'Tis the Season....For Colds & Flus

‘Tis the season for holiday cheer, merriment and celebration, but it is also flu and cold season. When a cold or flu gets a foothold in your facility, it can really dampen holiday spirits. According to the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this time of year has much higher rates of influenza and other respiratory illness than any other. Not only is the flu’s intensity much worse than any other time, the CDC tells us that “between December and peaking in January and February we expect to see the highest rate of respiratory illness and positive tests for respiratory influenza.”

The cold and flu season is a long one and can have a major impact on workplaces throughout the country. Federal and State governments spend a large amount of time and money trying to minimize the impact of colds, flus and other communicable illnesses, but what can YOU do to protect yourself and your employees to minimize the impact of the cold and flu seasons on your bottom line and staff? Absenteeism is a large problem on its own, so it can be especially damaging when it is exacerbated by illness. What steps should you be taking to mitigate the effects of colds and flus in your workplace and what can you do yourself to protect yourself and your employees?

Enlist Your Office Cleaning Company to Help Prevent the Spread of Illness in the Workplace

When your facility is getting cleaned, especially during cold and flu season, it cannot simply be to make it look nice. Your office cleaning company isn’t very effective if your office looks good but is teeming with disease causing germs. Your cleaning company needs to actively invest in making sure your facility is properly sanitized to protect you and your employees from the various colds and flus that makes their rounds this time of year. Cleaning for health has measurable, positive outcomes in your facility that can affect the morale, productivity and attrition rates of your staff.  Cleaning for health has very specific meanings with methods and procedures attached to it. So, what kinds of things do commercial cleaning companies do when they clean for health?

1. Cleaners observe dwell times and other relevant product instructions so that cleaning products work as intended to eradicate disease causing germs.
2. They use a color-coded rag system that helps minimize cross-contamination between different cleaning sites.
3. Cleaners are familiar with different areas of your facility and apply the correct cleaning method to each area.
4. Cleaners understand the importance of touch points and hotspots and how to properly clean them to reduce the risk of illness around the workspace.

But what are touch points and how does a color-coded rag system help reduce the spread of disease? First, touch points are areas around the office that are touched more often than any other. Some examples might be: light switches, work phones, computer mice, and door handles. Because of the high traffic they receive, they store exponentially more bacteria and other pathogens than other surfaces and are responsible for the majority of illness around the office. Understanding which objects are touch points and how to clean them is critical to employee health. Second, the color-coded cleaning cloth system is as simple as it sounds. Your cleaning staff has a number of different colored rags that are designated for specific areas around the office so that the rag used on the toilet seat isn’t used on the conference room table. While not the only methods your commercial cleaning company should be using to protect your health, they are both good starting points for keeping you and your employees healthy during the cold and flu season.

What Definitely NOT to Do When You’re Sick

Many of us feel that missing a day of work is unthinkable, especially with large workloads and important deadlines to meet. But coming to work sick is a pointless endeavor. Not only are you going to be unproductive and get little work done, you are risking getting your peers sick and further reducing productivity in the office. No one will think that you are tough or strong willed when you come to the office sick, when your feeling sick, stay home and rest so that when you come back your ready to work.

What You CAN Do to Prevent Illness in the Workplace

“Make sure to wash your hands” is a phrase most of our mothers harangued us about constantly, but it isn’t bad advice at all. What's unfortunate is the number of adults that never learned how and when to wash their hands properly. Your hands are the perfect carrier for all manner of bacteria and other pathogens that make people sick. So, it is important to wash them before eating, after using the restroom, and after touching high traffic objects. Effective hand washing should be your first line of defense against workplace illness and should be done by all employees throughout the day. Another important step to keeping you and your staff healthy is coughing or sneezing into your arm instead of your hand. While you shouldn’t be at work if your coughing or sneezing with any degree of frequency, this simple change in habit can help protect others from illness.

Knowing that hand to hand contact is such an easy way to spread illness, another common sense thing to do is keep your hands away from your eyes and mouth at all costs. It is impossible to make sure one's hands are clean all the time and putting them near your mucous membranes is the perfect opportunity for bacteria to invade your body. Finally, when a sink and soap aren’t available, make sure that you have some hand sanitizer on hand (no pun intended). Hand sanitizer solutions with a least 60% alcohol content are effective at removing all manner of bacteria from your hands and can help keep you clean when you can’t wash your hands. Keeping in mind these simple tips about your hands can help spare you and your co-workers illness during the peak of flu season.

When in Doubt, Vaccine it Out

Another basic step you can take to help keep yourself healthy during the cold and flu season is the flu vaccine. While it isn’t and never has been a sure fire way to completely protect yourself from the flu, it has been shown to be upwards of 90% effective. It's a cheap, safe way to protect yourself against the season so it might be a good idea to ask your doctor if the flu shot might be right for you. Getting the flu shot can help protect you from the most prevalent strains of influenza as well reduce your chances of getting your co-workers sick.  

If you need help with medical cleaning, day porter services, school cleaning, commercial handyman services, restroom sanitation services or more, please call Stathakis at 1-800-278-1884.

How Do Your Office Cleaning Prices & Service Add Up?

Is the difficulty of trying to find a new commercial cleaning company beginning to feel reminiscent of your college algebra course? Does it seem like no matter what you do, you can’t ever seem to find the right solution? Finding the right office cleaning company for your facility can feel like a seemingly insurmountable task. For every professional, effective office cleaning company, there are probably at least twenty cleaning companies just treading water. Fortunately for you, although this task can feel Sisyphean or even impossible, there is a tried and true formula (no algebra we promise) for finding high quality, effective, responsive office cleaning without too much suffering on your part. By looking at a few core aspects of office cleaning and what takes it from poor to good to great, you can see what makes a company effective and those qualities that add real value to the service you receive.

