Analysis of HR practices at Cleaning Melbourne Assessment Answer

Executive Summary

In this report, the two HR functions, namely, learning and development, and retention and engagement of employees are analyzed for the case company – Cleaning Melbourne. The company strives to decrease the negative impacts on the environment by implementing processes and offering training to the staff on cleaning methodologies that cause minimal risk of harm to the environment and the people. It has been analyzed that employee retention is a major challenge being faced by the HR of the company. There is no secret that the industry has a higher rate of turnover. Being a cleaning company, it puts in a lot of trust in its employees. Owners and managers are not always on the site with their staff, so they require to be confident in each hire. To improve the retention of employees, the HRM must create a positive and supportive work culture that can aid in mitigating higher turnover. Learning and development have been considered as the subset of HR, which aims at improving both individual and group performance by raising and honing skills and knowledge. It acts as part of the talent management strategy of the company and is designed to align individual and group objectives and performance with the overall goals and vision of the corporation. It has been found that it aids the personnel in staying updated with the most upgraded skills and knowledge opens up new prospects for the workers to grab new projects, raises their efficiency and productivity and at the similar time, decreases the time taken to do the specific task. With the investment in the development opportunities of the personnel, the company can aid in addressing the weaknesses of the personnel of the company wherein the employees can work on enhancing such weaknesses and by that time, they will have better and consistent knowledge regarding their role and services in the corporation.

Introduction

Firms have realized the worth of hygiene and cleanliness. It has made the cleaning sector most competitive than ever. Both small and big firms are emphasizing earning clients and developing with the industry norms. Cleaning corporations are facing stiff competition and due to the unhealthy conditions, corporations have to beat the rival firm by crook or by hook. The human resources department is a group that manages the lifecycle of the employees. HR responsibilities consist of human resource planning, recruitment, workforce management and keeping up to date with any policies that might impact the company and its personnel (Kumar 2022).

Cleaning Melbourne is an Australian company that specializes in providing higher-quality cleaning solutions for commercial space wide across Melbourne. Its services comprise strata cleaning, commercial cleaning, car parking cleaning, event cleaning, window cleaning, pressure washing, garden and property maintenance and carpet cleaning (Cleaning Melbourne 2023). The success of the company is derived from the positive relations that it develops with its clients, fair agreements and its capability to make delivery of superior cleaning services to the clients. It hires trained professionals that are reliable, friendly and competent in what they perform. It considers the safety of clients as the major priority. The staff members of Cleaning Melbourne are hired only after thorough verification, which consists of police checking. To fetch cost-efficient cleaning solutions, it believes it is substantial to work closely with the clients to comprehend their requirements thoroughly. It provides flexible packages and customized cleaning solutions and for that, it works for 7 days a week.

Furthermore, Cleaning Melbourne pursues excellence in all the major aspects of the services that it delivers. Therefore, it has implemented a superior quality and environmentally sustainable cleaning program for cleaning the facilities of the customers. Cleaning Melbourne aims to offer professional cleaning services to the satisfaction of the customers that are performed in a safe, cost-effective and environmentally responsible way (Cleaning Melbourne 2023). At the company, it strives to actively function towards eliminating and decreasing the negative impacts of the operations on the environment.

The main purpose of the report is to analyze the major HR functions of the company and offer recommendations on how the company can improve those functions.

Retention and Engagement at Cleaning Melbourne

The HR department in any company undertakes an essential role in retaining employees. Employee retention efforts might include internal promotion opportunities, employee training, issuing bonuses and enhancing workplace procedures and policies (Al-Suraihi and Ibrahim 2021). Employee retention is referred to the process of keeping the existing employee within the company. It involves attracting new candidates to join the company and retaining the prevailing ones. Most substantially, HR retention works through several methods like offering incentives, enhancing working conditions, providing recognition and many more.

Employee engagement is the workplace methodology designed to enhance the feelings of the employees and their emotional attachment to the corporation, their job tasks, post within the organization, their peer employees and the culture of the company. The HR department can make use of worker engagement tactics to boost productivity and well-being wide across all corporate levels (Hidayah Ibrahim et al. 2019). Via several measures, approaches, and initiatives, employee engagement inspires all the members of the corporation to make their best foot forward, all day long. Employee engagement as an HR function also aids in ensuring that every employee is completely committed towards the mission, objectives and values and that they stay inspired and encouraged to contribute to the overall success of the company.

Employees that feel satisfied with their jobs are more prone to offer excellent consumer service. As an outcome of this, they are more probable to aid in improving the reputation of the business (Kurdi and Alshurideh 2020). Also, the turnover costs can stack up rapidly, in case one does not retain the present workers. On the other hand, in case the retention rates of employees are higher, one will have lesser people leaving the company every year. As an outcome of this, one will save money on hiring, recruiting, training and other identical expenses for employees.

