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Introduction
Stephanie: Hello everyone, welcome or welcome back to the Filthy Rich Cleaners podcast. I am your host, Stephanie from Serene Clean. And today’s episode is going to be unveiling the Serene Clean career path that we just launched at the company.
This week, it’s hot off the presses, and I wanted to wait to talk to you guys about it and explain everything until we showed it to our staff, talked to them about it, and got any feedback if I needed to tweak anything before I brought it to my dear listeners. And the feedback was all very positive. We didn’t really have any questions or follow-up to do on it. So I felt confident that I can now share this with you guys.
And it may look quite different than perhaps what you would expect. Maybe not, maybe so. I’ll be really curious to hear your thoughts down in the comments as I go through this. It is truly fairly simple, but the goal is to establish something so people do not feel like they are stagnating at the company.
Why It Took Seven Years to Build a Cleaner Career Path
Stephanie: And you might be wondering, why has it taken you seven years to establish this, Stephanie? And that’s an excellent question. I think in my mind, I thought — I think in my mind, I thought, oh, how eloquent of me. It’s a Friday afternoon, guys. Can you tell?
I thought that by keeping it as simple as possible, which is one of kind of my core tenets of business, I would say — keep it as simple and streamlined as possible. You’re a cleaning tech or you do administrative work. Like, that’s it in the business. And that felt very simple. But sometimes the simplest things, as I have learned, are not actually the best, just like charging hourly. It’s simple. That’s why I was so attracted to it.
So I’m really trying to analyze where that value of simplicity is helpful and where is it hurting me. And in this instance, I truly believe that it has been hurting me and my business. It causes people to not have anywhere to grow within the company, and that hurts them mentally. That makes them not see this as a career and a place to stay.
And so this concern was validated when I went to the acquisition.com workshop that I explained to you guys all about. And this was one of the key takeaways that I asked them about: do you think this is hurting me? And they said, absolutely. You need to implement something pronto. And the takeaway being that your vision needs to be so big that it fits people’s future into the vision, not just the right now, but their future. And I thought that that was a really good way to phrase it. And that currently, yes, Serene Clean’s vision was not big enough to have a place for them if they wanted to grow.
And so despite the fact that financially we have laid out that path, and I’ve shared that with you guys before — our compensation and raise, like how we do all of that. Our raise and wage guidelines, I think is what we call it, is the actual document itself. And I went over that, and that kind of solved it somewhat, because it’s like, okay, here you’re gonna be getting these raises. Every single year, your potential raise is this. This is what takes away from it, blah, blah, blah, all of that stuff. But it really is a title and something that you’re earning that felt like it was lacking.
And so we came away from that conference — ’cause I took my managers there — we came away from that, we really wanted to put something into place and get this taken care of. Because if it’s something that’s holding us back, if it’s causing turnover of our longer-term staff, and if it’s making us less attractive of a place for people to apply, ’cause they’re like, well, I don’t wanna be just XYZ forever, then I wanted to address it.
Just Do the Thing
Stephanie: And the thing is with stuff like this, it actually was not this huge thing, meaning it didn’t take as long as I thought it would to figure this out. And I think for me, that happens a lot, even though I tell you guys so many times, it’s like, well, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Even for me though, I sometimes get really overwhelmed at a concept, just like switching from hourly to flat rate. That was something I was totally overwhelmed by because it seemed so big. And then when I actually did it, it literally took, I mean, what, a month to two months to transition everybody over. It was very quick and rapid to get new clients on it because we didn’t have to transition anything. It’s just how they experience our company for the first time.
So I’m sharing this with you — good Lord, Stephanie, can you speak? — I am sharing this with you to showcase that oftentimes, the thing we think is going to be this big hairy ordeal to make a change actually isn’t. You just have to make the decision and then go do the thing, instead of just keep talking about the thing. And I don’t mean, like, don’t plan it out. But that is the doing it, not just talking, saying, I need to do this, I think it’s a good idea, blah, blah, blah. Well then, fucking do it. Like, that — and I’m talking to me — then fucking do it, Stephanie. Don’t just keep talking about it, or don’t talk about why you can’t do it. Try it, actually run through it and see what — like, work through the problem.
And once I started doing that with the flat rate, ’cause we had all of these, what about this? What about that? And that’s what I met with Molly Moran about, to talk through those what-ifs. And once we got that concrete information, we just did it, and we’re like, well, we’ll figure it out as we go. We didn’t have all of the answers. We had the basics down, but we’re like, things are going to come up that we’re not sure about. And so we’ll deal with it when it happens. And so that really bolstered — like, that went really well and smoothly. And we’re already saying, we’re reaping so many rewards from it.
And I’ll be going into that in another solo episode talking about our May. So spoiler alert, May was a very good month for us at Serene Clean and we had so many wins. And a lot of it is related to switching to flat rate, but I do want to do an episode talking about just the month as a whole and how I feel like a lot of things compounded to make it incredibly successful. And in fact, more successful than the entire previous year. We had our highest revenue month in May since December of 2024. So I definitely want to talk about that. And I think it’s important to reflect and explain why that happened, how it happened, what led to it, et cetera, et cetera, and how we’re, like, bouncing back and going to be hitting the goal, right?
