Three Tips for Engaging your Workforce Through Technology

No matter where your customers take your workers, as cleaning or security contractors, you face a unique challenge of employee engagement.

Janitorial and security contractors have guards and cleaners that span a large area of geography. Your workforces are distributed across cities, states and sometimes even at a global level. A 2019 report on The Engagement Framework by the Macrothink Institute™, details employee engagement as a critical driver of organizational performance and thus crucial to your company’s overarching strategic success.

In times of crisis and rapidly changing situations, staying in contact with your contractors is particularly important. Workforce management software solutions can help keep your guards and cleaners motivated and engaged, no matter where they are working from or how often you might see them face-to-face. We’ve put together a list of tips to help you effectively engage your cleaners and guards through a holistic software technology solution.

1. Keep Communication Open

Communication is important when your employees, from frontline guards and cleaners to supervisors, are distributed in the field. The technology you use should make it easier to connect with your employees, create automated messaging workflows for instant connectivity and serve as a messaging platform that supports targeted individual, group and global communications. Your guards and cleaners should feel empowered to ask questions, reply to work site instructions, manage safety and job site checkpoints, and have a direct line of communication with their supervisor, and vice versa.

Communication is especially important in times of uncertainty like we face today. When the types of work or scheduled shifts you’re covering change on a daily or even hourly basis, it’s crucial to keep your cleaners and guards informed with the right messages at the right time. Look for a technology solution that enables you to send on-the-go communications regarding things such as scheduling updates, additional work tickets and notifications of changes in service locations and cleaning protocols.

2. Empower Employees

Any technology you implement should act as a hub of information for your guards and cleaners, so they can access information like HR policies, corporate standard operating procedures or guidelines, work site orders, compliance and safety requirements, and special announcement updates all in one centralized place. For items that require return documentation proving completion, like certification requirements, your technology should facilitate remote document uploads, rather than any hard-copy filing. At the end of the day, using technology to empower employees and make their day a little easier can go a long way towards positive engagement.

Now more than ever, having empowered employees is necessary for your business when laws and regulations prevent you from being in the office. By using mobile solutions, you can digitally take care of everyday tasks that used to be completed in person and ensure your employees still have access to things like paychecks and additional available shifts. And if you implemented new processes like employee welfare forms for your guards or cleaners, or visitor screening check points, those can be completed digitally as well.

3. Stay on Track

Use software with GPS monitoring capabilities for guard touring or loop rotations to record how long your guards or cleaners are spending on their assignments, while gaining visibility of their work for analytics and process improvement. With combined mobile app technology, your guards or cleaners can mark tasks as completed as they travel through their rotations or routes. Having these capabilities available within the field promotes your expectations as a manager or leader, while holding your workforce accountable. Overall, this kind of technology helps keep your workforce focused, on track and engaged in day-to-day workflows.

A focused and accountable workforce is particularly important today. With extra challenges like changing tasks and a heightened need for proof of service and accountability from guards and cleaners, your employees need to know what needs to be done now. Having visibility of where your employees are and what they’re accomplishing allows you to provide the best service possible to your customers.

Technology can serve as a means of reminding your guards or cleaners why the work they’re doing is important — past the obvious paycheck — and motivating them to do more for your customers, your company and themselves. To read more about engaging your workforce through technology, download our tip sheet.

Read the rest of the posts in our COVID-19 blog series: