Survey: Hiring And Retention For Commercial Cleaning Jobs – Member Content

This is the seventh part of a seven-part article on recruiting and retention strategies.

The biggest challenge for building service contractors is labor. The cleaning industry has always been plagued by a “low-pay, low-reward” perception. Even though the majority of contractors pay employees more than a minimum wage, cleaning is still not seen as glamorous work or as a viable career path by many.

Although it’s difficult to attract quality workers to this industry, it’s even harder to retain them. The average turnover rate for a service provider has typically been around 75 percent, but can range as high as 400 percent.

During the Great Recession, however, unemployment skyrocketed and contractors benefited from a surplus of high-quality workers now in need of a job, as well as employees who wanted to hang on to their limited employment opportunities. As a result, turnover rates plummeted. Five years ago, Contracting Profits reported an industry average of 34 percent. According to our most recent survey, little has changed with turnover averaging 36 percent.

For its most recent survey, Contracting Profits also asked BSCs to share their recruiting and retention strategies. Not surprisingly, referrals are the most common method of finding workers. Raises rank as the best way to hold on to employees.