Resources for cleaning businesses

How to Hire Good Cleaners: 7 Steps to Spot a Gem Before You Hire

By Constance Beebe, former hotel general manager with more than 20 years in hospitality

A new cleaning business owner recently asked a question I hear often: when one job posting brings in a flood of applications, how do you tell the great cleaners from the ones who will cost you time and money? He had already sorted out scheduling, quality control, and estimates. Staffing was the one piece he couldn’t solve, and he wanted to get ahead of it before he needed his first hire.

That is smart thinking. Here is the honest answer: there is no single question or trick that can predict a great employee. What works is a simple hiring process you repeat for every candidate, so you are comparing people fairly instead of going on a gut feeling.

From my experience

Hotel housekeeping taught me that the best interview in the world tells you less than ten minutes of watching someone clean. People can say all the right things across a desk. How they handle a bathroom, whether they check their own work, and whether they show up on time for the second day tells you far more.

7 steps to hire good cleaners

1. Decide what “good” means before you post the job. Write down the three or four qualities that matter most for your work. For commercial cleaning, that is usually showing up reliably, working well without supervision, paying attention to detail, and being trustworthy with keys and alarm codes. Everything else in your process should test for these.
2. Write a job posting that filters for you. State the hours, the pay, the locations, and whether a car and a background check are required. Add one simple instruction, such as “In your reply, tell us which shifts you can work.” Applicants who skip it have shown you how they follow directions.
3. Screen applications against your must-haves. Before you read anything else, check availability, transportation, and distance from your job sites. This alone can narrow a large stack quickly and fairly.
4. Do a short phone screen. Ten minutes is enough. Confirm the schedule and pay, and notice the small things. Did they answer or call back when they said they would? Did they ask any questions about the work?
5. Ask every candidate the same interview questions. Hiring research has shown for decades that structured interviews, where everyone gets the same questions, predict job performance better than casual conversation. Ask about real past behavior, not what someone “would” do. Good questions include: “Tell me about a time you couldn’t make it to work. What did you do?” “Tell me about a time you broke or damaged something on the job.” “Tell me about a time you noticed you had missed something after you finished.”
6. Run a paid working trial. Have your top candidates clean a real space with you, such as an office bathroom and break room, and pay them for every hour. Watch how they work. Do they go top to bottom? Do they treat the client’s things with care? Do they ask questions when they aren’t sure? Do they check their work before saying they’re done?
7. Check references and do your background check. Call former supervisors, not friends. Two questions tell you a lot: “How was their attendance?” and “Would you hire them again?” A pause before the answer is an answer. Many commercial clients require background checks for anyone with building access, so get the candidate’s written permission and follow the laws where you operate.

Red flags and green flags

Red flags: arriving late to the interview or trial without a call, speaking badly about every past employer, rushing the trial and calling it done, being careless with a client’s belongings, and vague answers about why they left their last jobs.

Green flags: arriving early, asking about your standards and supplies, owning a past mistake and explaining what they learned, checking their own work without being told, and a former supervisor who says “I’d hire them again in a heartbeat.”

Hiring is only half of it

Even the best hiring process will miss sometimes, so plan for the first 90 days. Train new cleaners with a written checklist for each site, inspect their work often at first, and talk openly about what you see. Good cleaners stay where they are paid fairly, trained well, and treated with respect. Keeping a gem is just as important as finding one.

Questions cleaners ask

Is there one reliable way to tell if a cleaner will be a good employee?

No single question or test can promise that. What works is a simple process you repeat for every candidate: clear requirements, the same interview questions, a paid working trial, and real reference checks.

Should I pay a cleaning candidate for a trial shift?

Yes. Pay for every hour of a working trial. It is fair to the candidate, it is required by law in many places, and it is the best look you will get at how they really work.

When should I hire my first cleaner?

Many owners hire when they are regularly turning down work or cannot cover a sick day. Building your hiring process before then means you are ready when that day comes.

Keep reading

• How to Price a Cleaning Job Without Forgetting Your Overhead
• 12 Cleaning Business Expenses to Track Every Month

About the author

Constance Beebe spent more than 20 years in hotel operations. She started as a night auditor and worked her way up to executive housekeeper, front office manager, assistant general manager, and general manager, later managing 4- and 5-star hotels. She was Front Office Manager at the Best Western King Charles in Charleston during Hurricane Hugo, and a London newspaper wrote about her team. She never asked her staff to do anything she wasn’t willing to do herself, from cooking when cooks didn’t show up to cleaning rooms when housekeeping was short.