Cleaning Melbourne is proud of its diversified workforce, with about 80% of the people belonging to culturally and linguistically diversified backgrounds. The company has the objective to remove indirect and direct discriminatory practices and barricades to advancement and employment, which is accomplished via its corporate policies and procedures, and also through its industry associations (Cleaning Melbourne 2023).

The staff of Cleaning Melbourne are trained to offer cleaning services in any environment, from offices to educational institutions and healthcare institutions, residential buildings and factories. The professionals are well-trained to follow the safety procedures that keep places, and individuals who work at those places safe. Such procedures include safely handling electric connections, biomedical waste and garbage and fragile equipment in industries or offices. The staff is well-equipped with the right sort of safety material like protective eyewear, gloves and other different personal protective equipment relying on the sector or environment in which they function in. Few services like window cleaning, might need working from heights, so there might be a requirement for devices that avoid all types of falls. Other safety infrastructure consists of creams for sunburn, adequate helmets, hats and hearing protections like ear muffs and plugs. All these practices help the company in retaining the staff or workers for a longer period.

However, Cleaning Melbourne is featured by inadequate training, excessive turnover, and lower morale. It makes it complex for the company to recruit well-trained and long-staffed employees. In other words, those that apply for the available posts might not be the finest fit and those, that are a good fit might not want to remain in the job for long. Apart from this, retaining people is also challenging when the culture of the company and the working device cannot meet the satisfaction of employees. In precise terms, lower quality supplies like thin and inappropriate disposable gloves, may contribute to the unhappiness of workers.

With the aid of the company’s procurement policies and practices and its effective partnerships with local affiliations and social enterprises, it aims at seeking out, connecting and creating training and employment prospects for disadvantaged jobseekers, including asylum seekers and refugees, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, at-risk young individuals, retrenched workers, long term unemployed, people living with disability and victims of domestic violence.

Cleaning Melbourne has formed a partnership with and is a well-known supporter of the Teter Mek Foundation and Jasmin Herro Foundation (Cleaning Melbourne 2023). These are not-for-profit charities that make use of their funds to make educational resources for school teachers and children to aid them in connecting and discovering the rich and diverse culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is via this engagement that it seeks to strengthen the inclusion, acceptance and awareness not just within its company, but extending to the customers and to the communities in which it carries out operations.

The company is highly committed towards a culture that embraces and fosters inclusion and diversity wide across all stages of the business. It accomplishes this by eliminating limitations and stigmas and forming a culture of inclusion via the promotion of education, mutual understanding and awareness. However, employee turnover in the cleaning industry is extremely high because of the nature of the work, extensive working hours and disrespect from the employers, other personnel and clients (Rajan 2021). Such higher turnover rates in any company direct to the rise in cost and usage of resources. Apart from the cost, higher rates of turnover may also impact the morale of personnel in the company.

To ensure employee retention and engagement, the company aims at accomplishing goals which are as follows –

• Gender balance – To raise the representation of females in senior leadership roles and acknowledge that enhancing gender equity offers advantages for the employees, communities and customers.
• Pay equity – To make sure that employees carrying out the work of equal value, acquire equal wages or salary.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders – To fetch maximum support for recruiting, retaining, developing and career progressing of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
• People having a disability – To frame a culture that is inclusive, respectful and accessible for people having a disability including customers and employees.
• Disadvantage – To remove the barriers towards employment and offer prospects towards long-term unemployment, refugees/ new arrivals and former offenders (Cleaning Melbourne 2023).

However, as connectivity enhances, the world seems to be a smaller place. Another HR challenge being faced by Cleaning Melbourne is engaging the workplace having diverse ideas, backgrounds and experiences. Also, this HRM challenge arrives with the responsibility to build a corporate work culture that is welcoming for everybody. Establishing an inclusive team does not just fetch fresh opinions into the corporation but also establishes a chain of diverse networks (Hattery et al. 2022). In case, distinct voices are heard in the company, it will become highly innovative and more sensitized towards distinct cultures.

Learning and Development at Cleaning Melbourne

Learning and development is a constant procedure of encouraging the professional progress of the employees. It engages in analyzing abilities gaps in the business and designing training programs that inspire employees with particular knowledge and abilities that drive increased performance. One can do this by providing training courses, mentorships, online learning and development activities. HR can also accomplish this by implementing the behaviour of individuals, sharing insights and knowledge and nurturing attitudes that aid employees in performing better. Moreover, learning and development intend to lay emphasis on reskilling or upskilling the personnel so that they can take on new roles in the company or better perform their responsibilities (Li 2022). Training can also teach personnel new leadership abilities that prepare them for potential promotions within the corporation. This aids the company in nurturing, acquiring, maximizing and retaining talent. It also raises the satisfaction of employees, improves the experience of employees and reduces turnover.