Fuzzy Pricing is a Major Red Flag

Forget the algebra, this isn’t rocket science, but if you did the math on your prospective cleaning companies bid and things just aren’t adding up it might be time to look for another office cleaning company. An imprecise bid has a number of inherent problems with it. First, if the pricing isn’t clear, it can be difficult to see what it is your actually paying for. Without being able to determine the value of a service, it can be difficult to decide if a commercial cleaning company is right for your facility. Further, fuzzy pricing can be a function of hidden fees and other upcharges, which can further damaged an already reduced budget and throw careful planning into a tailspin. Second, without a clear price point it is impossible to compare different companies to each other. As a Facility Manager, you are always looking to get the best deal for your company, so not having the tools to do so can create a significant handicap. The most experienced, professional companies will always give you a detailed and crystal clear bid. They want to set a benchmark and consistently perform at that level so that you continue to give them business.

The Equation is Fairly Simple, Good People = Good Service

Any service business’s most important asset is the people that they employee. The best commercial cleaning companies understand this concept and work around the clock to attract, hire, and retain the best staff for getting your facility cleaned properly. A good gauge of the quality of any prospective commercial cleaning company is their understanding of the value of their staff. Ask them how they attract, screen, hire, train and retain their top talent. The best companies will show you clear, well thought through and developed processes that make them shine above the rest of the competition. What is even more encouraging about these companies is that they didn’t just stumble across their techniques to this particular challenge. Any company that dedicates themselves to finding the right employees and implementing pre-qualifications such as background checks and drug checks is going to take cleaning your facility just as seriously. Partnering with a company that shows a passionate interest in the quality of their company culture is always going to perform better than a company that is not interested in the people that they hire.

The Solution Lies in the Right Office Cleaning Company

Communication is another important trait of any successful commercial cleaning service provider. These companies recognize the need to have the right people in place in order to deliver the most effective service as well as respond to your requests and suggestions as they come up.  As you likely know as a Facility Manager, being responsive to your customer’s requests is one of the foremost priorities of any service business.  The reality is that people are performing a service and people are only human after all. Even the most effective, professional office cleaner will need some feedback to fine-tune their work to your particular requirements. It is never a question of if your commercial cleaning company is going to make a mistake, it is a question of how they are going to address it and how smoothly the issue can be resolved. The cream of the crop companies will communicate how they are going to solve the problem and then quickly implement their solution.

Take Advantage of a Couple of Industry Shortcuts

Finding the right cleaning company as a Facility Manager can seem like a giant headache full of numbers, computations and promises that may or may not hold water. Fortunately for you, there is a useful shortcut you can take advantage of to help cut down on the time you have to look for the right company. As a Facility Manager, why wouldn’t you avail yourself of any and all advantages you could in finding and hiring a solid, consistent and quick to respond office cleaning service? One means to get to the answers to your office cleaning problems faster and more effectively is to put industry certifications to use in creating your short-list of qualified, professional office cleaning companies. Taking advantage of such certifications as the ISSA CIMS offers an effective way to winnow down this list given the rigor and prestige of such a certification. Companies that are CIMS certified are often the best in their industry committed to excellence and innovation. When looking for your next partner in cleaning, take advantage of this free tool to help make the search for your next office cleaning company easier and more effective.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year… to Help Your Office Cleaning Company Help You

We all know that the winter months and bevy of holidays be a time of shifting needs with regard to our office cleaning. This time of year can present both challenges and opportunities for both you and your commercial office cleaning company. Often you will find that with more employees taking vacation time, your needs shift. You may need less service or even more service from your office cleaners depending on the nature of your business. And sometimes, with so many people out of the office, it is a good time to get some deep cleaning done. But there are some factors that can get in the way of a clean building and even your office cleaner’s ability to make the most of the seasonal down times. How can you take advantage and make the most of the downtime in your building to make sure you offices look their best?

#1: Keep Desks Organized to Help Out Cleaning Staff

Your commercial cleaning company can’t clean the desks if they are covered in paperwork and other important things that they don’t know what to do with. Further, any trash, cups or other items can make it near impossible to get to the surfaces beneath. As Facility Manager, it can be helpful to remind your employees to clean their desk and other communal areas before they leave for holiday to allow the cleaning staff to effectively get their job done and get as deep and thorough a cleaning as possible.

#2: Prevent the ‘Holiday Fridge’ From Becoming a Biohazard 

When people start leaving for the holidays, your communal refrigerator can quickly becomes a biohazard if some steps aren’t taken to prevent it. How often have you looked into the office fridge post holiday party to find a Jenga of foil cartons threatening to tumble and assorted sundries left behind after the merriment si over? The danger (not to mention the smell) of the three-week-old salmon and the platters of party goodies that no one took with them in the haste to start their holidays can quickly become ideal hosts for molds and other unpleasantness. If you ignore this problem your office fridge may become the worst smelling thing in the office. The trick to solving this all to common problem, is getting employees to take responsibility for the week old Chinese or half finished soda. The most effective solution, we have found, is to create a regularly cleaning schedule so that anything that isn’t claimed within a certain time period is disposed of before it can become a problem. This eliminates any risks associated with leaving food in the fridge for too long and gives cleaners an opportunity to deep clean and minimize odors.

Tip #3 Winter Means Cold and Flu

The holiday season also coincides with another less pleasant season, cold and flu season. As such, your Michigan janitorial company should be doing everything in their power to keep touch points and hotspots regularly cleaned to help reduce the risk of bacterial and viral infections and assure you have a healthy work environment. Is your office cleaning company cleaning for health?

