An exterior cleaning business washes facades, tanks, driveways and glass at height, outdoors and by the season. Work at height, early starts and weather-cancelled days all land on the same small crew, so a clear routine protects them and your clients' property.
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Share your requirementsA pressure washing and exterior cleaning business cleans what the weather and traffic have dirtied: building facades, glass, compound walls, parking areas, water tanks, signage and solar panels. Work runs in crews of three to six, often with one working at height on a rope, a cradle or a ladder while another handles the pump and water supply. Demand follows the seasons, with a rush before festivals, after the monsoon and before building handovers, and thins in between. Contracts are by site or by square foot, and work is done early in the morning or on weekends so as not to disturb the occupants. The risk is physical, and it is carried by a small group of people. See also HR for facility management.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
Rope, cradle and ladder work is taught by watching, and the person tying the knot may never have been checked by anyone.
Weeks of heavy work are followed by slack weeks, so skilled people drift to other employers and the next peak finds the crew short.
Starting at five in the morning or on a Sunday suits the client, and it also makes lateness and absence hard to manage.
Pressure pumps, hoses and water supplies cause injury and damage when misused, and not everyone who operates them has been shown properly.
Rain or wind stops the work, and the question of pay for a cancelled shift is rarely settled in advance.
The crew chief is promoted for skill at the work, and has to learn to plan, check safety and handle the client without help.
A cracked window, a stripped paint or a wet electrical box leaves the crew and the owner arguing about what happened.
Each job has different access, anchor points and water, so nothing is routine and a briefing is easy to skip.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Health, Safety and Wellbeing; HR Strategy and Workforce Planning; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for facility management, not in general.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a pressure washing and exterior cleaning companies business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A practical assessment of each person who works on rope, cradle or ladder, with a named assessor and a repeat on a fixed cycle.
What this coversHideA practical assessment of each person who works on rope, cradle or ladder, with a named assessor and a repeat on a fixed cycle. The health, safety and wellbeing work builds the routine.
A short pre-work briefing covering access, anchor points, water, hazards and weather limits, led by the supervisor and noted.
What this coversHideA short pre-work briefing covering access, anchor points, water, hazards and weather limits, led by the supervisor and noted.
A written rule for what a cancelled or shortened day pays, so crews do not turn up to an argument.
What this coversHideA written rule for what a cancelled or shortened day pays, so crews do not turn up to an argument. The compensation and rewards strategy covers it.
A pool of trained part-time and recalled workers for peaks, with contact and availability kept up to date.
What this coversHideA pool of trained part-time and recalled workers for peaks, with contact and availability kept up to date. The recruitment process keeps it topped up.
Short training on planning a day, checking safety, talking to the client and writing up a job, so the best worker becomes a decent supervisor.
What this coversHideShort training on planning a day, checking safety, talking to the client and writing up a job, so the best worker becomes a decent supervisor. The leadership programme fits here.
Who took which pump or harness, in what state, and when it was returned, linked to a person.
What this coversHideWho took which pump or harness, in what state, and when it was returned, linked to a person.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
A height-work and equipment routine that is checked, recorded and repeated, not just taught once.
A seasonal bench of trained people to call back before each peak.
Clear pay rules for weather days, early starts and weekend work.
Crew chiefs who can plan, check safety and speak to the client.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in facility management, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Housekeeping, technician and security staff at client sites leave for reasons head office rarely hears. How to ask, what to look for and how to act on it.
7 min readRead article
A laminated notice, an annual drill, and an incident register with three entries in two years. What workplace health and safety looks like when it is real.
7 min readRead article
Hiring decisions made one request at a time, in the month the pain is worst. What a workforce plan contains and why a twelve-month view changes what you hire.
7 min readRead article
Most salary structures grew one negotiation at a time. How to build grades and bands from what you already pay, without repricing everybody at once.
8 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Have a competent person assess each one in practice, record the result and repeat it on a set cycle. Ask a qualified professional which standards and certificates apply to you.
Offer predictable minimum work, cross-train for other jobs such as interior cleaning, or agree a retainer for core crew. Ask what would keep them rather than guessing.
Decide before the season and write it down, whether it is a reduced rate, a partial day or rescheduled work. Surprises feed resentment.
Fix the schedule a day ahead, arrange transport or a meeting point where it helps, and treat repeated lateness as a conversation, not just a deduction.
Someone who is competent, calm with the client and willing to be responsible for safety. The best operator is not always the best supervisor, so prepare the person for it.
We would list everyone working at height and when a competent person last checked them, find out what a rained-off day pays, and ask how many of last peak season's people you could recall today. A good first job is a height-work competence record and a seasonal bench. Scope is put in writing afterwards.
All 10 business types in facility management · Find another business type
See all HR topics for facility management, or another industry.
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