Room to Grow in the Field
Stephanie: So side note, but this episode being about career path and the need for it — I think hearing that from people who are very adept at hiring, seeing at other cleaning companies that are larger than mine, having room in the tech, the technician, the field side of things, there was room to grow, right? Because at the end of the day, I’m not going to be making up office work. I’m not going to be spending money on administrative things that do not make sense, right? So that means in the field, there needs to be ways to move up in title, in responsibilities, and in compensation, right? So we do have the compensation part somewhat for sure, but I think that we could tie bonuses more to it.
And I know — and I’m kind of just jumping around because there’s just been a lot of changes lately at Serene Clean. And I know that some feedback that I’ve gotten when we switched over to flat rate is like, why are you not switching to StarPay? Why are you not switching to pay for performance? One thing at a time, my sweet children, because I did not want to change literally every aspect of my business. And I don’t know if I ever will switch to that. I’m not sure. One change at a time.
Okay, that’s actually a way bigger change, in my opinion, is switching how you pay your staff. Like, that is huge. And that’s not something that will take a lot of thought. And — even though I just said, like, you just got to do the change — I’m not so certain that that is a good idea. I’m still, you know, I’m seeing some larger companies than mine, they do hourly and they like it for a reason. They’ve switched to hourly from paying percentage or StarPay or whatever. I’m not sure about that. And I am totally comfortable saying that, like, my mind is not completely made up one way or another. So I’m going to leave it as it is for now and learn more about it and how that would work. But I still — I’m just, I have a lot of questions that need answers before I would feel comfortable doing that. So that is why it’s just a not now, maybe someday, but I’m not going to change literally everything right now and monkey with my cleaners’ pay in such a profound way and how we pay. So I do hear you. I see your comments, things like that, of course. And it’s definitely in my mind, but not a right-now thing.
Why the Career Path Is Needed
Stephanie: So, okay, I think that establishes, like, why do we need this? We do have some turnover after, like, two years. And I think that this contributes to it, meaning that stagnation. And I also look at my longest cleaning techs who have been with me for years and years, and they have the same title and the same earning potential as the folks who just started, you know, and that doesn’t feel right.
And you may think, oh, a title? A title? A title really does make a difference. I know for me, for sure. I don’t know if you guys feel the same way, but — and it’s not to make titles up or anything. It’s like, no, you have to earn it. You did something in order to move up to that level. So there is a pride in that. And I’m very curious to see how this plays out once we look back a year from now and see what the effects are.
So, all of that to be said, I think it’s important. So far the feedback has been good, but it’s brand new. So I want to go through what our levels are, what each level means, and why I decided to not go with certain things that you oftentimes see in cleaning companies.
The Four Levels
Stephanie: So we broke down our career path in four levels. They’re very simple, and they are quantified by behaviors that we are already tracking. So the goal with this career path when it comes to implementation was to make it very simple for us to track the behaviors that are going to qualify for the different levels and not have to reinvent the wheel on that side of things. So things that we’re already tracking for other bonuses and their raise potential, that’s one side of it. And we also wanted to leave certain parts of it intentionally vague so that it can grow with the company, and whatever the company needs at that time is what that role will fulfill.
So, spoiler alert, things you are not going to see on this is trainer. You’re not going to see field lead or lead tech. You are not going to see things like that. And I will explain why, but that might be something that you expect to see on these levels. It’s not on these levels.
Okay, so the four levels are Cleaning Tech One, Cleaning Tech Two, Senior Cleaning Tech One, and Senior Cleaning Tech Two. Very simple. Again, there’s no, like, dedicated training role. There is no lead tech. There’s no team leads. There’s nothing of the sort in those levels, as you see. And I will explain why not for each.
Okay, so level one, Cleaning Tech One, where every cleaner begins: you’re learning the systems, building your skills, and earning trust through consistent work. That’s where everybody starts. Cleaning Tech Two, first real milestone, unlocks two new monthly bonuses tied to attendance and compliance. Senior Cleaning Tech One, increased pay and increased responsibility — specifics will be shared as the role takes shape. And Senior Cleaning Tech Two, the highest level on the cleaning track, further increased pay and a leadership-level role within the field team.
Why the Senior Levels Are Intentionally Vague
Stephanie: Sounds kind of vague, doesn’t it, guys? Yes, it does. And that is intentional, because when I look at every single role that has evolved, and I look at, for example, Hannah’s role — she is the field development and quality assurance specialist, right? So she, no matter what, is going to be kind of top of the field team. She is the interim between the office and the field. And there’s only one of her position, right? So when we created that, six months prior to that, there was no way I could have come up with that specific title. There’s also no way I would have known exactly what she was going to be doing. Additionally, as she got into her role, we realized it needed to change in certain ways.
So I am trying to future-proof myself with this structure and not get so hung up on, like, this is specifically what you are going to be doing, because simply I do not know. And every Senior Cleaning Tech One and Senior Cleaning Tech Two that comes to be in our future Serene Clean, their responsibilities may be slightly different from each other. And it may be because of their availability. It may be because of their particular strengths. And I just don’t want to pigeonhole myself right now because the business changes a lot. Every single year things are changing and evolving. And so I don’t know what it’s going to look like when I need a Senior Cleaning Tech One or Senior Cleaning Tech Two. I don’t know what that looks like right now, okay? So this is going to protect ourselves and allow that to be flexible.
