover in any facility can drive costs and kill efficiency, especially with cleaning staff. Doing the work that keeps buildings running properly, custodians have an incredibly high turnover rate, with estimates close to 200%, according to Eric Abercrombie, spokesperson for washroom product manufacturer Georgia-Pacific PRO.
To address this issue, GP PRO has launched a new program aimed at reducing custodian turnover. The Take Notice program has a simple solution in mind: being proactive in showing gratitude for custodians’ work.
“The Take Notice recognition program is a free program we developed that aims to help building and facilities operators recognize their best talent,” says Abercrombie. “It’s simply giving our customers a helpful hand to create a culture of recognition, which goes a long way to retaining staff.”
Creating a culture of positive recognition improves morale and engagement with custodians, which pays dividends. Along with creating a more positive and efficient workforce, you can ensure consistent quality across your team and reduce turnover and costs associated with training new hires, notes the program.
“While many factors can impact turnover rates, employee recognition is always near the top when studies are conducted on this subject,” says Abercrombie. “As part of building our Take Notice recognition program, we surveyed clean team members across the U.S.”
Findings in the survey include:
- 79% of custodians say they feel happier when their work is recognized
- 82% of clean team members feel motivated to perform at a higher level when they’re recognized for their work
- 94% of clean team members say that being acknowledged for their work is important to them
- 76% of clean team members report that they are less likely to look for another job when they’re recognized for the work they do
Facility managers can make major strides in improving clean team satisfaction, since 61% say they don’t have a recognition plan in place.
“A recognition program, like the one we developed with Take Notice, is a simple and easy way to say thank you and recognize the hard work of clean teams,” says Abercrombie. “Clean teams are truly the unsung heroes of the workplace, because when they do their job well it’s a positive reflection of the establishment – which impacts the customer’s perception of the building or operation.”
For facilities managers, Take Notice provides guidance to provide positive recognition to your clean team. You can also honor individual team members, who are automatically entered into a monthly drawing to win prizes.
“Keys we provide in our program are to set objectives, be timely (and frequent), maintain consistency and stay focused so that day-to-day responsibilities don’t derail your efforts,” explains Abercrombie. “A successful recognition program isn’t without its challenges, given limited time during the day and varying staffing schedules, so our program folds in some suggested tips to navigate those.”
For GP PRO, Take Notice also includes implementing products that are custodian friendly and easier to maintain.
“For us, it starts by designing products with clean teams in mind,” says Abercrombie. “We continually ask ourselves ‘how can our products make their jobs easier?’ because they interact with our products on a daily basis (like restocking and refilling of dispensers for example), so it has a natural connection. When we look to make product innovations and upgrades, we talk to clean teams to understand their frustrations or where they have to put in extra work due to inefficiencies, and then we look to find a solution to remedy it.”
Learn more about the program at www.wetakenotice.com.
Justin Feit was an associate editor at BUILDINGS.
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