Success Secrets and Stories
To share management leadership concepts that actually work.
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Success Secrets and Stories
Leadership: How Bee Line Commercial, transformed into a Medical-Grade Cleaning Co.
In this podcast, join John and Greg as they interview, CEO Jamie Henry who won a 19th Annual Enterprising Women of the Year Award, one of the most prestigious recognition programs for women business owners in the U.S. and globally!
She never expected that purchasing her father's small janitorial business would lead to building Bee Line Support – now a powerhouse in medical-grade cleaning with 600 employees managing 3 million square feet across three states. What makes this success story remarkable isn't just growth, but how she's turned an industry known for high turnover into a model of employee retention and development.
The secret? A revolutionary approach to leadership development. While most cleaning companies struggle with constant staff churn, Beeline boasts executives who started pushing mops 19 years ago. "I built the company on our number one mission - to promote from within and provide frontline workers opportunities for advancement," Jamie explains. This philosophy has created remarkable stability and expertise throughout the organization.
Beeline doesn't just talk about development – they've invested in extraordinary resources to make it happen. Their Chicago headquarters features a state-of-the-art training center with mock exam and operating rooms where employees master specialized healthcare cleaning protocols. Their "Beeline University" program offers courses beyond cleaning skills, developing well-rounded professionals ready for advancement. When combined with competitive wages, recognition programs, and a culture built on listening and respect, these initiatives have dramatically improved retention in an industry where keeping staff is typically challenging.
Perhaps most telling about Beeline's positive culture is how it attracts talent – not just through employee referrals, but even from their clients. Jamie shared how a customer from a surgical center was so impressed with their work that he approached her at a client appreciation dinner about joining the team. When an opportunity arose, his 18 years of healthcare experience became a valuable asset to Beeline's growth.
Want to transform your own leadership approach? Jamie's advice is refreshingly simple: "Remember what it was like to be in their shoes - be the manager you needed when you were starting out." This empathetic foundation, combined with systematic development opportunities, has enabled Beeline to clean up not just facilities, but the entire approach to leadership in their industry.
Presented by John Wandolowski and Greg Powell
Hello everyone and welcome to the next podcast of Success Secrets and Stories. I am your host, john Winoloski, and here are my co-host and friend, greg Powell. Greg, hey, everybody, yeah, and today we're going to have some fun. We're going to have an interview with Jamie Henry, who is the CEO of Beeline Support Inc. And Beeline is a privately held company, certified woman-owned commercial cleaning company headquartered here in Chicago, illinois, one of the only certified medical grade cleaning companies in the region, and she has 3 million square feet of healthcare cleaning, of healthcare cleaning, 550 highly trained frontline employees, and is someone I have met during my days working in healthcare. So, without further ado, here's our interview and I'd like to welcome Jamie Henry from Beeline Support. And Jamie, I could probably do an introduction and not do it justice, so maybe if you could start us off on a little bit on your background and talk about Beeline, the organization.
Speaker 3:Sure. Thank you for having me. Beeline is a medical grade cleaning company, also known as Environmental Services in the healthcare world. We are based in Chicago and we service Illinois, wisconsin and Indiana. We're approximately 500 employees strong, and I sort of fell into this industry after I finished my MBA in Florida in 1996.
Speaker 3:So a long time ago, my father at the time had a small janitorial company with four buildings and 10 employees, and he also had an appliance repair store in Glenview, illinois back in the day, and they would fix vacuum cleaners and wash washers and dryers, that type of thing.
Speaker 3:Anyway, long story short, when I finished grad school, he was looking to get out of the business, and so what I purchased from him at the time was truly just four janitorial accounts and 10 employees.
Speaker 3:And so over the years, with a lot of grassroots effort that was my start and grew the business and we really started to ramp up, I would say 2017, with a large healthcare network and some other large accounts and we found a really nice niche in medical and we started to make that our expertise and gain some certifications along the way. And so we've taken that medical expertise to the industry and we continue down that path of growing that. And then, of course, behind the scenes and I know we're going to talk about it I built the company and founded the company on our number one mission, which is to promote from within and provide our frontline workers with opportunity for advancement and to move up the ranks. And if you look at my executive team right now, I've got at least seven employees that have been with me for 19 years, that have started in the frontlines and now they're running the company with me. So that's the foundation of Beeline and what we continue to support.
