University changes cleaning companies from WFF back to GCA

By: Elissa Filozof

The University has recently switched cleaning companies from WFF back to the company they originally used, GCA. These services will assume custodial management on April 1, 2017.

This transition comes after John Carroll’s recent decision to terminate the three-year contract the University had with WFF after just two years.

Andrew Fronczek, who orchestrated the change, explains that the reasoning behind this decision included the distance of WFF’s corporate office and regional management from campus as well as a high turnover rate of the management staff.

Finally, after two of the three WFF site managers resigned unexpectedly, leading to a management void on campus, Fronczek says that it was “mutually determined [to be] in the best interest for WFF and JCU that we part ways.”

According to Fronczek, the University expects a positive contractual relationship with GCA. “We feel that the return of Derek Lowell, a highly successful site manager, who worked at JCU for GCA Services previously, the fact that GCA’s corporate offices have been relocated from Knoxville to Cleveland, and that they have a number of other local accounts from which to draw staff for special events and circumstance distinguished them as the company who could manage, train and oversee the custodial staff to meet our expectations,” he says.

Originally, John Carroll switched from GCA to WFF because it had reached the end of its contract with GCA. When the University hires a custodial services company, both parties sign a contract for predetermined period of time. In the case of GCA, this was a total of three years with renewal options.

Fronczek said, “We had reached the end of GCA’s initial contract and both parties agreed that a new bid was necessary to account for cost increases and changes in the desired cleaning standards by the University. Additionally, the University’s Purchasing Policy generally requires periodic competitive bidding on agreements such as this. At that time, there were numerous companies who expressed interest, but [only] five were pre-qualified as having both experience in higher education and managing a union workforce.”

Fronczek continued, “WFF was determined to be the best candidate, and [they] assumed responsibility for cleaning duties at JCU in April 2015. This was a three-year agreement with the option for two one-year renewals.”

“The cleaning management company performs all internal cleaning operations at the University (i.e. classrooms, offices, corridors, meeting spaces, bathrooms, locker rooms, etc.),” says Fronczek, who is currently in charge of cleaning operations at John Carroll.

Although housekeeping ultimately reports to him, it is the cleaning contractor’s management staff that inspects the work done by custodial employees.

There are additionally a “number of key departmental liaisons from athletics, academics and others who assist in the review of the cleaning services,” says Fronczek. “The success of the cleaning service is reviewed based on national APPA Standards, on which our cleaning requirements are based.”