Cleaning Management Institute (CMI) Continuing The Path Of Success C Continuing education was a target on Vanderbilt’s plan for 2013. After initially launching Cleaning Management Institute’s (CMI) Custodial Technician Certification program a few years ago, Vanderbilt realized the impor-tance of reinforcement of knowledge. Lis Wyatt, the director of operations, rec-ognized that the cleaning industry changes tremendously each year with new technol-ogy and innovative cleaning processes. Because of this, CMI was called upon to deliver an updated training experience for the team. CMI’s Director of Custodial Training Marion Ivey was personally requested by Wyatt and her team. Ivey traveled to Vanderbilt to work direct-ly with a select group of supervisor and manager staff members. Keeping a housekeeping staff well versed in both the technicalities and the nitty-gritty of cleaning is a goal of building main-tenance managers. To achieve this, their staff must focus on the fundamentals: ● Proper cleaning procedures — from mopping, to washing walls, to cleaning ● Understanding chemicals — reading MSDS sheets, correct mixing proce-dures and dwell time ● Restroom cleaning — this accounts for roughly 4 percent of total floor space, but can use 30 percent of a staff’s clean-ing time. The Training Program Vanderbilt University is among the most respected higher education institutions in terms of building maintenance and cleanliness. Wyatt sought to further develop this level of cleaning expertise by contracting outside trainers. Bringing in outside trainers often brings a new level of credibility and guar-antees better training, and Wyatt found the answer she was looking for in CMI’s Custodial Technician Basic Certification Program taught by Ivey. CMI’s program is intensive, logging 24 hours of classroom time in four days. Curriculum is approached in two ways: Lecture (60 percent) and hands-on demon-stration (40 percent). Ivey brings a customized approach to his courses — verbal examinations are offered to those housekeepers who are unable to read English and students are involved in oral review questions to maintain their con-tinuing engagement with the material. Hands-on demonstrations are carefully overseen to ensure housekeepers know how to apply what they’ve been taught in their everyday cleaning operations. Time is also spent discussing the differ-ence between alkaline and acidic stains, and how to properly apply these chemicals in specific cases. training course was nothing short of a great victory. Nine months after the first round of was training completed, shift supervisors at Vanderbilt reported that housekeepers had: ● Higher motivation, more willingness to assist in special tasks (e.g., extra effort in maintaining a renovated building) ● Greater awareness in chemical safety, the need for proper measurement before diluting chemicals, and allowing enough time for chemicals to properly clean a surface ● Greater attention to detail, particularly in restroom cleaning ● Less staff turnover. Wyatt’s one suggestion for improving the training program? The only complaint she’s received is that more people were not included in the first session. Wyatt hopes to expand the program to as many of her staff as possible in the future. New Directions Taking into account the difficulty building maintenance managers encountered in tak-ing their staff offline and into the classroom, CMI has revamped the curriculum to meet this need. Now, the new CMI Custodial Technician Basic Handbook is divided into five training modules. Each of these can be taught indepen-dently. Training with the Custodial Technician Training Handboo k gives maintenance staff the fundamental cleaning training informa-tion they need, with the convenience and ease of use that their busy careers require. The training programs’ success is evident in the glowing review from Wyatt — her final assessment of the training? “We hit a bull’s-eye!” The Rewards In the end for Vanderbilt, this rigorous approach was very successful — 100 percent of the students passed the final 100-ques-tion test with a grade of 80 or better. The first Custodial Technician Basic FREE INFO: Reader Service 154 or CMMOnline.com/freeinfo This content was provided by Cleaning Management Institute as part of a paid advertisement. For more information, contact Brant Insero directly at 1-518-640-9161 or visit www.CMInstitute.net www.CMMOnline.com 23
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