Henry Street Settlement

December 2, 2021

For Sarina Ocal helping others takes a different form. Being able to help others through cleaning piqued Sarina’s interest in starting her own business. Opening in 2019, Sarina’s Cleaning Services matches cleaners with jobs in both New York and New Jersey. Sarina connected with Jeanie Tung of Henry Street Settlement over two years ago when she was looking to recruit new talent. Since then, Henry Street has been providing Sarina with resumes of potential hires as well as creative solutions for staffing challenges.

What do you look for in an employee?

We look for a lot of things in our candidates. We look for really good customer service skills, ability to communicate with us. The way the company is run is more family oriented, in the sense of team building with events like bowling and volunteering together. We look for people who have a friendly energy and who are looking to engage in a work experience like that. I think that’s what keeps cleaners with us.

What are some of your staffing challenges as a small business throughout COVID?

I know the cleaning industry is known for high turnover, but that’s not often a problem here. COVID did make hiring much harder. People not spending money really knocked down our demand, especially AirBNB clients, commercial clients, and people spending more time at home. We were not hiring as much as we were before. Things have continued to get better as the spread of COVID goes down.

What have been some of your creative solutions to encourage retention?

We offer competitive wages and are flexible with scheduling to allow workers to take care of personal situations that may arise. We treat our staff as family, which also means encouraging them to pursue their passions. For example, we have some staff who’ve saved money and now are able to return to their own businesses or different full-time job after the height of the pandemic. We also communicate with staff a lot, using apps like WhatsApp and FaceTime to answer questions and connect.

What has been a benefit of working with Henry Street Settlement?

“Working with Henry Street really adds some clout for small businesses. Someone on Indeed might not know Sarina’s Cleaning Services, but when I mention that we work with Henry Street, that “brand name” backs up confidence in qualified candidates. It’s like having a good review on BBB (Better Business Bureau)! Henry Street also sends us really good candidates. That’s why we love working with you.