As America ushers in the new era of hybrid and flexible working following the pandemic, Reckitt's Lysol Pro Solutions, a science-led business-to-business offering, recently revealed the top 10 germiest surfaces in the workplace — including elevator buttons, refrigerator doors and keyboards.
The research, conducted by a team of scientists, uncovers higher-risk hotspots a typical office worker can unknowingly encounter throughout the working day, potentially exposing them to germs such as rhinovirus, rotavirus and norovirus. These encounters can lead to catching a cold or result in stomach problems such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
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This article originally appeared in the July/Aug 2022 issue of ISSA Today
Welcome to the new normal for facilities services. Covid-19 has changed everything in the facilities industry: How we manage facilities, how we clean facilities, how we support our clients when their facilities are empty due to the pandemic, and how we are currently supporting our clients as their employees start to return to their offices. And, of course, each Covid-19 variant changes or resets the path back to BAU (business as usual).
We have seen the CDC and OSHA provide recommendations and requirements to help us return to BAU. We continue to receive regular information updates from these organizations about how Covid-19 spreads. And we also are getting updates from the EPA on approved disinfectant registration (List N). All these agencies are supporting what, how and when we should clean and disinfect, as well as recommendations and requirements for employee safety when providing these cleaning and disinfection services.
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Excel Dryer Case Study
Arooga’s Grille House & Sports Bar, the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based restaurant brand, offers its guests the ultimate sports bar experience and the latest trends in technology and service. In addition to 10 corporate locations in Central Pennsylvania, Arooga’s has four franchise locations in operation and others in development. Each restaurant serves between 4,000 and 7,000 customers per store, per week. Named “America’s Next Top Restaurant Franchise” in a national contest co-sponsored by Sysco Foodservice and Franchise Edge, Arooga’s shows no sign of slowing down.
Green initiatives
Arooga’s was named the first full-service Certified Green Restaurant® in Pennsylvania by the Green Restaurant Association (GRA). The GRA’s standards provide a transparent way to measure a restaurant’s environmental accomplishments and were born from 25 years of research in the field of restaurants and the environment. To achieve this rating and to reduce its carbon footprint, Arooga’s implemented a number of green initiatives including the removal of Styrofoam from all locations, prohibiting the use of non-toxic cleaning and chemical products, and the inclusion of Excel Dryer's high-speed, energy-efficient XLERATOR Hand Dryers in all restrooms.
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With hybrid and remote work becoming the norm, the demand for coworking and flexible workspace is at an all-time high, according to the latest survey from Yardi Kube, a space management software provider part of Yardi Systems. As many organizations move towards bringing employees back to a traditional office workspace that fosters collaboration and empowers productivity, changing workforce expectations must be taken into account.
To better understand occupiers’ needs, Yardi Kube conducted a survey among prospective office tenants addressing the issues of office space footprint, how companies are adjusting to flexible work, and the reasons why business leaders are looking into coworking spaces as a replacement for traditional office leases.
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This article was contributed by asset tracking and package logistics pioneer Position Imaging, whose widely adopted Smart Package Room package management system is used by multifamily residence/property and commercial customers across the country
In 2020, Amazon Logistics delivered 4.2 billion parcel shipments, up from 1.9 billion in 2019. It now makes up, by volume, 21% of the parcel shipments in the U.S., behind the USPS (38%) and UPS (24%) but ahead of FedEx for the first time (16%). By contrast, in 2014, Amazon delivered just 20 million parcels. Post Covid-I9, there continues to be an increase in home deliveries — from office supplies and dry cleaning to daily necessities such as groceries. This e-commerce convenience has become a nightmare for those managing multifamily communities and other facilities, adding work for both concierges and courier services and leaving a number of packages unsecured in lobbies and open to theft.
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The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) Board of Directors has just announced the selection of AC Powell, JD, CPS, as the Institute’s new president and CEO. Powell officially joins NIBS on September 12, 2022. NIBS serves the public interest by advancing building science and technology, improving lives through collaboration in the built environment. Powell will lead efforts to expand the Institute’s programs and markets, while growing and strengthening its membership base.
