Category: Pressure Washing

The Benefits of Outsourcing

December 2, 2021 / / 1 Comment

The effects of the current labor shortage and the impact of the pandemic on the hospitality industry continues to present major challenges for hotel and casino operators. Many hotel owners and managers are considering new and innovative options such as outsourcing their back of the house cleaning departments. If you are considering a potential move to pivot and benefit from leveraging an integrated services provider, here are some key considerations and potential benefits to outsourcing.

Time savings that you can now devote to your core business

Heart of the house hospitality management can eliminate the existing hotel management’s role in recruiting, background employee checks, drug screening, and training expenses, all saving executives time, which can then be focused on sales, marketing and customer service.

More training and advancement opportunities for employees

Leading companies offer participation in everything from medical, dental and vision benefits, to short term disability insurance, IRAs, credit unions and discount programs with select suppliers. Beyond this, The Service Companies offers benefits like on-demand pay for Dayforce Wallet.

Plus, there can be opportunities for advancement in this fast-growing field as well as training.

Specialized knowledge and quality management and assurance programs that result in strong quality of work

The Service Companies is comprised of team members with over 30 years of experience in their particular specialty – housekeeping, public area cleaning, stewarding, supplemental staffing, window cleaning, and more. This higher degree of specialized knowledge in specific services brings automatic benefits to your department.

housekeeping manager works on tablet while housekeeper places a pillow on a hotel bed

Some companies, like The Service Companies, guarantee certain high levels of quality. We accomplish this in large part due to our quality management and assurance programs.

Our Quality Management Program includes:

  • Complete documentation of the scope of work and service requirements
  • Quality plan including service quality measurements and metrics
  • Service Delivery Plan
  • Inventory Management
  • Human Resource Management
  • Health, Safety and Environmental Stewardship
  • Management Commitment

Our Quality Assurance program is built on the premise of thoroughly inspecting our work each day. Most daily inspections are field documented using a smart device and follow the agreed upon scope of work. Once completed, each inspection is time and geo stamped and forwarded to our senior leadership team. Inspections include:

  • Guest room inspections
  • VIP arrival inspections
  • Guest house attendant inspections
  • Back of house inspections
  • Kitchen inspections
  • Public area inspections

Outsourcing to a provider that commits to these can lead to a superior guest experience.

Potential cost savings

Outsourcing can result in cost savings. This depends on the responsibilities and costs assumed by your partner. One thing to keep in mind is that there will be soft costs, like turnover-related expenses, in addition to hard costs that may make outsourcing the right option for you.

In a managed or turn-key model, The Service Companies assumes these costs, to name a few:

man and woman smiling with woman holding a certificate and gift card
  • Salaries and wages for department
  • Payroll taxes
  • Benefits
  • Overtime
  • Annual turnover costs
  • Cleaning supplies, excluding laundry chemicals
  • Housekeeping equipment repair and replacement
  • General liability and workers’ compensation insurance
  • Recruiting & training
  • Employee incentives, engagement and retention initiatives
  • Information technology, including mobile smart devices and tablets

When considering outsourcing, the greatest benefits are savings in time and money. For employees, it offers the opportunity for more job training and advancement possibilities. Plus, it can eliminate concerns and worries about the ever increasing government and workplace regulation. And finally, it can mean quality assurance.

To request more information about The Service Companies or to speak with one of our team members, submit our form to contact us.

Safely and Effectively Managing Cleaning Chemicals Within a Public Facility

April 15, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Many people have become much more aware of cleaning chemicals, disinfectants and cleaning processes these days. Previously the price point or a fresh scent may have intrigued your interest though now you may realize other chemical factors are so critical in disease prevention in the workplace and at home. 

During my time in the hospitality industry I have been able to find great ways to effectively manage chemical processes and procedures. Here are some practices that hopefully can assist within your facility, home office and everyday housecleaning. 

Smiling hotel cleaner using cleaning cloth to clean air conditioning unit

1. Have a strict policy in place on what chemicals are allowed within your facility. This begins by collaborating with your management, front line operators, procurement staff and vendors.  The majority of time your hotel and facility managers have the knowledge needed to make smart choices based on hands-on experience, as well as guest and client feedback.  Once you have established chemical products, clearly communicate this information with all associates handling them at any given time. A good practice is to post approved cleaning chemicals including, areas of application, manufacturer’s instructions, safety tips and PPE needed for each. 

In addition, read the fine print of your vendor agreements to ensure there are absolutely no chemical substitutions. If there are delays for any reason, they must obtain written approval before sending anything else.  Also, have your receiving and storeroom attendants well-informed on carefully verifying incoming deliveries.

