
On Thursday, the ISSA Show North America 2022 concluded the event’s educational opportunities for professionals in the cleaning industry.
Here are some of the sessions offered at the end of this week’s show.
Helping Your Hotel Achieve Desired AAA Diamond Status
Looking to take their hotel and their environmental service (EVS) staff to another level, cleaning professionals attend Target-Hotel EVS: Bring Target to Diamond Status. The session was presented by Margaret Walker-Shaw, former executive director of housekeeping for The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas and corporate director of housekeeping for the Four Season hotel in Chicago.
Walker-Shaw first noted the definition of diamond status as the primary level of recognition by the American Automobile Association (better known by its acronym—AAA). He also explained the difference between diamond status and star names. According to Walker-Shaw, to be approved by AAA, a hotel must meet 27 basic requirements. But he further emphasized that these requirements are divided into four main criteria: cleanliness, comfort, hospitality, and safety.
To achieve these goals, Walker-Shaw emphasized the need to know how many employees are needed to perform all the tasks required in a hotel. In fact, he points out that at The Venetian, while there are 7,000 rooms, a credit system reveals the true extent of the work—and workers—required to provide exceptional service. While one room may be rated for just one credit, another room may be rated for 11 credits. Therefore, the number of credits becomes a clearer and more valuable piece of information in housekeeping management than the number of rooms to be cleaned.
In general, he noted five key points that must be addressed to achieve diamond status:
- Understand good service
- Provide meaningful training
- Stay on top of your budget
- Develop your staff with the future in mind
- Make sure the hosts are always in good shape.
Retention of Women Professionals During Mass Resignations
The Great Resignation has caused major problems for many companies and their leadership. However, some leaders have discovered ways to combat these issues and keep employees effective in the process. During the panel discussion titled Addressing the Great Resignation: Participation and Retention of Women ProfessionalsDr. shared. Felicia Townsend, Rachel Brutosky, Lisa Gould, and Katie Snider consider their methods for engaging and retaining employees even in modern work dynamics.
The main takeaway from the presentation is that leaders must put in place communication, coaching, respect, and incentives to motivate and sustain their team. Career progression, making your team feel valued, asking for input, being kind, and respecting personal time all help modern employees feel valued in their positions and ready to do more.
Solving Moisture Issues in Your Facility
on Understanding and Maintaining Moisture in Your Facility, Chuck Boutall of the Restoration Technical Institute shares how to find and eliminate moisture at various levels and types of buildings. As he explains, the spots you see in your business may be symptoms of a deeper problem. Peeling paint, bulging, floor failure, stains, and suspected microbial growth are all signs of serious problems, and you can usually determine your causes by building the structure. As Boutall points out, the big three causes of water ingress are leakage, hydrostatic pressure, and dew point. To prevent this, he said, “You have to understand how water moves in a structure to diagnose these issues and solve them.”
He outlines the following steps to repair water damage:
- Assessment and evaluation
- Identify the root cause
- Fix or reduce the cause
- Focus on budget and scheduling
- Make final repairs.
Using moisture intrusion devices, you can start with thermal imaging, move on to non-destructive RF, and then, a destructive resistance meter. You can also use a concrete moisture probe to detect moisture at various depths in the concrete and use data loggers for dew issues. However, he reminded his audience that the tools can be very specific and that training to use them correctly is necessary.
Reaping the Green Cleaning Benefits
on Rely on the Health Benefits of Green CleaningDoug Gatlin, CEO of Green Seal, suggests that greening commercial real estate properties is easier than you think.
Gatlin began his speech by introducing the hot topic of ESG, which stands for environmental, social, and governance. ESG criteria are used by investors to evaluate potential investments.
He uses, as an example, BlackRock, an investment company that only develops “sustainable investments” – investing only in real estate assets with ownership and management that share a sustainability perspective. According to Gatlin, this movement of financial investments “drives many business decisions in commercial and corporate real estate and affects trends in terms of demand for certified green products.”
Investors and residents alike are looking for three things:
- Nice lighting
- Thermal comfort
- High quality indoor air
The good news, Gatlin said, is that greening a commercial building isn’t as difficult or as expensive as some might believe. He noted that many sources of indoor air pollutants are toxic ingredients in cleaning and maintenance products. However, he continued, there are literally thousands of certified green products on the market that have been tested against these risks and are readily available in place of those containing toxic chemicals. In addition, he said, about 75% of all green products do not cost more than non-green products.
“Honestly, there shouldn’t be a sacrifice between healthy people, a healthy planet, and actually making money,” he said, “because a lot [green] products and technology at no extra cost.”