We Solicit Feedback On Behalf Of Our Cleaning Associates

One might assume that being a cleaner at night is a bad job and the only reason someone does it is because they have no other options. We have found that in fact, cleaning can be a bad job, but it is not because of the reasons you might think. It isn’t bad because of the pay. It isn’t bad because the work is hard. What makes it a bad job is the lack of acknowledgement for your hard work. We had an associate equate cleaning at night to giving a gift to your kids every day, but never being able to see them smile in return. That is truly sad.

Why is it important that a cleaning associate is happy? Well, unhappy cleaners lead to poor operational execution, poor morale, and high turnover. And all of these factors lead to a building that is not clean and repeat issues.

Knowing that what makes cleaning a bad job is the lack of feedback, allows us to implement a simple solution: get our cleaners feedback! One of the primary jobs of our Operations Managers is to visit you the customer and solicit that feedback.

Quarterly Company Events: The Oranje Grove

Every 3 months we host a company event in conjunction with a local charity. We invite all of our customer’s, associates, and vendors so that we can give back to the community together. We call this the Oranje Grove.

Quarterly Newsletter: The Oranje Grove

KPIs For Shared Inspections

We believe that you need to inspect what you expect. For that reason, we set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to hold our Operations Managers and Operation Supervisors accountable for inspections. Each inspection is customized to your individual location and the inspection is shared with you proactively – including the good and the bad. Most companies are afraid to share deficiencies in an inspection, but we believe in transparency. If we find something wrong, we want you to know that we saw it and more importantly we want you to know that we are already working to fix it.

Transparent Inspecting

We believe our Quality Assurance program to be one of the best given it’s features to hold employees accountable and provide timely feedback and communication internally and externally. Swept is a web-based platform that provides detailed reports instantaneously and is fully customizable to mirror the scope of our contract, by building.

Each area type, whether it be a corridor, office, or restroom, is loaded with the specifications that are to be performed based on the contract. For example, if inspecting a restroom, our Operations Manager will be prompted to inspect the following items:

Once inspected, items will either be marked as Exceeds Standard, Meets Standard, or Below Standard. This report is automatically shared with our front-line staff and immediate correction is to take place. In addition, a complete inspection report is emailed to the manager and customer.

Electronic work order system

We use Salesforce as our work order and project scheduling system. When an issue comes in or project is scheduled, it is logged into Salesforce and appears on the relevant manager’s app. When the ticket is closed, you will receive an email with the pictures of the completed job or issue resolution.

Data driven account

We hold account reviews with you and your executive team two times per year.

It is our responsibility to be accountable to the hours we quoted in the contract. Of course, there may be variances day over day, but over a month’s time we should be on par. The biggest driver to consistency is ensuring we are providing the contracted man-hours. We will share this report with you proactively, so together we can make decisions regarding if the time is sufficient to address the scope.

We review the number of inspections, results of the inspections, supply order history, cleaner moods, etc. We share this information with you transparently so that we can make the right decisions for your business.

If it is dirty, clean it

Such a simple concept – if it is dirty, clean it! Unfortunately, the industry has trained cleaning customers and companies alike that everything is driven off a scope of work and if it is not on the scope of work, then it can only be done at an additional cost.

Oranje takes a holistic view of your facility and when we put together our pricing it will include everything from cleaning your carpets, tile, VCT, windows, etc. In addition, our cleaners have time built into their job each day to take care of anything that might popup or they see needs attention. Ultimately, it is our job to ensure your buildings are clean and a great partner just takes care of things for you without you feeling nickel-and-dimmed.

Clear understanding of expectations

Working as an associate at Oranje does have its benefits, but with those benefits comes higher expectations. We expect that all of our associates understand and live our mission and values. With empowerment also comes additional responsibility. Because we ask more of our associates, we make it our number one priority during on boarding and continuing education to ensure they all understand what is expected of them.

Oranje has a Director of Operations, JC Reyes, who is responsible for all training aspects, in addition to spearheading Oranje University, which is our video-based training module provided to front-line staff.

Pay attention to what matters

Oranje will have designated Operation Managers and Supervisors to oversee the quality and assist with training needs throughout the duration of this contract. An app-driven “Hot Spot Checklist” is incorporated at all job sites and we have found this to be extremely helpful in correctly determining the root cause and correcting behaviors so that deficiencies are not consistently overlooked. After an agreed period of nightly inspecting, the issue drops down the “Close to Being Corrected” table. After continuing to receive zero complaints, the item is considered resolved and removed from the list.

Electronic inventory control

Our staff at each location enter their supply inventory within our SWEPT App to provide real-time inventory levels. We establish par numbers, so when a building gets low on supplies, an order is quickly placed and delivered to the location within 24 hours. This allows our employees to always have the supplies they need, while our customers never have to worry about running out of paper goods utilizing a restroom. Orders placed are approved by the Operations Manager to ensure only approved cleaning chemicals and paper goods are being used on site.

Hire for culture, Train for cleaning

As we will get into later, we believe that cleaning is a commodity. What makes us completely different from all other cleaning companies is out laser focus on building lasting partnerships with the people we serve (we serve our customers as well as our associates). In order to maintain this culture, it is imperative we focus on people that buy into our philosophy. That is why our HR department, when hiring puts 90% of their hiring decision into personality fit and 10% into cleaning expertise. To help our HR department, we use a personality-based assessment during the hiring process.

2-For-2

Our 2-For-2 program is a representation of our values in action. Under this program, we pledge to give 2% of our monthly invoice back: 1% goes to a charity that share the values of CBRE and Oranje and 1% goes back to our cleaning associates that service your branches.