The Invisible Man (or Woman of course!)

There is an army of workers in your building and even in your office whom you rarely see.

Even their work goes unnoticed until it’s omitted or done badly. They are cleaners, photocopier engineers, telephone sanitizers, health and safety or fire inspectors, window cleaners, security guards, contract caterers, possibly even someone who maintains office plants. How do you get the best out of staff who are largely invisible? How do you establish and maintain friendly relations? And how do you ensure that they do their job properly without disrupting the office routine more than absolutely necessary?

The office manager might be responsible for arranging maintenance staff and organising site visits for inspectors, etc. but it’s the staff who work in the office on a daily basis who have to accommodate them when they visit in the course of their job. The experience can be made less stressful and more profitable if you lay down some ground rules in advance – and make sure that both your own staff and your working visitors know what they are.

The one-off

Maintenance personnel, building inspectors, contract caterers, etc. are usually only sporadic visitors to company offices. They’re unlikely to know the lay-out of the building, may well be escorted to wherever they need to be and will probably be unknown to you and your staff. Try and ensure that you have warning of such a visit in advance, including the name of the visitor(s) and why they’re there, and make sure that access is cleared to the area they need to work in.

Most offices now have some form of security system where visitors are signed in and out and provided with temporary identification to wear. If someone arrives either without identification or without it being visible, make sure you or one of your staff verifies their credentials. If necessary ring your own office manager or the company for which the visitor claims to work. Employees at one office had personal items stolen by a bogus workman wearing overalls who wandered around with a clipboard and tool bag muttering ‘come to look at the heating’.

If someone visits your office in response to a request, for example to repair a printer, then make sure that you have as much information as possible about the reason for the call out. Many maintenance firms charge by the time they are on site and producing a brief list of what appears to be wrong can save both you and the engineer time and frustration. Offer tea or coffee, or show engineers where the kitchen or vending machine is, at the same time making it clear that, if they charge by time on site, you expect them to deduct time spent drinking tea! No-one does their best work if someone is standing over them so, unless your company has a security policy of not leaving any visitor alone, show the staff to their working area and leave them alone. Check on progress every 15 minutes or so.

Regular visiting staff

Cleaners, window cleaners, suppliers and maintainers of office plants, telephone sanitizers, etc., will usually visit your office regularly. They may have their own security identification and passes or they may be signed in with temporary ones. Either way they will be more familiar with the building and its workings than staff called in on an ad hoc basis. Some will work outside normal office hours, but you’ll probably still meet them from time to time. It’s often worthwhile familiarising yourself with regular faces. Not only does it improve security but also everyone feels motivated by getting a pleasant greeting from a senior member of staff.

Your attitude makes a big difference to the efficiency and attitude of visiting staff. Don’t for example leave items by bins if they’re not to be thrown away – if there’s nowhere else to leave such items then label them as ‘not rubbish!’ Equally don’t leave money or personal items around. Service companies vet their employees to ensure that they are scrupulously honest but, as in any job, you may get the odd one or two who may help themselves. Besides, whenever anything of value is mislaid there is always a tendency to blame the cleaners. If it’s not there it can neither be taken nor accidentally moved.

Cleaners are there to clean, which includes polishing desks. Have you looked at your desk recently? Really looked? (The author did and became instantly depressed!) Could a cleaner really clean it without disturbing items on it? Many cleaning firms instruct their staff to touch nothing on desks, partly from a fear of unwarranted accusations of theft and partly from a wish not to disturb work in progress. Clearing your desk – if not every day at least once or twice per week – gives the cleaners chance to do their job and will probably make you feel virtuous too!

Troubleshooting

Problems do occasionally happen with visiting staff.
A cleaner breaking a mug, an engineer spilling copier ink on the carpet, a window cleaner twisting his ankle - all are unfortunate but accidental and dealing with them is often a matter of common sense.

Small problems can be handled very much as you would with your own staff. Having a private word with whomever is concerned, getting small breakages voluntarily replaced, etc., fosters good relations. All personal injuries occurring at work should be entered into the accident book, regardless of who’s involved. It’s also a good idea to have a notebook or other means available by which staff working out of hours can inform you of any problems. They will make their own more formal report of course, but a simple note giving the reason why it was impossible to do certain things can save a lot of bad feeling when you and your staff turn up and find the job not done.

Visiting staff are in the equivocal position of having to please both the client (you) and their own boss. Demonstrating a willingness to work with them gets them on your side. Problems which are more serious or involve additional expense, e.g. specialist cleaning, may need to be reported to the visiting staff’s supervisor or base but it’s always a good idea to keep matters as low-key as possible. In the unlikely event of anything really serious happening, e.g. wilful damage, pilfering, etc. then obviously you should make a formal complaint and insist that the particular member of staff doesn’t visit your office again.

In many respects visiting staff work with as much self-reliance and less supervision than those based in the office. Furthermore we often rely heavily on their expertise, whether it’s getting the copier working or cleaning the loo.

Most service staff are responsible, honest, hard working and eager to do a good job. It’s up to us to get the best from them.