Maid Brigade Westchester Stresses Healthy Environment to Work
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It would be hard to find anyone more excited about cleaning houses than Gary and Robin Murphy.
They are the husband-and-wife duo behind the Westchester franchise of Maid Brigade, which they initially established in 1996 in Chappaqua, where they lived for years. Despite moves to Pleasantville, Valhalla, back to Chappaqua and now headquartered in a space on North Broadway in North White Plains, they have turned the cleaning business into part art and part science.
Maid Brigade was recently named one of 914Inc. Magazine’s 2024 Best Places to Work. For the Murphys, they are as proud of their commitment to personal and professional development, satisfaction and empowerment for their roughly 25-member staff as they are of their work. It is one of the reasons why there is a waiting list for people who want to work for them.
“People think of an unskilled manual laborer doing a lowly job, and I realize our staff is very skilled, our staff has to have safety skills, technical skills, problem-solving skills, time management,” Robin Murphy said.
Each team of two or three cleaners are dispatched each weekday morning by about 7:30 a.m. to clean from one to as many as seven houses in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam or southern Fairfield County. The work day is seven to eight hours long. Robin said they are “super-efficient” but their workers don’t needlessly rush through a house.
“We’re spending however much time it takes to get the job done, if houses are close together,” she said.
Their crews are sent out in vans outfitted with the best equipment including the Murphys own electrolyzed water, a combination of salt and water that is mixed in a special machine where they can adjust the pH levels to make a potent but safe disinfectant, unlike a variety of commercial brands.
Placed in the company’s own spray bottles it has a shelf life of six months and can effectively clean nearly any kind of surface, Gary Murphy said.
“When Robin talks about professionalizing the industry, we all take it seriously,” he said. “That means staff are cleaning with these safe products. This is just salt and water. That’s it.”
The most common schedule is for homeowners to have Maid Brigade return every other week, although there are customers who retain their services for weekly or monthly cleanings, Robin said. The majority of their business is single-family homes, but crews visit units in multifamily housing, particularly in communities such as White Plains and Mount Vernon, she said.
Maid Brigade also has a limited number of commercial accounts.
During the height of the pandemic, some customers stopped their housecleaning schedule because so many were stuck at home working, while others increased the frequency of their appointments hoping to keep their living spaces as clean as possible. A shot in the arm for the staff was that Maid Brigade never shut down, on the list of industries that were considered essential.
“There’s physical health and there’s mental health and they’re both real,” Robin said. “We talk about it because cleaning is a form of healthcare. When we go out, we’re providing for the health and well-being of people.”
Treating their employees well and retaining as many as possible for long-term employment is one of the reasons why Maid Brigade was recognized as one of Westchester’s best places to work. In its survey, 96 percent of employees found satisfaction in their role, all staff members envision a future with the company over the next two years, 96 percent connect with the organization’s mission and values and 92 percent feel valued.
And every Friday afternoon when work is done, staff returns to the office for a company-provided meal and to socialize.
That feeling of appreciation to the employees is one of the reasons behind Maid Brigade’s success, Gary Murphy said.
“Let’s define the values of the company, and let’s stop doing this where we hire people, replace them, hire people, replace them,” he said. “Let’s invest in employees, invest in staff so we have all the workers get established.”
For more information on Maid Brigade Westchester, call 914-741-0552 or visit https://www.maidbrigade.com/ny/westchester/westchester-lp/?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqea2uO24hAMVf2lHAR1_RQQlEAAYASAAEgLUHvD_BwE.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
