Employment Challenges Take Center Stage at Canadian Summit

Returning to Toronto after last year’s session in Montreal, the Third Annual TRSA Canadian Production Summit & Plant Tours again was distinguished by its presentations on the industry’s best practices as they apply to Canada. A key difference from the first two sessions: the laundries that participants visited are ultramodern, not just new or renovated.

The visits to HLS Linen Services (facility occupied only 10 months) and K-Bro Linen Systems (opened in 2017) embodied a theme that surfaced throughout the event: plant operators must continue to focus on reducing labor through increased automation, as hiring and retention of frontline employees grows more difficult or expensive, or both.

Improving recruiting by better understanding the personalities of prospective hires was implicit in two presentations, the keynote by communications consultant Kristen Cumming and expert personality profiler Nancy Roberts.

Cumming explained how businesses must bridge the generational gaps in their workforces, noting the personality traits associated with baby boomers, and Generations X, Y and Z. She urged attendees to stop considering their labor forces “human resources,” as employees are “human beings.”

Roberts, who builds DISC profiles of individuals and prompts their management to factor these into recruiting and retaining them, reiterated Cummings in noting the increasing importance of recognizing how people vary in what they seek to accomplish from working. She identified new recruiting rules for the current job-rich economy and described how engagement begets retention.

Cost pressures including labor point to the need for continuous improvement organization-wide, with the ultimate goal of reaching Six Sigma, or statistical perfection in operations. David Bernstein, principal, Propeller Solutions Group, noted that most companies are happy with three or four Sigma. He identified eight classifications of waste that business must eliminate to reach higher ground.

In a presentation that prompted attendees to consider their customers’ priorities, Bob Corfield, inspection chief for TRSA certification programs, pointed out the importance of such designations to customers in various industries. Discussing Clean Green, he identified this certification as potentially crucial to businesses that need to factor their suppliers’ green virtues into calculating their own sustainability. He predicted the Canadian government would pay more attention to green certifications in light of carbon taxes, water-distribution costs and the need to fund cleaner ways to extract and refine fuel. “You’re going to have to quantify your impact on the environment,” he said.

Kevin Schwalb, TRSA’s government relations VP, covered employment and environmental matters currently atop TRSA’s U.S. legislative and regulatory agenda that may affect Canada. These include joint-employer rules (labor law impacts from stationing employees at customer locations), overtime-exemption thresholds for managers, public infrastructure investment, wastewater discharges of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and microfiber, road tolls during high-traffic congestion periods, public standards for laundry cleanliness and fair tax treatment of the industry.

Concerns regarding infrastructure arose during the closing panel discussion on Canadian market challenges and opportunities, as panelist Tim Topornicki of Toronto’s Topper Linen and Uniform Rental noted his home city government’s failure to invest in it. Another potential challenge: the industry’s revenue growth from healthcare could subside due to greater use of home care [observed by Brendan O’Neill, London (Ontario) Hospital Linen Service] and the single-payment system’s potential frailty in an economic downturn. Randy Bartsch, Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service, pointed out that taxpayer support fuels the system and such support would decline in a recession.

Identifying market opportunities, Andrew Steiner, Canadian Linen and Uniform Service, pointed to flame-resistant and enhanced- or high-visibility garments as the company’s most sought-after new products; UniFirst’s Mike Szymanski said negativity causes “the eternal optimist in me to rise,” noting that the industry still serves relatively few different types of businesses and can find ways to penetrate more. Dan Sanchez of Medline Industries moderated the panel.

Testifying to the Summit’s quality, Mark Hutcheson of Quintex Services (Winnipeg, Manitoba), pointed out, “The presentations were excellent. Each of them gave you a whole lot to think about and the day was filled with great information.”

Toporncki commented, “These sessions encourage you to add items to your priority list. While some cover business practices you may already know, they all force you to continually improve and make time for these practices in your operation.”