Speaker 2:That's the foundation of Beeline and what we continue to support. You talked about how you hired from the outside and had your challenges with the outside and really developed the approach of developing your staff internally. I think what's interesting is that you also created an environment for the technical side. You've installed training facilities. That is kind of rare in your industry. You have a patient clinical room, you have an operating room, you're looking at a patient room, so there's a commitment to try to help the staff, but at the same time you're developing your managers because you have a teaching platform. Maybe you can describe a little bit about Tom and what Tom does.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. Two really important aspects of what we've done with the certifications, and then this, what I like to call a state-of-the-art training center one-of-a-kind.
Speaker 3:I feel very strongly that there's probably not another janitorial company that has taken it to the level we have in building this training center.
Speaker 3:So what we have at our corporate office here in Pilsen in Chicago is a full training center with a mock exam room which has all the equipment of a typical exam room when you go to the doctor's office, and we have a full operating room with an OR table that was donated by a hospital, the overhead light, and then we have a restroom as well, so we can bring our managers in here to train them on the proper protocols of infectious control and disinfecting on a regular basis, because we're all about repetition, right and then those managers can then train our frontline employees.
Speaker 3:So we built this training center to allow the real life training to take place here at our office, and then we use it, of course, for videos too. We don't like to necessarily buy cookie cutter training from the outside. So we've developed our own in-house training and we believe very much that our customized training is the outside. So we've developed our own in-house training and we believe very much that our customized training is the way to go for our staff, and then, along with that, we have somebody on staff that has a couple of certifications which are great to help facilitate all this. One is a certificate in mastery of infection prevention, which typically you would see those held by managers and environmental services running large hospital systems.
Speaker 3:But we've done it here and then we also have a certification and a train the trainer for cleaning surgical rooms and training surgical technicians, the cleaners, and we found that to be very, very helpful. In fact, we're now cleaning our first hospital and so we're able to apply all these things and continue to learn and looking at the next set of certifications, actually for some of our folks to keep expanding that throughout our organization.
Speaker 2:Greg, you have a couple of questions on the HR side.
Speaker 1:I do indeed Thank you. So, jamie, I was an HR professional for many years, did the recruiting and training and worked my way up into management and executive positions, and one of the things that is really prevalent now is diversity, inclusion and equity, and John had mentioned even in your organization you've got folks that speak different languages. Can you talk to us about diversity at your company?
Speaker 3:Sure, so we have.
Speaker 3:The majority of our staff is of Hispanic descent.
Speaker 3:When you're talking about diversity, if we're including females to, a lot of our leaders are female leaders. And then we've launched a program at the beginning of 2023, I can't believe it's 2024 already called Beeline University and that just encompasses everybody, and what that program is designed for is to offer skills beyond what our cleaners are just doing, to enhance them in a professional way. So the way it works is our managers will recognize the superstars that they have under their portfolio, and then these folks have the option to opt in or opt out of Beeline University and then, if they opt in, they take a series of courses, their online courses, and they're anything from customer service to supervisory skills to computer skills, right to help them just be better all around in their professional careers, no matter what they decide to do. And then, once they graduate, they're put sort of first in line for any promotions that come up. So another way to develop our folks and then also put them in line for promotions and keep sort of bettering this pool of contested people that we have.
Speaker 1:You used to call it talent management, kind of soup to nuts. Talent management and it's good for retention, would be my guess. People want to stay and continue to grow with your company.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a key right we turn over as a huge circumstance of being in our industry. Turnover is a huge circumstance of being in our industry, so whatever we can do to increase retention is definitely something we focus on Absolutely.
Speaker 2:One of the things, jamie, that I I I wrote that book a while back building your leadership toolbox and one of the things that I thought is done naturally not so much that you need a book in order to achieve it was something that I learned from Johnson Johnson, which was kind of an interesting place where I first learned supervision, and they had this two-step approach to being a supervisor or how to advance from a supervisor to a manager.