Cleaning Melbourne offers its employees continuous training and competent communication. It considers it extremely substantial when it arrives at their learning and their overall development. The company always make sure that all its workers thoroughly understand the safety or precautions measures that require to be taken while at work, and that the work of its workers is supervised. Supervision fetches accountability and responsibility among the members that further enhance their learning (Cleaning Melbourne 2023). Effective communication is a two-way method, so it also assimilates feedback from the staff on what measures are to be taken to enhance its services. This practice also makes sure that the company have frameworks and procedures in position for particular scenarios and not only broad guidelines.

The staff is trained for the complete range of activities. Regular training keeps them updated with the best procedures and practices in each sector. Training is considered a two-path street and the corporation and the employees learn from each other, based on their experiences (Mishra et al. 2021). It carefully hires staff and offers them training. They are experienced and always behave professionally. They are polite, courteous, and reliable. The company prides itself in providing safety equipment to all its members so that one can rest assured that the finest safety procedures are followed when looking out for one of the services of the company. However, one of the most common issues encountered by the Cleaning Melbourne company managers is that the cleaners do not comprehend their jobs well. The lack of understanding directs to poor performance that ultimately influences the credibility of the cleaning corporation. Moreover, the undertrained cleaning staff act as a risk for themselves and also to others. In case, they are not trained for better cleaning standards and practices, they can waste cleaning products and time, making a contribution to the higher direct costs.

Learning act as a major factor in any company. Upskilling the employees helps Cleaning Melbourne acquire an edge in the market. However, it is a complex challenge faced by the HRM of Cleaning Melbourne company. Similarly, personnel feel engaged, stimulated and obtain development opportunities. However, the management must make sure that the skills acquired by the set of personnel serve to improve their job roles. In case the workplace has a culture of developing and learning oneself, it will make sure that each employee develops with each passing year.

No matter whether the task is small or big like removing cobwebs, wiping sills, or post-construction cleaning, Cleaning Melbourne handpicks its team for particular tasks. The members of such a team are particularly trained for every task and will fetch their experience and expertise to the work at hand. The company maintains checklists and supervisors to make sure that its personnel remain careful and answerable (Borchardt 2023). It feels proud of its communication skills and staff is apprised of the situation once they evaluate the nature of the task at hand. The teams are accessible and friendly so that one can seek their suggestions or solve any doubts that one may have when they are functioning in the space of the client. However, some things affect the learning and development of the employees in the cleaning company. Clients expect cleaners to perform every bit of cleaning without any complaints. But when asked about the right sort of equipment for cleaning professionals, not many can go beyond vacuum cleaners, brooms or clothes. Such kind of unavailability of the right equipment becomes specifically problematic in the professional surroundings and thereby, affects their learning and development.

Performance and productivity are considered as the shared responsibilities between the HR department and the managers (Saffar and Obeidat 2020). Managers are ultimately responsible for the performance of their team; however, it will fall on the HR management to undertake hard decisions in case certain divisions or the teams are not performing to the extent they require to. Maintaining an eye on performance and productivity involves monitoring the major indicators, involving in candid conversations with the employees and managers and usually acting like a detective to identify problems. While the portion of the job, it is a rather time-consuming responsibility and a common HR problem in Cleaning Melbourne.

Recommended Strategies to Improve Retention and Engagement in the Company

The retention of employees can be achieved in the cleaning company by forming an atmosphere of appreciation and respect for the hard work that is done by the employees every day. It is substantial to provide them with opportunities for advancement to inspire employees to remain with the company for a long duration (Sinambela et al. 2022). Over time, the personnel will view their job not as a series of challenging tasks, but in the form of a rewarding career. To ensure the engagement of employees in the company, the HRM of Cleaning Melbourne can perform cultural awareness activities to aid employees comprehend new and diverse backgrounds. Team building activities will also allow the complete workforce to work as a single team on organizational objectives. The company must also educate its leaders to remain inclusive and open-minded and celebrate cultural diversity.

• Hiring of the right personnel – Cleaning Melbourne must hire only those employees that want to pursue a career in the cleaning sector, not just a temporary job till they search for a better one. While this industry is not the most attractive, it provides advancement and steady work. The company must ask the potential personnel about their future objectives, their interests and the reasons for applying for the specific position to identify if they desire to learn and grow with Cleaning Melbourne.
• Training to the new employees – Offering training to the new employees during the initial week on the job is an essential measure that can be taken by the company (Rodriguez-Sanchez et al. 2020). Employees that feel comfortable with the job tasks not just perform these activities more efficiently and effectively, but also undertake more pride in their job. It is substantial to frame training manuals, hands-on training sessions and cross-training prospects for the workers to learn and upgrade their skills. Provide training sessions to the personnel that have been with the corporation for a while to offer them the opportunity for advancement.
• Review of employees’ performance – Perform annual reviews of every worker’s work performance. Provide encouragement and praise when the workers go above and beyond their normal job activities. It might include volunteering to work overtime, tackle rigid cleaning jobs, make a response to emergency cleaning jobs, or volunteer to work overnight shifts (Qi et al. 2020). Provide constructive feedback so that the workers can learn from their errors. Offering supplementary training or counselling sessions so the employees do not repeat similar mistakes in the future.
• Form a workplace survey – It is suggested to form a workplace survey to identify if there are areas wherein the company can enhance. Ask personnel to offer honest feedback regarding cleaning shifts, assignments, pay, training opportunities, management and health benefits. Make use of such information to undertake changes in the workplace, like rotating shifts on a frequent basis or providing a wellness or health program, in addition to health care benefits or providing more space for advancement.