Powell comes with extensive leadership in the built environment, most recently serving for nearly five years as executive director and CEO of the Washington, DC-based Association for Facilities Engineering (AFE). AFE convenes professionals who ensure the optimal operation of high-rise commercial real estate, industrial plants, government facilities, higher education campuses and medical centers. Powell also has a deep background in education, working with the Prince William County (Virginia) school system. He currently serves as an adjunct professor with Stratford University, teaching courses on business law, business ethics, and competition and innovation.
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OSCRE International has announced a new Environmental Data Standards Project that will convene in New York City on September 21, 2022 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. This is the first collaborative project for the Council of 100 focused on environmental data. Participants include facilities managers, property managers, corporate owners, occupiers, investors and the external business partners who work with them. This project addresses the growing pressure to collect, analyze and report real estate’s impact on the environment for corporate reports and external platforms.
It’s about the data. The quality of data and the need for speed make this project a top priority: To develop an effective standards-based approach that manages environmental data across the supply chain. The project will focus on common ground, with a platform-agnostic approach that explores how to accelerate progress towards effective environmental data management. Facilities managers are a critical link in the chain of data collection as corporate real estate leaders face increasing pressure to drive efficiency and performance, connecting data across a wide variety of internal functions and external platforms that often don’t communicate with each other.
FM leaders who are willing to share their perspectives and participate in cultivating solutions across the supply chain are encouraged to contact OSCRE for details on how you can attend.
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Education sessions and Product Zones are the most important reason to attend NFMT Remix in Las Vegas, November 2-3. For Pro and Elite attendees, there are 60-minute sessions focused on foundational principals of Facilities Management. The key trends of technology, safety and sustainability tend to be cross-functional and have a major impact on overall facilities strategies. These sessions are geared as more introductory sessions. Think Tanks, for Elite attendees, are 60-minute informal discussions focused around either a specific building type or trend. This will allow you to network with your peers in a small group environment. Attendees can pull up a chair and ask your questions to like-minded FMs from around the country. Each roundtable will have an official moderator to help guide the conversation.
Concurrent Sessions run on Wednesday and Thursday, while Product Zone Sessions are featured during the Expo hours, between 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. The Women in FM panel and a reception conclude Wednesday’s activities.
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Facilities managers (FMs) were key to keeping traditional workspaces as support mechanisms while people were working or learning from home. In many cases without adequate FM training to perform all the functions that cropped up. Supporting staff with workspace digital access and while at home also caused them to encounter some of the longest work hours ever between coordinating with management, IT teams, remote service providers, energy and power management companies, and building operations support. Further, they had to ensure buildings were secure, protected, and accessible if there were limited staff needing access. Is it any wonder that facilities managers joined the ranks of healthcare professionals as among the most exhausted?
The Professional Facility Management Institute (ProFMI) conducted its Training Outlook Survey to determine the need for facility management training and credentials from both the management and staff points of view. The latest survey was conducted in February and March of 2022 to identify FM workforce trends, determine the current need for FM training and credentials, and gauge how sentiments may have shifted over time.
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Facility managers will be walking the line when they reach Nashville to attend World Workplace® 2022, September 28-30. The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) has chosen “Take Center Stage” as the conference theme in recognition of the changing role of FMs in the workplace arena. “As the curtain lifts on FM’s shift from purely operational to indispensably strategic, there’s no business like know business,” says IFMA. “Get your act together — this year’s marquee FM event in Music City Center will prepare you to take center stage in making the spaces you manage your tour de force.”
World Workplace is the largest facility management conference in the world, offering discussions and sessions on FM and the wider built environment since 1995. World Workplace offers sessions in tracks, introducing “Emerging Topics” that consist of new or evolving business functions, external influences, or mandates that have a high probability of impacting the FM profession in terms of roles, responsibilities, and skills and knowledge requirements. The other tracks are FM Solutions; Finance & Business; Leadership & Strategy; Operations & Maintenance; Project Management; Risk Management; Facility Information Management & Technology Management; Occupancy & Human Factors; Performance & Human Factors. Sustainability; and Workplace Evolutionaries.
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New events posted this week
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