This time a year ago, if you’d asked food-and-beverage (F&B) laundry operators what they wanted most, they probably would have said an end to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with restaurants reopening thanks to a vaccination drive launched late last year, the emerging post-COVID era has brought with it a host of new challenges.

Scott Farmer’s 18-year tenure as president and CEO of Cintas Corp., Mason, OH, has featured several tests of his leadership skills, according to two key lieutenants.

After a 40-year tenure that has witnessed unprecedented innovation and meteoric growth in the uniform and industrial services sector and related markets, Cintas Corp. Chairman Scott Farmer now sees his company’s biggest long-term challenge in figuring out how to compete not only against other laundries, but with online companies such as Amazon and retailers such as Wal-Mart.

As the owner’s daughter, she’d worked hard all her life. She had skills and ideas for growing the family business. She felt she’d earned a shot at the top job. Dad disagreed. He was convinced that a man – a son-in-law would do – should get the top job. Only when he passed away did the daughter get her chance to lead the company. She’s run the business successfully for years since then and never looked back. This was one of many stories that 25 female laundry operator and supplier partner executives shared during a two-hour TRSA Virtual Roundtable on May 19.

TRSA recently held the first of a two-part diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) webinar series titled Racial Equity & Workplace Culture. Jejuana C. Brown, M.Ed. CDP, served as the featured speaker for the program, which included data from McKinsey & Co. on workplace diversity trends. The one-hour webinar – sponsored by TRSA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee – drew more than 30 attendees from the linen, uniform and facility services industry. TRSA’s Salita Jones and Kristin Mudd served as co-moderators for the program.

The administration of President Joe Biden (D) offered up campaign promises and even an Executive Order designed to protect employees from COVID-19. But so far, no Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) from OSHA addressing COVID-19 has taken effect. That could be changing soon.

Among the roughly 215 linen, uniform and facility services operator and supplier partners who attended five, 90-minute online TRSA Regional Town Hall sessions on March 30, 31 and April 1, pretty much everyone could agree on two things. First, they’re relieved that the economy in most parts of the U.S. has begun to emerge from last year’s COVID-19-related shutdowns. However, there also were widespread concerns expressed that a severe labor shortage could stymie the recovery.

Every Friday, John Ross, president and CEO at Mission Linen Supply, Santa Barbara, CA, kicks off his COVID-19 response team meeting with the same question: “Who has good news?”

Next month, Textile Services magazine will roll out a new department that will offer managers and executives in the linen, uniform and facility services industry a fresh source of insights on diversity, equity and inclusion. These topics recently have drawn intense scrutiny amid civic unrest fueled by concerns about equal justice and opportunity for people of varying racial, ethnic and social backgrounds. The inaugural edition of this new column will feature an interview with Ann Berry, one of three female members of the Board of Directors for PureStar™ Group. This company is a major player in the hospitality sector of the linen, uniform and facility services industry with 11 regional brands operating 30 facilities in three countries.

As businesses across the United States are in various phases of opening up after COVID-19-related restrictions, Fisher Phillips LLP, a labor law firm based in Atlanta, recently provided a checklist for members of the linen, uniform and facility services industry to consider as you move toward opening up your operations. The first part of this checklist ran in the June 8 edition of Textile Services Weekly.