Complimentary snack with your mocha latte? The changing face of facility management.
Visit an office today and you may be greeted with a specialty coffee station in the lobby, grab a snack from the wall laden with free treats in the common area, or visit the game room outfitted with ping pong and a kegerator. Today’s office environments have become amenity rich and are growing more so every day. People entering the workforce have come to expect much more than a water bubbler and a pot of stale coffee with powdered creamer. What’s driving the trend, and how can companies keep up?
Historically low unemployment rates combined with a shift in attitudes from those entering the workforce has meant that employers need to work harder to recruit and retain employees. They’re doing more to appeal to the next generation, including creating a fun and enriching workplace culture. Today’s workers view employment as more than a job; it is a lifestyle, and one that often extends beyond the typical 9-5. Workers want convenient comforts, including complimentary food and beverages around the clock and in-office gathering spots for downtime.
As a facilities management company that built a reputation providing superior janitorial services, we now find our customers are asking for many more advanced workplace solutions. We’re eager to partner with our clients and are constantly adapting our practices and training for this new environment. Our job is to help companies stay on top of their enhanced office spaces and create a welcoming and well-functioning office.
Cleaning-Plus Solutions
Here are just some of the services that our customers now request above and beyond our signature green cleaning services:
- Kitchen services such as stocking and brewing coffee, sodas, and fruit water and replenishing snack walls. We constantly cycle floors to ensure all consumables are fully stocked, even when off-hours employees grab a late-night snack. Free beer is now a common amenity, and our team changes kegs and keeps everything clean and spill free.
- Refrigerator organization, including bi-weekly detailed trash outs. We eliminate that “mystery smell” by organizing a weekly lost & found so employees can claim forgotten items in the fridge.
- Storage organization for snacks, paper products, and beverages. We break down shipments of supplies on a nightly basis so that when the morning team arrives for their shift, all inventory is in bins ready to distribute as needed throughout the office.
- Game room cleaning and organization, to keep ping-pong areas tidy and all surfaces clean and trash-free.
- Conference room/collaboration space organization, including arranging tables and chairs in any required formation. We organize all equipment in a uniform manner and can set up any space to our client’s specifications. If they have a special meeting, we’ll configure the furniture, lay out pads and pens, and organize laptop chargers. When the meeting is over, we’ll line the chairs up around the table, tidy the room, and leave it perfect for the next crew.
- Office moves of all sizes, from 50 to 350 employees. Moving from Floor 7 Tower 4 to Floor 4 Tower 3? Our team will transfer crates and install monitors so that all employees need to do is put down their laptop on their new desk.
- Front desk staff to answer phones and direct visitors, and concierge services for employees and guests.
Extended work hours mean adjusting our workflow to accommodate our clients’ employees. Our team has always operated 24/7; we now have even more flexible scheduling to keep each office at its best without impacting or interrupting daily work.
Training to Support the Culture
Many of our cleaning teams were used to working after the office emptied for the day. They had little, if any, interaction with office workers, and no need to talk with anyone but each other. But as the workplace has changed, we have adjusted our training so that our employees stay a step ahead. We still conduct extensive training for our staff on our signature green cleaning methods but have added a host of other training to meet today’s needs.
We train our team of PHD’s – Passionate, Hardworking, and Dedicated employees – in hospitality skills so that they understand their role in maintaining office amenities and comforts. We help them polish their communication skills so that they can be an accepted part of the office culture. We’re no longer the hidden cleaning team; we’re having a two-way discussion with the workforce each day.
Office workers interact with our employees constantly, offering suggestions, ideas, and requests. We are the on-site eyes and ears and report valuable information back to the client. More often than not, we are able to accommodate any new amenity or provide any service. We have become our clients’ partner in creating an exceptional office space.
With each workplace addition and enhancement, UG2 takes pride in our continued ability to adapt to our client’s needs. Large high-rise facilities with a corporate workforce will have different services and expectations than funky co-working spaces; we do the work upfront to determine how to be the best partner today and into the future.
New amenities and services? Bring it on – we’re happy to help!