It isn’t solely on your cleaning service, their are some things that you should remind your employees of:

• Wash your hands correctly to stop the spread of pathogens
• Don’t come to work sick, you won’t be an effective employee and it can potentially get other people sick
• Regularly use hand sanitizer and wash hands as well as to keep hands away from the face. It may sound like something you here in a kindergarten classroom, but science has shown time and time again that this is the most effective way to prevent illness
• Understand practices that help reduce the risk of spreading disease such as how to cough and sneeze

TIP #4:Use Winter Downtime to Your Advantage to Get Some of That Deep Cleaning and Maintenance Done

Most offices are busy, bustling places so deep cleaning and other intensive maintenance tasks are often pushed to the side or delayed longer than they should be. However, during the holiday season, take advantage of the reduced number of people to catch up and even do some preventative maintenance to prepare for the busy months ahead. Many office cleaning services not only offer cleaning but other services such as HVAC care, plumbing painting, electrical, carpet and window washing, among other things that you can use to care for your facility. Need carpets cleaned? Need floors stripped and recoated? Need some other extras? The holidays present a rare opportunity to get these things done, unobstructed by high traffic.

Tip #5 It is the Season of Giving, so Give Yourself an Effective, Professional Commercial Cleaning Company

The holiday season is a time of giving, so give yourself the right office cleaning service provider for your facility. Maybe you’ve had it with your current cleaning company and are looking to try something else. Or, perhaps you are new to the janitorial market and are trying to decide who can help keep your facility looking fresh and clean. Either way, if you are looking for quality, consistent, responsive, professional service for you and your building, there is a company out there that can fill your needs.

The winter holidays can present a good time to transition to a new, better office cleaning company. So often in talking to Facility Managers we are finding that as budgets remain tight or even reduced, demands go up leaving many Facility Managers struggling to get their buildings cleaned effectively AND within budget.

The time of reduced office budgets have been here and it doesn't look like it will be changing anytime soon so you need a company that will give you value for your dollar and that will be committed to working with your budget and giving you consistent, effective services. Thoughtful winter maintenance, planning and even bringing on a new more adept office cleaning company can be the answer to assuring your office is clean and ready to go during winter months and all through the year.

Don’t Take the Hit For Poor Office Cleaning

If your office is in a constant state of disorder, you’ll find that your employees attitudes tend to match. While office cleaning can seem like a insignificant part of your business, most of your employees appreciate when they work in a clean, fresh space. As such, when your facility is left in disarray or poorly cleaned, you are sending the message to your staff that subpar work is acceptable. 

It makes a lot of sense when you think about it, if you don’t require an acceptable level of service from your commercial office cleaning company, why would you require it from your employees? An unkempt office building can also impact the financial health of your business. For instance, try attracting high performing employees with a dirty building. Odds are, they will take one look at your facility and opt to align with a company that they perceive has higher quality standards.

If you care about having top talent, an engaged employee base, as well as reduced a and attrition, it’s important to assure that your office cleaning company is doing an effective job keeping your facility looking its best.

Are Your Office Cleaners Really Giving Everything They Got?

Does your office fridge look like something that belongs in a CDC lab? Do your restrooms look and smell more like stadium restrooms than office restrooms? Is a revolving door of office cleaners netting you ineffective cleaning as they are continually in training mode? What it comes down to is, are you and your facility getting the service that you need for the price that you are paying? Is your office cleaning company being responsive in managing issues in service you bring to their attention? If your commercial cleaning company is failing to deliver on contract promises time and time again, it may be time to look for a commercial cleaning company that can really deliver value for your dollar. With any service company, they should always strive to provide work that exceeds your expectations.

Are Your Office Cleaning Services Top of the Heap or Bottom of the Heap?

As you can imagine, professional office cleaning companies are all different. So, what is the difference between a solid office cleaner and one that performs below the bar? First, the best companies understand the need for security and put into place hiring and screening processes to make sure the people that make up their staff are a good fit for your facility. Companies that are committed to delivering the highest quality of service will often pursue the CIMS certification to show their ability to work using the industries best practices.

Professional companies will also demonstrate a track record and in-depth knowledge of their industry’s best practices. They don’t only promise quality work, they have systems in place to guarantee it. No one is perfect all the time and even the best commercial cleaning companies get it wrong sometimes. The difference is that when things go wrong, they are quick to address and rectify problems.

Where to Look to Get Effective Commercial Office Cleaning Services

Companies don’t just stumble into great service, there is always a plan involved. Even companies with the best intentions and the highest level of staff and equipment can’t compete with those companies that come prepared with a strategy. What good are intentions and equipment if there isn’t a clear path to implementing them. Think about it, there are so many things that can’t be done without a plan. For instance, how will your Detroit cleaning company find and keep good people? How do they create choice and set expectations for their customers with clear pricing? Are they committed to green cleaning, cleaning for health and using technology to advance their industry? Have they been awarded the CIMS certification? While it isn’t easy, asking questions will help you avoid getting saddled with a company that does not know what they are doing.

People Are The Cornerstone Of Standout Office Cleaning Services

When it comes to any service business, it is their people that will make or break service. After all, the office cleaning staff, day porters, medical cleaners, janitors and other support staff are the ones directly caring for your building. As such, it is incredibly important that you commercial cleaning company work to recruit, train, and retain their staff. Ask your prospective commercial cleaning service provider how their people processes work and encourage them to show you how they have led to success. Ask about their janitorial turnover. Any company with a solid people system in place will have low janitorial turnover increasing the quality of the service you receive. Further, the companies that invest time and energy into their people will differentiate themselves from other companies by simply being better at what they do.

A Professional Office Cleaning Company Provides You With Transparent Pricing

When looking at your list of prospective commercial cleaning companies, the largest red flag any of them can give you is a cleaning bid that isn’t well-defined in terms of both services offered and clear pricing. One of the most important things a janitorial bid allows you to do is to compare different companies side by side. So, when you receive a bid that is confusing and imprecise, it takes away your ability to do this. Further, cleaning costs often take a large portion of your budget, so it is important to know exactly where your funds are going. On top of that, companies that don’t offer a clear price point are often trying to hide fees and other upcharges, or, simply aren’t experienced enough to give a proper bid. Either way, pricing problems start of the relationship with a new cleaning company on the wrong foot and point to trouble ahead.