Cleaning Tech One: Where Everybody Starts
Stephanie: So let’s go through the levels, shall we? Cleaning Tech One, that’s where everybody starts, and you must be at a Cleaning Tech One for six months. And after that six months, you may have qualified to move up to Cleaning Tech Two.
Why six months? We want to make this challenging. We don’t want to just give it to everybody when they walk through the door. We want to see consistency before they have earned the right to earn bonuses in these specific areas. They already can earn other bonuses, or they qualify for a lot of our benefits right out the gate, that type of thing. But this is supposed to be earned, and it’s supposed to be challenging, okay? And it’s supposed to be a reward for consistency in both of these areas. So that is why we are doing that.
And what that means for our current team, that we are implementing from June 1st — that’s why we picked June 1st — from June 1st when we announced it, the next six months until January 1st will determine if everybody in the current staff is going to move up to Cleaning Tech Two. Some of them will not, because of their behavior in both of these areas that they’re going to be getting looked at. And that’s okay, because it’s a rolling six months.
And so what I mean by that is, say we have Sally the cleaner, and this month in June, she’s having a really hard time with attendance or quality or whatever the thing is. And that means that maybe February 1st, because she gets it together starting in July, then we’re going to be looking at, from February back, that six months. So if you understand what I’m saying — I hope that makes sense — when it comes to a rolling six-month period, that’s what we are going to be looking at to qualify to move up to Cleaning Tech Two.
So within Cleaning Tech One, let’s say that they are a new staff member, right? They are still getting raises within that six months, because we do have our — like I said, this correlates beautifully with our raise and wage guidelines. So that’s still in place. They’re still getting those raises. I believe they get the first one at 60 days, the next one at 90 days, and then it holds. So they are getting pushed up in their finances before six months hits. They also, again, are going to be qualifying for certain benefits. So it’s not like they’re held back from getting more money. It’s just they’re not qualifying for these additional bonuses. So it’s kind of like unlocking a new level, if you will.
Running the Numbers Before Adding Bonuses
Stephanie: So we’re going to be looking at six months. And what this does for us as the business as well is we are not going to be, like, paying these bonuses out until at the earliest January 1st. And for me, I did run financials and how I decided upon if we could afford the bonuses I’m going to describe is — this was with AI, me going back and forth of what should the bonuses be, what’s going to actually be attractive and hopefully modify behavior or reward positive behavior enough. And so I ran out several different models of, like, kind of modest, moderate, and very high bonuses. And we ended up going with the modest — or I’m sorry, the moderate. So the middle option that AI gave me of how much the bonuses should be.
And we literally ran it out as it stands at our current staff and with the behavior that they have exhibited, meaning, would they qualify for these bonuses that I’m going to tell you about? What is this going to cost me? So I highly recommend before you guys introduce any bonus structure, before you think about increasing how much you’re going to pay, before you look at a new benefit, we have to establish, at its worst, what is this going to cost me? And I’ve started doing this before we introduced any new benefit, anything, because it has to make financial sense for the business. We have to be able to afford it, quote unquote, at its worst.
And I don’t mean that in a negative way. I mean, if every single employee of mine qualifies for the bonuses every single month, right — which would be insane, because that means everybody is showing up incredibly well, like excellent attendance and excellent quality, excellent behavior, just like they deserve those bonuses. That it’s a wonderful thing. That means my business is, like, operating like a fucking machine, right? That’s great. But, so, at its worst, meaning everybody has earned the bonuses, what is this going to cost me every month? And can I afford that, right?
And so that is what I put through Claude, going back and forth with him and saying, okay, like, this is what we are expecting to be at by January. You know, this is, like, the worst month that we’ve had this year. So, like, what — you know, trying to be as realistic as possible.
So I have talked to many of you — so side note, when I talked to someone recently who they were considering getting an office, and they’re like, well, we should be — we’re about to hit this amount, like 30 grand a month or whatever, and this is what offices are going for. And I was like, okay, so you haven’t hit that amount yet, right? So let’s go off of, like, the actual average this year. So, like, 25K. And the cheapest places that you can find with water hookups and dryer hookups, we’re like — I think it was like three grand a month. So the percentages and the math just wasn’t mathing. So I was like, we can’t go off of what we hope to be at. We have to go off of what we actually are right now, because that is, like, reality.
Of course, I fully plan to execute and hit our financial goals. Like, it’s happening, we are on track. So if we are on track and we hit the goal — which you guys all know my goal by December of 2026 is to be up to $125,000 a month in revenue. That is the goal. We are not there yet, but we are working towards it. And we are adding every single month.
Looking for Guest Applications
Stephanie: Quick little break here. If you have ever been listening to the Filthy Rich Cleaners podcast and thought, oh my gosh, Stephanie would die at this story — well, guess what, guys? I wanna hear that story. Okay, we are looking for guest applications for the show. And I know many of you have never been on a podcast before, but those are my favorite episodes, to be frank — is the owners who are just here to share their stories. So if you are an owner who wants to share their story, or perhaps you would like to have a free consulting call with me and ask me your questions live for everybody else to learn from, that is also an option. And then finally, if you know somebody in our industry, you have a friend or somebody that you look up to and have learned from who you think would be a great guest option for us, please go to the link down in the bio, and we would love to see you apply or nominate them. And we will take it from there. And I would love to have a conversation with you and get to know you more closely. Back to the show.
