Set a Quality Standard in Your Cleaning Business (SAVE $$) | The Magnetic Operator Ep.4

What's up, everyone? And welcome to another episode of the Magnetic Operator. Oh, wow. I think we weren't quite in sync.

Well, that's okay.

But today's episode. This is really exciting. So obviously part of our careers in the business at otuvi, we talk about standards, but we're talking about standards today in the sense of the best practice of standards. Obviously, we aren't going to go into software discussion per se, but. But, man, we have seen this time and time again. The number one mistake that building service contractors and facility managers make is that they lack providing clarity to their team members and expectations. And we're gonna talk today about how standards can help with that. But, Sam, let's dive into perhaps some of the typical challenges that in all of our years of experience that we constantly see as the Pat.

First off, you mentioned the word clarity. You know, that's one of my favorite words of all time.

Clarity is queen.

Is queen. And clean. Whatever you want to say. Clarity is necessary to get people to do what you want them to do, to do what is necessary to achieve more. So one of the typical challenges that we see definitely is I've been working with building service contractors, facility managers throughout the time that I've been at otv. First and foremost is getting people to buy in to what is required of them to do. So many times an FM will come to me and say, yeah, I like what you got, but I'm not going to be able to get this going. And I ask why? And they say, well, it's because my people won't do it. They don't believe in it. So then that's one of the challenges, is getting buy in to revise a process that may be broken or needs more work. Right. And so that's definitely challenge number one that I've seen is getting buy in. And that's the common challenge in any business. Right. If you're going to change something, people don't like change. People fear change a lot.

People like to do it kind of their way.

Right.

And think that.

And in the industry of janitorial and sanitation, tradition is huge. Right. We've done it for 30 years this way.

Yeah.

Okay. Well, let me tell you, there's better ways than the traditional way, but you have to get the people to buy in, but you have to buy in as well.

So.

So that's. Oh, that's a great point. Right. Not only do you have to get your people to buy in, you have to have buy in on a change.

Yeah. You can't just go Establish a process of hey, we're going to do this expectation. And then you yourself don't follow it. Another challenge I thought of was done versus done well are two different expectations, hey, go get this assignment done versus done well. You have to establish what that well part is.

Do you remember that one time we went to the Delta Center, it was for X4, it was a tech summit that we went to. We asked some cleaners that were passing by.

That's right.

We asked them, do you know what you need to do? And they said, oh yeah, we do it every day. It's the same, it's in our head. We do it and then we ask, well, do your managers know that you did it and did it right. And they're like, oh no, they're always questioning us, they don't care. And it's like they act like we.

Didn'T know what we were supposed to be doing. It was just like, well, did you?

Exactly. So they thought they knew. The manager supposedly knows. But then when it comes to them coming together, they done versus done well is you're right, it's a different expectation.

Well, and the other challenge is it's going to break before it even gets to the front line if it was broken at the time of the contract. And, or the expectation, let's say you're an in house facility operator, you have a principal that has a certain expectation and you as the facility director say, yep, we're going to do it this, this and this. And the communication never leaves from that expectation of setting the standard and agreed upon service and at that level. Well, of course the cleaners aren't going to get to it because you didn't communicate it down. So setting up standards applies to all the core relationships.

Well, and that I think that's the other challenge, right. Is clients, stakeholders, they don't know the level of expectation, they don't know the standard. Which then in turn causes them to question, are you delivering what we're supposedly paying you to make sure is delivered.

Upon or what they are assuming they were supposed to be getting?

Right.

Curse word assuming.

Assuming, Right.

Yep.

But those are challenges. But there's opportunities when you focus on. Yeah, there's these challenges. Getting buy in, done versus done well, clients, stakeholders, knowing what the level of services, what are some of the opportunities?

Well, when you implement standards and you provide clarity and expectations, the obvious one is becoming much more efficient. Naturally you stop wasting time on needing to recommunicate or have tough conversations with staff members who weren't following standards or protocols. In your mind or their mind or.

The story I just shared, they're like, oh, we were doing it, but they didn't.

