Do You Have a Paid Time Off Policy for Your Cleaning Business?
Employers are always looking for ways to attract better quality employees to their cleaning business. But did you ever think about attracting them with how many days they won't be working? This is where a great paid time off policy can come in handy. Don't keep it a well-kept secret, use it to attract potential employees!
I recently asked a cleaning business owner to share her employment ad with me because she complained about the lack of people applying for job openings. Her ad was a listing of everything required of the employee – things like, must be to work on time, must have a valid driver's license, must be a hard worker, must wear a clean uniform… you get the idea.
These days, you can't just give a list of requirements to prospective employees. You must provide them with reasons they would want to work at your company. You are not only competing with other companies for clients, you are competing for employees too! So let's get specific and talk about your options for a paid time off policy.
Options for Creating Your Paid Time Off Policy
When we think of paid time off (PTO), holidays come to mind. Although you are not required to pay “Holiday Pay” to your employees, most employers do offer it as an employee benefit. Most only provide it to full-time workers, but some do offer a partial paid day for part-time workers.
Other reasons for giving paid time off include vacation time and sick pay, which is time taken off chosen by the employee and approved by management. Because many commercial cleaning companies hire both full time and part time employees, it is worth considering giving PTO benefits to the part time employees too. You may just be offering a benefit your competitors don't and that could be a tipping point for a potential part time employee to accept your job offer.
There are two ways most companies treat Paid Time Off
Some companies keep PTO for vacations separate from sick days or personal time. They typically have different rules for each so if you choose to offer PTO this way, be sure employees fully understand your policy for each to avoid misunderstandings.
For example, you may require that employees give a minimum 2 week notice for upcoming vacation requests, but your policy doesn't guarantee that their request will be approved if another employee has already requested that time off.
You may also want to stipulate that employees may not take an unpaid day off if PTO time is available.
Some companies combine vacation pay and sick pay into one PTO policy. More companies are moving to this model so employees can use the time as they wish, for any purpose. The advantage for employers is having just one PTO category to track.
The disadvantage to employers is that some employees want to use all their PTO for vacation time, so they end up working sick, on days they should stay away.
How will PTO time accrue? There are many variations of how PTO time will accrue. For example, our PTO time is based on hours paid (excluding overtime). Other requirements are based on years of continuous employment, how much time is accrued per work week, the maximum time available per anniversary year and the maximum carry over at their anniversary date.
In our PTO policy, the employee accrues more time the longer they stay with the company. So in years 0 – 2 they accrue 40 hours of PTO time, whereas in years 2 – 5, they accrue 80 hours. What I like about this policy is that time starts accruing after the first 90 days of employment so they don't have to wait a full year to be eligible for PTO. For example, after 10 weeks of accrued time, the employee has earned 7.69 hours of PTO time.
There are also several other considerations such as to whether or not employees can cash in any remaining time left when they leave the company. There are state laws that must be followed when crafting this policy so it's best to consult with an HR expert in your state to make sure you're not violating any PTO laws.
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