This should be obvious to everyone, but it’s often overlooked, because of the low status too often given to the cleaning industry in our society.
A truly great cleaning team has a shared sense of purpose because they are valued for what they do and who they are.
Winning at former London Olympics site
JPC, Samsic’s premium London brand, knows how to affirm and encourage each other.
At Here East, the high-end business park on London’s former Olympic site, team JPC celebrated the October 20 Thank Your Cleaner Day with a team breakfast in grand style. The team celebrates each other year-round. It’s customary for someone to bake a cake each time one of them has a birthday.
All this makes for an environment, where everyone’s contribution is valued, motivating them to even higher performance.
From the downward spiral to upward cycle
The lack of recognition can often lead cleaning operatives to deliver the minimum standard or worse. That leads to a higher staff turnover & disrupting service levels. That’s why at the Samsic group, we aim to break that downward spiral and create an upward cycle of praise for a job well-done motivating our people towards even greater achievement.
Messalina and the power of motivation
Messalina Manita joined JPC’s Here East team in 2019 as a cleaning operative, shortly after she arrived in the UK from Angola in Central Africa, where she’d been working as a teacher. One of the first things she noticed at JPC and Here East was a positive mindset she hadn’t encountered in previous cleaning environments.
“In other cleaning roles I’ve done, it was seen as ‘just a job’,” says Messalina.
“But at JPC and Here East, it’s more like a family atmosphere.”
Messalina’s love of a good challenge, along with the empowerment she felt in her new role, meant that she found herself going beyond the limits of her schedule, taking the initiative to tackle necessary tasks without having to be asked. For example, helping to maintain stock levels of cleaning supplies, to avoid any dip in service levels at Here East.
Although Messalina was not in a supervisory role at that point, colleagues would sometimes approach her for direction or help. Her commitment to the team was rewarded with a promotion to Cleaning Supervisor, and now she’s developing her career in the industry further.
When cleaning operatives are affirmed by their team, they strive for even greater achievement, this positive mindset directly benefits their colleagues and customers. And so the upward cycle continues.
Beyond Thank Your Cleaner Day
Affirmation isn’t just something we do on Thank Your Cleaner Day. When it’s embedded in our working culture, we’ll want to thank our cleaners on any given day.
What’s Messalina’s advice to cleaning operatives (and those responsible for them) who are looking to develop their careers?
“Don’t get stuck doing only the tasks you’re supposed to do. Don’t wait to be asked to do something useful, but look for opportunities to show your colleagues that you have the motivation to do more for them, and learn more, and be more.”
At the Samsic group, we build teams whose achievements are highly visible and highly valued – and we’ll do it for your organisation too.
