By Jennifer Meek, Director of Marketing for Charlotte Products Ltd
The need for enhanced training for cleaning and maintenance teams will be more important than ever in 2022. After two years of more work, more worry and less in-person education, it’s time to reboot training programs at facilities across North America. In this blog we offer some expert tips and inspiration to motivate your management team to update education and training initiatives and to re-engage your cleaning workforce for 2022 and beyond.
Combine In-person with Virtual Options
After spending the past two years meeting virtually, many workers are eager for face-to-face interactions with their teams. If you haven’t been able to implement safe in-person training at your facility yet, 2022 might be a good year to start. Virtual education sessions and team meetings have been crucial to keep us learning and connecting during the pandemic, but nothing can beat the value that comes from an in-person training session with real, hands-on opportunities to demo new processes, products and equipment. While filling a room with an entire team full of unmasked cleaning workers is not going to be advisable anytime soon as COVID-19 continues to be a cause for concern, there are safe ways to meet in person. This includes making sure your workforce is fully vaccinated and educated on the benefits of vaccination, enforcing mask wearing and keeping participants distanced in a well-ventilated room. To keep up with a larger workforce you might consider combining virtual sessions with in-person sessions. Attendees can dial into in-person training sessions on a rotating schedule. We have the ability to host hybrid training sessions with dial-in capabilities at the Jim Flieler Training Facility.
Upgrade Your Virtual Training
Not too soon after the pandemic shut down in-person meetings did we realize there was a real need for high-quality, well produced and in-depth virtual education programming in the cleaning industry. That was when we started hosting our regular Charlotte Webinar Series. Every month Jim tackles a relevant topic in a deep dive, presenting his expertise, interviewing subject matter experts and taking questions from the audience. Webinars and podcasts package new information in an interactive, engaging way for your workforce. Consider investing in higher quality tech gear like microphones and professional backgrounds to produce content that is easy for your audience to understand. We open our webinar studio at the Jim Flieler Training Facility for our customers to use free of charge to produce high quality virtual content, or consider pairing with Jim for an upcoming Charlotte webinar. Send your ideas or schedule your time in the studio by contacting marketing@charlotteproducts.com . This can also be done virtually if you do not have the ability to travel to Peterborough, Ontario.
Link Training Programs with Enhanced Validation Measures
A validation tool takes the guesswork out of management, and provides real accountability measures for training staff. When you connect your training to validation measures, you begin the process of standardizing your training procedures and elevating the education you provide. Validation measures can include anything from a visual check to an ATP reading, but there are also more advanced systems of validation hitting the market that can tie into your SOP and training programs for maximum results. Measurement and validation becomes a key component of a precision cleaning system because this is the way you can monitor your cleaning performance, optimize your ROI and resources and prove to your building occupants that their space is safe and healthy. By incorporating validation measures that include assessments of individual work, regular reports to show how new processes have enhanced cleaning results and other measurable outcomes you link your training with real-time results. This will provide a level of accountability that simply checking attendance could never achieve. Validation provides the data to measure how clean your buildings are. Tying your training to these quantifiable results will promote engagement and bring your training program to the next level.
Incentivize your training
Build a culture that values education and continuous improvement by recognizing the efforts of your cleaning staff, starting with your training programs. Why not tie training requirements with incentives like more pay, certificates or team lunches? When you recognize the effort put in by those who attend a training session, you provide an opportunity to build up your workers and establish a stronger team culture. Providing a nice, clean and safe space for your training sessions that is comfortable will also encourage your workers to attend training with the right mindset. Go a step further by celebrating accomplishments, too. Recognize your team for their hard work after a completed training session with a certificate, a team lunch or a gift card. Make sure you let the rest of your staff and building community know about a completed training program or a job well done. Don’t forget to promote recognition through your social media accounts, visible signage or in team announcements.
About Charlotte Training Facility Here at Charlotte, we believe in the power of education. Advanced training programs are critical to ensuring public safety and health. That’s why we’ve invested so much into our brand new state-of-the-art Jim Flieler Training Facility. This 10,000 square foot training center is available for free to our distributors, their customers and others in the industry who value education. Our recording studio, conference room, real-life scenario demo rooms, state-of-the-art equipment and training experts are all available free of charge to help you tailor your training program to the specific needs of your workers. Contact marketing@charlotteproducts.com to schedule a tour, customize your on-site or virtual training session or to learn more about the options available to you.