When the Bonuses Go Into Effect
Stephanie: If we hit that goal, which I fully expect, and that is when the bonuses are going to actually go into place — we definitely can afford it. We can afford it. I ran the numbers, I went back and forth, and that’s where I chose that moderate amount. And that can always go up, right? As the business continues to grow, we can up those. But I would suggest starting a little bit more modestly with these types of things instead of just going full hog, right? Just like a lot of you start people off at the highest potential ’cause you’re like, it’s hard work — and absolutely it is hard work, but then they have nowhere to grow financially, right? And that doesn’t feel good. So just wanted to mention that.
And back to my example of the rent thing, and that’s a fantastic listener and consulting client. I love her, and she is so smart. And I’m really glad she was asking these questions instead of just being like, I want an office, I’m going to do it because I can technically afford it, right? And I was like, girl, you’re going to be house poor, you’re going to be office poor. Leave a comment down below if you’ve experienced that before, being office poor, meaning you really want an office ’cause you know it looks good, it feels good, all of these things.
And I’m not saying it all — like, I have three offices. Like, they’re very useful to me in a lot of ways. And I don’t regret having that. However, my rent in total for all three offices, all in with all utilities, is like $3,500 a month for three offices, ’cause I’m in rural Wisconsin, right? So it’s a totally different ball game. And the percentage of my revenue compared to what that rent costs me, it makes sense, right?
So that’s what I’m saying — like, before we make these, like, big locked-in decisions, which is how much we pay our staff, right, and bonuses, benefits, these decisions — not saying they can’t be changed, but there’s going to be consequences. You start giving people higher pay and then are like, oh shit, I can’t afford it, nevermind, give it back, right? Or we’re lower and you can’t lower it, right? Like, it just doesn’t work.
So I’m so happy that that wonderful woman — we ran through the numbers. We literally, I was like, what are you at now? Like, what is reality? And what is the percentage of your revenue that would go to an office? And it was like 10%. I was like, girl, can you give up 10% of your revenue right now? And she’s like, no. And I’m like, well, there’s your answer, right? So it’s so smart to run these scenarios before we just hop in or kind of guess, right? And that was what I used to do, I feel like, was guess a lot more, where now I’m just like, okay, all-in cost, if everybody hits this, this is what it’s going to look like.
So, yes, I think it’s so important to be running these numbers of what is this going to cost me if everybody hits it, right? And so doing that with literally everything is going to be very valuable. And obviously the goal is for the business to grow, of course, of course. I do think we’re going to continue to grow, but I just want to be as realistic as possible of, like, what is this going to cost me, right? So I just wanted to mention that before I get into the actual bonuses themselves.
How You Qualify for Cleaning Tech Two
Stephanie: So once they qualify based on their behaviors, then they move up to Cleaning Tech Two. So you might be wondering what qualifies them. And it simply comes down to a lot of math and tracking.
So Cleaning Tech Two, this is your first real milestone. It’s a level we want every reliable cleaner on our team to reach. This automatically happens, moving up, once you meet the criteria. There’s no application process, no extra responsibilities to take on, and nothing to ask for, meaning they don’t have to come to us and ask for, like, a promotion to it. It just happens. So when your attendance and compliance qualifies you, the new bonuses unlock and they are a Cleaning Tech Two. So each one of these bonuses is separate and each one is earned independently.
So how are staff qualified to be moved? Every time I say qualify, I want to say koala-fy, like a koala bear. And I feel like I use the word qualify a lot in the past couple of weeks. And I always think koala-fy. Leave a koala emoji down below. If there isn’t a koala emoji, which would be a travesty if that’s a fact, leave me, like, a little bear emoji. That would be cool. But koala emoji in the comments. While we’re at it, if you want to hit that hype button — if you guys get value from my videos at all, please hit the hype, because that helps more people see our videos. Hit that like while you’re at it. Hit that subscribe while you’re at it too. And if you are listening to any podcast players and you can leave us a review, I would really appreciate that, because that gets the message, the good word, out to more cleaners just like you, more owners just like you, so that people can learn and we can continue to improve our industry. So please do all of the things. Press all of the buttons that you see on the screen except the dislike. That would be cool. Don’t hit that unsubscribe. I mean, maybe unsubscribe and resubscribe — like, I don’t know what that, that’s fun and exciting. Maybe that’d do something to our numbers. Anyway, koala bear in comments, please.
So how you qualify for Cleaning Tech Two is you’ve been with Serene Clean for at least six months. Your attendance over the most recent rolling six-month window is at or above 98% of your available hours. Math, we’ll get into it in a minute. Pre-approved time off does not count against you. Only unexpected tardiness and absences are counted. So we want to get them to do pre-approved and requesting time off instead of calling out unexpectedly, ’cause that’s what’s hurting us, right? And it’s not saying they cannot, they’re just going to disqualify themselves from getting these bonuses. So it’s just taking away extras instead of, like, hurting them, you know, like saying no, you’re at minimum wage or something like that, right? We’re not gonna do that.
