Staffing Challenges in the Laundromat Industry
Staffing is a constant challenge for laundry owners of all shapes and sizes. Whether you call it a coin laundry, a washateria, a full-service laundry center or the more traditional laundromat, it’ll be a struggle. Talk to any business owner and they’ll often tell you that staffing is their number one-time suck and headache.
At Queen City Laundry, we are not the exception to this! While relationships and staffing are probably one of my (Dave’s) more natural talents, the truth is that it’s been brutal for us to on this journey of building a team as well, but it’s also been worth it.
Relying on a single employee can be risky, as their absence can lead to closures and lost revenue but it’s also a necessary evil in the laundry and dry-cleaning industry. While stores cannot always justify a single attendant, we all know that very few laundromats have multiple staff members on duty at the same time.
The industry’s entry-level workforce also presents reliability issues. Any time, we’re dealing with entry level staff, the difficulties increase. As laundromat owners, we’ve been there – struggling to find and retain quality staff. But through years of trial and error, we’ve developed a system that works for us, and we’re excited to share our insights with you.
Trust me when I say that as gratifying as building a beautiful store is, NOTHING compares to the feeling of knowing that your investment in your staff has paid off and you now have the freedom to work IN your business rather than working ON it.
The Keys to Successful Laundromat Staffing
We’ve identified three key areas that have helped us build a rockstar staff at our laundromats:
This may not seem like a “staffing component” but it really is. The first lesson we learned about staffing is that it’s not about the actual staff! What I mean is that it starts with building your facility in a way that supports your staff, but also that you’ve built a laundromat or washateria that rockstar employees will want to work in.
Having run unattended, partially attended, and now fully attended stores, we believe that every laundromat should be built with the ability to operate unattended.
This means securing the employee area with a rolldown security door, having separate alarm systems for the “employee area” and the “retail area” of the store, but also investing in a quality video
surveillance, and an automated a
ccess control system. By designing your facility this way, you create the flexibility to keep your doors open, even when staffing issues arise but you also empower your team and make them feel safe as well.
2. Hiring and Retaining Quality Employees
Next, the steps of attracting and retaining great
employees are crucial. While
compensation is important, it’s not the only factor. We’ve found that offering
benefits like paid time off, company
uniforms, and free laundry can make a big difference. Additionally, having a robust
training program and fostering a positive
company culture are also keys to building a reliable team.
Next, it’s important to understand that different types of humans have different priorities in their employment relationship. When building a
compensation, and
benefits package, try to create it for the masses. However, if you’re trying to retain a specific rockstar employee, or even convince them to accept an offer of promotion, you’ll need to customize their package to meet their specific needs.
To effectively do this, you must understand what their priorities are and be flexible and intentional with your offer. Assuming you are attempting to retain or promote a strategic employee, the custom approach is worth it for this one single reason.
Rockstars want to work with and for Rockstars! I cannot tell you how many amazing attendants we’ve attracted and retained because of our management and leadership team.
Lastly, your team building starts even higher though, it starts at the top with the owner. If you hope to attract and retain an elite management and leadership team, you must be worthy! Start with the very top, and never stop investing in yourself.
3. Scheduling with Redundancies and Backups
Now that we’ve built a great store and hired and retained a great team, we must focus on the unavoidable…. Despite the best laid plans, things still happen. People get sick, cars break down and unfortunately life in general just happens and often at the most inopportune times!
No matter how well you staff your laundromat, unexpected absences will happen. That’s why we build in redundancies and backup plans. We cross-train employees to work at
multiple locations, overlap shift changes, and over-hire for key positions. This ensures we always have coverage, even when someone calls out.
I recommend that you look at every aspect of your business through the lens of “what if?” This can apply to every position, employee and even every piece of equipment in your organization.
Evolving Our Staffing Approach
Our staffing strategy didn’t happen overnight and yours won’t either. While our current systems, processes and team are as rock solid as ever, things should always be evolving. Always look at your team and business and a living, breathing organism.
When we first started, it was just me (Dave) covering shifts and cleaning the store before and after work. Over time, we gradually built up our team, adding part-time employees, then a full-time manager, and eventually a whole leadership structure that now sits around 40 team members.
Along the way, we learned valuable lessons. Some of them were quite painful, some not so much.
We realized the importance of creating a positive company culture, offering opportunities for upward mobility, and developing robust training and scheduling systems to go with our wonderful facilities. It’s been a journey, but one that has paid off in the form of a dedicated, reliable staff that I’m proud to call our own.
Putting it All Together
Staffing a laundromat isn’t easy, but it’s a challenge we’ve embraced. By designing our facilities for versatility, hiring, retaining quality employees, and implementing smart scheduling practices, we’ve been able to build a rockstar team that allows our business to thrive. As of the writing of this blog, I spend 2 hours per week in our retail businesses aside from special projects.
I can do that because we now have an entire operations team that can handle almost any scenario, including worst case scenarios as well. In fact, while we LOVE living in
Cincinnati, Ohio, we feel confident that we could live anywhere and still effectively run our businesses here in Cincinnati.
If you’re struggling with staffing issues, I encourage you to take a holistic look at your operations. Consider the changes you can make to your facility in the short term and then in the long term. Look for small micro wins that’ll take a bit of pressure off you. Then dig deeper into your
hiring and training processes, and your scheduling approach. With the right strategies in place, you too can build a rockstar staff that takes your laundromat to new heights.
That’s all I have for now, but please know that I’m rooting for you and despite popular opinion… IT IS possible to build a rockstar team including a management structure, if you’re intentional and committed to it long term. Oh and btw, it is SO WORTH IT.
