let’s talk shop We Guard The Treasures It’s time to reframe our industry as a profession. By: Kevin Keeler W When someone asks you what you do for a living, what do you say? At school events for your kids or when meeting new neighbors, do you sometimes hesitate to tell them you are in the cleaning business? Whether you are a cleaner, a supervisor, a manager or a consultant, you know that, today, the industry goes far beyond mops and buckets. Yet, to many outside the business, “cleaning professional” sounds like a con-tradiction in terms. Cleaning As A Profession It’s not surprising that people outside the industry don’t always appreciate the impor-tance of what we do. Cleaners tend to work behind the scenes or after hours. Beyond Cleaning Toilets Ricardo had spent the past eight years working as a cleaning technician for an en-gineering college in Texas. During that time, he and his wife had bought a home in a pleasant neighborhood and started a family. One evening at dinner his five-year-old daughter blurted out, “My friend Sophia says you’re a toilet cleaner.” His three-year-old son, who had just been potty trained, was able to therefore identify and gleefully repeated, “toilet cleaner, toilet cleaner.” At first, Ricardo felt angry and hurt, but after some careful thought, he responded to his daughter. “In the building where Daddy works, sci-entists do important work, students learn, people work in offices and a lot of visitors go in and out every day. It’s my building, and it’s my job to keep all the people who come in and out of it safe and healthy by making it clean,” he said. Ricardo’s daughter gave him a big hug. “At school tomorrow, I’m going to tell So-phia that my daddy has his own building and takes care of everybody in it,” said the daughter. The word custodian means keeper or guardian. The bigger problem is that many of us within the profession don’t always appreci-ate the importance of what we do either. The word custodian means keeper or guardian. Janitor comes from Janus, a Roman god who guarded the treasures for the rest of the gods. The treasures we guard are the health of the people in our buildings, the image of our organizations, the value of the infrastruc-ture and the productivity of the workers. Without the services of the cleaning pro-fession, the organizations and companies we work with would not survive. tions they could benefit from. ■ Educate customers and building staff. Make sure your customers are aware of what you are doing and the technologies you are using so your work won’t be undervalued. ■ Partner with your workers. Create activities and events that involve the entire company to make your cleaners feel like valued members of the group. Allow your cleaners to suggest ways to improve service to your customers and reward good ideas. ■ Value knowledge. Constantly make your customers, cleaners and outside people you meet aware of how the cleaning industry has changed and the vast amount of training and knowledge that is now required. ■ Recognize and reward good clean-ing efforts. Rewards lead back to instill professionalism. Recognize cleaners who go above and beyond and those who seek out additional or specialized training. Whether you’re a consultant, manager or cleaner, your job requires specialized knowledge of chemicals and techniques as well as staying up-to-date with new tech-nologies in the industry and beyond. Our work goes far beyond cleaning toilets — we guard the treasures. CM Promoting What We Do In order to effectively promote a cleaning professional’s importance, consider the fol-lowing: ■ Reframe your own thinking. See your-self or your company as partnering with the organizations you clean for. Don’t be afraid to suggest improvements or make customers aware of new innova-Kevin Keeler is the founder of Keeler Consulting and draws on his unique and long experience in the industry to provide solutions for multiple clients. He specializes in the development and implementation of tools, technology and systems that provide cleanli-ness, cost effectiveness and accountability. Keeler is teh author of “Behind The Broom,” along with Judy Gillies, president of The Surge Group Inc., and Lance Witschen, president of 1Class Consulting. Visit www.BehindTheBroom.com for more. www.cmmonline.com 47
CMM – Archives May 2013: 47