So the six-month window is rolling, which means as time passes, older call-ins eventually fall off, and you may qualify naturally just from continued steady attendance going forward. So as I mentioned, we are going to be looking at their attendance for six months, and they have to have a 98% or above attendance rate of their available hours, right? So whatever they say that they can work, they must be a 98% or above for that.
And so that may seem very difficult to achieve, but in fact, how we came to 98% was simply looking at the behavior of our current staff. And as it stands, a large amount of our current staff are already hitting this, right? They are going to qualify if they continue their behavior that they are already doing. So that told us that this is a reasonable and attainable goal. It is a reasonable and attainable expectation. It may be difficult, but it will, in fact, pull some people up who are close, right? Maybe they’re at 95%. Well, they can hit that 98%, right? So, and we’re expecting good attendance anyway, this is just going to incentivize it even further.
And as a reminder, they are up for a raise every single year at their anniversary, up to a certain amount, right? We do cap it currently at $25 an hour. It may go up, that can change, but right now that’s the top. And so every year they have a raise potential that they are trying to hit. So maybe it’s a dollar this year, right? And every time they have an unexcused absence, unexpected tardiness, that type of thing, that is going to take away from that portion of the raise potential.
Let’s link to the episode down in the show notes, por favor — for the, I sounded like Peggy Hill right there. Any King of the Hill fans? Like, you know how Peggy, like, speaks Spanish, but she sounds so white, like, that was me. Por favor, please link the wage and raise guidelines episode if we can remember. Thanks so much, Nicole. I love you.
And so what causes them to not get the full potential, not the full dollar, is as they do behaviors that we don’t want them to do, right? So they’re taking away — the ball is in their court, they are taking away from their potential raise. And, you know, it’s kind of crazy, because one of my fantastic staff members, Joe — he’s amazing, he’s fully commercial, and he just had his three-year anniversary. He, I think at his two-year said — ’cause this was when we started the raise and wage guidelines — he was like, well, that’s tough, like, it’s a lot of pressure. Like, and we were like, no, Joe, this is, like, this means that it’s in your hands. And the past year, ’cause he just had his three-year, he had, I think, perfect attendance and zero quality complaints. So, you know, where he had some issues, you know, he was still great, but not, like, perfect. And in past years, he’s been pretty fucking perfect. It’s incredible. So we’re hoping just based on, like, that, that these additional bonuses are gonna help incentivize people to do the things that help us as the business.
Why we chose 98%, it was simply based on the data of reasonableness — hard but achievable. Okay, so that is how they are going to qualify, is going to be 100% based on availability.
The Two Monthly Bonuses
Stephanie: And then the two monthly bonuses, once they do qualify — now they are Cleaning Tech Two, they cannot go down. If they have a bad month, they’re not going back to Cleaning Tech One. It’s not like that. This ain’t an MLM where you have to earn it every single month you’re ranking, right? Like, you’re not at Emerald level this month and then go back down and then have to re-earn it all again. But the bonuses reset every single month, but you’re still a Cleaning Tech Two. Shots fired at MLMs. Sorry, not sorry.
Once you’re a Cleaning Tech Two, every calendar month, you have the chance to earn two separate bonuses. They are equal in dollar amount, but they’re completely independent. So the first one is going to be, of course, an attendance bonus, earned when your attendance rate stays at or above the 98% of your available hours for the month. Pre-approved time off is excluded from the calculation. And secondarily, the compliance bonus, earned when you meet 100% compliance with all company policies, procedures, and standards for the month. This one is non-negotiable — 100% or no bonus — because we want this to be hard and we want to reward them when they achieve excellence.
And that’s the thing about bonuses. It should be for excellence, not mid, not okay. I want it to be for excellent behavior, right? 98% for attendance, hard but achievable, excellent behavior. Compliance bonus, it’s like, well, that’s 100% within their control, right? Like, do they do the work, do they not get complaints, do they follow company procedure, do they communicate in a timely manner, et cetera, et cetera. And I’ll go into examples of, like, what do I mean by compliance.
So earning one does not require earning the other. Missing one does not forfeit the other. If you miss both in a given month, you remain a Cleaning Tech Two, as I mentioned, you just do not receive the bonus. You simply have a fresh shot the following month. And that’s why we’re doing it monthly. We talked about quarterly, but we felt that that was too long, because, you know, say the first month of that quarter, they have a shit month, and then it’s like, well, I’m not going to qualify for this quarter, so why, you know, really try, because I’ve already lost it. Where months, it’s like every month, okay, I can have a fresh month. And I know some people do weekly bonuses, and I could see doing that. Right now we’re going to start with monthly, see how it goes. Weekly is a lot more work on our end from, like, you know, staying on top of it, that’s tough. So I wanted to be, like, reasonable from an administrative side as well. So I could see moving to weekly someday, definitely, because then it’s like fresh week, you know, fresh start, right? And then we just, like, split up these bonuses to a weekly cadence instead. So I could see that. We’re going to start with monthly and see how it goes.
How the Attendance Bonus Is Measured
Stephanie: Okay, so after that, in the document, we have a big old chart, and it is for the section that is how the attendance bonus is measured. And the reason we wanted to put this in here was so that they could see exactly how many hours at max that they could miss, both in the six-month rolling period to qualify, as well as in each month for the bonuses once they are at Cleaning Tech Two level.
