Every applicant in one place, not buried in your email

Why hiring cleaners goes wrong

Most cleaning companies start by hiring a friend of a friend, or your best cleaner's cousin. It works until you need two people by next Monday and you've run out of friends.

Writing a cleaner job ad, and where to post it

A cleaner reading your ad wants five answers before they apply: how much, where, when, what kind of cleaning, and whether they need a car. Answer those in the first three lines and you'll get more applications from people who'll actually show up.

Here's an ad that answers all five:

• Residential cleaner, Toronto east end. $22 to $24 an hour, paid weekly. Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 3 PM, some Saturdays.
• Teams of two, homes and condos in Scarborough and East York. Standard cleans, deep cleans and move-outs.
• We supply every product and all the equipment. Your first shift is a paid training shift with one of our leads.
• A car helps but isn't required. Most jobs are close to the Bloor-Danforth line.
• Apply in two minutes on our careers page. We reply to every application within a day.

Notice what's not there: "fast-paced environment", "rockstar", "must be a self-starter". Cleaners skip those. They read the pay.

The Ontario rules for job ads

Since January 1, 2026, Ontario employers with 25 or more employees on the day the ad goes up have to follow extra rules in any publicly advertised job posting: state the expected pay or a pay range (no wider than $50,000 a year), say whether the job is an existing vacancy, say if AI is used to screen applicants, and not ask for Canadian work experience. You also have to tell everyone you interviewed whether a decision has been made within 45 days of their last interview, and keep the postings for three years. Under 25 employees, none of it is required, and most of it is good practice anyway.

Whatever your size, the pay has to be at least the minimum wage, which in Ontario is $17.95 an hour from October 1, 2026.

Where to post

Rather we find them for you? In Metro Vancouver, our hiring service posts the ads, calls the applicants and checks references, and you meet the two or three worth your time.

Screening calls and interview questions for cleaners

Reply to every application within a day, then do a ten-minute phone call before anyone gets an interview. It saves an hour of your Saturday for each person who'd never have worked out.

The ten-minute phone screen

1. Which area do you live in, and how would you get to jobs?
2. Which days and hours can you work?
3. Tell me about the last place you cleaned for pay. Homes, offices, a hotel?
4. Why did you leave your last job, or why are you looking now?
5. Are you legally able to work in Canada?

Interview questions that tell you something

Skip "what's your biggest weakness". Ask about the job:

• "Walk me through how you'd clean a bathroom, start to finish." Listen for an order: top to bottom, the toilet last, the floor on the way out.
• "There's a stain you can't get out. What do you do?" You want: stop, take a photo, tell the office. You don't want: more bleach.
• "You knock over a vase and it breaks. What happens next?" The only right answer is that they tell you, the same day.
• "The customer asks you to do something that isn't on the list." Good cleaners are polite and check with the office before they say yes.
• "What do you need from a manager to do a good job?" Their answer tells you if you're the right fit for them, too.

What not to ask

Ontario's Human Rights Code protects job applicants, and the Ontario Human Rights Commission warns that asking about a protected ground can support a finding of discrimination even if you meant nothing by it. Don't ask a candidate's age, where they were born or "where they're really from", whether they're married, whether they have kids or plan to, their religion, or about their health. Need to know about Saturdays? Ask exactly that, and ask everyone. If the job means carrying a vacuum up three flights of stairs, describe the duties and ask whether they can do them.

Trial shifts: paid, short, with your best cleaner

An interview tells you who talks well. A trial shift tells you who cleans well.

In Ontario it has to be paid. Since March 21, 2024, the Employment Standards Act counts a person doing a trial period as an employee if the skills being tested are ones your employees use. A candidate cleaning a real home to show you they can clean is exactly that. Pay at least the minimum wage, and simpler still, pay your normal rate. A four-hour trial at $22 an hour is $88. It's the cheapest $88 you'll spend on hiring.

How to run one:

• Put them on a real standard clean with your most careful cleaner, not your fastest.
• Tell the customer a trainee is joining.
• Hand them the checklist and watch whether they follow it, or follow their own habits.
• Ask your lead afterwards, in private: would you want to work beside this person every day?

