Building service contractors (BSCs) who were expecting 2021 to be less of a challenge than 2020 were disappointed, for the most part. Some positives came about, for sure, especially with the vaccines helping the world open back up and more people feeling comfortable to return to in-person work. But perhaps Gregory S. Buchner, President and CEO of CleanOffice Inc., summed up the past year best:
“For me, 2021 was about working with our employees and clients on a collective effort to get ‘back to normal.’ And, clearly, this has been a bumpy road with a lot of false starts, delays, and curve balls. It seems like every time that we think that the ‘old normal’ is just around the corner, something happens – a new variant, etc. -- and the timeline gets adjusted. As BSCs, and as business leaders in general, we have truly learned to look at the future with bifocals . . . one lens for the upcoming 60 days, and another for 12 months and beyond.”
As we wrap up 2021, taking a look back at the previous 12 months reveals an industry that dealt with its fair share of challenges. Chief among them has been staffing. Nathalie Doobin, owner and CEO of Harvard Services Group Inc., stated, “The number one challenge building service contractors (BSCs) have had to overcome this past year is around labor; keeping our people safe and retaining and attracting people to our industry.”
J’s Maintenance CEO Chris Waldheim agreed, adding, “The continuing battle to recruit and retain great talent has been the number one challenge. The high wages paid by other employers in order to attract good employees made hiring very difficult and that challenge continues today. Between the number of people moving into the gig economy, those collecting unemployment, and those constantly seeking the next wage increase, employee retention is going to be the number one issue in 2022 as well.”
David Murphy, President of Supreme Maintenance Organization, also chimed in: “Labor is always a concern for the BSC industry, but this year was like no other in my 32 years in business. It has put a huge strain on our operations leaders and team members, and they struggle to cover open routines. It has caused a lot of concern about their mental health and well-being as we continue to keep them motivated and engaged. It also makes managing customer expectations more difficult. Working with the customers to overcome this has been a challenge.”
Blake Dozier, co-owner and operator of OnPoint Building Services, says there have been added challenges due to the labor crunch on his end also. “You have to train more often,” he stated, “because there's more churn of cleaners or less cleaners.”
Still, for those who try to remain more optimistic than pessimistic, there have been a few bright spots to this changed marketplace. Sally Schopmeyer, President of Dallas-based Maintenance Inc., noted one big benefit from her vantage point: “The buildings are at the lowest level of daily occupancy ever seen. It does help that we are cleaning less because the labor shortage would make it difficult to clean if buildings were fully occupied.”
Several of those interviewed for this 2021 look-back had an enduring memory or two they believe they’ll hold dear for some time to come. Schopmeyer says she will regard 2021 as the year that the importance of cleaning for health became “top of mind” for so many of her firm’s customers. For his part, Dozier says he won’t forget the constantly changing government regulations and COVID-19 policy that was simultaneous with massive inflation and minimum wage increases that had major impacts on BSCs. “This made 2021 the hardest year for retention and hiring we've ever seen,” he lamented.
Waldheim hopes to retain the increased appreciation he gained for his company’s labor force into 2022. “I am most proud of our team members who showed up at work every single day to keep our customers, their employees, and their clients safe,” he remarked. “My most enduring memory was the countless site visits where I encountered our team members hard at work, smiling, and asking what else they can do to improve their work.”
Tom Kruse, Chief Development Officer at Marsden Holding, was equally glowing in his praise of his co-workers. “Our management teams did a fantastic job of following established COVID protocols to keep our associates safe and healthy,” he said, while also touching on the labor crisis. “This effort was made that much more difficult as they were trying to cover open positions and get people hired at a rate we haven’t seen since the late 1990s. I will look back on this past year feeling very proud of all of teams for rising to the occasion.”
Buchner applauds BSCAI for having stepped up right from the get-go in 2020 and throughout this past year now ending. Buchner was elected to BSCAI’s Board of Directors in 2019 and will complete his three-year term in January. He recalls that when “stuff hit the fan” in March 2020, there was an overall attitude within the association of “this is our time to shine.” Then-President Todd Hopkins challenged BSCAI board members in one of their earliest conference calls to plan for a new “virtual” world. “How do we continue to serve our members from a 100 percent virtual perspective?” was the question he posed.
“This really hit me hard because I’m the eternal optimist, and I didn’t like thinking in those terms,” Buchner recalled. “But we rallied around this challenge and quickly started mobilizing to harness the power of the association, which really is the knowledge, experience and leadership of our member base.”
One of the first things put into place were virtual town hall meetings. Those meetings proved so successful and so widely attended that BSCAI needed to use so-called “break-out” rooms to allow for effective discussions with smaller groups of attendees. BSCAI also developed a COVID-Disinfection Certification Program, Buchner added, “so that we could show our end-users that we are indeed the organization that can stand and deliver effective cleaning programs to mitigate the spread of this virus at their jobsites.”
Everyone interviewed for this feature agreed that BSCs’ job and building management and cleaning, in general, is different at the end of 2021 compared to the beginning of the year. Waldheim of J’s Maintenance says, “I think we started the year very focused on COVID cleaning, high touchpoints, spraying down large spaces and reacting to the constantly evolving needs. As we approach the end of the year, I see most facilities returning to a ‘cleaning as usual’ plan. Each city, county, and state has a different sensitivity to COVID, and those regional distinctions will continue to play out as we move into 2022.”
Kruse sees two ways building services is different at the end of 2021 than it was at the beginning. “One, I believe the industry is starting to realize that the labor crunch is something that is here to stay for quite some time,” he said. “Two, the pandemic and our industry’s response to it has shown customers that cleaning plays a much bigger role in the health of their staff than what they considered it to be in the past. I believe customers are relying more on us to be to be experts in this area and are beginning to see our industry as more of a partner in this area.”
Supreme Maintenance Organization’s Murphy picked up on this, adding, “I would say that due to the labor struggles, customers have had to change their expectations as far as the value of clean. Customers are faced with increased cleaning cost and are having to come to terms with it as expectations of providing clean and healthy facilities continue to rise. This has allowed BSCs to increase wages with updated contracts. Until contracts are renewed or turned over, money for higher wages are just not always available.”
Buchner of CleanOffice prefers to look ahead. Heading into 2022, he is optimistic despite the ongoing pitfalls and challenges. “Yes, we keep getting hit with variants,” he conceded. “But, overall, we are making progress and we are light years ahead of where we were in May of 2020. And, as leaders and as an industry, we are a heck of a lot smarter and we learned that we can handle speed bumps and curveballs or a regular basis. Parting comment . . . Yes, I DO need a vacation, and I’m looking forward to the BSCAI CEO Conference in Maui in January!”