Category: Housekeeping (Page 3 of 4)

What to consider when hiring newly displaced workers from Puerto Rico

December 14, 2017 / The Service Companies / 0 Comments

As a result of Hurricane Maria, the United States, particularly Florida, has seen a large influx of Puerto Rican refugees looking for work. This could be great news for the hospitality industry which, with the unemployment rate reported at 4.1% in October and November and the difficulty securing workers through the H2B visa program, has struggled to find labor to fill housekeeping, public area cleaning and stewarding positions. What should the executive teams of hotels and casinos with understaffed departments be taking into consideration as they look to hire workers from this group of over 200,000 individuals?

First, hiring from this pool of workers is costly. Hotels and casinos must be aware that they will be incurring costs from the recruitment and onboarding processes as well as ongoing fees associated with insurance. Recruitment costs will include background checks, drug tests and e-verification in addition to travel costs to attend job fairs, and relocation and lodging fees for the new hires.

Once hired, these new associates go through the onboarding and training process. While this varies from property to property, at The Service Companies, each of our associates completes a 30-day training program for any of our fully managed services including housekeeping, EVS and Stewarding. The costs that result from training can be high. In 2016, in conjunction with Navigate Corporation, a premier management consulting firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Service Companies took a deep dive to understand the drivers of associate retention and engagement. During this study, we saw that onboarding a new associate could cost thousands of dollars. Depending on how short staffed a hotel or casino is, just the onboarding costs could quickly and easily surpass $10,000 with only a few new hires. On top of this, add the costs for medical and dental benefits, general liability and workers compensation insurance, which will continue throughout the associate’s tenure at the property.

It takes a well-capitalized company or property to be able to successfully hire workers that are newly displaced. Located across the country, The Service Companies, the one-stop-shop for managed, staffing and specialty services to the hospitality and gaming industry, is one of the few with the capital and experience (over 30 years) to take on this responsibility. With our turn-key housekeeping, public area/EVS cleaning and stewarding model, we assume full accountability of a hotel or casino’s most challenging departments, handling recruiting, background, drug and e-verification checks, training and insurance. No other company has the same resources, experience or nationwide presence. To learn more, visit www.theservicecompanies.com.

The Service Companies

The Service Companies is the premier service provider to the hospitality, gaming, healthcare, education, entertainment, and corporate catering industries. We deliver best-in-class cleaning, staffing, and managed labor services using exclusively legal, compliant labor.

Partners in Excellence.

theservicecompanies.com

Distributing Soap with Clean The World & Caesars Entertainment

November 30, 2017 / The Service Companies / 0 Comments

Social responsibility is important to us and we drive corporate social responsibility among our clients. In early November, we partnered with Caesars Entertainment and Clean The World for the fifth consecutive year to send two members of our housekeeping teams on a service trip to distribute recycled soap and hygiene kits to underserved youth and communities. This year, Cynthia Isrow (EVS Supervisor in Laughlin) and Yerky Santana (Housekeeping Supervisor at a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip) were selected to travel to Guadalajara, Mexico with Clean The World and Caesars Entertainment’s winners.

Their trip began in Las Vegas, where the group received a tour of Clean The World’s Recycling Operations Center, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary, to learn how Clean The World takes, sanitizes and repackages partially used soaps and hotel amenities collected by our associates. In Guadalajara, through Children International, Cynthia, Yerky and the trip participants spent three days distributing soap to impoverished families and taught them how to properly wash their hands to prevent disease.

Four employees in front of Clean The World's recycling center in Las Vegas partially used soap ready for sanitation at Clean The World's recycling facility

Now that they have returned from their trip, we took some time to speak with Cynthia and Yerky about the trip and how it affected them. Read our interview and view the photos from the trip below.

What was your reaction to hearing you were selected to go on the soap distribution trip to Guadalajara?

Cynthia: At first, I was a bit uneasy about traveling to Mexico. But I was very excited to have the opportunity to go.

Yerky: I was excited to go. I lived in Guadalajara for a time, so I know about the city and the living conditions in which many of the people live. I knew that by going with this group, I would be able to make a big impact.

