Do you own a cleaning company? As your business grows, you’ll need to bring on more people to help you continue providing high-quality service to your clients. When recruiting cleaners for your business, you have two primary options: Hiring contractors or hiring employees.
Which is the best option? The short answer is that it depends as there are pros and cons to each — but to make your decision easier, we’ve prepared some helpful information so you can figure out which is right for you.
Hiring contractors to help you clean your clients’ businesses offers some unique benefits. Here are some of the top reasons why you might prefer this option:
One of the most frequently cited benefits of hiring contractors is that it’s less expensive for business owners.
When you work with contractors, you only pay them for the service provided. In other words, you only pay them for the time they spend actually cleaning your client’s properties (instead of paying an hourly wage whether they’re actively working or not).
Hiring contractors can also be more affordable because you have fewer financial obligations across the board.
For example, you don’t have to worry about Pay-as-You-Go instalments and withholding money from employees for taxes. You also don’t have to deal with super and payroll taxes.
In addition to making your money management processes more manageable, you also reduce the amount of time you have to spend poring over a calculator.
In some cases, working with contractors can provide more flexibility for your business.
Many people seek out contract work because it allows for more schedule flexibility and doesn’t require them to report to an employer at the same time every day. This mindset can, sometimes, make it easier for you to find people who are willing to work outside of regular business hours.
If a contractor is not performing well or meeting your cleanliness standards (or your clients’ standards), it’s fairly easy to let them go.
Since they’re not a part-time or full-time employee, you’re not required to abide by certain laws and regulations. As long as you pay them for the time they worked, you don’t have any other obligations to them.
In many cases, contractors provide their own cleaning supplies and chemicals. They also have their own transport, equipment, and uniforms, as well as (hopefully) insurance so that you’re not held liable if something goes wrong while they’re on the job.
All of these perks mean that you have to provide less as an employer (meaning you don’t have to spend as much money).
When you hire contractors, they will typically provide a quote explaining how much they charge for their services. They will also invoice you to pay them on their terms.
With quotes and invoices (as long as they’re correctly structured and accurate), it can be easier to handle the payment process (especially since you aren’t withholding taxes).
While there are perks that come with hiring contractors for your cleaning business, there are also some unique advantages that you’ll experience when you hire full- or part-time employees instead. The following are some of the most noteworthy ones to keep in mind:
Getting all your contractors to wear the same clothing can be tricky -- especially if they’re just going straight to clients’ properties and not checking in with you first, as many contractors do.
When you hire employees, it’s easier to maintain your brand image because you can require everyone to wear the same professional uniform. You can also provide the same equipment and supplies, which adds another layer of professionalism and makes your company look like a reliable and legitimate one.
In some cases, it can be easier to be more selective when hiring employees instead of contractors. When you post a job ad, you can list specific certification or experience requirements -- and you’ll be more likely to get responses from people who meet those criteria.
Compared to contractors, you have more room to train employees to your exact expectations. Most employers don’t want to spend time and resources training contractors who may or may not work with them long-term.
Since you’ve hired people to work with you, presumably for a long time, you can be more specific about how they’re trained and the quality of work they do.
In addition to more straightforward training, it’s also easier to monitor work quality and attendance when you hire employees. It’s especially easier to do these things if you have a strict check-in/check-out system and use software to keep track of your employees.
When you hire employees, you get the satisfaction of knowing that you’re providing stable employment, a decent living wage, and cleaner
entitlements
to people in your community. For many employers, this feeling is worth the additional costs and financial obligations (such as withholding
taxes).
Being known for taking care of your employees will also bolster your business’s reputation within the community. People may be more inclined to hire you because they know you treat your employees well, which can help your business be more profitable long term.
You’re less likely to get the wool pulled over your eyes when you take the time to interview, vet, and hire employees. Hiring contractors can be a bit of a gamble, but there are fewer risks with employees, even if it takes longer to recruit and onboard them.
At Clean Feeling, we’re passionate about changing the way society views cleaners, and creating a workplace where everybody feels valued. We do this by hiring experienced employees and showing our appreciation through above-award pay, flexible schedules, an extensive training plan, and more. You can read more about our Brisbane Commercial Cleaning Company here. Happy growing!
