The “Great Resignation” was born in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, when amid plentiful job openings workers left their positions in search of better pay, enhanced working conditions, and greater opportunities. The resignations have since slowed. According to Statista, monthly resignations decreased throughout 2023. However, it’s still true that if you want to retain and motivate cleaning staff, it’s important to take a multipronged approach. Naturally, pay, benefits, and upward mobility within your organization are key to your retention strategy. However, particularly among younger staff—millennials and Generation Z—other factors are just as important. Recognition, flexibility, and meaningfulness all play an important part in retaining them. Consider the following eight strategies to motivate your new hires into becoming long-term employees. 1. Fine-tune your messaging Matthew Serra, CEO of Mulberry Marketing Communications, recommended examining how you position your job openings. Reaching out to purpose-driven potential employees means changing how you talk about available cleaning roles. For example, a clean workspace is vital to everyone’s well-being. “Cleaners are at the frontline when it comes to protecting families in schools, hospitals, and care homes,” said Serra. Highlighting this truth when you advertise for professional cleaning staff can generate more pride for existing workers and make new people more eager to find employment with you. Professional cleaners don’t often receive a great deal of recognition or credit from society for their pivotal role. Therefore, it’s up to employers to elevate the importance of cleaning and they can do this through how they talk about their available staffing positions. According to Serra, it’s also vital to recognize your existing staff, as this not only motivates them but makes your vacancies more appealing. He suggested recognizing staff anniversaries in blog posts and asking employees for quotes about what it’s like working for your company. These insights can then be shared across social media and as Serra says, “...it becomes fun for your team, they love it, and it makes them feel embraced. But also, externally, if you’re looking for a vacancy and you see a company that is promoting its people and the hard work they do, that immediately becomes a more appealing place to work.” 2. Cover the basics with pay, benefits, and bonuses Staff attraction and retention will be difficult if you are not offering a competitive pay and benefits package. Pay isn’t everything, but it needs to be appealing if you want to attract the best talent. Think also in terms of the wider benefits package. Health insurance, retirement plans, life insurance, paid sick leave, enhanced parental leave, daycare, and the amount of annual vacation time on offer will all play a part in making your open positions more attractive. Work-life balance is also increasingly important to people, so offering well-being programs that provide access to gyms, yoga classes, counseling, and even healthy snacks can make a difference. 3. Attract a wider talent pool with flexible working hours Your company can enhance work-life balance by also offering flexible working hours. This flexibility allows people who have childcare, elder care, or other family commitments to apply for roles, knowing they can choose hours to suit their needs. Flexible work hours also give employees motivation to run their own business or to have a side hustle. As the BBC reported in March 2023, “Young workers are increasingly chasing multiple jobs and sources of income as they embark on their careers. And it could change the workplace for good.” Flexible working hours allow people to pursue opportunities that are meaningful to them, while also enjoying the security that a cleaning role can offer. 