by Camille Perlman
Like many campus departments and staff, facilities has faced many ups and downs over the past year. One day it’s smooth sailing, and the next is all snags and obstacles. And some of the snags get complicated quickly. For instance, one campus thought it would utilize the lull between semesters to replace all the doors in one of its residence halls. The next thing they knew they were taking the hall offline and assigning students to another building because the new doors were delayed in shipping. How do campuses and staff rebound from complicated situations like this? (Now messages need to be sent to students and parents about changing residence halls, and responses need to assure them that the accommodation will be just as suitable.) How does this change their schedule and shuffle projects they are responsible for? The solution is multi-pronged: You make the wisest ordering and inventory choices possible given the fluctuations of the supply chain, and you thank your staff every day.
The puzzle pieces may be a little different on each campus, but the picture is the same: Facilities staff are filling in gaps made by either lack of supplies or lack of staff. Uncertainty pops up in many forms and factors into much of what is on the daily work schedule, but staff bravely return to campus each day. Facilities staff are key to keeping campuses open and safe these days, which is why the multi-pronged approach is so important in all aspects of facility work right now.
The health of the supply chain seems different each day, week, or month. There are some successes with items being steadily available, but some orders are being delayed or have been cancelled. Robin Gagnow, residence life/academic operations manager at Baldwin Wallace University, makes this observation, which spans from the beginning of the pandemic to now. “Almost everything went up in price or was not in stock. For example, finding shower curtains in stock was a struggle for some institutions. In addition, vendors struggled with meeting deadlines with supplies and equipment. HVAC supplies were the hardest to find due to shortages and delivery reductions. Plexiglass was another item that was in demand and became difficult to find for a few months. The price of lumber has gone up two to three times since the onset of COVID.”
Derek Jackson, director of housing and dining services and associate vice president for student life at Kansas State University, describes what the experience has been on his campus. “The supply chain for cleaning supplies has improved greatly. Items that are more based upon a short turnaround, such as an emergency repair on a mechanical system, are being delayed from the manufacturer and also in shipping, especially if the item is coming from overseas. With enough planning and lead time, we have been able to do most preventative maintenance.” And with these wins he shares a recent hiccup. “We are seeing paper products have supply issues again. For example, the cardboard filters that we use in our student room HVACs are in short supply.”
Teresa Frederick, associate director of facilities and operations at Missouri State University, notes the high and low points of their experience. “Like many, we were initially very challenged to acquire some items like sanitizers, gloves, and spray disinfectant equipment. We continue to monitor vinyl and nitrile glove supplies but have positioned ourselves well in this area. We have seen some stabilizing in the supply chain this year, but there are some manufacturing delays that have impacted the arrival of some of our HVAC equipment. We have also seen an increase in delivery time for some miscellaneous mechanical, plumbing, and electrical parts.”
Kyle Estes, interim director for the Department of Housing and Residential Life at Texas State University, is seeing and hearing about the same fluctuations as his facilities colleagues. “In general, I’ve heard of many institutions having supply chain issues. Long-lead items on projects take much longer than anticipated. I’m sure the campus furniture market has experienced similar issues to the retail market, where you are seeing four to eight month lead times to get furniture. I know there are still some things that have been back ordered and then cancelled on us. Blinds for instance.”
Along with supply chain issues, everyone is feeling the pinch from the lack of staff. Specifically, staffing issues are stemming from more people choosing to retire early and higher paying wages enticing staff to take jobs off campus. “We are understaffed in our frontline staff (custodial and foodservice staff). Some of this is just the overall labor shortage, but some of it is caused by increasing wages off campus that is hard to keep up with because of our state systems and shortfall in budgets,” says Jackson. Estes concurs and says, “Staffing is definitely thin for both on-campus staff and contractors. We just were discussing that in our SWACUHO region call. Between early retirements, inflation, and low wages, the custodial and maintenance areas are struggling to find staff.” He points out that this is happening in the hospitality industry too. And the picture is similar on Frederick’s campus. “Staff is a priority/concern for our team. We have an excellent team, but there are a number of vacancies, and that is stretching us. We have a lot of folx on our campus collaborating to help us work through this challenge from multiple angles.”
Maintenance between semesters has always run on a tight schedule, but the pandemic has taken time constraints to a new level. Supply chain issues and staffing deficits don’t make this work easier. Unfortunately, what made this kind of maintenance achievable was fewer conference groups coming to campus and the overall lower number of students on campus throughout the past year. “We were able to perform most of our normal summer room prep even with fewer staff,” says Jackson. “We are only doing about 10% of our normal summer conference business, so our staff are doing less room cleaning for conferences. This is a good and bad problem: less stress on our staff, but it creates even more shortfall in our budget.” Estes and Frederick experienced similar conference business and student traffic on their campuses. “Our summer projects were able to be completed,” says Estes. “Even though we were short staffed, we had a more flexible schedule to get into buildings over the entire summer.” Frederick shares that, given this break in guest and student traffic, “Our staff are working to prioritize our work within our current staffing levels.”
Along with supply chain issues, everyone is feeling the pinch from the lack of staff. Specifically, staffing issues are stemming from more people choosing to retire early and higher paying wages enticing staff to take jobs off campus.
Safe and clean facilities and campus grounds have been key to keeping campuses open. That success is due in no small part to facilities staff. When asked about the lessons learned from the past year, all responded with how valuable these staff are. “I would say the biggest lesson learned is how valuable our frontline custodial staff are to helping keep the university open and safe. We would not have been able to make it the entire year without their willingness to come to work and keep our students and staff safe,” says Jackson. Gagnow echoes this. “When a lot of departments had staff work from home, facilities and operation staff reported to work as usual and adjusted to working with COVID procedures for their protection and the protection of our students, staff, and faculty.” He also gives a nod to residence life. “We all have felt the impact of COVID these past 16-plus months, some departments more than others. Hats off to the residence life staffs that had to change so many processes and procedures to accommodate COVID cases.”
The key to facing these challenges is to maintain a focus on the most important issues: empathy, self-care, and appreciation. As Gagnow notes, “If someone would ask me what are the biggest lessons learned in the past 18 months for facilities, what would it be? Take care of your personal well-being, find the good in others, and find ways that make you happy. Next would be to take care of your employees. Show patience as they deal with home issues and family issues and let them know that you appreciate everything they have done and will do in the future.” Frederick frames her thoughts this way: “Our staff are key to how we have been able to navigate the last 18 months. It is so important to honor their work and support them through our words, actions, and policy.”
Frederick goes on to describe how they plan to move forward in future months. “When supply chains are uncertain, it is essential to have a strong in-house warehouse and inventory program. Just-in-time inventory management is not adequate for some items. Our inventory team members are diligent in monitoring supplies and equipment to make sure we are able to provide timely service to our customers.” And she concludes with these thoughts. “On some levels, housing and facilities folx are made for these moments. We don’t like them, but a lot of what we do is respond to uncertain situations. Our professional toolboxes are full of ways to problem solve, be flexible, pivot, find creative solutions, and work through hard things.”
Camille Perlman is the managing editor of Talking Stick magazine.
