PathMBA Vault

Economics

Cleaning Up Bad Jobs

por HBR Editors

Cleaning Up Bad Jobs

Cleaning offices. Assembling modular furniture. Stocking workplace kitchens. Providing security. These are often bad jobs. Have one, and chances are you’re working hard but not bringing home much more than the minimum wage. There’s no promotion in sight. And you have little if any control over your schedule.

Dan Teran knows all too well. In 2014, when he and his cofounder launched Managed by Q — a startup that provides office cleaning and maintenance — he was doing all those jobs, moonlighting as a staffer at the business he ran during the day.

“During our first year I spent almost every night cleaning offices or supervising cleaners, because we didn’t really know what we were doing,“ he recalls. “We would pretty much say yes to everything. Whatever tasks you wanted done, we did.”

That was no recipe for success. Employees were stretched thin, doing jobs they weren’t trained or equipped for. A lot of them were unhappy.

“It created bad outcomes for the business, bad outcomes for the customer, and a bad employee experience,” Teran says.

So as the company grew, Teran decided to integrate Zeynep Ton’s Good Jobs Strategy, or GJS, into the business plan for Q Services — the more traditional part of the company, which employs more than 700 W-2 workers. (The firm also provides a platform and marketplace for companies to connect with other service providers.) But there were some basic differences.

Unlike most companies Ton has worked with, Managed by Q is not a retailer. Also, Managed by Q is in a high-growth mode, whereas many of Ton’s retailers are older, more established companies. These things make Teran’s application of the GJS that much more intriguing. It’s not just about cleaning up service jobs; it’s also about making fast-moving startups better.

In applying the GJS, Teran has focused on four things: pay, scheduling, benefits, and advancement. Employees start at $12.50 an hour. Full-time workers average 120 hours a month, and they are offered health insurance and a 401(k) plan. Employees are part owners of the company, and they get stock options.

In addition, the company doesn’t take on jobs requiring specialized knowledge that its employees lack. By not accepting those kinds of tasks (such as taking care of orchids) and focusing on the most frequently requested ones (such as assembling furniture), Teran explains, the company sets employees up for success.

“The Good Jobs Strategy takes what could otherwise be a dead-end job and turns it into a real platform on which to build a career,” he says.

Is it working? Managed by Q has clients in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. And it’s profitable.

Hear Teran describe his application of the Good Jobs Strategy by clicking on the play button below.

Play

Play

00:00

Play

Seek 10 seconds backwards

Seek 10 seconds forward

00:00 / 00:00

Mute

Picture in picture

Fullscreen

.video-summary-list-container { height: 100%; } .video-summary-list-container .MuiScopedCssBaseline-root { height: 100%; }

Summary & chapters

Read as overview

.chapters-list-module_intro__74vPf { padding: 16px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2); } .chapters-list-module_chapter__uKhQh { padding: 0 16px 16px 8px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2); .MuiPaper-root .MuiButtonBase-root .MuiAccordionSummary-content { margin-top: 16px; margin-bottom: 0; } .MuiPaper-root .MuiCollapse-root .MuiCollapse-wrapper .MuiAccordionDetails-root { padding-bottom: 0; } } .chapters-list-module_chapter-header__Pu4Xi { width: 100%; margin-right: 8px; } .chapters-list-module_chapter-header-content__JIOjX { flex-grow: 1; padding: 8px; border-radius: 8px; cursor: pointer; } .chapters-list-module_chapter-header-content__JIOjX:hover { background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, .2); } .chapters-list-module_chapter-header-expand-icon__tLLZ9 { margin-top: 16px; } .chapters-list-module_chapter-header-text__bPoKD { font-size: 11px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 1px; text-transform: uppercase; } .chapters-list-module_chapter-bullet-icon__kCL9n { font-size: 11px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 1px; text-transform: uppercase; } .chapters-list-module_chapter-intro__H-iVR { display: flex; align-items: center; gap: 8px; margin-bottom: 2px; } .chapters-list-module_chapter-description__ziIpd { margin: 0 -16px 0 -8px; } .chapters-list-module_intro-text__Sqgju { } .chapters-list-module_chapter-description__ziIpd, .chapters-list-module_intro-text__Sqgju { font-size: 16px !important; white-space: pre-wrap; }

Artículos Relacionados

Investigación: La IA generativa hace que la gente sea más productiva y esté menos motivada

Investigación: La IA generativa hace que la gente sea más productiva y esté menos motivada

Arreglar los chatbots requiere psicología, no tecnología

Arreglar los chatbots requiere psicología, no tecnología

Los chatbots dotados de IA se están convirtiendo en el nuevo estándar para la gestión de consultas, reclamaciones y devoluciones de productos, pero los clientes se alejan de las interacciones con los chatbots sintiéndose decepcionados. La mayoría de las empresas intentan solucionar este problema diseñando mejores modelos de IA en sus chatbots, pensando que si los modelos suenan lo suficientemente humanos, el problema acabará desapareciendo. Pero esta suposición es errónea. Esto se debe a que el problema de fondo no es tecnológico. Es psicológico: Hay que engatusar a la gente para que vea a los chatbots como un medio positivo de interacción. Los autores han analizado recientemente las últimas investigaciones sobre chatbots e interacciones IA-humanos, y en este artículo presentan seis acciones probadas que puede llevar a cabo al desplegar su chatbot de IA para impulsar la satisfacción, la percepción positiva de la marca y las ventas.

Investigación: ¿Está penalizando a sus mejores empleados por desconectar?

Investigación: ¿Está penalizando a sus mejores empleados por desconectar?

Para combatir el creciente desgaste del personal, muchas empresas han defendido programas de bienestar y han fomentado un enfoque renovado en el equilibrio entre la vida laboral y personal. Pero un nuevo estudio descubrió que incluso cuando los líderes reconocían que desvincularse del trabajo aumenta el bienestar de los empleados y mejora su rendimiento laboral, los directivos seguían penalizando a los empleados que adoptaban estos comportamientos cuando optaban a un ascenso o estaban siendo considerados para un nuevo puesto. Basándose en sus conclusiones, los investigadores ofrecen sugerencias para ayudar a las empresas a crear políticas y construir una cultura que proteja los límites de los trabajadores, evite el agotamiento y recompense el trabajo fuerte.