So I’m not going to describe this chart — or, I’m not going to go through this chart — but for example, if they are available for 20 hours a week in the six-month rolling period, they can have nine hours and 36 minutes of unexcused call-outs or absences, right? So again, they can have time off, absolutely. They just need to request it appropriately and in advance. That’s the point, right? And again, it’s hard, but people do it. People have absolutely done it. So we want to reward that excellence.
And then, for example, every month, say again they’re available for 20 hours, like a true part-time employee — how many hours can they miss in a month? The max miss in a month — woo, say that five times fast — is an hour and 36 minutes of unexcused, right? So it’s hard, but people do it all the time. So we know it’s possible, 100%. So we do that all the way from one hour a week to 45 hours a week of, like, so any possible variant of how much people work for us, that is what they are going to be calculated off of. And so we’ll do it in tiers, and I will — meaning the bonuses, I’ll explain the bonuses in a moment. So that is why we have the chart in there.
How the Compliance Bonus Is Measured
Stephanie: Okay, how the compliance bonus is measured. The compliance bonus uses the same standards that our techs are already held to in their annual raise evaluation, just measured month by month. So as I alluded to earlier — I feel like I’m using the word alluded to, I straight up said, I didn’t allude, I said — let me correct my vocabulary here. I straight up said earlier that all of these, the goal of this, is to be simple for us to track. And what’s simpler than the things that we are already tracking? We are already tracking their violations when it comes to compliance for their raises every year. We’re already tracking their attendance. So it’s just easy. It’s very easy and simple.
So if you’re not tracking any of this shit, yeah, it’s hard to implement. I get it. Like, this will take a little bit, but you really should be tracking attendance, and you should be tracking when they do things they’re not supposed to do, right? So that you can look at that when you are — for a variety of reasons, if you have to write them up, if you need to have a performance improvement plan, if they get written warnings, or if they are asking for a raise, you need to have the data to support the decisions, right?
Okay, so there are two areas where violations are tracked to earn the compliance bonus for a given month. You need zero violations in both areas during the calendar month. So under compliance, we have quality of work and we have company policy, okay? Those are the two things that we’re looking at to be perfect every month to get the bonus.
So regular quality checks will be conducted, and failures will be clearly documented. A violation in this area is counted when any area of work is not up to our Serene Clean quality standard policy, which is one of our employee policies that they get upon hiring and they sign and agree to. A client complaint reflects that a quality performance standard was not met, and a client canceled services due to cleaning quality. So any of those things are, of course, going to affect their future raise. It is also going to affect if they get bonuses. If any of those things happen, they should not be getting a bonus, right, on compliance or quality.
So the second area is company policy. So a violation in this area is counted when any signed policy or company expectation is not followed. This includes but not limited to dress code, tool use, conduct, picking up and returning keys appropriately, and responding to management messages and requests in a timely manner. So these are all areas that can be quite frustrating, right? And so we want to incentivize excellent behavior on all of these things, which, again, people are doing. We have killer staff. We’ve got a lot of killer staff. We want to reward them heavily, and get the ones who are having issues here — we want to incentivize them financially to behave in these ways.
And of course you could argue, well, that’s what they were hired to do, they should just be doing those things. Yes, absolutely. But we know to do this consistently, month after month, day after day — like, that’s what we’re really looking for, is, like, really rewarding that. And not just in a normal raise every year, but in bonuses. And I try to see it that way, just like the thought process. Sometimes we get frustrated how many times we have to repeat ourselves or remind staff, but that’s kind of — I feel like the name of the game with managing is you’re just going to be repeating yourself a lot, and it’s okay. That’s just what it is. And you have to remind them all the time of all sorts of things, right? And that’s okay. And so I kind of see it that way, of like, we’re just incentivizing them to do the things that help my business be successful and me be successful. And so therefore it makes a lot of sense to get bonuses on excellent behavior.
The Bonus Tiers and Amounts
Stephanie: Okay, so you might be wondering, how much are these bonuses, right? And so we broke them into tiers like we do with many of our benefits. So if you have not seen any of, like, the benefits policies that we have at Serene Clean, we do most of them in a tiered system based on availability, because we have such a wide variety of staff. We do not require everybody to be full-time. You guys know my love of part-time staff and that it opens up a lot of staff that I would not have access to if I was, like, you know, you have to be, you know, Monday through Friday, 40 hours a week, right?
So we have four tiers. We have tier one, which is 15 hours or fewer; tier two, 16 to 22 hours; tier three, 23 to 29 hours; and tier four, which is 30 hours or more. So we wanted the bonuses to reflect how much they are available to work, because it didn’t seem right for somebody who is working 20 hours a week to get the same attendance bonus as somebody working 30 hours or more, because it’s harder to show up for 30 hours or more than it is for 20, right? Some would argue it’s just as hard for everybody to show up at all. If you know, you know, ’cause you own a cleaning business. Getting anybody to show up any amount of days is, frankly, a miracle.
