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A new train of thought Scott Koloms takes teaching strategy to front-line workers at his cleaning-services company Business First of Louisville - Tuesday May 20, 2003 - Rebecca Ray
Training for success: Scott Koloms sends his supervisors home, and it pays off for his company. In an average week, the five supervisors at Facilities Management Services Inc. get homework and reading assignments, participate in role-playing activities and give presentations to their associates to show them what they've learned. But they're not part-time students. They are among 75 employees at the Shelbyville cleaning-services company, which provides a range of services, including contract cleaning at about 40 facilities on a weekly basis. Clients include medical and financial offices and manufacturing facilities. Two years into the process of assuming operation of his father's company, president Scott Koloms has formalized a training program, and it's changing the way the company operates. Koloms' father, Jerry Koloms, died in May 2001, and since then Scott Koloms has been learning the business and looking to the long-term growth of the company. His concern for employee retention, the quality of the company's services and customer relationships were behind his decision to create a formalized training program for all employees. "I feel like the training manual in a business should be the theory behind the practice of your company," he said. For all employees, the use of the manual and a formal program "increases accountability," Koloms said. "And it increases people's ability to do a good job. I think that's what most employees want." In-house training technique Along with an 11-page safety manual and general employee handbook, front-line employees receive a 10-page training manual that outlines step by step each cleaning job, such as cleaning a restroom, that an employee undertakes. Supervisors receive an 18-page manual that they use when training new employees. Koloms said he created the training manuals with the help of his staff. In addition, new employees receive a two-hour training session at a job site, going through various procedures. Each new employee must sign the manual, stating that he or she has received the training. Then, once a month, the supervisor meets with each employee for a safety and training meeting at each job site. The session covers one of 10 rotating topics. Following the session, each employee must sign a statement that he or she received the supplementary training. Besides the monthly training session, supervisors also complete weekly inspection audit forms to evaluate employees' work at a job site. Then they go through the audit with the employee and provide added training if needed. They also participate in a weekly meeting with Koloms in which he spends 15 to 20 minutes on a training topic. Sometimes at the meeting, supervisors discuss reading "homework," and sometimes they participate in role-playing activities, Koloms said. 'Ahead of the game' Koloms' company is one of more than 70,000 cleaning contractors operating in the United States, but his focus on training and continuing education is not typical for the industry, said Anthony Trombetter, education and training manager of the International Sanitary Supply Association in Lincolnwood, Ill. The ISSA (www.issa.com) is a trade group for manufacturers and distributors of cleaning and maintenance products and services. The organization also provides training programs to cleaning contractors. In many cases, the training consists of new employees being told: "You start at 6 a.m., here's the keys, go to it," Trombetter said. With Koloms' initiatives, "they're way ahead of the game," Trombetter said. Typically, Trombetter said, this type of formal training program is not found in companies with sales of less than $3 million. Formalized programs become more common with larger companies, with sales of $5 million or more, Trombetter said. Facilities Management had sales of $1.25 million in 2002, Koloms said, and he estimates the company will have sales of $1.6 million in 2003. The way it was before Prior to creating this system, Facilities Management had a less formal method of instruction, Koloms said. Supervisors would explain verbally how to complete a job. When Koloms brought up the idea of a manual and new training process about a year ago, "I thought it was crazy at first," said Shirley Bean, a supervisor who oversees about 14 employees working in the Lawrenceburg and Frankfort, Ky., areas. "A lot of people don't like change," she said. But, she added, "it has really gone better than I expected." Bean had worked under Jerry Koloms, who bought the business in 1999, when it was called JanCon. He died in May 2001 from complications related to Crohn's disease. Scott Koloms' mother, Beverly Koloms, is CEO of the company, but she is not involved in day-to-day operations. At the time of his father's death, Scott Koloms had been working toward his Ph.D. at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. His studies included a focus on language and problem-solving in workplace settings. Turning the focus to training When Koloms took over Facilities Management, he spent about six months getting assimilated. He bought four books on cleaning-services companies. Then he turned his focus to training as a method of continuous improvement for the business. "I firmly believe a solid training program helps with retention," he said. Trombetter agreed. "The way people are trained affects their motivation," he said. This in turn affects retention, which is a significant problem in the cleaning-services industry. Turnover is 300 percent on average, Trombetter said, adding that it can go as high as 400 percent or 500 percent. Koloms said that compared with the time period prior to the new training program, turnover has declined to less than half the industry average. In addition, Koloms said, the company hasn't lost any customers. This is notable, considering that the average customer loss rates can run as high as 45 percent per year for janitorial businesses, according to information provided by the Building Service Contractors Association International (www.bscai.org), a Washington, D.C., trade group. Standing out from the pack Steve Baker, vice president of Korrect Optical, said Koloms' approach came across clearly when he was shopping for a cleaning service about a year ago. Among the vendors he consulted, Baker said, Koloms was the only one who mentioned "how they train their people." "Nobody else said anything about that," he said. Baker said he has been impressed to "see the supervisor here each month going over the job with the employee. The quality-control aspect is there." One of the basic benefits of the training manual and the inspection process, Koloms said, is that the company is able to maintain a standard of quality. Recently, the supervisors held a retreat at a hotel, and as part of it, they did their own audit of the cleanliness. (The hotel is not a client of the company.) Koloms said he was encouraged to see that among his supervisors, the scores on the building's cleanliness were within five or six points of each other. "It means we're starting to see things the same way," he said. Bean said she's very pleased with the process. "He's really made a big change. There are not as many accidents, there are not as many complaints, and we're a whole lot more organized."
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