The cleaning industry is going through an unprecedented crisis, blown over by the pandemic, and those in charge of cleaning operations in public buildings (office towers, schools, shopping malls…) are under pressure to provide the best services to protect their clients.
Fortunately, the evolution of this industry in the last few years has already allowed for a favourable repositioning and a recognition of the importance and scope that hygiene and sanitation have when it comes to the health of employees and incidentally on the performance of a company.
ValkarTech is a consulting firm specializing in hygiene and sanitation and the assessment of janitorial services in various environments and settings.
We have come a long way since 2014 — the year the company was founded by Serge Rioux, who already had extensive experience in housekeeping, having owned and operated a housekeeping service business for many years.
The idea of offering consulting services in cleaning operations management came to him after he noticed the gaps in his clients’ knowledge of good cleaning practices, both managers and building owners. Their vision and comprehension of hygiene and sanitation was so outdated and ineffective that it was difficult to get the right equipment or operating budgets.
Changes needed to be made. This required a combination of education, inspections, and continuous feedback to involve managers.
The birth of Building Hygiene Management
Our expertise quickly met the needs of the Montreal market and we had to open an office in Quebec City in 2017. In a short period of time, the company gained the trust of more than 125 clients who allowed us to carry out more than 1,150 mandates. From the beginning, the company has emphasized working in partnership with our clients, which gives us the opportunity to develop a relationship of trust and to intervene on different projects. In doing so, we truly do make improvements to our clients’ processes and, most importantly, we have the privilege to witness the benefits and savings generated in the long run by our interventions.
With the opening of our Toronto office in the summer of 2020, the company has opted for a bilingual name, ValkarTech, to reach a broader market, consistent with its ever-growing and diversifying team. ValkarTech is the only firm that offers a full range of services, including RFP design, field crew or management training, time and motion analysis, work route design, audits, full operations management support, and IT solution development.
ValkarTech’s services
Our services are mainly aimed at building managers to provide them with the best advice and management tools to optimize their housekeeping operations and improve the performance of sanitation workers.
Our versatility is ensured by a team of professionals from various sectors, including managers, microbiologists, chemists, computer scientists, and trainers, who put their expertise to work towards a common goal: improving performance while maintaining control over operational cost.
Our expertise allows us to offer a wide range of services that distinguishes us from the competition. From employee training to work route analysis and request for proposal conception, our services apply to all stages of a hygiene management program.
Our team includes certified auditors who perform cleanliness quality audits. Our experts can further evaluate a facility by also verifying the work methods, procedures, and equipment used to clean and disinfect and even validate the chemicals and their use.
We place great importance on data collection, interpretation, and reporting. To this end, we use in-house computer applications developed by our own programmers and adapted to our industry to generate meaningful charts and graphs that provide an accurate snapshot of a situation. For the follow-up of work routes (HBscan), to conduct cleanliness audits (flash control), for complaint management (HBdesk), and most recently, in response to the new constraints of the pandemic, a virtual concierge solution (HBlogin) that remotely controls access to the premises (statutory occupancy rates) and is linked to the housekeeping teams to ensure cleaning and disinfection either in preparation for a visit or after an area or workspace has been used.
Our mission statement
Housekeeping is an industry in itself. It is not out of ignorance that a client asks us for help or entrusts us with the complete management of janitorial operations, but rather because of the importance of environmental hygiene for the building’s users. Calling on our services is not an expense but rather an investment. Because our interventions are always customized, our clients benefit from a significant return on investment that is quickly measurable and appreciated by all our clients.
ValkarTech is all about freeing up valuable time for managers so they can focus on what they do best: managing their business successfully.
Derek Oliveira is the Senior Director of ValkarTech, a Canadian consulting firm who guides, supports, and advises their clients on ways to optimize the operational performance of their organizations in terms of building hygiene and sanitation. For more information, please email doliveira@buildinghm.com, visit https://en.valkartech.com/ or call 514 316 6723.
