Business Technology

Gaining Respect Online
Explain housekeeping services, introduce staff and taut successes using a departmental Web site

Thirty years as a building service contractor taught me that there actually are two groups of people you must train if you want your business to be successful. The first group is the custodians who work for you, and the second group is your customers. Despite how difficult it may seem to train and re-train custodians, the second group still is much more difficult to educate.

Bruce Stark, Building Services Manager for Colorado State University, and his team have found a way to accomplish both of these educational tasks plus professionalize the custodial department as never before and build the staff’s self-respect. Their modus operandi: using the Internet.

At the Colorado State Facilities Web site, faculty and staff now have the opportunity to learn exactly what tasks the building services department does and does not do, as well as how those tasks fit into its overall responsibilities.

The site also provides extensive information regarding how those tasks are performed. What Stark’s department has found is that such education builds professionalism, and professionalism builds respect — something many housekeeping departments could use more of today.

The Web site begins with a welcoming message that sets the tone for the entire site. “We are delighted that you dropped by to see us. We are very proud of our people, and our accomplishments. Please take your time to browse around and get to know us. We are a service business, and our only reason for existence is to serve the users of our great University.”

The site’s Mission Statement takes this “reason for existence” much further, stating that the department’s goal is to “Recruit, Retain, Educate, and Graduate students for Colorado State University.” One sentence helps emphasize the building services department’s role in a much larger goal to create success for the university. They do much more than cleaning and maintaining in its classrooms. By providing facilities that are clean, healthy and conducive to learning, the custodial department is an essential player in the university’s overall purpose.

The site also has a Required Custodial Training page listing a variety of teaching programs, from floor care and team cleaning to safety and diversity, that the entire custodial staff must complete.

A quote from Dr. Michael Berry, author of Protecting the Built Environment: Cleaning for Health, introduces this page by stating, “The professional cleaner is an environmental manager who has a greater understanding of the indoor condition and effective means of treating it.” What better way to identify a cleaner’s role and build respect for him or her at the same time?

University faculty use the Web site to request service, contact cleaning personnel and supervisors, better understand how maintenance procedures are performed and view the training programs required of custodial staff.

They also discover the department’s Major Accomplishments page. Here Stark offers his staff a pat on the back by listing item after item of achievements from doing more with fewer people, to building new recycling programs, to reducing the use of aerosols.

The overriding aim of the Colorado State Facilities Management Web site is to emphasize the professionalism, responsiveness, education and training of the department — all part of the objective Bruce and his team have developed to build respect and self-respect for their custodians.

Visit the Colorado State Facilities Management Web Site.

Robert Kravitz is a 30-year veteran of the janitorial industry and now serves as Manager of Internet Content for ISSA.