Our bonuses are as follows. Tier one, for both attendance and compliance bonuses, $35 each, so max per month is going to be $70. Tier two, 16 to 22 hours, is $50 for each attendance and compliance, a total of $100 per month max. Tier three, 23 to 29 hours, is $75 for each, a total of $150 max per month. And tier four, 30 hours or more, $100 for attendance and compliance, max per month being 200.
Do you guys say a hundred or 100? I feel like “a hundred” makes me sound less intelligent. “100” — maybe I should start saying 100. “A hundred,” does that sound kind of dumb? I don’t know. 100 each for attendance and compliance at 30 hours or more, $200 per month max.
So this was, again, the moderate approach. I looked at three different compensation levels for these bonuses, and I went with the middle ground. So these bonuses are in addition to everything else that our staff has access to, including our spin-the-wheel benefit, which is where they qualify, again, based on a lot of these behaviors, but there’s other ones too, like getting video testimonials, getting reviews, blah, blah, blah, and they get to spin that quarterly. And that has a bunch of bonuses on it. They get tips, any other recognition or bonuses we run, like our Christmas bonuses, our Christmas in July bonuses I’ve historically done. Like, they’re going to still get all of that stuff, right?
Okay, so that is going to be the Cleaning Tech One and Two, right?
The Senior Cleaning Tech Roles
Stephanie: And that is where most people are going to stop, is probably Cleaning Tech Two, because the senior cleaning tech roles are going to be something that is truly a promotion. It is as needed. It’s probably not going to be very often that we need this role, but we want to have something that they can go out to. Just like you’re not hiring a manager every six months just because, like, just because, right? Because people want room to grow. It’s only going to come up once in a while, but we wanted to label it and name it.
And so for us, we took a look at, you know, the most likely things that anybody in the field would be doing, right, the obvious things. So there is training, there’s quality checking, there is helping manage the inventory at the other offices. There is doing drop-offs for commercial. There’s all sorts of things that people can do in the field. And for me as well, I wanted to look at first-time cleans. And this is where I really see it going, is they get assigned more to first-time cleans, because those are, you know, our Super Bowl. We want to make sure that they’re nailed and that they stay on time.
So if somebody becomes a Senior Cleaning Tech One, I could really see them being on first-times a lot, or also being more on-call, because as Hannah’s role has taken shape and we are hiring a lot, she’s training a lot, that takes away from on-call time. So there could be a certain amount of on-call that is involved here, where they’re doing those other behaviors because, you know, nobody called out or we didn’t have any last-minute stuff, then they’re going to help manage the field, do quality checks, run supplies, if for some reason they need to — all of the things, right? So that is what that is going to look like, most likely.
But the beautiful thing is, because we’re leaving it intentionally vague and not spelling all that stuff out, then it can be whatever it needs to be at the time. It doesn’t have to be a perfect split of this, this, this. It’s like, actually right now, what we need most is this specific thing, right? And whatever that may be. So that pretty much is going to — it’s going to have a raise in some flavor, and again, we’re going to figure that out, and they’re still going to qualify for the monthly bonuses.
So all tiers are going to qualify for these bonuses. So if they move up, they don’t lose that, of course, ’cause that wouldn’t be very fun. I’m like, oh, I got an hourly raise, but it actually makes me make less money because maybe I’m getting less tips because I’m not on as many cleanings and I didn’t get my bonuses, right? So we wanted to make sure that it didn’t hurt them financially to be going up the ladder. So you have to think about that stuff too.
And then finally, the Senior Cleaning Tech Two, the current highest level on the cleaning track. Senior Cleaning Tech Two carries further increased pay and a deeper leadership role within the field team. Like Senior Cleaning Tech One, the specifics of this role will be defined as we get there and may look different for different people, depending on what the company needs and where each individual’s strengths sit. The attendance and compliance bonuses continue to apply at this level as well.
And so what I foresee that role being is somewhat like Hannah’s role, and most likely heavily training and heavily on-call. And so it’s almost kind of — it’s a reward, but also being on-call is difficult because your shit changes all the time. Hannah’s schedule changes literally sometimes hourly, I swear to God, depending on the day, right? Like, it’s crazy. And so the ability to adjust like that, it takes a very special person, and she just — she nails everything, ’cause she’s an amazing angel and I’m so lucky to have her. I love you, Hannah. You are fantastic. And she is very, very good at that. She can just roll with the punches, context-switch, do whatever needs to be done. And that is the expectation for Senior Cleaning Tech Two.
And so, as I mentioned, like, what’s different about this versus Hannah’s role — Hannah will be over these people, right? So the goal is that Hannah is kind of over the field in that capacity and overseeing these senior cleaning techs. That would be the goal, is they kind of answer to her. She helps organize what they’re doing. But I would really foresee a ton of on-call and training.
Why No Trainer or Team Lead Roles
Stephanie: Right, and so I didn’t want to label training in this. And the reason is, because I don’t want to say you’re going to be full-time training if you’re not going to be full-time training. Hannah doesn’t do that, right? And so having somebody be a trainer, like, putting the trainer in here didn’t make sense for how we actually run things. Nobody full-time trains, ’cause we’re not having people start every week, and it just — that’s not accurate. So I didn’t want to pigeonhole myself, as I said.
