Case study: COVID-19 Response for Major Utilities Customer

GJK has delivered exceptional COVID-19 cleaning services and responses to one of our major utilities customers in Australia.

GJK Case Study:
COVID-19 Response for Major Utilities Customer

COVID Case Study

Through customer collaboration, leadership and initiatives, we have provided COVID-19 cleaning solutions that have kept the customer’s workforce safe and the premises hygienic since the pandemic outbreak…

The Customer

GJK provides general and periodical cleaning services to a major water and drainage supply company in Australia. We deliver services to 44 sites across the state, comprising 60 buildings, 29 control rooms, pump stations and the 2,100sqm Water Centre head office.

GJK has held this contract since 2014 and employs 48 staff to carry out services.

COVID 19 and GJK Pandemic Response Plan

In late 2019 – even before COVID-19 had come to our Australian shores – GJK worked closely with our customer to devise a solution to protect their staff and manage any COVID outbreaks across the portfolio. We collaborated with the customers’ building managers to ascertain their needs, developing an action plan to meet their specific preventative and touchpoint cleaning requirements across nine major sites, including deep cleaning response protocols.

GJK delivered a comprehensive capability statement for the portfolio that gave the customer clarity to our approach and processes and detailed how we would deliver the agreed pandemic cleaning services. Our capability statement also included Safe Work Method Statements and schedules for COVID cleaning.

GJK COVID Cleaning Response

Once agreed, we immediately began to roll out the plan, with the safety of all stakeholders being our No.1 priority. Rapid recruitment and thorough training of our operatives was required, as along with the provision of sufficient consumables and PPE to customer staff and a swift response solution for deep cleans…

Rapid Recruitment and a COVID-Ready Team: To implement the increased scope of preventative and touchpoint cleaning, GJK quickly employed an additional 14 permanent team members, with regional coverage across the portfolio. Understanding the urgency of the situation, we hired, inducted, trained and ensured security cards for our recruits within 1-2 weeks. GJK’s recruitment response meant our customers quickly received an additional 65 hours of daily touchpoint cleaning services across nine sites to protect their workforce.

Comprehensive COVID Training: GJK prides itself on delivering thorough COVID-19 cleaning training to our operatives. When the pandemic began, our State Operation Manager was flown to our Melbourne head-office to undergo intensive COVID-19 cleaning training by one of our senior infection control experts. The training covered correct COVID cleaning methodologies and techniques, steps to complete infectious cleans, correct use of chemicals, correct usage and wearing of PPE and specialist equipment.

The State Operations Manager returned and provided this training to the GJK team on this contract. GJK also delivers refresher training and Toolbox talks regularly to our operatives to ensure they work safely.

PPE and Consumable Supply:  Using our robust supply chain, our customers benefited from an ample supply of consumables and PPE, during a period of short supply.

GJK secured thousands of hand sanitisers and a large buffer stock of consumables for the customer’s employees, including disposable masks. We also ensured ongoing supply and restocking of hygiene wipes and hand sanitiser stations. Our approach and procurement strength meant that customer employees always had the personal protection they needed to operate safely in the workplace.

GJK Deep Cleaning Response Initiative: To facilitate a quick response to a confirmed or suspected COVID case, GJK introduced the initiative of the COVID Kit. A single kit contained all the required chemicals, equipment and PPE for a team of four members to do a full deep clean of the premises. GJK put ten kits at the customer head office and had another five on hand.

This initiative meant that we could respond to an emergency clean in rapid time. Once notified of the need to do a deep clean, team members could be onsite and carrying out the clean within two hours. This provided an excellent solution for the customer, that would reduce any business downtime and enable their staff to return quickly and safely to the workplace.

Results

GJK worked collaboratively with our utilities customer to develop a sound and clear approach to COVID cleaning. We provide ongoing reporting on our COVID cleaning and keep a cleaning action register to ensure all agreed cleans have been actioned and PPE/consumables secured.

The customer expressed great satisfaction in GJKs leadership in quickly and expertly managing COVID19 preventative and deep cleaning for their portfolio. They have also commended our teams’ exceptional commitment through their internal newsletters.

On three occasions, we actioned emergency deep cleans for suspected COVID cases, deploying our trained teams quickly, and returning our customer’s employees to the office with minimal disruption to business operations.

GJK proudly continues to deliver our comprehensive management and leadership of COVID cleaning to the customer.

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