While many organizations talk of downsizing or even closing their doors forever I want it to be known that Horizon Services Corporation remains committed to continual growth and the creation of new opportunities.  Uncertain times such as these that make me grateful for our fiscal restraint because I know we navigate through rough waters in a seaworthy vessel. While our competitors are forced to cut jobs we welcome their employees to join the Horizon Services team. I am certain that the diverse backgrounds, skills and experiences these new employees will bring will help Horizon in our continued growth.

The news stories of doom & gloom will run for years to come but I am confident Horizon Services will not be a victim of this economy. It is my ongoing pledge to keep Horizon profitable, to find new opportunities and to assist our sales and operations teams in any way possible.

Sometimes the most powerful tool we have in communicating with our workforce is silence.  This tool is so powerful that only level-headed managers can use it effectively. This tool is best used with the excuse makers and avoiders. Confident silence in the face of egregious claims tells employees that you are unwilling to justify such arguments and establishes a zero tolerance policy for taking the easy way out.

How silence is misused

As compelling a tool silence can be when dealing with hostile employees and irrational customers it is often used as a method of avoidance, managers too often bite their tongue in light of poor performance. Low scoring quality inspections should always be faced head on so employees can make corrections before service incidents become service problems which impact customer satisfaction.

Go to any corporate website and you’re sure to find the word diversity on at least a few pages. The problem is very few of us take the time to consider what diversity really means for our workforce. In the building services industry there are stereotypes about who is doing the work each night. When most people think of our industry they thing of the negative; the undocumented workers or social misfits but with the right recruiters , ample opportunity for reward & promotion and well maintained employee communication it is possible to build a diverse workforce.

At Horizon diversity means more than just ethnicity. Our employees come from as many educational and socioeconomic backgrounds as they do nations. Having engineers serve as part-time techs and supervisors allows us to gain extra attention to detail, former educators serve as exceptional job mentors and coaches. Individuals with higher levels of education are often overlooked in our industry as being “over qualified” however, nightly cleaning positions make the perfect part-time position for professional and quasi-professional individuals because the bulk of the work is done after hours in empty buildings. While there is some stigma attached to being a “cleaner” cleaning service jobs come without the shame of facing your neighbor at the grocery store as you ring up their filet mignon.

Anybody can clean and any enthusiastic individual with a “can-do” attitude and desire to commit to their work should be considered an outstanding candidate because expertise outside the building services industry can assist in day=to-day problem solving as much as a track record of facility services success would.

It becomes tedious to manage an hourly workforce when there is no benchmark for performance. In retail settings managers can rely on units per transaction, average dollar amounts and sales or units per hour to rate a sales associate’s performance in the building services industry we have no such luxury because most employees work fairly independently long after normal business hours. This independence is a large part of what attracts many individuals to the building services industry- many seek out the positions because they are relatively low stress and there is no manager watching every move or retail customer to face. This desire to be left alone is part of a general personality type that finds its way to the building services industry; the passive worker. These workers can be outstanding performers but often fear being evaluated on a continuum.

I have found that for more passive employees that the fear being “ranked” or “rated” should be tackled head on. Every employee requires benchamrks to understand what is expected and this group is no different. To ease individuals into this “ranking” systems I have found that you only need to assure workers that there are no negative outcomes; because an employee underperformed one month does NOT mean that employee is without a job. Ranking allows managers to determine what training employees need and ensure a proper fit to the work site (some employees fail because they are overly detail oriented and placed on a basic service customer). Being a top performer comes with special recognition. The key is simple NEVER rely on negative reinforcement for results. While all actions have consequences it is not necessary to dwell in the negative and doing so cripples passive employees and costs building services contractors exceptional employees.