Recommended Strategies to Enhance Learning and Development Among Employees

Training act as the best source for improving the learning and development of the employees in any organization. For Cleaning Melbourne company, well-trained staff will –

• offer better customer service
• Remain highly competent when cleaning
• and act as a better representation of the corporation

The cleaners must be considered as the more than the employees. They are the brand ambassadors. To foster a culture of constant learning and overcome the challenge of employees' development, it is significant to frame a growth mindset wherein personnel are ready to grab feedback to grow and learn. Managers must be taught to provide great feedback and establish learning objectives within the teams. HRM can also set targets for the employees to learn a specific skill or a part of technology each month (Gikopoulos 2019). HR managers can also make use of gamified learning, online learning and microlearning.

• Empower them to form long-term client relationships – The cleaning products and equipment are not sufficient to form long-lasting relationships with the customers. They require a super-level consumer experience. The cleaning service software solution can aid in delivering a great consumer experience via automation. Starting from invoicing, scheduling, and billing to client follow-ups, automation helps in enabling the team to fetch exceptional consumer experience – the cornerstone to forming long-term client relationships (Hoyer et al. 2020). However, the company must train the cleaning employees on the maximum use of the software solution to make the work better and easier.
• Focus on developing soft skills – The cleaning employees are moving, living and breathing representations of themselves and the cleaning business. Thus, they require to have the right blend of soft skills to form personal connections with the clients. Few cleaners are born with these abilities, while few may have to develop them via training. Though it is challenging to teach such skills, HR management can encourage personality traits such as emotional intelligence and overall individual skills (Cuellar-Molina et al. 2019). Few of the soft skills that cleaning staff must have, include –
• Teamwork
• Communication skills
• Networking
• Decision-making
• Positivity
• Work ethics
• Creative thinking
• Motivation
• Team management
• Flexibility
• Problem-solving
• Prepare a cleaning checklist – During the starting few days, new employees normally attend service calls with the experienced staff. However, when they are on their own, handling service calls all by themselves may be considered overwhelming. Thus, they require a cleaning checklist to make sure that they do not forget anything. Checklists offer direction to the cleaners without having to supervise them. Such training checklists offer significant guidance to the cleaners and lead them to a sense of empowerment to do their job well.
• Make training part of the routine – Most cleaning businesses make the mistake of not offering their cleaning members ongoing and effective job skills training. One must continuously look for opportunities to upskill the staff. So, it is substantial to make the training part of the routine and improve their level of skills, allowing them to remain proactive and generate improve and reliable outcomes. Moreover, managers can also allow personnel to learn by accommodating the requirement of the individuals by allowing them to work in the group and individually and also to become able to learn on the job (Van der Lippe and Lippenyi 2020). It will also raise engagement between the team members and also the people will take the initiative to take on new projects.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that employees act as the lifeblood of any business. Without them, there would be no reason for the corporations to exist. Due to this, HR managers undertake an essential role in making sure that personnel remain productive and feel happy. The HR role in employee retention and employee learning and development tends to minimize the influence of great turnover on the firm.

Retention and engagement of employees are essential in any organization as it aids in enhancing productivity. It is believed that employees that are happy at work intend to be highly productive. Over and above, they are also less probable to leave their job as compared to when they feel unhappy or dissatisfied with their occupations. To retain and improve the engagement of employees, Cleaning Melbourne offers training opportunities to the employees that aid them in learning new abilities and knowledge that allow them to execute better in their present positions. Moreover, offering such opportunities aids in retaining the employees as they have something to look beyond after finishing the training. With this, employees sense that they are nurturing and learning new things and thereby, gain self-esteem and confidence with distinct training prospects, motivating them to remain longer in the corporation.

Learning and development can aid Cleaning Melbourne company in developing an improved management team that is highly efficient in handling complex situations and undertaking quick decisions. With the skills and knowledge acquired from the task, personnel become able to handle tough decisions and become capable to process tasks into easier phases. To improve this HR function, HR managers can ask the workforce regarding the company and acquire valuable feedback from them on what requires to be done, any improvement areas and what sort of learning, they require.

References

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