2. Test various products before making a decision and exercise this process when considering a product change. New formulations are coming out all the time and I anticipate this will be happening more often moving forward. As a start, the Environmental Protection Agency has a registered product listing that meet various virus claims. This list is very fluid so continue to monitor updates. For those in the hospitality industry, our chemical vendor partners should have the most up-to-date resources for their product line. Continue to meet with them on a regular basis to find the best fit for your property’s needs.

3. Be a smart shopper looking at every factor impacting your overall labor cost.  Not every spray bottle is created equal. For example, comparisons should take into account everything from first application of the chemical to the finished result. We hear quite a bit about contact “dwell” time.  Associates must understand how long the particular chemical in use must stay wet to be effective, the proper “kill time”, and that it is not a quick spray and wipe. Evaluate and equate what timing looks like as well as other factors to account for such as; safety and environmental considerations to be aware of, required specialized training and PPE, bottles, supplies and mode of delivery.  

4. Along with finding the right chemical, thorough associate training must be conducted before anyone works independently. At times labeling is very similar if buying from the same manufacturer so it is important to retrain all staff during any chemical change period to review specific manufacturer directions and changes in PPE. This is a time when having the right chemical vendor partner that supports the training process is important

Man conducting chemical training

5. Another important tip is checking accuracy of dilutions. Many times facilities prefer concentrated options versus ready-to-use bottles which can reduce costs for yourself and business partners. I am an advocate as well though always train property managers to never put chemistry in the hands of our associates. No matter how skilled and experienced in handling cleaning chemicals, manual pours and mixing is not an option.  It is important to install dispensing stations wherever possible keeping dilutions at a safe and effective level. Ideally your chemical vendor will visit on a regular basis to verify everything is mixing and working as efficiently as possible, keeping your facility in pristine condition. 

Difficult circumstances, like those we are all currently experiencing, can provide an opportunity for a company’s leaders to take a step back, sharpen their skills and return with a higher quality and safer approach to products and services within their organization. If you have any tips of your own, share them in the comments section below.

Common Issues We See In Casinos

December 17, 2018 / / 0 Comments

With over 1.1 million sq. ft. of gaming area under contract and over 15 years of experience providing services to the industry, we understand the unique challenges that commercial and Native American casinos and casino hotels face in their day to day cleaning operations:

  • The struggle to find legal labor due to low unemployment rates, rising wages, and the ongoing “War on Talent”
  • High workers’ compensation and general liability rates/expenditures/exposure
  • Valuable resources are spent managing relationships in union environments
  • Inefficiencies and lack of productivity in non-core departments
  • Maintaining a consistently high quality of service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
  • High energy usage

These challenges create a large cost burden for casinos, and one option to alleviate these issues is to partner with a well-capitalized service provider (see our previous article on what to take into consideration when selecting a vendor). Our team of seasoned industry experts established a diverse list of services that cater to the common needs of every casino resort.

The Service Companies is the premier provider to the casino industry. We offer managed services, staffing services, specialty services, and engineering services to casino properties across the nation. Backed by a large investment fund, we have the capital to support a casino’s stringent requirements and massive needs and have the years of experience driving productivity and providing solutions that reduce costs and energy.

As part of our commitment to service, our team takes full accountability of recruiting needs, compliance checks, and training to ensure success. To learn more, click on the links to our services above, or contact one of our industry experts at https://www.theservicecompanies.com/contact/.

Screen Shot 2018-12-17 at 4.52.00 PM

Commitment to being green

March 17, 2017 / / 0 Comments

At The Service Companies, one on our primary commitments is providing superior hospitality services to our customers by using the most effective and safest cleaning equipment and chemicals. Equally important, though, is ensuring that we are environmentally conscious at all of our 750 locations across the country. How do we do this? We have set up company-wide sustainability initiatives, partnerships and programs that minimize our environmental impact, but also give our individual teams the liberty to come up with “green” initiatives that are most effective for them. Here are a few of the ways The Service Companies has gone green:

  • Ecolab photo 1 (4)Partnerships with Environmentally Friendly Suppliers: Ecolab is equally committed to the sustainability of their operations and offers products that are environmentally responsible. Our nationwide partnership with Ecolab means we work with their representatives to tailor select chemicals for each of our customer’s properties. When available, our first choice is to source environmentally friendly chemicals and solutions.
  • Durable, Long-Lasting Equipment and Repairs: The Service Companies is committed to using best-in-class, energy-efficient equipment, which is more effective and durable. Our equipment specifications must meet goals for improving or liming the impact to indoor air quality, water consumption, energy consumption and lower chemical usage. By working closely with our manufacturers, including Karcher, we are able to determine the right process to achieve the highest possible results at the lowest possible cost. This means our team is consuming less energy, chemical and water to clean our customers’ areas. Also, instead of replacing equipment at the first sign of an issue, we repair it to its original efficiency, increasing the lifetime of the equipment. When equipment and materials are to be disposed, we never send them to a landfill. The Service Companies contracts with local and regional resource recovery companies to recycle or redistribute material and equipment we no longer have a need for.