Watch whether they ask questions, how they handle the customer's things, and whether the last room is as good as the first. Pace comes with time. Care doesn't.

References and background checks

You're sending this person into customers' homes, often alone, with a key. Check before you hire.

References

Ask for two, from people who supervised them, not friends. Ask the candidate's permission before you call. Then keep it short:

• When did they work for you, and what did they do?
• Did they show up on time, every time?
• Was there ever a problem with a customer, or anything going missing?
• Would you hire them again?

The last question is the one that matters. A pause before "yes" is an answer too.

Police record checks in Ontario

Ontario's Police Record Checks Reform Act sets out three levels of check: a criminal record check, a criminal record and judicial matters check, and a vulnerable sector check. The candidate consents in writing to the level of check, the results go to them, and they decide whether to share them with you. A vulnerable sector check is only for work with children or vulnerable people, so most house cleaning roles get one of the first two. Ask your local police service which applies to your jobs.

Be careful what you do with the result. The Human Rights Code protects people from being turned down for a federal conviction that has been pardoned, or for a provincial offence, unless there's a genuine reason it matters to the job. A pending charge isn't protected in the same way. This is an area where the details matter, so talk to an employment lawyer before you refuse someone over a record.

Background checks inside More Knocks are coming soon. Until then, run them through your local police service or a screening company.

Employee or contractor? The Ontario rules, and WSIB

Plenty of cleaning companies pay their cleaners as contractors: no payroll, no deductions, an invoice every Friday. Calling someone a contractor doesn't make them one. In Ontario the label, the contract, charging HST and using their own car don't decide it. The actual working relationship does. The Employment Standards Act doesn't allow employers to treat employees as if they aren't, and an employment standards officer can issue penalties when they do.

The province's guide and the CRA's both look at who controls the work. For a cleaning company, the questions look like this:

A cleaner who works the jobs you assign, at the times you set, with your supplies, wearing your shirt, is very likely an employee, whatever the paperwork says. If you're not sure, the CRA will give a ruling on a specific worker (you can ask through My Business Account), and the Employment Standards Information Centre is at 1-800-531-5551. Have an employment lawyer or accountant look at your setup before you hire, not after an officer does.

Once you have employees

• WSIB. Most Ontario businesses must register with the WSIB within 10 calendar days of hiring their first employee. WSIB's registration questions confirm it for your business in a few minutes.
• A CRA payroll account. You need one before your first remittance is due, which is the 15th of the month after you first take deductions off someone's pay. If you already have a business number, it's an account added to it.
• Their SIN, within three days. Get each new employee's social insurance number within three days of their first day. A SIN that starts with 9 belongs to a temporary resident and is only valid until the expiry date on their work permit.
• The employment standards poster. Give each new employee a copy within 30 days of their start.
• Written details before day one, at 25 or more employees. Your legal name and contact details, where they'll work, their starting pay, the pay period and pay day, and their expected hours.

Outside Ontario the shape is similar and the details differ. In British Columbia, WorkSafeBC expects you to register before you hire your first worker.

Every rule in this section was checked against ontario.ca, wsib.ca, worksafebc.com and canada.ca on October 23, 2026. Employment law changes, and where a rule depends on your business, ask an employment lawyer or your accountant.

Hiring tools in More Knocks

The steps above work with a spreadsheet and a lot of discipline. More Knocks keeps them in one place, next to the schedule your new hire is about to join.

Your own careers page and apply form

Your company gets a careers page with an apply form. Use the hosted page, or embed it on your own website. Every post points to the same link, so applications stop arriving in five inboxes.

Every applicant in one pipeline

Each application lands in one list. Move people through your own stages, like phone screen, interview and trial shift, so you and anyone helping you can see who's been called and who's waiting. Post once and stop sorting through DMs.

Polite rejections, drafted for you

When someone isn't a fit, a polite rejection email is drafted for you to check and send. Everyone hears back, which is kinder, and helps if you're big enough for Ontario's 45-day rule.

Hired, and straight into the cleaner app

When you hire someone, they go straight into the cleaner app, with onboarding for new cleaners. Their first job is on their phone with the address, the access notes and the checklist for that clean, before they've met half the team.

Your first-hire checklist

Whatever you hire with, check these before your next cleaner's first shift: