CHICAGO — When managing and hiring a staff, Paul Fayad, managing partner of Positive Leader, recommends that you “First, break all the rules.”
Well, maybe not actually break the rules. But at least read the book of that title. The authors, Curt Coffman and Marcus Buckingham, teach about three factors of a person, which Fayad highlighted in a recent webinar for the Association for Linen Management.
DIFFERENT QUALITIES
When seeking results from a staff, understanding the hiring process is the most important thing a manager can do, Fayad says. The selection process “needs to be very specific and very succinct.” This can be done by trying to see different qualities in a potential employee, including “striving talent,” “thinking talent” and “relating talent,” all of which come from the research presented in the aforementioned book.
Striving talent is the “why of a person,” or what motivates them. Thinking talent, the “how of a person,” indicates how a person makes his or her decisions. Relating talent, “the who of a person,” is who they trust, build relationships with or ignore. Fayad says that these qualities can be revealed through both a specific interview process and personality testing.
Behavior-based interviewing will require interviewers to ask the “hard questions,” such as why they left their last job, were they fired, and why. Also, because interviewing is a difficult way to measure someone, Fayad recommends interviewing candidates at least three times. By the last interview, their true personality should show.
SOCIALIZING
After the candidate is hired, they must be socialized into the workplace, Fayad says. During this process of “onboarding,” the worker will learn the ropes and become part of the workplace processes. By making them feel comfortable and providing a mentor, this new worker will be more quickly integrated into the staff.
TRAINING NEW STAFF
Part of the onboarding process is training, which will teach the worker what he or she will do. By being confident in their work, they will become not only good at their job but also better socialized.
Fayad advises to train everyone in all areas in order to have staff switch duties.
“Laundry and linen processing can be very repetitive,” he says. That repetition can also create ergonomic problems as well as make for an unhappy staff.
Consistent training should also be provided to all staff. When the same process is shown to each person, it’s easier to see pitfalls and make changes accordingly. Also, the training should be made “exciting.”
Another way to make the training stick is to have experienced associates train new associates. This establishes a “mentorship bond” that he says is harder to gain from a supervisor. Fayad says that another benefit of mentorship is that the supervisors will have fewer training duties, which will lower their stress level.
After the training is done, verify the worker’s competence through testing. This determines both what the trainee has learned as well as how effective the training has been. Despite the stressful process of testing, when a person passes, they’ll feel comfort and take pride in knowing that they’ll get the job done correctly, Fayad says.
“More than anything else,” he says, “when a person passes a test, they feel strong, and they feel determined.”
AREAS OF TRAINING
When training staff, many different aspects of the business should be covered. The most important, according to Fayad, is safety.
Due to the nature of the business, extreme caution should be taken when dealing with linen that may contain bloodborne pathogens. Personal protective equipment should be worn, and staff should be trained on how to put on and remove the garments.
Removing equipment properly prevents the spread of disease, and Fayad cites the recent Ebola scares as an example of the importance of this training.
Ergonomics also play a role in the physical safety of the worker. Lastly, teach workers how to perform first aid. Facing potential situations such as splashes, needlesticks, cuts and more, staff should know how to handle a variety of emergencies.
Training in the procedure for processing soil covers aspects of soiled-linen pickup, soil sorting, and washer/dryer loading and unloading. Also, learning different areas of finishing might be better for some more than others. Take into consideration an employee’s health or preferences for standing for long periods of time. Fayad says this area is best when there is a “rotation of duties.”
“Variety is going to be the better key, especially when it comes to finishing work,” he says.
Lastly, order processing and filling the exchange carts is going to require someone who takes their time to count the clean linen.
Delivery is a crucial part of the business, Fayad explains, so these personnel should be trained in customer service.
“The main intent of customer service training is that we provide customer-focused service,” he says.
This focus on the customer means that “the customer is always No. 1.” When an employee deals with a customer, that employee is representing the company. During the pickup and delivery services, the employee needs to be aware of what they’re saying and doing, be dressed appropriately, smile, and show a desire to help.
Fayad says these traits are especially important when in competition with other companies. Therefore, pickup and delivery employees have “got to be the best people you have when it comes to customer-focused service.”
A way to measure the success of service and training is, again, through testing. Customer surveys can help to determine if clients are unhappy, and what can be done to change the training programs.
Fayad says that these surveys need to be identical because data won’t be measurable if they aren’t.
But how often should surveys take place? Fayad recommends once every quarter. This frequency applies to not only customer surveys but to employees as well.
“The more information you get back, the better the organization you become,” he says. But only “if you do something with that information.”
FEEDBACK AND COMPENSATION
To encourage staff and retain a low turnover rate, Fayad recommends providing positive feedback.
It should be presented publicly, while negative feedback should remain private. Productivity and attendance are two areas to bring up publicly.
“The more we talk about how good an employee is doing, the more that the staff and associates around that specific person, or him or her, the more they’ll see and want to be a part of it.”
Compensation can be both monetary and in the form of advancement.
When deciding how much to pay employees, Fayad recommends getting to know what competitors are paying. Then, offer pay in the top 25%. This keeps turnover low, and he says that managers will save money in the long run.
People don’t always leave a company because of a lack of money, but rather a lack of responsibility, Fayad says. By making someone a mentor or trainer, they are acknowledged as being a good worker and are more likely to remain loyal to the company.
Additionally, promote from within to show there’s a future for current workers, he says. “People need to see that you trust them.”
Fayad quoted Jim Collins from his book, From Good to Great: “The purpose of compensation should not be to get the right behaviors from the wrong people, but to get the right people on the bus in the first place, and to keep them there.”
Throughout the webinar, Fayad highlighted each of these points, saying they were critical or highly important. By improving these methods of hiring, and by learning ways to improve processes, laundry managers can see positive results from their focused efforts.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].