What were your expectations of the trip when you were selected? How were they the same as or different than what you experienced?

Cynthia: I expected that we were just there to hand out soap, but it turned out to be so much more than that. We spent time with the families and children we were helping along with Children International. It was a very rewarding experience.

Yerky: The trip ended up being more impactful than I expected it to be. For me, I left Guadalajara thinking more about how other people live and the opportunities available to them. Before, I was more concerned about my life; now not so much.

What advice or information can you give our associates participating in the Clean The World initiative on property?

Cynthia: Keep doing it. Collecting the soap is so important. To us, it might just be soap, but to others, it’s life. I am vocal about how important this is on property.

Yerky: People may not think about how much they can help others by collecting the partially used soaps left behind by guests. On the trip, I saw that one bar of soap has a big impact on these communities. One bar of soap for us is not a big deal, but for the people in Guadalajara, it’s life changing. I would encourage everyone to collect as much soap as possible.

It is amazing to hear that one bar of soap, which may be something we take for granted, has such a significant affect on a family or community. Has this trip impacted you in any way?

Cynthia: It has impacted me in so many ways. Other than wanting to be more involved with my team, I am looking at sponsoring a child in Guadalajara through Children International. Hopefully by January, it will be all set up. When I was in Guadalajara, I saw how the programs Children International provides these families are so effective and I want to give one child the opportunity to have his or her education, medical bills and more covered. I left Mexico believing that one person can change one life.

Yerky: When we’re cleaning guest rooms, we don’t think about how the soap or toilet paper we collect is important. I left driven to do more to help people less fortunate. I’m just one person, and even though I can make a difference, this trip made me realize the great potential people with resources have to combat poverty in the world. I made a promise to myself to contribute more, but more people have to get involved.

What was the most memorable part of the trip?

Cynthia: There was a mother that we met that I will never forget. When we were teaching the kids how to properly wash their hands, each would receive a gold star sticker. She also really wanted to learn and she was so excited to get a gold sticker. She was so thankful and grateful to receive the sticker, which is burned in my mind. This trip put my life into perspective and was a mind opening experience. The people we were helping work from 5am to 11pm each day and only make $150 per month. They make the most out of what they have, which is an important lesson for us all.

Yerky: For me, there were two very memorable parts to the trip. The first was when we visited a family at home. We showed everyone, from the children to the grandmother, how to wash their hands. Visiting them reminded me that my family and I used to live like this in Cuba. I understood how hard they work just to buy some bread and milk. It put my life into perspective. The second memorable experience for me was the visit to the Clean The World Recycling Factory in Las Vegas, where we saw how the soaps we collect are sanitized and repackaged into new soap.

Are there any other memorable moments from the trip you’d like to share?

Cynthia: There was a moment with Yerky interacting with a child during a home visit that I think was memorable for all of us. Yerky asked the boy how many times he could jump on one foot in a minute. The boy responded with 50 times. Yerky stopped the boy after 30 seconds of jumping and told him that he jumped 78 times in half the time. Yerky told the boy to never underestimate himself and to always realize what he is capable of. Yerky shared that he was poor, just like the boy, growing up in Cuba and being told the limits to what he could do in life. Yerky continued that now he lives in the United Sates working on the Las Vegas strip, has traveled to 48 countries and accomplishing what he sets his heart to.

What an incredible story. Cynthia, how has your team in Laughlin been so successful in collecting unused amenities that are donated to Clean The World?

Cynthia: Through constant encouragement. I think now that I can share my experience with them, they will begin to realize the value of what we do and we will be even more successful.

Both of you have mentioned that now that you’ve returned, you want to do more. Can you elaborate on that?

Cynthia: I’ve already started looking at hosting community hygiene kit builds and getting more involved with Clean The World here in Nevada.

Yerky: I’d like to start volunteering, even if it’s just one day a week. I know I can make a difference, no matter how small the task.