Additionally, I mentioned, we don’t have any team leads. We don’t run teams. So if you run teams and you always are going to run teams, you could introduce a team lead. However, the problem I have with team leads is — not the problem, the thing you should watch for and be very cautious of is power trip and power-hungriness and causing cattiness, right, within the team. Because all of a sudden — I will go watch the Stanford prison experiment if you want to talk about what authority can do to people. Sociology reference there. If you’ve not heard of the Stanford prison experiment, I highly recommend you go learn about it, because it’s very fascinating and also horrifying. Very unethical experiment. They would not be allowed to run it anymore, but it is really interesting, of like, what happens when we give authority to people, how they will behave sometimes.
So I am cautious to do that because, one, it’s irrelevant to my business, because we don’t run teams. So having a team lead doesn’t make sense, where they’re checking over all of the jobs and things like that. That’s not true. Additionally, every single staff member, if they are cleaning on teams, they check each other. And I do that on purpose for power and respect purposes, meaning somebody who just started last week should be checking somebody who’s been here for four years, because that person who’s been here for four years can and has made a mistake, right? And it also says to that new person, I respect your opinion and we are equals in the eyes of the Lord, as well as the eyes of this company, meaning your opinion is not less valued, because you can still catch.
And I just don’t like the thought process of there being this hierarchy in that way, because I think that that can cause a lot of issues. Doesn’t mean it will, doesn’t mean that your team leads aren’t fabulous. They probably are, right? I’m just thinking ahead and seeing how I’ve seen people behave, and that power can go to people’s heads sometimes and cause unnecessary drama. So I just prefer not to. It’s irrelevant to my business and something I just — I really caution you guys to watch for and put safeguards in place to make sure that everybody feels heard and respected at every level, regardless if they started yesterday or been with you for seven years, okay? So just wanted to mention that, that doesn’t make sense in our business. And if it did, I probably still wouldn’t do it. And so I like this better, right? I like this better.
Wrapping Up and the Document Is Available
Stephanie: So that’s our levels, guys. So it’s very simple, but the beautiful thing is it gives them somewhere to grow. We’re probably going to get, like, pins for every single level. So once they hit Cleaning Tech Two, they can get a little pin on their apron, ’cause we are doing that for their — I think three- to five-year anniversary, or, like, anybody who it’s three years, I believe, we started doing pins. Or maybe it was five years, but we are doing pins, kind of like a flair on their aprons, but it’s actually fun and they like it, ’cause it shows, like, that pride of signifying to customers, like, oh, I am at a higher level, I have earned this and this. And if they ask, oh, Cleaning Tech Two, what does that mean, then you can probably say, it means I’ve had excellent attendance and I hit all this shit and I’m amazing, and it means I get more bonuses because I’m awesome, right?
And so I don’t think it’s a bad idea. Of course, we’re going to promote them on social media when they get that promotion as well. So I’m just really excited to, like, just show how proud we are of them, and not just like, oh, they’ve been here for a long time, but they’ve also moved up because of their behavior, right? So I’m really excited about it. I think it’s going to be a wonderful thing. And I’ll be very curious to see over the next six months how attendance is affected by this, if there’s no change, or just what happens. I’m very curious about what happens. I’m also excited that when we’re hiring, we’re able to say, yeah, like, you have room to grow in this company now.
So this may evolve, maybe in a year we add another level, I don’t know. But for right now, this is what seems to make sense. Obviously we went over this extensively amongst my managers’ team. I would love to hear from you guys if there is anything that you feel is missing from this, meaning like a certain position or something like that. And again, this has nothing to do with any office work. There may be — maybe at the Senior Cleaning Tech Two, some minor administrative things, like maybe they did a quality check so they have to fill out the form, but that’s normal anyway. But yeah, so let me know what you guys think.
I also, if you are interested in getting this document that we have poured ourselves into and edited and tweaked until we like it, as well as the chart that explains all of the hours — I do have it available. I added it to my website. You guys really liked the last one I put on, that flat rate estimate email, you really responded to. So I thought, once in a while, if I have a new document, I’ll just throw it up and link it. So it’s gonna be $15, just like the flat rate estimate email was. If you don’t want to start from ground zero with implementing something like this — again, you may have different levels that you want to introduce in your business, but this could be a really great starting place for you. And you can tweak, of course, you make a copy, edit it to your heart’s content. But it is a nice thing. I love having a template so that I can go off of, not to make it up all out of my head, right? So we did put a lot of work into this, a lot of thought into this.
I’d love to hear what you guys think. We’ll be sure to link it down below so that you can access it and purchase if you want. If you don’t, you just go to Claude and do it yourself. Like, no pressure, right? Look at me, selling — not. I really don’t care. I want you guys to get as much value as possible out of us for free. But if you are so inclined, it is there for you.
So let me know what you guys think. I’m very curious to hear your opinions and your speculation as to what is going to happen to our staff, and see how they behave. I’m really, really excited though. I think that this is very needed, and I look forward to seeing my cleaning staff rise through the ranks and have that pride that they are rising through the ranks. So that’s very exciting. Let me know any questions you guys have. I’d be happy to do a follow-up on this. And of course, we’ll be talking about this as the results reveal themselves. That’s the word I was going for. I’ll see you on the next episode, guys. I’m so happy to spend time with you. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are. See you in the next one.
