CANADA
WHERE DO WE GO
from
HERE?
A building service contractor and property management discussion on the present and the future was a cornerstone of the 2022 ISSA Show Canada program By Tom Nightingale
Over the past two years, building service contractors (BSCs), frontline cleaners, and property management (PM) individuals have performed admirably and remarkably in difficult circumstances to keep facilities and the public safe. Even with the worst of the pandemic behind us, though, BSCs, PMs, and the sanitation and real estate industries are facing major challenges moving forward. Whether it is hiring and retaining workers, increasing operational efficiencies, wages, inflation, education and training, or the balance between several of those factors, these are serious issues that must be spotlighted and addressed. At the recent ISSA Show Canada, held concurrently with the REMI Show in Toronto, a keynote panel made up of leaders in the BSC and PM industries delved into these issues and assessed the potential path forward. Moderated by Phillippe Mack, Senior VP of Customer Service and US Expansion at Bee-Clean Maintenance, the panel consisted of John Castelhano, VP of Strategic Sourcing at BGIS; Elspeth Evans, Director of Office East at QuadReal Property Group; Kimberly Train, Director of Platform Services and Procurement at OMERS; Chris King, Senior VP at Hallmark
Housekeeping Services Inc.; Roberta Polyak, VP of HR at Bee-Clean; and Tony Raposo, Regional VP of Operations at GDI Services Canada. TECHNOLOGY’S ROI FOR CLEANING The discussion kicked off with a look at evolving technologies in the industry and how they can increase return on investment for PMs and BSCs. Hallmark’s King noted that while technological development in the industry has historically been linear –a company or vendor’s new singular product is implemented by service providers for one particular task – now, automation allows for broader application and exponential gains and is redefining cleaning and scheduling. Particular technologies to have grown in prominence in recent years include robots for floor cleaning and vacuuming, unprecedented automation and data collection, and sensory intelligence. Those shifts look set to dominate the landscape in the coming years. Of particular interest to the panelists was IOT-based sensory tech. Utilizing these tools means PMs or cleaning managers and staff can know in real-time which areas of a facility are due for cleaning – for instance, washrooms that have seen high
traffic in a day rather than those that have been barely used. In turn, this allows for dynamic scheduling and deployment of resources instead of static schedules that can end up wasting resources. In short, sensory tech allows workers to concentrate their efforts where they are needed most. BGIS’s Castelhano added that technology and automation are “absolutely critical” for the modern property manager or sanitation provider, and have their place and ROI from top to bottom, proving useful in everything from recruiting and training new employees to procuring products and services and improving and service delivery validation. “On that last point, our clients want service validation, they have been repeatedly telling us that,” Castelhano said. “Tech solutions can certainly help with that, as well as increasing their efficiencies and pushing the boundaries of what they can do.” Castelhano and Mack also both highlighted the role technology and automation can play in streamlining time management and payment processes, as well as quality control. “Moving from manual timekeeping processes to automated time and attendance platforms streamlines process, and the same could apply to manual quality control,” added Mack. “Think of the benefits of replacing manual inspections with real-time tablet-based QA platforms.” OMERS’s Train also emphasized the role that technology can play in visibility and performance reporting. “As a head-office person in PM, I have the luxury of robotics reports but not reports about the fulfillment of cleaning,” Train noted. “Our customers and contractors want that visibility. They – and we – want to ensure that high-priority tasks are fulfilled to the required quality.” Increasing adoption of automation and AI lends itself neatly to that demand by automatically logging and tracking tasks and performances. GDI’s Raposo concluded that while there is still some work to do on the tech front – areas like chemical production,
