ContractorCheck recently caught up with Clean Brite Calgary, a professional cleaning service company and accredited contractor since 2018 to talk about their company, health and safety in the cleaning industry and why ContractorCheck is important to their business. Check out the Q&A below
ContractorCheck: Tell us about your business; what does your company do? How long have you been in business?
Clean Brite Calgary: “What we do” is a question I like to reference back to our corporate motto; We work with companies to help increase the cleanliness and prestige of their buildings providing a service that offers peace of mind at lower costs. More generally, Clean Brite Calgary is a franchised Commercial Cleaning Service provider that operates throughout Canada. We can accommodate most industry related cleaning/clean up/maintenance needs that our clients may have. The Calgary branch specifically; has been in operation for 18 years.
CC: Why is health and safety important in your line of work?
CBC: Health and Safety is important in every workplace, not specific to the cleaning industry. We at Clean Brite know that our cleaners and managers are our most important asset. In providing them with simple policies and procedures that empower them, we are able to keep them safe and free from illness and injury, which is beneficial for all parties involved.
CC: Why was it important for your company to pursue a ContractorCheck accreditation, and what value does it hold for you?
CBC: To be completely transparent, we originally signed up for ContractorCheck as part of a tender qualification process. We have been part of Contractor Check for over a year now and we have gained some great insight into how we can consistently refine and improve our health and safety policies to better serve our employees, managers and customers.
CC: What is something you know now that you wish you’d known when you started the business?
CBC: This is a long list, however, without going into the many nuances, pivots and evolutions we have made operationally and managerially – at a high level, I think our company shifted a great deal when we started to operate with the simple mindset that our success is in direct correlation to the value we add to our customers and employees. This is something many of us “know” in a kind of axiomatic way but actually internalizing it and digesting it is something wholly different. This perspective trickled down and has affected our entire business and our relationships. Embracing this perspective has enabled us to operate in a genuine, transparent and true manner from the top down.
CC: How has health and safety changed since your company was founded?
CBC: I think the biggest change we have seen since we first developed our H&S polices, is the amount of attention given to the H&S sector in general. When we first started, our Health and Safety Policy was seen as more of a value-add to our customers and employees. Now, enormous amounts of energy go into being better and safer with H&S protocols which affects client retention and bottom line. We have noticed an exponential increase in the amount of communication and innovation within the H&S landscape since our inception.
CC: Is there a particular time of year that’s busiest for you? Why or why not?
CBC: For our scheduled cleaning services we remain quite constant throughout the year. For our additional services such as Steam Cleans, Window Cleans, Pressure Washing, Strip and Waxing, Move ins and Move out cleans and Construction Cleans – Spring time is our busiest time as everyone wants to clean away and forget about our dirty winters!
CC: Are there seasonal health and safety tips you can share with us for individuals or businesses to keep in mind as we approach springtime?
CBC: At this time of the year, Spring Cleaning time, we usually recommend a steam clean/hot water extraction of carpeted areas to rid the workplace of unwanted dust, dirt and allergens as well as mold and bacteria that has built up over the winter. Hard surface flooring can be stripped down and re-waxed, burnished or buffed- to clean up the dirt and wear from the salty winters and if needed, replaced with new wax to protect the flooring for another year and provide some shine. In addition, although not seasonally dependent, a quick check of all fire/carbon monoxide detectors and fire extinguishers to ensure functionality are usually performed for our clients around this time of year. If you are performing some heavy duty cleaning yourself, consider using some green cleaning chemicals and ensure you are in a well-ventilated area to avoid symptoms of exposure.
We’d like to offer our congratulations to Clean Brite Calgary’s Chief Operations Officer, Adam Rowley, on his recent nomination to the list of “Top 20 Leaders in Calgary” from the prestigious Business in Calgary Magazine!
For more on Clean Brite Calgary, please visit them online here: http://cleanbritecalgary.ca