Transcend’s Year in Review Relative to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The pandemic brought about an instantaneous shutdown of the economy and wreaked havoc on businesses large and small. Our very way of life was also threatened. The reality of how companies dealt with the crisis and prepared for the recovery tells a very different story, pivoting to business models conducive to short-term survival along with long-term resilience and growth.

Transcend Facility Management Company was no different. The crisis led to broken supply chains, evidenced by empty supermarket shelves and closed schools, commercial offices, health clinics, gymnasiums, and restaurants among other spaces. We saw this threat as an opportunity to pivot for sustainable growth. After seeing the schools and some businesses we serviced close down, we pivoted and transformed our offerings to target essential spaces where people worshiped, learned, and recuperated. Focusing our offerings, we added value to our clients and experienced meaningful accomplishments over the last year:  

1. At an educational institution campus, we consolidated maintenance and janitorial operations to achieve economies of scale. This process allowed us to leverage employees to perform cross functional responsibilities, which improved efficiency and reduced labor hours yielding significant cost savings for the client.
2. In a time of scarcity of products due to the pandemic, we leveraged our national networks to source for paper, plastic, and sanitizing supplies at costs significantly below market rates.
3. At a large worship campus, we improved transparency to the maintenance operations by establishing a work order process that included weekly and monthly reporting systems detailing all projects, segmenting and categorizing the projects by their levels of significance and urgency.       
4. Our company led and drove the fulfillment of all CDC guidelines, OSHA protocols, state mandates, and client guidance to keep the facility clean, safe, and sanitized during the pandemic. Our efforts increased safety and comfort levels of staff, students, parents, and faculty. We experienced no COVID-19 outbreak on the campuses we serviced.
5. We participated in the creation of a sanitizing video for a worship campus that was posted on their website, which guided volunteers and increased the comfort levels of all stakeholders. We also provided an educational institution with electrostatic spraying technology information for distribution to parents as a means to improve their comfort levels as they struggled with the decision of whether or not to send their kids to school.
6. Our size and capabilities allowed us to maintain a consistent level of staffing on the campuses we serviced during the pandemic. When our employees called out, took vacations, experienced illnesses because of COVID-19 infections, and were afraid to work in public spaces, we maintained adequate staffing levels at all locations to keep the campus operational and stakeholders safe.
7. All employees we placed at the campus we serviced were cleared, and we experienced very low employee turnover, which enhanced safety and increased stakeholders comfort levels.
8. Most people were afraid to work in enclosed spaces including schools, call centers, financial institutions, and health centers, which made sourcing of talents very difficult for our company. However, we were able to maintain proper staffing levels and placed employees at the facilities who were professional, polite, cooperative, and wore their Transcend Facility Management Services uniforms at all times.
9. All employees we placed on the sites we serviced completed all major projects satisfactorily within expected project timelines as defined by the contract, special project requests, and emergencies requested by various levels of the organization.
10. We maintained below market pricing throughout the pandemic, which spanned the entirety of most of our contract period. This particular period brought about unforeseen and unexpected circumstances like inflation and an increase in the average local wages paid by local businesses.

Most companies are faced with a delicate balance and we are not unique to that reality. We are focused on valued partnership with our clients and how to maximize that value in an environment of rising cost and low labor demand. This has become a big and real issue for the building service contractors space.

We in the Building Services Contractors industry have a real labor challenge. In most cases, wages are rising, labor supply is low, and our ability to adequately source and service is being challenged in ways we have not experienced. Finding workers is really difficult and it has significantly hampered our ability to grow. We are grateful for our valued employees and the partnerships we have with our clients.