Does Your Office Cleaning Company Have A Commitment to Industry Proven Practices?

Proper office cleaning isn’t just cleaning a surface so that it looks clean, it is cleaning a surface so that it is clean. If your office cleaners don't understand cleaning for health, rather than just cleaning for appearance, then you and your staff are at a higher risk for contracting any of the number of communicable diseases that make the rounds. The best commercial cleaning companies understand cleaning for health, touch points, hotspots, dwell times, green cleaning and the most common forms of bacterial transmission. They take advantage of industry techniques such as color-coded cleaning cloths, procedures to avoid cross-contamination and critical health based cleaning training for all their staff. Remember, a company that properly trains their staff to clean for health can keep your building sparking and help you maintain a healthy workplace. 

Make Life Just a Little Simpler With Effective Office Cleaning 

Finding the right commercial cleaning company for your facility is never going to be the easiest task in the world, but it can be done and better yet, it’s worth it. Getting referrals from other professionals you trust, asking the right questions and following up with your prospective cleaning and maintenance contractor can help ensure that you get a high quality service and value for your dollar. Understanding the processes the use to hire, train, and retain their staff as well as what systems they have in place to address and resolve problems is also important to consider. With a cleaning company that is right fit for your building, you will feel like you have a great partner in the care and maintenance of your facility.

It is that time of year again. The beginning of the cold and flu ramps up threatening to leave your team a combination of the walking wounded and terrified germaphobes hoping not to get sick. While most of us recover, colds and flus can be serious business for the very young, the very old and those people who are already healthy compromised. Not only do colds and flus spell disaster for people and their noses, chests and stomachs, they can spell disaster for your bottom line. 

If your commercial cleaning service isn’t on the ball, you’re about to have an office full of sick people rather than a case here and there. Poor cleaning processes and practices coupled with employees not properly washing their hands can quickly make any building into a nexus of contagion. And the rates of infection increase exponentially. The more people get sick, the more they can spread disease-causing germs around getting others ill. So, what should you and your employees be doing to protect themselves and how can your Detroit janitorial company do to help keep infection rates down in your facility?

You Are The First & Best Defense Against Office Illness 

The first and often most effective step you can take to protect your employees health is to encourage them never to come to work sick. Coming to work sick will only result in an upward trend in absenteeism reducing work output, not increasing it. Another step you as the Facility Manager can take is to remind your employees of how to correctly wash their hands. Even posting guidelines is shown to increase correct hand washing compliance. At food establishments, it’s the law but hand washing after using the restroom is a good practice for all of us.

It can be surprising how few people actually know how to. Here are the times the U.S. Centers For Disease Control (CDC) advocates hand washing:

• Before eating food
• Before and after treating an open wound, cut or abrasion
• After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet
• Before and after caring for a person or people who are sick
• After touching an animal, animal feed, or animal waste
• After touching garbage
• After using the toilet
• Before, during, and after food preparation
• After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing

Knowing when to wash your hands isn’t the only important aspect of hand washing, however. Knowing how to wash your hands can be just as, if not more important. So, here is what the CDC recommends for non-medical hand washing practices:

1. Wet your hands with clean, running water, and apply soap.
2. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Be sure to lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
3. Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds
4. Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
5. Dry your hands using a clean towel or air-dry them.

Your Commercial Cleaning Company Might be Doing More Harm than Good

Now that you know what your part is in keeping your facility healthy, what should your commercial cleaning company be doing to back you up? Certainly not cleaning your restrooms and desks with the same towel. Nor should they be using the same mop and bucket in the restroom anywhere else in the facility. Cross-contamination is one of the most overlooked problems in health cleaning practices and noticeably contributes to poor cleaning, poor outcomes and even employee absenteeism. The reality of the situation is that your cleaning companies practices are going to determine the effects of the cold and flu season on your facility. So here are some industry-proven practices that your commercial cleaning comapny should be following for the best, most effective results.

• Frequently change mop heads and mop waters, especially after cleaning restrooms, to help reduce cross-contamination risks.
• Implement a color-coded rag system to eliminate the risk of cross-contamination on surfaces.
• Use the right cleaning product for the work at hand. For instance, use a lightweight cleaner on low-risk surfaces and a strong disinfectant on touch points and hotspots.
• Install entryway mats to help reduce the amount of foreign materials that enter the building.
• Following the practices you set for your employees, your cleaning staff should frequently and correctly wash hands,
• Keep the janitorial closet in a clean, working order with cleaning supplies neatly and safely stored and equipment and supplies kept clean.
• All equipment should be well maintained so that is operational.

Why You Need to be Cleaning for Health

There is an important difference between cleaning for appearance and cleaning for health, and your commercial cleaning company has to understand how to do both effectively. As you know, we cannot see the disease causing bacteria and viruses that lurk on surfaces in our office like influenza, the various strains of E. coli, C. difficile, MRSA and other retroviruses. While it is easy to overlook these things because we cannot see them, proper cleaning for health does impact infection rates in your office.

Companies that take the lead protecting your staff will use industry best practices like color-coded rags, use appropriate chemical cleaners for various situations, take advantage of industry specific innovations like HEPA vacuum cleaners to improve air quality and follow manufacturer recommendations like dwell times and effective usage to get you optimal results. If you cleaning company is ignoring these tried and proven practices, they are putting your facility at risk.

Understanding Why Touch Points & Hot Spots Are Vital To Health

When it comes to cleaning for health, touch points and hot spots are critical to employee health and by default, your bottom line. Touch points and hot spots are things like door handles, computer equipment, touchpads, faucet handles, telephones and things like these. They are essentially any common surface that becomes a hotspot for disease because of the number of people that touch and use it on a day to day basis. While it is impossible to keep these surfaces completely clean all the time, regularly cleaning them can help reduce the total germ load and thus the spread of disease in your facility. Make sure that when you partner with a commercial cleaning company that they have a thorough understanding of what it means to clean for health. If your commercial cleaning company is phoning it in or simply doesn’t understand the requirements of the work, when cold and flu season rolls around, you may have a lot of sick employees.