Speaker 2:What was kind of interesting is there was like a core competencies and it's part of what you're doing the lead to lead others, to influence beyond their assignment and to lead by example, which are like the basics of what you're looking. Reviews and I'm kind of pushing for career reviews rather than performance reviews was not only just communication as a key element, that next step of whether they're proficient at communicating but develops others. Positive environment, prepares themselves and gets results. Environment, prepares themselves and gets results. So you know, as you're starting to bring somebody on board and you're starting to advance someone, there is a mechanism that you have brought people up that can maybe help in terms of others that would be listening to this podcast. What are the things that you do in order to help that supervisor, make that transition to a manager.
Speaker 3:Well, I think you know, lead by example is a huge one, right, when we're promoting somebody into a supervisor or of employees, it's not something unfamiliar to them, and I think that helps create our culture too, that they're working side by side. It's not something that they haven't done before. There's a comfort level, there's supervision in something that they've already done. They're not just coming from the outside and I'm the new manager, right, they've been in their employees' roles before. So I think that speaks to not only leading by example, but also the culture aspect is so, so important, and we work really hard at maintaining a good, positive culture here, and all of that goes hand in hand, for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 2:The other thing. So the essence of our little podcast is talking about the secret of success, which is psychology and a little bit of it. I think is interesting that the people that are doing the work in the type of work that you're doing, there's a lot of critics, there's always that noise that you have to listen to as well as the people that appreciate and understand what you do and the ability to accept it. Sometimes you find people that are building it up, and I guess where I'm running to is retention is sometimes a challenge, and how do you minimize retention and turnover? How do you encourage retention and minimize turnover? I guess is the right way to phrase it, maybe speaking a little bit about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, first of all, we have to ensure that we're paying not just competitive wages, but maybe slightly higher than the going rate. For sure we want to start there with a great rate of pay right. There has to be a reason to come here. At the end of the day, they're coming to make a living, right, so that the pay has to be in line, if not a bit above, what the market is demanding. So we certainly do that. We also like to hire full time when we can, so we're offering people, if we don't have a particular job, that is, eight hours worth of work. We'll offer routes. So maybe they're doing a portfolio of accounts and doing a route and still getting eight hours. So whenever we can hire full-time, that's also a good thing for us. We want to be the full-time employer for our folks. And then we do all kinds of things which sort of plays into culture.
Speaker 3:In terms of employee recognition employee of the month, team member of the month we have a very robust anniversary program. So when somebody reaches a year of employment, two years, and so on and so forth, they're recognized in a big way. They're given various gifts, so to speak, highlighted, and we have you know, I look at our roster, um highlighted and we have, you know, I look at our roster of folks. We have a lot of employees that have been with us for many, many years and it's it's I mean, that's, it's just so. It's wonderful to talk about and even think about um and we have found that if you can get an employee past the six month mark, the retention rate goes up and if you can make it to a year it's like tenfold or a hundredfold.
Speaker 3:So it's really, really important that our managers so everybody needs a boss or a manager. They want to know who they're supposed to go to and they need supplies or they have questions about their jobs. So we work hard to ensure that the managers are having that communication with employees, especially those first few months, so that people understand who they should go to and what their job is about and that there's that connection and that often can be the disconnect where you have the turnover. It's likely to happen in the very beginning of someone's employment. So if we can make it to that first year, chances are that they'll stay, and then also our employees are absolutely the best sorts of referrals. So we of course have turnover like anybody else in this industry, but we have found that the folks that stay with us are great referrals and are a huge help in bringing new Beeline employees on board. Greg.
Speaker 1:Thank you, jamie. I hear a lot of what I call the culture word, that you and your leadership team and your employees are trying to build a very strong culture and that it's important to you. Do you deliberately spend time on culture development for your organization?
Speaker 3:So I mean I just think, like I think you just operate from a place of kindness and that starts at the top right. So if I'm doing that and my leaders are doing that, and that we're just coming at it from a good heart, I think that's the biggest driver. And I will say sometimes that can be to a detriment, you can be too nice and then accountability goes out the window and there's other issues. But when I say that I mean that's really, that's really the beginning, just the operating from a like we all want to be treated fairly and well right so that's the gist of it.