4. Remember that recruitment doesn’t end at the hire Finding suitable candidates is only half the battle; making sure a new employee settles in well is the other part of the equation. This is where a well-thought-out onboarding process is vital. New employees are more likely to stay around if they understand what’s expected of them. It’s also important that they have someone they can reach out to with questions or concerns. What might be obvious to a seasoned staff member might not be so clear to someone new to the job. A 2018 study of 1,500 American workers by the recruitment firm Jobvite found that almost 30% of the workers surveyed left a new job within 90 days. A significant percentage said their day-today job was not what they expected. Considering this, you can see how important it is to set expectations from the start and to support people as they settle into a new role. 5. Keep your staff safe Since COVID-19, employees are even more aware of staying safe in the workplace. Ensure staff are always provided with the personal protective equipment (PPE) they need to perform their jobs safely, including gloves, goggles, and masks. In addition, keep employee safety training up to date. Employees who feel safe and who have all the equipment they need are more likely to want to stay in an organization they believe values them. 6. Retain staff with training and promotion opportunities Mentorship programs, in-house training, and opportunities for employees to lead teams or projects can all help to motivate staff. Whenever possible, promote from within so that employees see that advancement is available to them. Consider offering a rewards program that enables employees to earn points for meeting cleanliness standards, increasing efficiency, or improving customer satisfaction. Not only is the gamification of this program very motivating, employees can then exchange these points for bonuses, more time off, or other rewards, taking the program to the next level. 7. Build trust through open communication Open communication is an often-overlooked motivational tool. Encouraging employees to give feedback about their daily tasks or their manager builds trust and helps workers feel valued. Consider implementing a 360-degree appraisal system, where you confidentially gather reviews not just from your employee’s manager but from a range of sources including colleagues, vendors, and even clients. This approach to appraisals provides a more balanced perspective. If you also review managers in
GoFree Flex Pro Cordless Backpack Cleans Historic Theatre Built in 1928, the Historic Oroville State Theatre is a community performance space for the city of Oroville, CA. The three-story facility hosts dance recitals, symphonic orchestras, award ceremonies, and theater arts serving every type of community group from very young children to established professional companies.“The community loves this theatre,” said Operations Manager Glennis Roseberry. “In maintaining the theatre, our goal is to go the extra mile and make sure we offer a clean, welcoming house.”Like most historic buildings, Oroville State Theatre comes with its own set of cleaning challenges. There are three flights of stairs that need to be thoroughly vacuumed. Curtains and fabric acoustic panels around the theatre accumulate dust. In the auditorium, 600 seats bolted to the floor are difficult to maneuver and have lots of crevices that trap dirt. In pursuit of creating a cleaner, more welcoming environment, a generous supporter of the theatre donated a ProTeam® GoFree® Flex Pro cordless backpack vacuum. The six-quart unit allows for approximately 75 minutes of continuous cleaning on a single charge, enough time for Roseberry to complete her vacuuming routine. “The GoFree Flex Pro works just as well on hard surfaces as on carpet,” said Roseberry. “One of the best features is the versatility. I can get places that I can’t easily get with a corded vacuum, like maneuvering between the seats, cleaning the upholstery, and doing the stairways.” Previously, Roseberry and her volunteer staff used an upright vacuum, but it was cumbersome to maneuver, the hose and attachments often couldn’t reach, and airborne dust became a problem. Worst of all, glitter would get everywhere and be nearly impossible to pick up. “We accumulate a huge amount of glitter and dust on the hard surface stairs that lead down to the dressing rooms in the basement. When you have 100 little dancers, you have a lot of glitter,” said Roseberry. “The ProTeam vacuum picks up glitter and keeps it.” Overall the GoFree Flex Pro reduced vacuuming time by 45 minutes to one hour compared to that of an upright. Fabric panels, curtains, and architectural details are now clean, and Roseberry noticed that the air feels cleaner too. “With the GoFree Flex Pro, I can do a lot more a lot faster,” said Roseberry. “The wand is easier to move from side to side than pushing an upright vacuum back and forth. Once the harness is fit to you, you don’t really feel it on your bac