Is it Time to Find A New Commercial Cleaning Partner for the Sake of Health?

No matter what type of cleaning service you are looking for, office cleaning, medical cleaning, industrial cleaning, hospital or other medical cleaning, or just general cleaning, you need to have a partner that has the know-how to clean your facility with the health of your employees in mind. Not only that, they need to implement proven industry practices to insure the proper cleaning of your building. If you aren’t sure what your office cleaning service provider is doing to protect the health of you and your employees, just ask them. If what they tell you does not involve hotspots, reducing the risk of cross-contamination, and dwell times, it might be time to start shopping the commercial cleaning marketplace for something that does. 

Zone Cleaning Isn’t Effective

In theory, multitasking sounds like a great idea, but like many other theories, it doesn't stand up in practice. As it turns out, people aren’t amazing at juggling a variety of tasks. While sometimes this is an unavoidable consequence of work, studies have shown that better, more consistent results are delivered when someone specializes in one area. Knowing this, it is no surprise that zone cleaning, that is, assigning a single person to all the tasks in a room, has been shown to be less effective than team cleaning.

Team Cleaning Is More Efficient, More Effective & Saves Money

So, what is team cleaning and how does its stack up to zone cleaning? A cleaning service that uses zone cleaning has to equip each of their staff members for cleaning every part of a room resulting in the unnecessary duplication, storage and maintenance of items. Further, because zone cleaning is an extreme form of multi-tasking and task switching, the quality of the work is often poor and requires more labor hours overall. In contrast, team cleaning has each person on a team doing a specific cleaning task or small subset of tasks in a building. For instance, one person would be tasked with vacuuming and another with restrooms. This way, there is minimal duplication of equipment and each person is allowed to focus on a specific set of tasks resulting in better task mastery and amore effective, faster cleaning of your facility.

Why Zone Cleaning Fails to Deliver

For certain smaller buildings, it can make sense to have a single person clean the entire office, however, with nearly all larger facilities, having a team for office cleaning offers a number of advantages to you. For instance:

• Team cleaning streamlines training, makes it easier to fill in for a missing member and improves work consistency.
• Promotes teamwork to help balance responsibilities.
• Specialization results in task mastery, consistently higher quality work and reduced labor hours.
• Reduces the cost of purchasing, servicing and storaging costly duplicate equipment.
• Different cleaning solutions such as Green Cleaning are easy to implement with a more centralized staff.
• Easy to customize to the needs of your facility.
• Overall reduction in the cost to you will reducing the number of labor hours needed to manage the cleaning and maintenance of your facility.

Team Cleaning Offers Clear Cost Advantages

Almost every Facility Manager is trying to figure out how to hold steady the costs of their facility maintenance. Maybe you have overall reduced budgets or maybe you had a costly unplanned maintenance issue that threw your carefully planned budget into a tailspin. Whatever the reason, reducing services can’t come at the cost of proper facility cleaning, cuts have to be strategic to still maintain acceptable cleanliness while keeping costs steady or even reducing the overall price of the service.

One of the best ways to do this is by taking advantage of team cleaning. Take for example a light duties specialist, this individual typically dusts and cleans all surfaces, clean windows and doors, empties trash and stacks trash for pickup by different team member to collect. These teams will often include specialist in everything from vacuuming to utilities. Such specialization has a number of benefits to you and your budget. First, it helps reduce the risk of cross-contamination. Second, it helps improve consistency and the quality of service, giving you more value for your dollar. Finally, it makes sure the responsibilities are laid out and that each person is aware of what needs to get done.

How Team Cleaning Mitigates the Impact of the Rising Minimum Wage

Janitorial and commercial cleaning prices are on the rise largely due to the increasing minimum wage here in Michigan. As the single largest hard cost to any office cleaning company, the cost of labor has a serious impact on our pricing. The second largest contributor to hard costs is the price of buying and maintaining equipment. Team cleaning helps address both of these factors. Not only does it reduce labor hours, by minimizing the amount of duplicated equipment, team cleaning can significantly reduce the price of having your facility regularly cleaned without significantly reducing the quality of cleaning. 

Are You Looking for a Step Up in Your Commercial Cleaning Services?

As Facility Manager, you know how the quality and consistency of your janitorial and commercial cleaning service can positively or negatively impact your workload as well as the function of your facility. If your cleaning service is a constant thorn in your side, it might be time to look for a new prospective cleaning company. Companies that provide a cost-effective service without causing problems in your facility do exist. You can have a high quality service without bankrupting your building.

Here at Stathakis, we provide consistent, responsive, effective service and a solid value for businesses all across southeastern Michigan. We have been in the industry more than 30 years and have developed a consistent standard of service that our customers are all willing to vouch for. We will work hard to develop a lasting partnership with you and your facility as well as to deliver the highest quality of service to your facility. If you are a Facility Manager in Royal Oak, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Farmington Hills, Farmington, Dearborn, Novi, Livonia, Troy, Auburn Hills, Plymouth, Downriver or any areas close to those and you are looking for commercial cleaning services, office cleaning, school cleaning, industrial cleaning, medical cleaning or a janitorial company, please contact us so we can help your facility look its best and work to meet your specific needs.

Ensuring Office Safety is as Important as Making Sure It Is Cleaned Well

With many large office buildings there are so many people going in and out over the course of the day. These days, increased security is paramount and that means we need to have an idea about who is entering our facilities as well as some degree of trust that they are safe. We would all like to think that each and every person that we meet is generally a good person, but recently the news has been filling up with headlines like “Maryland Office Shooting Suspect Had a History of Workplace Violence” and “Chef Killed by Coworker” raising real concerns for companies all across the country in terms of workplace safety.  