Speaker 2:I think the element of trust is what you've given to your staff, so a piece of your authority is in their hands and they understand that that kind of works throughout the system, that that element of trust is the key. And you know, the first part is that you're giving your your trust, so it's an open environment. That's. That's the opportunity. Yeah, and and building, building an organization on trust I can speak from experience can be risky, because I've I've been, I've been snowed for a more politically correct term and I paid the price.
Speaker 2:But I think what was interesting is I had a analysis once when I was between jobs, so did a psychological analysis and they, they found that I was over trusting and I. I think it's kind of funny because anybody who is that jaded or removed from their staff is not going to have the retention that you have. There has to be that give and take. If I were to make a profile, the strongest skillset that your supervisors have it's probably the one that I've found when I try to look for a candidate for a job from the outside is their ability to listen and how well they listen, not so much talk, but can they hear the people that are on the other side of the conversation. Have you noticed that yourself?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, that's a huge component that goes a long way, right, If they're listening and they're establishing trust. Just by doing that, for sure, and I mean as we, as the company gets bigger too, all of this does get a little bit trickier, right?
Speaker 2:I mean well, that's one of the fears. Yeah, you're in three states now and and you're looking at the potential of possibly doing more, and it is dependent upon not losing that component. I thought what was interesting is some organizations will stop, even though it's not healthy, because you can't keep that connection. I think the magic for your organization is that there is that connection, there is that sense of unity and it speaks volumes on being able to promote from within. That really is a big onset. Greg, you have another question.
Speaker 1:I do, jamie, when I think about being a responsible manager and the time and effort it takes to do that. Somewhere along the line it probably has started to shape you and your life your personal life and your professional life. How has your leadership journey shaped your professional and personal life?
Speaker 3:that's such a good question. I I think it took me a long time to really you know, there's that whole thing of imposter syndrome. There's insecurity, there's all kinds of things that go into somebody's mind when they're leading an organization, and it it took me a while and some circumstances to really kind of come into my own and make decisions and listen to my gut and act on my gut on certain things, like things that I knew that we could do as a company, or my belief in leadership style. That's really come a long way in the past call it six years and with that we've experienced tremendous growth and a lot of things have changed, and changed for the better too. I don't know how to describe it, but it's something with experience and with time.
Speaker 3:I had to buy out a partner along the way too, and that really helped, too, to come into my own. That was a huge piece of it. So, yeah, just time. And now I'm surrounded by people that have built the company with me too, which is just great, and they're like family and advisors, in a sense, to me as well. So as long as we all continue to collaborate and keep doing what we're doing, I feel like it's a good path. So when I thank you, I first I'm.
Speaker 2:I was one of your customers and what was kind of fun is that I love to share and share ideas and you're receptive to it.
Speaker 2:So I shared some other ideas and there's a lot of organizations where the executives are coming in and they're not listening, especially whenever there's customer meetings. And then you did some very interesting techniques. I don't know if anybody's ever told you that, but you brought different people in to meet me, to talk and to engage and ask questions, and that whole experience was something that I knew I was helping, but I wanted to make sure that the organization understood that it was helping us at the same time, that that whole process of whenever you're teaming up it's better than saying that there's an RFP, you have to bid, here's the price, and no, it's. It's a human exchange of information and it's the ability to act as to act as a team in order to achieve the goals. And that's a lot of what I've read about what Beeline does and a lot of what you've been able to accomplish of developing that kind of team approach. It's very admirable and a great example of leadership.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you so much. I appreciate that we keep doing that too. Leadership Thank you, thank you so much. I appreciate that we keep doing that too. And we just added a new member to our team that ironically was he was a customer of ours at a surgical location at an SCA site and our ambulatory site, and he's now a project manager leading a hospital that we're serving with BDS, but loved us as a client and then we did. I just love this story right.