They said they were fine. Yeah, yeah. So I would say that's the first one. The second one is just when you're trying to establish sustainable practices in your organization, like it scales, right? The opportunity when you establish standards is that it scales. When you provide clarity, it scales because you start following systems naturally. And we'll dive into that in today's episodes. Another one just naturally, employees have a boosted morale when you provide clarity. Right. Someone who feels anxious about, hey, am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing? What's expected of me? That's naturally going to change. And then obviously building service contractors and facility managers are the caretakers of the environments that we live in every day. Right. Whether it's through work or play. So the fact that cleaning and operations actually gets done at a better, more elite level means the facility is taken care of at a better, more elite level.

So wait, you're saying I can't just say I did it when I really didn't? I mean, you could some okay, FMS and BSCS do. We'll talk about that.

We'll talk about that. So you could operate that way. But you know, at the end of the day, Covid made this super apparent. And honestly, it's died off since then. Kind of we aren't back to what it was pre Covid, but kind of the attitude is just like, oh yeah, things are back again. But like Covid really elevated the cleaning industry's take on everyone becoming aware of the health and safety of a facility. And, you know, it's kind of a bummer that we've lost some of that, I think, you know, being able to maintain certain high standards and expectations since then. But it did create a pivotal change in our industry. I believe that more people do expect clarity and expectations to be established as an organization. So we're going to dive into that because we've worked with thousands of building service contractors and facility managers and found that the highest performing operators across all the years that we've been involved had one thing in common. And they set a clear quality and performance standard for everyone. It wasn't just the cleaners, it was clients and stakeholders to the service provider, from the directors and leaders to the frontline managers, to the frontline managers to their frontline employees. Standards of quality and performance have to be set across all of those levels. So with that, we're going to dive into the main segment of Today's episode, which we created last time, beyond Mach 1. I was waiting for you to do the sound again.

No, I mean, what we can do is just pull it from the last episode.

Just always drop it in the audio.

Yeah, but we don't have the rights to the song.

If you missed the last episode. Sam here pulled off quite the vocal talent.

I like to sing. I hit the notes.

I think you hit it pretty good. Anyways, so we're gonna dive in. Beyond Mach 1 is about taking facility operations supersonic with a question from an audience member. So today's question. Sam, I'll let you take it away.

All right, so our question is from James. James asked, what tips do you have for setting quality standards and getting frontline employees to follow them? So what we like to do with this segment is we like to pinpoint what relationship, because there's three that we're always talking about, Right? The three relationships. For this magnetic operator that you're trying to become, the question falls within the manager, supervisor to frontline employees. James. Right. You sharing information to those you are working with who are doing the job day in and day out. Right. And so we want to kind of talk about and kind of use Our framework, the Mach 1 framework, getting beyond that, where we talk about what does an okay level look like, what does notable look like, and what does elite look like, which is where we all want to be. Right? We want to be that elite mo. That elite magnetic operator. So, again, what tips do you have for setting quality standards and getting frontline employees to follow them? Kaden, what does okay look like in this scenario? From manager to frontline employee to this.

Question, I knew that's where we were going. So in my head, this played out. But, like, I've been guilty of this many times in my career where I had a standard in my head.

And what is Caden thinking?

And I expected you to just know. Figure that out.

You know, that's tough. That's tough.

So I would say the fact that you, as you know, James, you're a manager and you're trying to have clarity in setting a standard, quality standard for your Frontline employees. The fact that you're asking shows that you probably have an idea in your head. I'm not saying you're here, but that's what I would label as the okay level is that at least you, as a manager has a standard that you're trying to hold people accountable to, that you're measuring people against. The problem is, and the reason why it's only okay, because more Often than not, it's probably just in your head and maybe you've communicated it before, but it's mostly existing up here. I would label that as it's okay because at least you are thinking of a standard. So that's baseline.

I just thought of the song. It's all in my head.

Yeah, yeah. So what do you think of notable?

Okay, so okay is in your head, right. You have it, but you don't know what to do with it. The notable folks, the notable managers. Right. The operators, you've established a standard, you've set it up, you have helped employees know that, hey, this is what it is. Right. But there's a lacking of method to evaluate whether they actually adhere to it continually. Right. So you have it in place. You haphazardly are trying to figure out, is it actually being followed, is it actually being utilized? This has happened in our own organization as well.

It's a little chaotic when.

When we create something, but it really was, oh, yeah, I, the operator created something. Did I give it to the right people to then deploy and gain clarity and feedback for those people who will actually be executing on it?

Yeah.