Safety & Your Commercial Cleaning Company’s Staff

Thankfully although these events understandably grab headlines, they are not as common as it can sometimes feel. However, they raise important safety questions about why these events happen, what we can do to prevent them or at least reduce their likelihood and common sense ways we can make our workplaces safer. So when it comes to your janitorial services company, you want to know who is coming and going and you want to know that they are safe. No one likes a constant stream of new faces in and out of your building at all hours of the day.

Assuring Fit & Suitability In Office Cleaners Requires Some Effort

It all comes down to comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the background checks implemented by the cleaning company in question. Your janitorial services company needs to perform comprehensive background checks on ANY employee that enters YOUR facility. Many companies neglect to be diligent about background checks and drug screening and perhaps fail to appreciate the real risk that presents you your employee and your facility. As time goes on, it is becoming more and more evident that halfhearted, occasional screening isn’t enough to make sure the workplace is safe for you and your employees.  What is needed? There are a couple of key areas that need to be thoroughly examined when performing background checks, not limited to just criminal and drug history. For instance, education, verifying employment history, and reference verifications are all important aspects of someone's employability. Some companies will go beyond and do more to assure office cleaners are a good fit for the work.

What to be on the Lookout When it Comes to Hiring Verifications

Before you decide to outsource you office cleaning to just any building services contractor, make sure you know enough about them. In the cleaning industry, many businesses having a revolving door of staff as a result of an inadequate pool of talent. To err is human, so at some point your office cleaning company will hire the wrong person, and that is ok. But, if your commercial office cleaning company is consistently ignoring or overlooking references, criminal histories, and drug tests because of the cost and time required to check a double check their people, then it is time to find a new partner or move on in your search for effective and safe office cleaning services. Don’t put you or your employees at risk, make sure your office cleaning company is following through with their background checks.

• Criminal Background check (nationwide not just state)
• E-Verify
• Education Verification
• References Follow Up
• Drug Screening
• Employment History Verification

What We do Differently Here At Stathakis

Here at STATHAKIS, we go against the grain when it comes to providing janitorial and commercial cleaning services. Cleaning goes beyond just the task of mopping the floor, taking out the trash, and dusting surfaces, though we do that and do it well. It is about providing the highest quality of overall service, everything from cleaning to helping do our part to assure your workplace is safe. We believe in building relationships with our clients and good relationships are built on trust. We utilize extensive and stringent verification methods when we hire new employees to make sure that they are not only skilled cleaners, but a good addition to your work environment. After all, our business is only as good as our people.

The Difference Between a Winner and a Loser

If office cleaning is a contest, then finding a winner is no easy task. Not only is the office cleaning market place a crowded one, it can be difficult to tell the difference between the winners and the losers. It is entirely possible you’ve had one or more bad experiences with office cleaning companies. Or, this is your first time trying to find one, and your not sure where to start. Do you choose a prospective company based on online reviews? Recommendations of other Facility Managers? Price? Or is there a better way to make sure that the company you partner with is right for you and your facility? If your office is looking dirty and grimy and potentially scaring away potential customers, you have to act quickly. But make sure you do your responsible research and find the commercial cleaning company that will offer the most value for your budget. Here are ten top things that separates the winners from the losers to help you get premier office cleaning services.

1 – Teams That Score

Any company that is in the business of service is completely represented by its staff. So you should never partner with a Detroit commercial cleaning service that doesn't have the best processes in place to train and retain their employees. When a company invests in the people that represent them, they set themselves up, and by extension you, to win. As such, one of the best ways to gauge a prospective office cleaning service is to look at their systems for recruiting, screening, and training.

2 – Tip Top Training

Experience and training have always been the best way to deliver a high quality service. The top-of-the-top office cleaning companies thoroughly train their staff to be professional technicians with a base of knowledge to rival any person in the industry. The best technicians and teams can quickly identify how to effectively and efficiently tackle your office cleaning.

3 – Equipped for Success

Like everything else in the world, the office cleaning industry has been advancing at an unprecedented pace bringing with it more efficient, effective and powerful equipment, techniques and supplies that provide greener solutions, greater effectiveness and even cost efficiencies. However, not every company has the wherewithal or foresight to invest and implement these money saving innovations because as happens all to often, they don’t want to invest valuable profits in new technology or are simply to set in their ways to change.

4 – Winners Carry Their Teams

Office cleaning companies that are in it to win it bring everyone else along with them. Simply put, this means that their management teams push everyone to perform at the highest level. They reward their strongest members for their efforts and help those that are falling behind to achieve. They are playing to win the long game by having the strongest teams with the least employee turnover. What does this mean for you? It means your going to have engaged employees working to clean your offices to the best of their ability. It means that you aren’t going to have to worry about communication or problems not being addressed. The best companies will almost always have the best teams. 

5 – No Such Thing as Beginner’s Luck

Experience is king, we all know this. Companies that have a higher level of experience are simply going to perform at a higher level. Something that not all of us recognize, however, is that often the more experienced companies can be equally priced with those companies lagging far behind in results and value. Now this may seem very counter-intuitive. Why would a company that has spent years honing their skills charge less for their service? First, an experienced office cleaning company knows exactly how to make a bid. You will be getting exactly what you paid for. Second, the best companies, as common sense economics would tell us, operate at higher volumes. As such, many items are purchased in bulk reducing their hard cost to you. Finally, the best companies in the industry are always trying to price competitively to attract the most business. It doesn't make sense for a company that knows they can impress you and keep your business to price themselves outside of everyone’s reach. Further, these companies competency means that they can get more cleaning done in less time reducing labor hours and the cost to you. Why partner with an expensive, inexperienced office cleaning company when you can get a skilled service provider for a comparable price and far better value?

