An Essay About Hiring and Training Laundry Workers

Too often in this industry, laundry owners will hire a brand new attendant, give them a brief oral outline of their duties and then leave them alone to work their shift. There is seldom real training, no time to interact and thereby little hope of getting things right. Over time, the more intelligent ones can become proficient at handling customers and doing fluff & fold orders that come in. However, without training and incentives, usually the more intelligent leave to find a -better job. That means the laundry operator must spend his or her time hiring another attendant, who they also don''t train and lose in a month or two. It''s a vicious cycle. Experienced fluff & fold entrepreneurs avoid all that employee turn over by thorough training and by offering incentives and goals for their attendants to reach. Those who reach and exceed their goals are usually offered something extra as way of saying thanks. Where can good attendants be found? Try looking close to home. A really good way to find laundry attendants is to post a job notice on your laundry''s bulletin board. Among your customers you will find a number of mature women familiar with your laundry. They know the people who come there and already know how to do laundry. Select ones that are personable and outgoing. Most of these women are homemakers who have already raised their family, and are looking for something to do. Most instinctively realize the skills they needed to use at home work -perfectly for laundry attendants. They might feel uncomfortable at having to compete for a job in an office or retail setting but they are -confident that their skills make a coin or card op laundry perfect for them. And, after they understand the job and receive some basic training, they can really help you grow your business. If your own bulletin board doesn''t provide you with the right mix of applicants, try using a kind of publication that people who have time on their hands might read, such as a local shopper or Penny Saver. The ads are cheap and can be quite effective seeking new hires. Exactly what kind of training will they need? First, it is very important that they know how necessary for the success of the business your customers really are. Attendants need to know that they are to treat customers with friendliness, respect and courtesy while they are at your laundry. This is true for those who do their own wash as it is for the fluff & fold client. Hello with a smile, being helpful, courteous and saying thank you goes a long way to keeping laundry customers happy. Having polite, pleasant & knowledgeable attendants is the best line of defense against future laundry business failure. Prepare a list of what you want to have your attendants do, and give them a schedule of times to do it. Review the list with then and then post that list where attendants can check it during every shift. It doesn''t take all that long to write up a list of those duties before you engage their services. After you hire them it doesn''t take much of your personal time to check, then recheck that those duties are being done the way you want things done. Employees are always much more efficient and content when they know what is expected of them and have a list of duties to follow. They are also happier when the boss takes the time to let them know they are doing a good job. Keeping employees happy is an art, and most operators can master the ways of keeping them happy by simply saying thank you for the job they do and also by offering them compensation that is appropriate for the job that they are doing. What should attendant''s list of duties include? The list should cover what they are to do and when it is to be done, along with a brief outline of how to do it. If the duties are related only to caring for the laundry it''s one thing. If they are doing customer bundles, it''s another. For example, you want them to wipe down the machine tops twice during each shift. You should first show them how you want it done by going to the machine and showing them how to do it. One rag to wash and use a second one to dry. Then follow it up by periodically inspecting the tops to see that they look as if the work is being done. If attendant responsibilities include taking in and finishing customer bundles, they will need to learn how to weigh, price and record the orders the way you want it done. They will have to be shown how to record each order so that you are able to follow that order, know when it came in, when it is finished and when it goes out. Fluff & fold record keeping is vital and the laundry owner needs to spell everything out carefully, step by step, and then physically show employees exactly how each activity in processing customer orders is to be done. There are several good reasons for keeping records honestly and accurately. Perhaps the most important reason is that it helps keep employees honest. With the correct record keeping system, it''s more difficult for people to rip off a few bucks here and a few dollars there, because they could get caught. The attendant training program for your laundry should include telling them how the records can be checked and hanky panky quickly found. Expect honesty and with regular checking, your expectations will be met. How much individual pay out authority should a staff of attendants be given? To customers, an attendant is the laundry and laundry users expect quick and cheerful refunds if there are problems. So, give your workers the right to refund within certain -limits and with the right paperwork to back it up. That paperwork should include the time of day, a description of the problem, the location of the malfunctioning machine and the amount of money paid out to the customer. Carefully review every refund event so that you can show your employees how to check the machine at the time complaints are made. You want them to offer the use of another machine rather than hand back cash. It''s important that you have each customer cash exchange recorded, whether it''s paid in or paid out. If there are coins put into a second machine to satisfy a customer complaint, it should be written down by the attendant so that it can be verified as part of your ''keep them honest'' program. When you check records, look for patterns where one employee might be stretching their authority limits. Many laundry operators issue the people who work for them a fund of quarters to use as a cash source for both making refunds and for using in the machines to do customer orders for fluff & fold. This fund can be given to the attendants either monthly or weekly. It is to be accounted for by the employees and then restocked. Some operators just keep a can of quarters available for use by attendants to do customer bundles. Less trusting owners take the trouble to color quarters so the coins can be identified as to which employee used it in the coin drops. This helps owners identify activity by individual workers, and when it comes time to restock their coin account, helps balance the coins in and coins out totals. In card operated facilities, owners just have to issue the workers a card to use. Settling up is done on a scheduled basis using the cash -balance left on the card. For either cash or card, employees must balance up against the written paperwork they have completed. Attendents may acquire a variety of responsibilities. They take care of fluff & fold and drop off dry cleaning orders, plus handle customer relations. They also are regularly charged with the responsibility for opening and closing of the business, doing janitorial work such as light cleaning and take care of some minor maintenance. Attendant is a single employee title, but with a huge variety of things they do, it''s a title that doesn''t say it all. With all that stuff on an attendant''s plate, perhaps the owner''s obligation and need for training and supervision is more understandable. Each of the activities above may seem easy to an experienced operator, or employee, but can seem quite complicated to a newly hired worker. Training them makes sense. The economics make a great deal of sense as well. The better trained person makes more right decisions and that keeps the clientele of a laundry coming back bringing personal wash and drop off dry cleaning business. Having someone who knows the job, that people like and can relate to, brings a laundry success.