Would you agree that they are recruiting from the very same applicant pool as we are?  If so, do you know how they screen?  If not, you better add it to your selection process.  Let us share how we may hire only 1 or 2 out of 100 applicants.

This is the toughest hiring environment in More Time for You’s  14-year history.  Recruiting housekeepers has never been more difficult and screening more important.    It may be easy to hire a house cleaner – but not as easy to find someone we would trust in your home.  We have often said; we would rather lose your business then lose your trust in us.

Here are some things to consider as you screen your maid service companies.

The first question you should ask is if the person cleaning your home is an employee or an Independent Contractor.  Insist on knowing that answer.  If they are an Independent Contractor, there is a risk you are not protected against damage or a work related injury.  Our advice, select a cleaning service such as More Time for You that uses properly vetted employees, is fully insured and all employees are covered by Worker’s Compensation.

Ask if they perform a prescreening phone interview.  More Time for You does and all applicants need to pass those questions before we invite them in.

Interesting note:  Out of 100 applicants that apply.  Fewer than 50% pass our phone prescreen.  So our candidate pool quickly shrinks to 50.   Now what is even more interesting is that of those fifty we invite in, half don’t show up, call or cancel.  That 100 quickly dropped to 25 housecleaning candidates.

Once a cleaning applicant does show up at More Time for You; the screening process continues.  Each home cleaning applicant completes a very in depth questionnaire making sure they are qualified for the position.  We cover working on hands and knees; verify there are no allergies or fears of cats and dogs, etc.   Once they have successfully answered those questions we move on.  Of the 25 that complete this.  About 25% will not move to the next step, this leaves us with 19.

Find out how they screen for a positive attitude.  You certainly don’t want someone in your home with a negative attitude and we don’t either.   Our next step is to have our applicants completing an attitude assessment.   We want people with a positive outlook on life.   That is whom we would want in our home, so the same holds true for yours.

Inquire if they perform any third party non-biased assessment test and what it covers?  For the past 7 years we have used such a tool.  This assessment provides us a profile covering, Supervisory Attitudes, Work Attitudes, Workplace Theft Attitudes, Workplace Theft Attitudes, Prospects for Long-Term Employment and Safety and Risk Avoidance.  Pretty important information for a home cleaning company to know don’t you think?

More Time for You excludes those with a medium or high risk theft assessment.  This eliminates 37% from those taking the assessment.  Those with poor validity scores (attempting to manipulate the survey outcomes), with Below Average Customer Service or bad work attitudes don’t make the cut and eliminate an additional 13%.  We eliminate 50% of those that pass the phone interview, attitude testing and  job profile.  We now have 9 viable applicants from the original 100 applications.

More Time for You then conducts a multiple question interview.  The verbal interview will eliminate 1/3 of the remaining applicants, leaving us with six..

Our background check eliminates 1 out of ten that have made it this far.  That leaves us with 5 candidates that we can make offers.

Twenty percent will not accept or not show up on the first day, leaving us with 4 (could our drug-free environment cause that?)

Of the four that join us; 50% will not make it through our extensive training, a two to eight week program based on experience.

So for every 100 applications that come in, we may hire one or two.

As a result, More Time for You is very proactive in recruiting.  During the month of February 2013, we had 35 applicants apply.  Although we need staff, we were only able to make just one offer.  She never called us back.

We wish these conditions were better and we assure you we commit countless hours recruiting every day.    But then again, that is why you hire and trust More Time for You.  We also have periodic waiting lists for new clients, which can create some inconveniences.  But we feel we are worth the wait.  We provide excellent cleaning quality and we are very selective with whom we have in your home.

The tagline of the commercial says it all – don’t spend your life cleaning. There are so many other things that you could be doing, like playing with or spending time with your children. But instead, by trying to make your house as squeaky clean as possible all on your own, you are essentially imprisoning yourself inside and saddling yourself with chores.

No one wants to do hard time in their bathtub and shower, scrubbing their lives away. Their children will miss them, as evidenced by the “I Love You Momma” commercial. It is hard to believe that every day women (and men, as well) spend hours trying to scrub the dirt, grime and soap scum off of their bathtub walls and floor, not to mention the sides of the shower stall, while life goes on around them. That is precious time that could be spent on other chores, or even doing fun things like playing catch out in the yard, walking pets (and kids) in the park, wandering around the neighborhood or playing board games with their children.

In order to prevent this scenerio from playing out in your life, you have one of two choices. You can either use the right cleaning products, as evidenced by the commercial, or you could hire a cleaning service. A cleaning service will take care of your whole house, not just your bathroom, leaving you with those hours free for other, more important pursuits. You will not have to worry about being stuck in a prison of your own making, because your house will be clean and neat — and you will not have had to do a thing!

Since 1999, More Time for You, a Powell based business, has been providing house cleaning, handyman services, lawn care and snow removal services in Dublin, Powell and the surrounding areas.

If you did a search on Google – or any other search engine, for that matter – for maid services in Powell, Ohio, how many results pop up? The answer? Dozens. Some are local branches of national cleaning chains, while others are smaller, locally-run services, like us, More Time For You.