  • IMG_6406 (2)

    photo from a Clean The World sustainability initiative

    Clean The World: For the fourth consecutive year, many of our on-property Housekeeping teams have partnered with Clean The World, an organization that collects discarded hotel hygiene items, re-purposes them in a sanitary manner, and distributes them to people who are at risk of contracting hygiene-related illnesses. Our Housekeepers have been integral to collecting the 40 million+ bars of soap that Clean The World has distributed to over 115 countries.

  • Recycling: We support our customers’ recycling and sustainability initiatives by ensuring proper separation of recyclables from landfill trash. In some operations, we have one person dedicated to this task. Our employees are trained to prevent cross-contamination of landfill trash with recyclables. We use color-coded trash bins that are clearly marked for the type of trash – green for landfill, blue for recycling.
  • Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions: We reduce emissions related to our business by limiting the number of product orders per month, using battery operated equipment where feasible and limiting the use of fuel-powered equipment when work can be done efficiently by other means, to name only a few. We run estimated monthly emission reports that show total carbon dioxide tonnage created and saved in operations. These reports are critical to The Service Companies meeting and exceeding our emission reduction goals.

Partnering with the best

January 20, 2017 / / 0 Comments

With the popularity of social media forums and review sites like TripAdvisor, now more than ever, our hotel, casino and vacation ownership resort clients are increasingly focused on providing their guests an exceptional guest experience. Cleanliness, interactions with the property’s staff, and amenities all factor into these reviews and our customers look to us to utilize our expertise to enhance their guests’ experiences. We achieve this by providing high quality service and by partnering with the most trusted providers in the industry. Our belief is to be the premier provider of managed services in the hospitality industry, you need to also work with leading, strategic partners.

Ecolab

One of our partners - Ecolab - demonstrating kitchen cleaning tools

Ecolab demonstration at Leadership Summit

After several years of exclusively using Ecolab products, we signed a national partnership agreement to create property-specific cleanliness solutions for our customers. As part of each property’s opening, we work with Ecolab to determine the optimum chemicals and tools to ensure we maintain the property in first-class condition. What if a property has travertine floors or countertops in the rooms that require a particular solvent? We work with Ecolab to ensure that all materials on property, as well as the safety of your guests and our associates, are taken into account. We also bring Ecolab’s Corporate Training Team to each of our new accounts to train our associates on these specifically chosen tools and chemicals to ensure they are used correctly and safely.

Kärcher

IMG_4979 (1)

Kärcher equipment demonstration

Kärcher is a market leader in cleaning technology and equipment. That’s why we partner with them to furnish the equipment for the turn-key housekeeping, EVS and public area, stewarding and kitchen cleaning services we provide our customers. Like Ecolab, our management team works with Kärcher to select the best equipment based on the needs of each property and sets up regular training sessions and demos to teach our team how to effectively use the equipment and to keep our team on the cutting edge with the latest equipment. As part of our critical path to opening each new account, we dedicate a minimum of one full day of training to Kärcher’s equipment and how to utilize it best.

Honda

Honda is known for being one of the superior choices for pressure washing machines. Because of this, we, through our subsidiary JRS International, utilize Honda pressure washers for all of our large pressure washing jobs nationwide. Honda’s track record of durability and longevity translates into a higher quality of cleanliness that our pressure washing experts provide to our customers.

Ceridian

Ceridian, the leading and award-winning provider of human capital management system Dayforce HCM, helps companies design their workforce for maximum effectiveness and efficiency. We became partners in 2016. We leverage Ceridian’s innovated technology to manage all aspects of our day to day business functions including payroll, time and attendance, Human Resources, benefits, recruitment, onboarding and performance management. Dayforce HCM’s intuitiveness makes day-to-day activities productive while reducing redundancies and increasing productivity. This gives our team more time to dedicate to our customers and their needs.

At The Service Companies, we are committed to setting the quality standard in the marketplace and keeping our customers’ properties spotless. Our partners – Ecolab, Kärcher, Honda, and Ceridian – enable us to provide tailored solutions to our customers that we know will benefit them.

Sign up to receive notifications as we publish new posts.

Subscribe to receive post notifications.

© 2024 The Service Companies Blog

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