Tips for Working With Family at Your Cleaning Service

How to Work With Family

It is a common practice for small business owners to employ family members when looking to expand. In fact, about one in five firms are family-owned, totaling to 5.5 million business in the U.S. alone.

Despite some negative associations, hiring family members can create a more robust work environment if done properly.

Go into the situation knowing that it will require preparation, dedication, and continuous communication. You don’t want to jeopardize your relationship with a relative or compromise the integrity of your business. Before making the decision to work with a family member, you should understand the pros and cons.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Working With Family

When looking to expand your business and acquire new employees, hiring a family member may be an attractive option.

Oftentimes, family members share similar values and beliefs and have a good understanding of your work ethic. They might even already be familiar with the different aspects of your business. This can save you time and resources that would be used reaching out to candidates, running background checks, and conducting interviews.

Established relationships can provide a foundation for honesty and trust, creating a platform for real feedback to help improve your business practices. According to data collected by Family Business Magazine, customers significantly trust family-owned businesses over publicly traded and privately held companies.

Along with the potential benefits, working with family members also presents challenges. Forming a separate business relationship can prove to be difficult but necessary when addressing issues that may arise. You may have trouble confronting a family member as a result of wanting to avoid conflict to protect their feelings.

Compared to other employees, correcting inappropriate behavior can be more difficult. If problems do emerge, it can be increasingly challenging to put the company before personal relationships.

To steer-clear of these situations, we’ve outlined some tips to keep in mind when pursuing a successful family-work environment.

5 Tips for Working With Family Members

1. Set Expectations

Before hiring a family member, it is crucial to outline expectations, both for them and the position that they are filling. Make it clear what your company stands for and set the bar high for their performance. A way to go about this is creating a formal job description outlining the job responsibilities and qualifications.

Even if it is an informal setting, you may also benefit from conducting an interview. To get a better understanding of how seriously they take the job, ask questions that encourage open and honest responses. Pull insights of how they can become an asset to the company. Examine their core values, skills, and passions to make sure they align with the company’s.

2. Maintain Boundaries

Establishing boundaries is a prerequisite for a healthy and prosperous relationship when working with family members.

Be wary of nepotism by treating all employees equally and keeping all encounters professional in the workplace. Either positively or negatively, resist tendencies to set different expectations for your family members or be more critical of them. Special treatment of any kind should be avoided.

Take the phrase “leave work at work” seriously so you don’t endanger your personal relationships. Quality family time, where business talk is avoided, is essential, even if you spend all day together at work.

3. Make Sure Your Team Is on the Same Page

The last thing you want to do is make current employees feel as though they aren’t of value or are going to have to pick up extra slack. Open communication with your current team goes both ways. Assure them that you are making the best choice for the business and encourage feedback.

Before hiring a family member, be sure to take into consideration interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence to gauge their personality fit into your existing staff. You want to foster a dependable and dedicated work environment by making sure all employees are on the same page. Resentment may arise if the core doesn’t support you or your decisions.

4. Follow the Law

Prior to hiring, you want to cultivate and agree upon by-laws previously touched on and make sure you have them all in writing. Securing contracts allows you to have an impartial reference point in the case that conflicts do arise. Consider utilizing a lawyer to review all legal documents before advancing.

Further, be aware of special tax requirements for the situation and that they may vary based on the family member hired. Read up on specific requirements and exceptions of hiring a spouse, child, or parent. According to TaxSlayer, you may be exempt from paying the federal unemployment tax on certain family members.

5. Make the Right Choice for Your Cleaning Business

At the end of the day, no one knows your business better than you do.

Evaluate whether or not you think your family member will make a positive contribution to your business. Make a decision that you are confident in. A pressured choice will only lead to problems down the road.

There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to working with family members.

The increased time spent together can lead to closer relationships as well as potential issues arising. Success depends on the personalities involved, the understanding and acceptance of roles, and the willingness to prepare for and manage the situation.

From big name brands like Walmart to accomplished cleaning companies such as Always Ready Cleaning, a 10-year-old business that has expanded to 5 cities, family-owned businesses have proven to be prosperous.