That's probably one of the greatest challenges when it comes to operations in general. When you change something and you need to share it with other people, how you disseminate and release that information to those people is super important and yet is always and most often the missed portion of that process. Yeah, you can strategize all day. Right. But strategizing and planning doesn't matter if you don't execute on it properly. And part of that execution is actually getting the people who will use it to actually understand it, trial it, test it, tweak it, run it, do it. And in a notable state, you have the standard set, but it's not being communicated well or not being shared well enough. That's what I'd say is notable.

Yeah, well, actually. So, James, I had this. I actually had this happen two weeks ago. I was on a call and the training was given through the employees onboarding. Right. I feel like more often than not you're trying to bring someone on board. You're teaching a cleaner or a team of cleaners, managers, supervisors, and usually that's when it's going to come out, hey, here's our process. Right? But then that's like the last time someone ever hears about it. So exactly what Sam is saying here is that constant evaluation method of bringing it up, that it's talked about consistently and so which would actually lead us into the elite category of what an elite version of this looks like. And it means that you, not only do you have the documentation and standards for every procedure, but that your employees, your clients, stakeholders, everyone in this cycle, all three core relationships are aware of those standards. We, we often talk about this in our day to day. Right. The dod, what's the definition of done? Almost like what the definition of clean is right among doc. The doc dude. So you have this definition of clean or a standard that hey, we're going to service your account to this level. And you know, kind of going back to your question of like setting quality standards and getting frontline employees to follow them. Well, is it clearly communicated across the entire organization that we're all performing at this level, clients are expecting us to perform at this level, leaders to clients and vice versa. So I would say setting and upholding that standard with your supervisors and middle management is going to allow your day to day operations turn into a well oiled machine. Because everyone has clarity, everyone has expectations.

That point of upholding and following through on it is the execution part. Yeah, that's the key to being an elite M.O. actually following up and checking in on that. And some people will ask, well is it micromanaging at that point? Are we doing too much? Are we checking in too much? If you have the right process and you've shared the right information with the team, then no, it's not micromanaging, it's hey, I'm giving you this process, go follow it and I'm going to make sure that the standard is being met. Because the standard that we're setting is actually leading to greater operation, more efficiency, happier employees, happier customers. Right. All of that plays a factor into following a standard that you've set. But someone has to be a champion of that standard and should frequently and consistently, it's someone's job, make sure it's being met. Right. And so having systems and processes in place that allow you to do that, capture the data and actually like review it, make sure it's happening. That's the elite MO that is the magnetic operator you want to become.

Agreed 100%. And James, we'll kind of leave you with this. As we thought about your question, we have a framework, it's called the drift framework. Now I'm not talking about like a drift piece of wood that's a wanderer.

Yeah, you're just floating in the river and you're like, I'm a driftwood wood. We're not talking about that.

I can picture a cartoon saying that now. Yeah, I'm talking about the advanced skill of drifting a vehicle. Right. We're not talking about like accidentally drifting.

In the snow like I do.

We're talking about vision. Yeah.

On the course.

Yeah.

You're going, you're hitting the gas, E, brake, gears, all of that work. It's a process.

Right? Yeah.

There's a framework to drifting and we have a framework to drift.

So to be able to drift in this drift framework, we're going to define it out. So drift actually stands for something. So the D is define, the R is revise. Number three I is to involve and inform. Four F is to facilitate, and then five is to track. So we're going to dive into each of these. But those five pieces of this framework, the drift framework, is what I would give you as an answer to your question about what can you do? So let's dive into the first one. What does it mean to define and specifically define the clear outcomes?

Well, we've talked about clarity. It's all about understanding first where the critical areas are.

Right.

Where do we need to set a standard? What does that standard truly mean? And then let's make sure that we actually and clearly share that outcome with everybody involved, those relationships. Right. So you define it, you make sure the stakeholders and clients are on board with it and then you deliver it to your team. So you define it and then you clearly deliver that.