The Service Companies

Partners in Excellence.

theservicecompanies.com

What hotels, resorts & casinos should ask when selecting a managed services or staffing vendor partner

October 4, 2017 / The Service Companies / 2 Comments

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With budget season upon us for 2018, you may be accepting proposals from vendors to assume responsibilities of one or more departments at your hotel, casino or resort. To protect yourself, your management company and your ownership group, there are specific questions to ask as you are selecting a vendor and reviewing the proposals. The cheapest option is generally not the best option as there is always an underlying reason why prices are substantially lower.

Is the vendor well capitalized and able to meet their payroll needs? A number of service providers are unable to pay their employees on time, which opens their customers (you) up to liability and bad publicity.
What does the vendor’s workers compensation program look like? Many lower cost vendors create shell games that could put your property at risk to pay for their employees’ workers compensation claims.
Does the vendor follow Department of Labor regulations on overtime payment and payment timeliness?
Is there a plan for the management of their employees so joint employment issues are not found and filed?
Is there an employee training, retention and satisfaction program? What does the training program, if one exists, look like and are there processes that encourage continuous education (pre-shift meetings, for instance)? At The Service Companies we are constantly educating and training our associates, even if they have been with the team for over 10 years. There are always new techniques and best practices to share and learn.
Does the vendor provide benefits, competitive wages and retain their employees? If not, you may be looking at joint employment issues and a workforce that is consistently in flux and not up to speed on your specifications and standards.
What is the vendor’s approach to recruiting and staffing? Does the vendor run background and E-verification tests prior to hiring their employees? Unlike The Service Companies, many vendors cannot guarantee that their labor is legal because they do not run these checks, which opens your property up to issues with I.C.E. and the Department of Homeland Security.

These are just a few items that we have learned in our 30 years of experience are necessary for hotels, casinos and resorts to be aware of when selecting a vendor – whether to oversee departments or provide temporary staff. We take pride in becoming a seamless partner for each of our customers, so we put the responsibility of liability exposure, insurance, benefits, recruiting and quality assurance on our shoulders. This also means that we can guarantee our customers’ properties and ownership are fully protected from potential joint employment issues. Not many other companies put the same emphasis on this, and many times, that is directly reflected in price.

The Service Companies

Partners in Excellence.

theservicecompanies.com

Driving The Check-In Metric

May 31, 2017 / Laurie Katinos / 1 Comment

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When you think of an efficient casino or hotel check-in process, does the Front Desk operation come to mind? As hospitality experts, we all understand that the efficiency of the Front Desk and check-in relies tremendously on what happens behind the scenes within the Housekeeping operation. Without having sufficient inventory of clean rooms, they cannot satisfy early check-ins or unpredictable guest demands.

From my experience as a Front Office Manager and Director of Housekeeping, I developed processes and a guide that would ensure guestroom check-in efficiency. At The Service Companies, we employ these in all our of our Housekeeping departments across the country.

To download a copy of the casino and hotel check-in guide, filled with best practices, fill in your information below.

Laurie Katinos

Laurie Katinos is one of the leading hospitality operations directors. Her expertise in housekeeping operations spans over 20 years, with the majority of her time spent with Hyatt Hotels Corporation and The Service Companies. Her knowledge and operations savvy has contributed to The Service Companies becoming the unrivaled provider of cleaning, staffing and managed services in the hospitality industry.

Commitment to being green

March 17, 2017 / The Service Companies / 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:

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.
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.

The Service Companies

Partners in Excellence.

theservicecompanies.com

Keeping rooms clean and fresh this Spring and beyond

March 8, 2017 / Laurie Katinos / 1 Comment

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We are few weeks into Spring and many of us are looking forward to opening our windows and letting some fresh air in. Hotel rooms can be extra challenging where many rooms are sealed tight all year long. Because of this, we have put together our spring cleaning tips and resources for hotel and casino housekeeping departments to keep guestrooms clean and fresh.

Housekeeping plays a significant role in keeping the guest areas clean and fresh. Following the basic cleaning standards is a great start, though there are additional practices that will help along the way no matter what hinders the process. Each of your guests should enjoy a pleasant room experience with no sign of a previous occupant. Having these processes in place can greatly impact your rooms for the better and create a lasting impression with our guests.

