January 30, 2019
Our town is experiencing several serious health issues (flu, strep throat and stomach virus).
After careful consideration, I have determined that it is in the best interest of students, staff and community to cancel Fairfield ISD classes for Thursday and Friday, January 31st and February 1st.
Our cleaning service has been doing extra cleaning, but with the staff and students out of the buildings on those days they will be able to do even more, so we decided to hire commercial cleaning services to get extra help. The commercial cleaning industry remains slow in adopting daytime cleaning despite increasing evidence that demonstrates the added benefits of changing from traditional evening and early morning working hours. An increasing number of commercial cleaning companies now offer some form of daytime cleaning within their product portfolio, but few have shown much eagerness to encourage a widespread switch to this alternative cleaning format. Daytime cleaning offers a host of business and operational benefits for both the cleaning contractor and customer including reduced costs, increased productivity, enhanced customer care, improved recruitment and an energised workforce. In fact, more and more customers are choosing daytime commercial cleaning and reaping the associated benefits. delbac has been in business for over 50 years and has grown to supply a diversified product offering that has industrial packaging equipment and supplies, food contact packaging and janitorial and sanitation equipment and supplies. We sell mostly to other businesses and farm operations within the South Central Ontario Region. Del-Bac was founded in 1967 by John Steiner after realizing there was a requirement for equipment and packaging supplies to serve the tobacco trade Canada. Selling through a trusted dealer network, John supplied the market with HAWK tying machines, Red Top tying twine and Jaguar® baling products. He was once quoted “…enough to the moon and back…” pertaining to what proportion string he had sold the industry. John sold only the foremost trusted and highest quality products available. Today, now being operated by the 3rd generation, Del-Bac runs thereon same principle. Del-Bac offers its customers the simplest products at competitive and fair prices. Partnering with different industry manufacturers, Del-Bac has the power to compete at the extent that today’s businesses and consumers demand. Del-Bac still offers equipment and supplies to the local tobacco industry; selling baling equipment and packaging supplies.
Chamber vacs are generally considered top of the line by industry standards. Relatively inexpensive compared to other commercial vacuum sealing machines, you get a huge bang for your buck. These heavy duty vacuum sealers remove oxygen and other harmful chemicals that may be polluting the outside environment. Most come with a two year warranty and part replacement guarantee. These vacuum sealers are great for anyone who is serious about storing food without sustaining any damage. For the most economical and useful option, try a unit that is designed for large amounts of food such as the vacmaster Commercial Vacuum Sealer. It is a sure bet for all your sealing needs. This commercial vacuum unit is designed to handle large quantities of food at a time, making your job easier. This sealer boasts the ability to seal an entire turkey at one time.
However, this shouldn’t be seen as merely a change in working hours. Daytime cleaning offers the opportunity to undertake a new working concept that provides greater flexibility and the ability to raise the profile of commercial cleaning within an organisation. There is a different thought process involved here, and commercial cleaning companies need to re-educate their customers so they truly understand the opportunities that exist.
One of the first benefits noticed by companies when switching to daytime cleaning is a change in customer and staff perception. The Increase in the visibility of cleaning staff raises the overall awareness of the process, highlighting its importance and demonstrating the commitment to high standards. Building occupants tend to show more respect towards cleaning workers when they see them working hard to keep the building clean, so greater care is often taken by staff and visitors as a result. In addition, daytime cleaning also allows cleaners to work closer with the client and its staff leading to better communication and often improved results. Having cleaning staff available during a building’s opening hours ensures a consistent level of cleanliness throughout the day. With a traditional service, a building is likely to be clean at the beginning of the day and then standards gradually deteriorate until cleaning staff return the following evening or morning. This is not an ideal scenario, especially in a retail environment, where it is difficult to anticipate possible problems and precise commercial cleaning requirements.
Daytime cleaning offers new levels of flexibility and the opportunity to respond to any situation. Schedules can be adapted to better meet the needs of customers whether this is identifying customer peaks in a retail store, or arranging job allocations based on the planned usage of meeting rooms. Moreover, it enables an immediate response in the case of unforeseen accidents and spillages, minimising the required clean-up and promoting a clean and hygienic working atmosphere. The cleaning contractor sometimes has to take a flexible approach with the customer as well to ensure the commercial cleaning service fits within their day-to-day operation. It is essential to prevent any disruption to their core activities and ensure there is no potential damage to their reputation or image. With this in mind, it is sometimes necessary to downplay the cleaning operation and let workers just blend in with the staff around them.
For example, to have cleaning staff within a bakery during opening hours would give off the wrong impression that the area was overly dirty. Obviously, some cleaning already took place within the bakery during the day, but this was handled by the chefs so it was not obvious to in-store customers. You could therefore dress cleaning staff up as chefs so visitors to the store were none the wiser.
With recruitment and retention of staff a key challenge for most commercial cleaning companies, daytime cleaning is an increasingly attractive proposition as it expands the available employment pool and can attract a higher calibre of employee. Frequent staff turnover can negatively impact on standards and increase training costs. This lack of suitable employees also drives up wage levels for out of hours cleaning staff, increasing costs to customers and reducing margins for cleaning contractors. These pay increases will eventually become unsustainable and customers will simply just refuse to pay.
With a bit of intelligent thinking commercial cleaning companies can overcome increasingly difficult recruitment problems and also avoid paying premium wages associated with evening, early morning cleaning operations. For example, switching cleaning hours to 9.30am to 3.00pm opens up the work opportunity for working parents looking for employment, who still need to make the daily school run.
It is my hope and prayer that four days of separation will help break the cycle and allow our students and staff to re-unite on Monday, February 4th as a much healthier unit.
Tony Price, Acting Superintendent, Fairfield ISD