GoFree Flex Pro Cordless Backpack Boosts Productivity at Miller County Hospital Damian Belvedere, account manager for Healthcare Services Group, manages environmental services at Miller County Hospital in Colquitt, GA. His staff of 50 cleans three facilities that comprise a hospital with a 24-hour emergency room and a nursing home. Belvedere's staff previously cleaned VCT floors in the hospital and wood-look vinyl floors in the nursing home with brooms and dust mops prior to mopping or scrubbing with an auto scrubber. For carpeted offices and walk-off mats, they used upright vacuums. Then Belvedere was asked to test the GoFree® Flex Pro cordless backpack vacuum from ProTeam® and report his results. Belvedere put the GoFree Flex Pro to work in the hospital hallways and lobby — areas that he felt needed better floor care than they were getting with his existing tools. "With dust mops and brooms, we never got it all up. Sweeping would sweep dust into the air, and the dust mops would get overloaded and leave dust bunnies behind," said Belvedere. "The GoFree Flex Pro makes a huge difference in the quality of clean. We don’t have dust bunnies anymore." The hospital hallways and lobby used to take an hour and a half to clean with a broom, dustpan, and dust mop. The GoFree Flex Pro cut that time in half. Its Lithium Ion battery with approximate 75-minute runtime allows the cleaning staff to apply the cleaning power of a backpack vacuum in an area without available power outlets. The cordless backpack vacuum is also easier to maneuver around occupants, the nurses’ portable computers, and other medical equipment lining the walls. "The next day when we have to vacuum, there’s not as much to vacuum up. We're doing a more efficient job," said Belvedere. "The cleanliness keeps improving and improving. I estimate that we won’t have to wax the floors as often; they aren't getting as worn down." The GoFree Flex Pro was also applied to seven four-by-six-foot walk-off mats around the hospital. The mats took 25 to 30 minutes to vacuum with upright vacuums. The GoFree Flex Prowhittled that time down to 10 to 15 minutes and cleaned without presenting the tripping hazard of a cord in areas with 24-hour foot traffic. "Not only were the cleaners lugging around an upright to vacuum the mats, but they had to bring a warning sign. Then when someone walked by, they would have to stop and pull the cord aside," said Belvedere. "Eliminating the safety concern of a cord makes the job much faster and easier." Over at the nursing home, it took an hour and 15 minutes to clean with the old tools. With the cordless backpack vacuum, the hospital's cleaning staff can vacuum the same area 30 minutes faster. For Belvedere, removing more soil and dust helps to fulfill his mission by creating a healthier indoor environment. "Dust carries infection. It's our job to prevent the spread of infection," said Belvedere. "Dust is our enemy. If we can eliminate dust, we're winning the battle." The cleaners who use the cordless backpack vacuum have reported to Belvedere that it saves time in unexpected ways. For example, when they used the auto scrubber after sweeping and dust mopping, they would have to frequently stop to clean soil buildup off of the squeegee blade. After vacuuming with the GoFree Flex Pro, the floors are much cleaner, and soil no longer builds up on the blade, which considerably speeds up the scrubbing process. Overall the test of the GoFree Flex Pro in three areas, the hospital hallways and lobby, the hospital walk-off mats, and the nursing home, saved 90 minutes of cleaning time a day. Belvedere's staff can then apply that time to improving their service with detailing cleaning and project work, or they could reduce labor costs by a total of $4,380 annually assuming an eight-dollar hourly wage and year-round daily cleaning. "The GoFree Flex Pro is well worth the cost," said Belvedere. "There are so many things that we can use it for." GoFree Flex Pro Results: Doubles productivity for hospital lobby, hallways, and walk-off mats Nets labor savings of 90 minutes a day or $4,380 annually (assuming an $8/hour wage and year-round daily cleaning) Reduces dust bunnies and soil residue on floors Does not trigger decibel meters in the hospital hallways The GoFree Flex Pro is nominated for an ISSA Innovation Award. Vote at www.issa.com/vote.