We have created our own list of additional practices to employ. To download your copy of Spring Season Cleaning Tips click here.

Laurie Katinos

Partnering with the best

January 20, 2017 / The Service Companies / 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

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

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.

The Service Companies

Partners in Excellence.

theservicecompanies.com

How to wow your guests – housekeeping service tips

December 28, 2016 / Laurie Katinos / 26 Comments

turn-key housekeeping

How confident are you that your associates are regularly looking for ways to fulfill requests or resolve problems before guests have time to think about them?

In the hospitality industry, this is the norm if you want to stand out and exceed guests’ expectations. At The Service Companies, we partner with many properties and brands to improve hotel housekeeping management at our clients’ properties. While service cultures and standards differ across them, all of our clients have a similar desire to wow, delight, and add value and a personalized touch to the customer experience.

As I was inspecting a guest room a while ago, I noticed the guest’s toothpaste was squeezed to the last drop. I immediately thought about that guest coming back after a long day without toothpaste and having to call and wait for more to be delivered. The natural thing for me to do was place another tube of toothpaste for the guest. This made me think – what seems to be an ordinary task for me, doesn’t come naturally to everyone.

During our corporate mandated daily pre-shift meetings, our housekeeping leaders make this service training a regular practice. It is important to share ideas and best practices with associates so they are confident and empowered to create more memorable moments.

The first step is learning to read cues.

Read Cues

How well do you know your guests? Is your guest a coffee or tea drinker? Do they prefer regular or decaf? Does your VIP guest enjoy red or white wine, diet or regular soda, ales or lagers?

Once your housekeeping associates are aware of what the guest has been using, empower them to place extra items during service. Your guests will definitely take notice and appreciate your attentiveness.

Simple Practices to Improve Hotel Housekeeping Management

A few simple practices our team employs:

Having a favorite beverage in a fresh bucket of ice waiting for the guest.
Leaving an extra bottle or two of water if the guest is a runner or utilizes the fitness center. Additionally, leaving a note and wishing them a great workout is a nice gesture.
Leaving extra tissues and/or tea service if you notice your guest is feeling under the weather or has the sniffles. A “Get Well” note with the associate’s name offering additional assistance is a thoughtful touch.
Leaving them reading material such as a magazine or newspaper many properties stock. Provide this the afternoon or evening before checkout so they can take it along. Wish them a safe trip and hopefully a return visit soon. This is one of my favorites and it is very effective.

One drawback of travel is not having all the conveniences of home during a hectic business trip or jam-packed vacation schedule. Implementing just one of these extra steps takes some of the planning and thinking off of a guest’s plate and creates more of those memorable experiences that your guest will look forward to coming back to.

Learn more about our fully managed service offering on our website.

Laurie Katinos

Investing in technology: improved productivity, engagement and service

December 21, 2016 / The Service Companies / 0 Comments

The Service Companies’ proprietary TAMS system

Technology has completely transformed each and every one of our daily lives. It has made us more productive, given us greater access to information, and simplified procedures that used to take days, weeks or months to complete. At The Service Companies, we believe that technology is integral to increasing the productivity of our associates, creating best-in-class employee engagement and training programs, and providing the highest quality service to our customers and their guests. As the premier provider of cleaning, staffing and managed services to hotels, casinos and vacation ownership resorts nationwide, The Service Companies has made a significant investment in proprietary technology to increase the efficiency of our Managed and Staffing Services.

Talent Acquisition

Recruitment, training and employee engagement typically involve the most investment of money, time and energy from Housekeeping operational leaders. We recognized that our 30 years of success had provided us invaluable operational and recruiting knowledge that we translated into our own system – Talent Acquisition Metric System (TAMS). In 2016, we launched TAMS, which allows our Talent Acquisition team to create daily task lists focused on ground level recruiting, to analyze historical data on staffing levels for each of our customer’s properties (enabling us to anticipate ebbs and flows), and to review real time dashboards reflecting staffing levels at our properties and regions throughout the country.

