Making Cleaning More Than Just A Stop-Gap Job

For the second year in a row, Fortune magazine has ranked Google as the best place to work. The search engine mogul offers its employees many “extras,” including free cafeterias, on-site oil changes and fun activities such as billiards and a rock climbing wall inside its headquarters. Perhaps most rewarding though, is that Google offers stock options to 99 percent of its employees.

Obviously, your average building service contractor will not be able to compete with that. Stereotypically, it’s said that no one enters the cleaning industry for a career, rather it’s a stop-gap job where the work is hard and the compensation low.

However, over the years, I’ve spoken with many BSCs who are working hard to change that perception, making their companies a rewarding and fun place to work. Some examples include company picnics with mop-bucket races, or a boss who helps employees achieve their dreams of owning a house or spending more time with family. Not all BSCs are interested in going to these extremes, but at the very least, a good number of contractors are still bucking the industry stereotype by paying their employees above minimum wage and offering healthcare benefits.

The cleaning industry may still be a long way off from being Google, but it’s definitely making strides of improvement. And who knows, perhaps in a few years a cleaning company, too, will be named as one of the best places to work.