6 – Slow and Steady Wins the Race

If life has taught any of us anything, it is that shortcuts rarely work out. The same life lesson applies to your office cleaners. If they are taking shortcuts with illegal hiring or subcontracting, not only is it an indication shortcuts are being taken elsewhere, it will always come back to bite you. Not only will it put the quality of your service at risk, it can be detrimental to your reputation and standing. Is it really worth partnering with a company that takes shortcuts to try to win your business?

7 – Losers Take Risks

As long as we are on the subject of shortcuts, we should also talk about risk taking. We all avoid unnecessary risk and so should your office cleaning company. If the commercial cleaning company you partner with isn’t fully insured or even insured at all they are introducing an unnecessary liability to your workplace. Unfortunately, this isn’t all that unusual to see. Many smaller companies will skimp on insurance to help bolster profit margins. Don’t take risks with expensive litigations, make sure you partner with a company that is fully insured.

8 – Winning With Green Cleaning

We all know that office cleaning chemicals have never been particularly safe, so we want to know exactly what's being used in our facility. Fortunately, innovation has yet again provided us with a solution. Green cleaning is becoming an increasingly popular office cleaning solution for many companies. Green cleaning is not only better for the environment, it has been demonstrated to create a healthier workplace. Further, Green Cleaning implements less wasteful techniques to reduce the overall cost to you.

9 - Plan to Win

Successful companies are never without a plan. As such, these crème-of-the-crop companies have put into place systems to assure quality and reliability in their practices as well as to promote accountability. They identify problems quickly and address them and provide a consistent and professional service. When you are rooting through the crowded office cleaning marketplace, look for companies that are committed to continually improving their craft in pricing, inspections, cleaning, innovation, and management, with a plan. He who designs the best plan wins.

10 – Partnering with the Right Company is a Win

While finding the winning commercial office cleaning company isn’t a slam dunk, it is worthy of your time. When you find the right building services company, they become a true partner in your facility’s maintenance. Companies that take a long range view of their relationship with you are more likely to work hard to continually offer you the responsiveness and value you need. Likewise, many building services contractors that offer expert office cleaning also provide a range of other services for typical building needs, like janitorial services, to special projects. Invest time into finding the right company and you can go back to them to meet additional maintenance needs.

A Winning Formula

Finding the right commercial office cleaning company for your facility will never be a sure-fire task. There will always be trials and tribulations that go along with it that can make it a real thorn in the side. However, that isn’t to say it isn’t a worthy goal. Companies that put your long term relationship above short term profits are going to be partners that ultimate reduce your workload, not increase it. Similarly, companies that provide office cleaning are often the Swiss army knife of the industry making them a versatile tool for all your company’s needs. Invest some time into finding the right office cleaning service provider and we promise that you won’t be disappointed with the results.

Here at Stathakis, we combine state-of-the-art innovations in office cleaning and care with proven training and industry practices to give you the service you need. If you need office cleaning services, you won’t be disappointed with Stathakis. For more information on how you can get offices cleaner than they have ever been, please contact us at #800-278-1884.

High Cleaning Turnover Rates Will Cause Problems For YOUR Business

As Facility Managers we may not think too much about high janitorial turnover, after all, it is our cleaning company’s staff, not ours. However, high turnover from your office cleaning company can spell disaster for your facility. Let’s look at some of the ways it can impact you: 

A Reduced Quality of Work: A revolving door of employees means that each new person that enters your facility is less familiar with the specific needs of your building and is less trained to carry out the necessary tasks. It stands to reason that new employees are usually less efficient and more wasteful because they lack mastery.

Increased Cost to You: High turnover has some hard costs attached to it that will invariably be pushed to you. The process of hiring, training and screening new employees is expensive and this will be reflected in your cleaning bill.

Safety Concerns: Screening is an important step in making sure that the people that enter your building are safe and trustworthy. The higher the turnover, the more likely your commercial cleaning company isn’t doing their due-diligence and properly screening their new employees and staff.

If you are paying a high price for cleaning, high janitorial turnover will make it substantially less likely that you are getting your money's worth. Don’t get suckered into paying more for less. There are professional and reputable office cleaning companies out there with turnover rates significantly lower than industry averages. When looking at prospective companies, inquire about turnover and, remember, no matter what the quote, high turnover from your office cleaning company and a revolving door of new hires will end up costing you in the long run.

How Does Your Janitorial Company Treat Their Employees

Janitorial and commercial cleaning jobs are often thankless and it can be easy to see why the industry has a high turnover rate. Still, when companies exacerbate the normal problems you find in lower-skilled employment by failing to provide competitive wages, you are certainly going to find yourself in the middle of all the problems turnover brings. Lower-skilled jobs are notorious for an overall high turnover, the janitorial industry has a turnover rate of nearly 200%. However, experienced, professional companies understand what can be achieved with a lower rate and actively work to reduce their employee turnover despite the challenges experienced industry wide. Is your current office cleaning company doing enough to keep good people and end the revolving door of people in and people out of your facility?

How We Keep Janitorial Turnover Well Below Industry Averages

We’ve shown statistics on the janitorial and cleaning industries high rates of employee turnover, but that doesn't mean that every company suffers in the same way. A solid, professional janitorial contractor and cleaning company in Michigan is mindful of many things in their organizations including technological advances in the building services industry, ongoing training, management systems to insure accountability and responsiveness, recognition and reward programs-- all created to keep their teams operating efficiently. 

Companies that exceed the industry standards put their employees through comprehensive training programs to deliver on their promises. These companies understand the benefit of training that prepares their staff to succeed in YOUR facility. Similarly, employees that are well-trained and treated as professional staff helps keep employee turnover down. Take, for instance, our turnover rate here at Stathakis. As a result of our efforts to improve employee retention, we have achieved a 40% turnover rate compared to the industry average of around 200%. Outperforming competition in such a significant way often leads to the question “what do you do differently than the rest of the industry?”