Productivity Analysis

The Service Companies has successfully quantified the productivity of their team members. With our proprietary Flash Program portal, our operations leaders and executive team can view and track the productivity of a Housekeeping Department as well as analyze the daily productivity of each Guest Room Attendant. For any Guest Room Attendant that falls below a certain range, we pin point the issue and work on a resolution to increase those scores. Our productivity tool is transferable across the multiple brands we operate within, and comes complete with a mobile site accessible via tablet. Our Executive Housekeepers get real-time, actionable intelligence to help them manage their teams and properties.

Employee On-boarding and Retention Tracking

In 2016, The Service Companies partnered with an external consulting company to collect data and analyze why associates join or don’t join our team or stay for a certain amount of time. The intelligence we gather through this exhaustive analysis of our on-boarding and retention strategies will help us get a clear picture of what we can improve on so that we continue to be the premier employer of hourly associates in the managed service space.

Training

Coming in 2017, The Service Companies will be launching a customized and proprietary training and engagement mobile app, Star Service Training. While we have been utilizing digital training checklists, inspection forms and tools for years, Star Service Training enables us to keep all of the files in one place that our associates can access on their phones to complete. Training will be able to be completed on the app, with our most anticipated augmented reality feature that enables the phone to complete the inspection itself using the camera. Associates will be recognized and rewarded with points, which they will then be able to use to purchase gift cards and items from The Service Companies’ online store. This training app and our other proprietary technology will also be integral to the operations of a new simple, reliable and compliant housekeeping staffing service for hotels and resorts that The Service Companies will be launching in January 2017.

As a large, well-capitalized strategic hospitality partner, we continue to invest in, and help develop, the latest technology to streamline our processes and increase efficiency across all departments of our organization, which also enables our customers to command premium pricing and potentially produces savings.

The Service Companies

Partners in Excellence.

theservicecompanies.com

Flu Prevention in Hotels, Casinos and Resorts

December 16, 2016 / Laurie Katinos / 0 Comments

Cleaning common guest touch points in a bathroom

As we approach each season it is important to train associates on flu prevention steps and continue refreshing the team on these topics throughout the season. While the number of flu cases is highest in the fall and winter, the flu can infect people at any time during the year.

Housekeeping, Public Area, and Stewarding team members especially play a critical role in hotels, casinos and resorts in disease control and prevention, which spreads often by customer and employee contact. These associates can take everyday preventive actions to stop the spread of germs through various cleaning methods, frequency and procedures for high touch points.

Here are a few of the key areas for flu prevention.

Ensure you have the safest and effective chemicals to disinfect surfaces and objects that may be contaminated. The Center for Disease Control states:

“Influenza viruses can be destroyed by heat (167-212°F). In addition, several chemical germicides, including chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, detergents (soap), iodine-based antiseptics and alcohols are effective against influenza viruses if used in proper concentrations for a sufficient length of time.”

Although many of your chemicals are effective to disinfect surfaces, they may not be as safe to apply on all areas. It is important discuss with your chemical provider to better understand application methods for these delicate surfaces.

Be sure your associates are aware of high touch points, the areas touched often, which are included in their assigned areas. Examples include: handles and door locks, light switches, countertops, paper towel dispensers, telephone handset and buttons, elevator control buttons and handrails, casino/ATM machines, drape wand, in-room electronics and more.

Discuss frequency, which varies for each surface. For example, a guest room sink knob may be cleaned once during daily service whereas a public area restroom sink knob will be cleaned multiple times during each shift.

Keep front and back of the house areas well-stocked with an adequate supply of tissues, soap, paper towels and alcohol-based hand rubs.

Keeping hands clean is one of the most important steps we can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others. As associates get busy during their day, they may forget the basics, so make sure they are reminded how to maintain proper hygiene, even in places where soap and clean water may not be available.

Although we are well into the season, it is never too late to remind associates the importance of specific cleaning methods and frequency of each task in an effort to keep ourselves and one another healthy.

Stay well.

Laurie Katinos