Yeah. And that second piece of. Just because you defined it once, kind of going back to like the notable category, you can't just define something once. So that's why step two is to always be revising detailed procedures to meet the objectives. You might initially define something that needs better clarity. Hey, you know. And so being able to develop the process that allows you to revisit and revise continually, are we doing what we said we would do? Are we doing at a level that we agreed upon? And then obviously going into that third step, the I is to involve and inform the team specifically. And the team isn't just the team members, the team of relationships that exist. So being able to go kind of going back to define, but like go and make sure that every single person is involved and informed on how this is supposed to work. So if you don't have a document, James, that clearly outlines the process and that everyone, not that everyone has to sign off on it, but that everyone signs off in a way that we've established that this is the procedure, we defined it, we've pilot tested it, we've revised it, and it's something we'll constantly visit to make sure. But everyone's got to be informed, which means that you're going to then move on to a process that facilitates regular monitoring. Now, obviously, as us as software guys, this is where regular monitoring can come in and become much easier. But if you aren't constantly measuring and looking at performance, you won't have any ability to go back to the client and to say that you are upholding the standards. Right. Or a stakeholder. Right. You're trying to get new budgets and approval for your next fiscal year as a school district or a university, and you don't have any tangible audits and, or monitoring that you've performed. And so you got to have that piece. That's why it's a critical piece of the framework, is to facilitate regular monitoring through auditing.

And before you move on to the last one, I think it's really important to share that when we say standard. Right. Setting a standard, people might think, oh well, it's not the same for every customer or it's not the same for every location. And that's true. But you can set a standard for that location for their specific needs. Safety, cleanliness, maintenance, whatever it is you're working on in that facility. You, you set the standard for that specifically, and then you make sure that everybody in that location, that area, that realm knows. So it can be different. You can set a general standard as a business or an organization, but it is important to tweak the standard to truly give the level of quality and service that you can provide by setting a customized standard for those different locations, but making sure that everybody's on the same page when it changes and they stick to that.

Right.

So standard can mean beyond just being general. Right. It's setting the standard for the team that's a part of that realm, and then they go and do that. Set standard for that location or client or stakeholder.

Yeah. And James, I know this wasn't necessarily your question, but there. And maybe we can dive into this in a future episode. But like, there are ways to establish standards and guarantees regardless of what clients are asking for. You can customize it. Like Sam was saying here on go develop processes for specifically a singular client. But if you develop a standard across your entire organization that allows the organization to compare against each other and its performance. Honestly, some of the best organizations I've ever worked with had that default standard. And I would label them as the magnetic operator. The elite magnetic operators have a default standard and then from there customized to stakeholders that they're accountable to and or clients that they service. So the last piece of the Drift framework would be to track and reward excellence. You can do all of these things, but I think a critical piece culturally is tracking to visually see where everything's at and then reward, recognize the behavior.

This is not an industry where people are often recognized.

Yeah.

So whatever recognition you can give to your team for a job that many other people aren't willing or want to do, that goes a long way. And in order to actually reward on work that is being done for versus done well, you have to track it. That's why you track before you reward. If you're just rewarding based on word or at worst favoritism or looking at certain things like that, tracking allows you to reward evenly against the set standard that you've developed with customers or clients, stakeholders. And that's why tracking is so important, because you can utilize that data, that information to then say, yeah James, you're doing great, here's an attaboy. Right. So it's so important to track to then reward appropriately.

Yeah. And so for those of you listening beyond, obviously, you know, James, we thank you for your question. Very valid one. Hopefully the things that we shared today were super insightful, but we have some disagreements, I guess you can say, or some myths. So we're gonna do a little bit of myth busting that like this level of effort isn't worth the time and energy. And I would say that it is very rare. Can't say that it doesn't exist, but it's very rare that an organization that I've ever worked with that has that belief succeeded in their client relationships. The idea that and especially in this day and age we live now, the myth is that this time and energy isn't worth the amount of effort. It's because any process takes time to front load and it can be scary and unknown. So hopefully the framework, the Drift framework, not only for you James, but for those listening, is a starting point to gaining clarity and setting up expectations. But culturally, the myth busting moment I would give for today is that culturally, once it's established, then it becomes just a well oiled machine. Culturally that just standards are set, clarity is set. This is the way we operate. And kind of going back to those opportunities that are lacking when you don't have standards in place, operational efficiency increases. Obviously our entire podcast is about the magnetic operator creating that level of operation that just pulls people in. Your talent acquisition will increase, your retention of employees, which is a major problem, will increase. And it's because when clarity and expectations are set people feel like they can excel in a environment that is rewarding and gives them peace of mind about their job. So that's a wrap on the Standards episode. Whatever. Setting the Standard Standards Setting the standard for your organization. Whether you're an in house facility manager or a building service contractor, hopefully you found some gold nuggets. And until next time, thanks for watching.

Thanks everyone.