Our company promotes success and retention through core policies like teamwork and delivery of quality service to all customers. At Stathakis, we do our best to continue learning and improving our service for both our employees and our customers. We are constantly trying to innovate and learn from our mistakes to perform at the highest level in our industry. Our goal is to make our work a rewarding experience for you our customer, and our employees. We try to reward our teams for success with programs like Open Book Management, incentives, and recognition opportunities among other things. We even have an organizational philosophy, Ubuntu that helps shape a welcoming and supportive culture for our people.  At Stathakis, we always strive to offer you the best value in commercial cleaning services and our people are the single most important part of our promise to our customers and our community.

Running a business is challenging enough without having to deal with a dull, dirty facility scaring people off. A sparking facility has a measurable, positive impact on business outcomes and most importantly, your bottom line. Partnering with a professional office cleaning service can help assure your facility is always looking its best so that you can focus on the rest of your business. So, what can the best office cleaning services provide you, your facility, and your bottom line?

Does Your Facility Sparkle?

We all know that we aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover, but we all do. Like it or not, the overall condition of your facility says a lot to potential customers, employees and tenants. Are you sending the message you intend? A sparking facility sends a message that your company is serious about quality.  Unfortunately, when you work in your building all day, it can be easy to tunnel vision out the areas that need the most attention. It can be all too easy to get used to the dirt or needed maintenance that is piling up bit by bit.

So, when you look at your complaint or suggestions box, you should ask yourself a couple of questions. Are they accurate? Are there areas of your building that really do need some attention? Likewise, walk through your facility and try to see things with a fresh set of eyes. How does a customer or prospective customer might see it. What do you see? Carpets that sorely needs a cleaning? Floors that need stripping or cleaning? Dusty light fixtures? Walls that are scuffed and dirty? Office restrooms that have a certain funk?

Make a Diamond Perfect Impression with New Employees

First impressions with customers are important, however, it can be equally important with employees and prospective employees. The cleanliness of your workplace speaks volumes about the culture and atmosphere of your company. An office that isn’t cleaned regularly and properly sends a message to your employees that quality and performance aren’t a priority for your company. It may not be something that is discussed around the water-cooler, but it is certainly something the lingers in the back of everyone's minds.

If you aren’t having your facility regularly cleaned by a professional commercial cleaning company, it is going to send a couple of dangerous messages. First, the highest level employees will not want to work for an organization that does not consistently perform at a high level in all areas. Second, by losing quality employees, you lose valuable role models for your other, lower performing staff and as a result productivity, engagement and quality will suffer greatly through a facility wide domino effect.

Just Cause its Shiny, Doesn't Mean it is Clean

Looking at your commercial cleaning as simply a cost to be subtracted from your budget is a fundamentally flawed view. Commercial cleaning in your facility is an investment in your business, your people and your future time. Cleaning that isn’t don’t correctly is detrimental to the overall health of your facility, aids the transmission of disease and can even lower the air quality in your building. Research shows that the cleaner the workplace, the better employees health is. Likewise, healthy employees are directly related to fewer sick days and less turnover. A well cleaned, healthy building will help protect your employees and set the right tone at the office.

Halting the Spread of Disease in Your Building

There are two types of clean, the kind of clean that is visible and the kind of clean that is not. It is always nice to walk into a room that is fresh and clean. But, just because the room appears to be clean doesn't always mean it is. Bacteria and other pathogens can infect a surface such as door handles, computers, phones, light switches among other things unseen. Does your office cleaning company not only clean things to make them look clean but clean things to make them truly clean? Do they office cleaning best practices make sure that your facility not only looks clean but is clean? Do they use up to date cleaning chemicals and equipment? Do they train their staff to use these cleaners, practices and different equipment to give you the best results?

Fewer Sick Days Means Employees Shine Brighter

Reduced sick days and healthier employees in a cleaner office atmosphere will almost always result in a dramatic boost in productivity. A sparking office will reduce the transmission of disease reducing sick days and thus mean that your employees are more productive. Sick days cause the public sector upwards of billions of dollars each year in lost productivity and revenue. A solid office cleaning service that understands how to clean for health can consistently reduce this cost to your company. Further, an office that is cluttered and unclean can further reduce productivity simply be being demoralizing and suggesting a lower standard.

Trying to work around a dirty office is wasted time and while it may only be minutes to one employee the total lost time to your company can number in hundreds of hours. A sparking office that is both uncluttered and inviting is the best way to incentivize your employees to be productive as well as reduce lost and wasted time that could be better spent.

Clean Buildings Make the Best Impressions

No one wants to go to work when the office looks like a hurricane tore through it. A sparking building is a powerful marketing tool for clients, employee and tenants. You building’s appearance is one key factor that conveys a lot about your companies values and culture separating you from other companies. No matter if you are hiring a prospective employee, leasing out a space, competing for new business or trying to meet your goals, a clean, pampered building will almost always help you get there.

Treating Your Office Assets Like Gems

Regular office cleaning can also help protect expensive building assets. Some of these include your carpeting, flooring, tiles, other surfaces and equipment that suffer from damage when they aren’t cleaned adequately and regularly. Effective office cleaning prevents unnecessary wear and tear so as to extend the lifespan of your building’s most costly assets.

Your Facility Can Shine Above the Rest With Effective Office Cleaning

A well managed facility is always accompanied by a thoughtful office cleaning program. Of course such a service will cost money, but compared to a sparkling workspace and productive employees, it seems a small price to pay. Everyone would like to have an efficient, effective, and consistent commercial office cleaning company, but maybe you’ve had so many problems with other contractors that your convinced such an office cleaning company does not exist. We are here to tell you they do. You can find a professional, reputable and experienced office cleaning company that can offer a high level of service for a wallet friendly price.  Protect your employees, you image and your bottom line by partnering with an effective office cleaning company.