The real question is not, “how many results did you get,” but is instead, “how did you choose which company to call?” Did you decide to just go with the first on the list, or did you go to a few websites and check the companies out in more depth? We hope that you did the latter, since there a number of things to look for in a cleaning service besides their name.

When choosing a cleaning service, makes sure to ask the right questions. These include:

- Is your company licensed and bonded? This is important, since the insurance company will replace things that accidentally get broken during the cleaning process. It may not happen often, but things like this do occur. After all, everyone is human.

- Does the cleaning service drug test their maids? We do. Would you want someone who is under the influence of drugs cleaning your house? Of course not — this is how accidents, theft and other problems occur.

- What rates do they charge? Are they per-cleaning person, per-hour, per-job? They may very, so you need to know exactly how much they will charge to clean your house, or else you may be left with a “surprise” — like a higher bill than expected, for example.

- What types of cleaning services do they offer? Some responses to this may be classic cleaning, one-time cleaning and green-cleaning.

As you can see, some investigation is needed once you have completed your online maid service search!

Since 1999, More Time for You, a Powell based business, has been providing house cleaning, handyman services, lawn care and snow removal services in Dublin, Powell and the surrounding areas.

The question begs an answer: why do you have a housecleaning service? Whether it is due to a lack of time or a lack of mobility, there is no shortage of responses. However, the stigma is still there: many people view someone who utilizes a housecleaning service as someone who is too “good” to clean his or her own home. The reality is, this is very far from the truth.

People who hire a housecleaning service know that one of these is true:

A) They can’t clean the house on their own. Someone with a broken leg, arm or a permanent mobility problem is unable to clean their own floors, dust shelves, wash windows and in some cases, even run a vacuum. This leaves them with two scenarios: either they live with a very dirty house (and who wants that?) or they hire a cleaning service to take care of it.

B) They don’t have the time. Someone with a demanding job that requires long hours needs a cleaning service to keep their home looking nice and neat. When you add in the work-family balancing act, along with other obligations, time becomes even more precious, and the need for a cleaning service is even more apparent.

C) They need a one-time clean. This is something totally different, and consists of a single job where the house is cleaned by a service only once, not a regular daily or weekly basis. One great example of this is when someone who holds a large party or get together in their home may hire a service to clean up the “aftermath” the next day.

As you can see, there are many reasons as to why someone would hire a housecleaning service on a regular basis. So, think about it: why do you have a housecleaning service?

Look around your house — can you guess where the germs are? If you said the bathroom and the kitchen, then you are partially correct. Before you start cleaning your home, focusing on those two areas, take a moment to let the reality sink in: the germs are everywhere. Let’s break it down by room:

Kitchen: Your sink, stove top, oven and refrigerator door are germ magnets. Tests have shown that these areas in the kitchen are breeding grounds for both coliform and staph bacteria. While you’re cleaning these areas, make sure that you also scrub your cabinet door handles, any coffee makers, and the handle and door of your dishwasher.

Bathroom: Believe it or not, the most germ-ridden thing in your bathroom is your toothbrush holder. Yes, that is as horrifying as it sounds. When cleaning your bathroom, obviously you need to scrub the toilet, sink (and counter), shower and floors, but don’t forget about the items on the sink. The toothbrush holder, any beauty supplies and the mirror should be cleaned as well.

Living room: If you have dogs, do you know what they are tracking back in after running around in your backyard? On top of fleas and ticks (which are not really germs, but are just as unpleasant), they could bring germs of various kinds inside. This can be prevented by wiping off your dog’s paws before he or she enters the house, but a regular (and thorough) vacuuming helps as well.

In order to effectively rid your house of germs, you need to use a strong household cleaning agent. Lysol, Scrubbing Bubbles and several other brands are fine, although there are green cleaning detergents that work as well. If you use a sponge to wash your dishes or clean various surfaces in your house, make sure that you replace it regularly, as it can breed germs.

There are several different routes that you can take in order to filter the air inside of your home in the winter when it is too cold to open the window. You can purchase an expensive electronic air filtration system, or choose a simpler, more natural option: houseplants. These do more than make your house look nice or add a touch of green to each room. Like all plants, houseplants filter the air by taking in CO2, and sending out oxygen.

Any houseplant will work to filter the air, but some are better at it than others. In fact, there are a number of them that naturally remove various chemicals as well. Some of these include rubber plants, spider plants, English ivy, Chinese evergreens, golden pathos, weeping figs (ficus) and snake plants. Flowering houseplants that do this same job are the Gerbera daisy and the peace lily.

On top of this, English ivy, peace lilies, golden pathos and Gerbera daisies filter benzene from the air, and all but Gerbera daisies take care of xylene and toluene, too. There are also houseplants that clear chemicals like formaldehyde, ammonia and trichloroethyline from the air. Odds are, all that you will need to clear from the air is carbon dioxide, but it good to know that your houseplants will do double (or quadruple) duty.

One word of warning: before purchasing a houseplant, make sure that it will not be poisonous to your pets. There are a number of plants that can make your cats or dogs severely ill, if not fatally ill, if ingested. Check with your veterinarian, or a trusted website, like that run by the ASPCA, before choosing which plants to buy.

Since 1999, More Time for You, a Powell based business, has been providing house cleaning, handyman services, lawn care and snow removal services in Dublin, Powell and the surrounding areas.