SFU Highlights BEST's Work During Pandemic

Since the beginning of the COVID-19, BEST frontline team members have been working hard to keep facilities safe and disinfected. These efforts have not gone unnoticed.

The paragraphs below are from an SFU article that thanks BEST`s frontline team for their work during COVID-19.

Every fall, BEST Service Pros, SFU’s custodial services contractor, executes a flu cleaning response that focuses on disinfecting high touch points and handrails to limit the spread of germs. This year, that process was enacted in January, months before the B.C. government declared a public health emergency in the province.

“When COVID-19 started making the news in January, I made a call and said, ‘I think we need to start attacking this thing right away,’” says Grady Ott.

As an operations supervisor with SFU Facilities Services, Ott is responsible for helping to coordinate BEST staff who keep SFU clean. While news around the virus worsened through January and February, he did research, ordered extra cleaning supplies, advised SFU’s pandemic response group, and worked with BEST to update its strategy in the face of rapidly changing information.

These days, BEST team members are cleaning windows and waxing floors—tasks that are difficult to coordinate on a busy campus. They also continue to clean public areas like hallways, lounges, and bathrooms; these areas will be sanitized immediately before the community returns to campus.

Through all this, the safety and well-being of custodial staff have been a priority for Ott. Physical distancing protocols have been put in place and schedules are being modified where appropriate.

“No team member will be asked to do work that is unsafe,” says Ott. “We’re all in this together and we’re going to get through it together.”

We are very grateful and proud of our frontline team’s courageous work. Once again, thank you BEST heroes!

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