Speaker 3:So we had a client appreciation dinner and we got a group of people together and you never know, maybe nothing comes of it, maybe something comes of it. But what did come of that dinner, which was just about a year ago? My customer at the time he was a customer said look, I know you're growing in Indiana. I would like to come work for you if the opportunity ever presents itself. And I just sort of like, ok, that's good to know. And then, sharing out, this opportunity presented itself in Indiana and he's now an amazing asset to our team because he has all this knowledge, having worked in a surgical setting for 18 years and has worked with hospitals and supply chain and everything else. So another part of our team that brings new expertise and so when we can go to the next healthcare network and I would have somebody else to bring into the mix that can share and share ideas and listen to our clients, just like you said.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of people that will tell you whenever they leave a job, it isn't that they left the organization, they left the boss, they left the leader. You know that's sometimes lost in some of our current kind of turnovers that we're seeing is people don't understand the relationship, and coming going into an organization that actually understands what it means to lead is just as important. When you're looking to change the job, you're looking for not just stability, but the ability to grow and the ability to be challenged professionally not just challenge for the sake of challenge, but professional to grow.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's so true, so true. Yeah, so it has really been a lot of fun, jamie, is there anything else that you would like to talk about or discuss?
Speaker 3:No. Just to your last point, though, you know what you said people, they do leave their managers. One of the things we work really hard at and it continues to be not necessarily a challenge, but we're always seeking to improve is our managers will have a portfolio of anywhere from 10 to 50 people. They're such an important piece of retention and people either choosing to stay or leave. We're constantly trying to improve. How can we build our managers to lead and communicate with employees? That's a big piece of the company in our industry that connection right there from frontline worker to their direct supervisor and making those direct supervisors great leaders.
Speaker 1:Greg, yeah, I think, like I said, you nailed it. I mean, it doesn't seem like it's a big deal. John had mentioned a lot of employees do leave, not the company because the company's got the great reputation, but the person they work for, because they didn't get these things that they should be getting, and so it's a testimonial to you that you make that important and part of your process. Which kind of leads to my last question and, if I may, what tips or advice would you give new managers in your organization?
Speaker 3:Yeah, great question For a newly promoted manager. Their number one job really is to remember if they were promoted from being a frontline worker to a manager, to just remember what it was to be in that person's shoes, right, what you wanted and be that person that you needed as a manager at that time.
Speaker 2:I think that that's sort of where to start exactly, yeah, having some empathy for being new and uh, all those, all those things about I can't pronounce that last name. Oh, good grief, really you want me to I with, like my name wandaloski is a last name. I love the vapor lock. When people look at it and it's like, okay, that's a lot, that's a mouthful, yeah. But you know it's all part of trying to get past that uncomfortable beginning of a new job. Until you actually have some, and in a professional like a supervisor's kind of position, that takes usually a couple months.
Speaker 2:You don't have that luxury. Your teams have to come online. In all honesty, probably two weeks in, even though you're expecting them to hit the ground running. You have a training program that you bring them to. Sometimes you don't have that luxury. Sometimes you don't have that luxury. So it's really dependent upon good supervision that can bring them along and understand when they can grasp the task before they can set them on their own. That's taking on frontline management in the best part, so excellent. I think that covers everything that we needed to cover.
Speaker 3:I so your time thank you, jamie.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, I appreciate it all, righty.
Speaker 3:Thanks jb. Okay, thanks greg.
Speaker 2:Thanks, john, nice to see you nice to see you all right bye-bye. So if you like what you've heard and we're talking about frontline, uh, frontline leadership can learn more on my book, building your Leadership Toolbox, which is available on Amazoncom and Lulucom. My e-book is available on Barnes Noble's website. Success Secrets and Stories podcast is available on a lot of popular formats and the one that you're on. So thank you so much. Dr Durst's books and his MBR program is available at successgrowthacademycom. If you want to get a hold of us, we have buy us a cup of coffee or I have an email that is is Wando75.jw at gmailcom, and Greg.
Speaker 1:I can be reached at gpowell374 at gmailcom.
Speaker 2:And the music has been brought to you by my grandson. So, bottom line we want to hear from you, and if there's a subject or a person that you would like us to talk to, we'd love to hear from them too.
Speaker 1:So thanks, Greg, as always next time.