A business credential is like a good ladder: It should be on a firm foundation, against the right wall, with rungs spaced for safe upward mobility. It’s helpful to have a spotter who can steady the ladder, keep an eye on your position and balance, and alert passersby of your presence.
Just as facility maintenance workers and building service providers need a proper ladder to reach their highest task areas, they need a career ladder to accomplish their loftiest business goals.
Set your foundation
A career ladder has a solid foundation when it is associated with a respected nonprofit or trade organization that provides training as well as certification and licensing opportunities. Examples
include:
- ISSA’s Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) and CIMS-GB (for green buildings) certify building services professionals to manage operations based on a 360-degree systems approach to include sustainability.
- Global Biorisk Advisory Council’s GBAC-Trained Technician provides the knowledge and skills needed to respond to a biohazard crisis, such as an infectious disease outbreak or a pandemic.
- Indoor Exposure Index (INDEX) [501c3 pending] is building a science-based program to certify and license individuals and businesses with the knowledge, skills, and operational practices needed to reduce indoor exposures and meet cleaning for health goals.
Choose the right wall
Like a ladder leaned against the right wall, credentialing can help you move your career in the right direction when it involves upskilling to improve the quality of your work.
The Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) offers certifications in carpet cleaning, floor care, leather cleaning, and much more. If you clean restaurants, check out IICRC’s Vent Hood Cleaning Certification to develop skills to remove grease buildup safely and effectively.
Climb carefully and deliberately
The classes you take and certifications you achieve are like sturdy rungs of a ladder. Create a picture of your career ladder, labeling the rungs to show where you are now and where you want to go.
How high you go depends on where you place your ladder and when you take the steps.
Don’t forget your spotter
The safest way to ascend a career ladder, beyond placing it on a solid surface and at the proper angle, is to work with consultants who can guide and encourage your progress. Think of them as
your spotters who observe and steady your climb and encourage you to take the next step carefully. Look for consultants trained in the latest facility maintenance protocols and indoor air quality
control methods related to cleaning for health.
Reap the benefits of certification
Credentialing provides a way to showcase your professionalism, accomplishments, and compliance with regulatory, safety, and health requirements—while building worker and customer confidence. Credentials look wonderful on your resume, in your email signatures, and on your website line, which brings us to the importance of promoting accomplishments related to your place on the career ladder.
The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW)—an independent nonprofit research and policy institute that studies career paths—found that persons with certifications or licenses earn more than those without them, and that their increased credibility leads to more significant career advancement.
Go digital to promote your credentials
Those framed certificates hanging on your office wall make an attractive backdrop for your online Zoom or Teams meetings. But they are more useful as digital badges than on the wall.
Digital badges may feature a QR code that takes people who scan the code to a website featuring your credentials and certifications. These badges can be incorporated into websites, social media,
email signatures, and more, to showcase your skills, knowledge, and accomplishments digitally. They are an easy yet pervasive method to promote your expertise and build client trust.
Plan before you climb
Many options are available for cleaning certifications. Hold a meeting with your team to decide where to place your ladders and how you will climb each one—in other words, to decide which certifications will help your cleaning and maintenance team perform their jobs with greater skill and consistency.
Credentialing builds customer trust, competitive advantage, and business profitability. It also builds workers, as step by step, they ascend the ladder and become more self-confident and capable.
