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Back to School!
By John Gangasingh, Operations Manager, Residential and Commercial Division
As the school year resumed, so did our School Crossing Guard Services Contract with the City of Toronto.
With no surprise, there were some anticipated challenges prior to start-up due to the infamous global pandemic, COVID-19. Our teamand extended support from other divisions putinmany extra hours daily and on weekends to ensure we would be as ready as possible.
We developed weekly town halls in-class and virtually to support social/physical distancing, we sourced out all the necessary Personal Protective Equipment, we re-vamped schedules, updated our Xguard APP, while, all along, maintaining an open line of communication with our client for full transparency.
The resumption of full services officially started on September 14th, 2020. Even with some last-minute obstacles, the team pulled together once again and we completed the first start day with no open shifts and a full complement of staff.
It is times like these that I truly take pride in having such an amazing team and working for such a wonderful organization. I’d like to personally thank and recognize a few team members that we just would not have succeeded without.
- First, our Recruiter, Alyssa Rizzo, who managed to hire, not only the initial allotment of crossing guards needed, but approximately another 40 within just a few days before start-up. I don’t know how she pulled it off, but she may now be known as Alyssa “The Magician”!
- Secondly, our Employee Development team. Between Training Coordinator Mike Moledzki and National Employee Development Manager Bryan Joly managing to onboard all new crossing guards through extra training classes, weekends, etc., we just would not be ready to go without them.
- Lastly, both our Administrators, Tamana Bhatia/Karen Swanston and our Service Delivery Manager, Asad Abbas. These three worked collaboratively every day for the last few months ensuring everything is tracked, followed-up on, and delivered in a timely fashion from all aspects of the Operation and administratively. They are the face of the Crossing Guard Services Contract amongst the frontline team and I could not be happier about that.
I am very proud and grateful to lead such a wonderful team. I look forward to a strong remaining school year of keeping our students and each other safe. Keep up the great work, everyone!