The White House released The U.S. Government Global Health Security Strategy (GHSS) 2024, which establishes how the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will play a pivotal role in a new whole-of-government approach in protecting U.S. citizens during the next pandemic. “Global health security is national security, and CDC is proud to contribute its expertise, investments, and rapid response to protect the health and safety of the American people and the world,” said Mandy Cohen, M.D., M.P.H, CDC director. “CDC’s decades of global health investments, training, and scientific diplomacy strengthen global capacity in labs, data, emergency response, and the public health workforce. The U.S. is a safer place by allowing us to detect and rapidly respond to outbreaks at their source.” The new strategy is in direct response to the fact that health systems continue to be overburdened following years of responding to COVID-19 along with several simultaneous global health emergencies, including mpox, Ebola, cholera, polio, dengue, and malaria. In general, these challenges have exhausted health systems, taxed health workers, and prevented work on other challenges such as HIV and vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs), such as measles. Instead, the GHSS plans to: Implement and coordinate CDC programs to build capacity relevant to health security domestically and globally. Provide technical and scientific expertise in public health to partner countries, bilateral- and multilateral-institutions, and U.S. leaders to achieve global health security goals. Provide technical and scientific expertise in public health to partner countries, bilateral- and multilateral-institutions, and U.S. policymakers and leaders to assess and develop health security capacity and respond to health threats. Play a leading role in addressing infectious disease outbreaks. Use data, modeling, and analytics to prevent, detect, and respond to outbreaks in real-time and to drive effective decision-making. Maintain staff internationally who advance collaboration with multisectoral partners and serve as a first line of defense against infectious diseases originating overseas. In line with GHSS, CDC continues to help build health security capacity. This includes through CDC’s new Global Health Strategic Framework that seeks to: Stop health threats at their source before they spread to the U.S. Contain disruptive outbreaks. Use global data for disease prevention and mitigation programs in the U.S. Save lives and improve health globally. The full GHSS strategy document can be found at U.S. Global Health Security Partnerships – United States Department of State.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) began seeking feedback regarding the next version (v5) of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. Steve Ashkin, president of The Ashkin Group LLC and an advocate for sustainability within the cleaning industry, recently shared his thoughts on why he views LEED v5 as a setback to the cleaning industry. A member of the USGBC’s LEED Operations and Maintenance (O+M) committee, Ashkin explains in the below video how the proposed updates potentially will have a negative impact on cleaning operations. For more on LEED v5, be sure to attend ISSA’s FREE webinar—Proposed LEED V5 Revisions: Industry Setbacks & How You Can Take Action—taking place April 22 at 12:00 p.m. CT. To access the current LEED v5 drafts and voice your concerns, visit the USGBC website.
Across the U.S., lead pipes are still used even though they have been banned in new construction since 1986. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, no safe level of lead exposure exists for children. Last year, Illinois had the most lead pipes—including from public water systems and drinking fixtures—per capita in the U.S., according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The agency estimated the Midwestern state has more than 1 million lead service lines. Lead pipe usage has lingered throughout the decades because of a lack of federal or state removal strategies along with low funding and difficulty locating lead pipes. In Illinois, for example, water suppliers are still inventorying their lead pipes to plan for removal. This fiscal year, Illinois also received more than US$100 million in funding through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for lead service line replacement. Funding is expected to more than double in fiscal year 2025, but the National Resources Defense Council puts the estimate for replacing every lead service line in Illinois at $2.2 billion, while the Illinois Environmental Council estimates it would cost between $10 billion and $12 billion. Even though state and federal governments have developed regulations and funding programs, lead pipe line replacement falls on the community water supplies, such as municipalities or local water districts. The EPA has proposed changes to the federal rules, which would set the goal of replacing all lead pipes within the next decade, with exceptions allowed. Still, the EPA has historically chosen not to enforce its existing standards. However, advocacy groups support the shortening of the timeline to replace lead pipes. But due to the number of lines to replace in Illinois and current and proposed state laws, municipalities such as Chicago could have up to 2092 to replace their lead service lines.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is gathering data from retirement plan administrators on a voluntarily basis to establish an online search tool to help U.S. workers find lost retirement savings they earned. Retirement plans, including pension and 401(k) plans, sometimes lose track of workers owed benefits due to incomplete recordkeeping, people changing employers, and former employers closing and merging. The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2002 instructs EBSA to establish an online search tool to help missing participants and their beneficiaries find their retirement benefits by December 29. “The fundamental purpose of any retirement plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act is to pay promised benefits, and the Retirement Savings Lost and Found database will be another tool to help plans do so,” said Lisa Gomez, EBSA assistant secretary. “Our goal, which we believe plan sponsors and administrators share, is making sure that workers and their beneficiaries receive the retirement benefits they earned and were promised. We need to work together to achieve that goal.” EBSA is seeking comments and ideas on how to improve the information request so that the database can successfully connect workers who have lost track of their retirement plan with the benefits they are owed. Written comments on the proposal should be submitted on or before June 17. Learn more about EBSA here.