1. The Path Toward Third Party Certification For Cleaning Organizations

2. Ask Yourself The Tough Questions
Why do we want to go through the Certification process?
What are our expectations? Create a list.
Are we willing and able to expend all of the necessary dollars and hours to support this venture and see it through to successful completion?
Can we afford to not get certified? Will we lose current clients? Will this prevent us from acquiring new clients that will grow our business?

3. Certification Application
Time to make your decision, stay as we are or move forward to take a leadership position in the cleaning industry. This may be the single most important decision your organization will make. If you decide to apply for Certification please continue.
Make or Break Decision
Certification Application
Apply to ISSA for CIMS & CIMS-GB Certification. Apply to Green Seal for GS-42 Certification. This will demonstrate to your staff your commitment to see the process completed and certification achieved.
Select a Champion
This must be someone within your organization that has some knowledge about your entire organization and someone you believe has a promising future in your company. They must be given the authority to assign work and schedule meetings for all necessary staff members. This is the second most important decision you will make in this process.

4. Determine whether a consultant would be advantageous
The tough question is whether the knowledge and efficiency of a consultant will improve your organization and will their presence reduce the number of staff hours required thus off-setting the cost of the consultant. You may wish to confer with other certified organizations prior to making this decision.
This must be someone knowledgeable about the Standard and the process to assist your champion. They should inform you as to how to comply with each standard, provide examples, review each section for compliance before you move on to the next one and conduct a mock assessment prior to your official assessment.
Make Formal Announcement to Your Leadership Team
Champion and consultant (if you have one) will walk the leadership team through the process and the role of each member of the leadership team in making this a successful project and what it means to your organization.

5. Set Target Completion Date
Six months is a reasonable goal if you believe that you can document that you currently meet the requirements for % of the standards .
Create Six Notebooks
Create a notebook for each of the sections with a separate tab for each standard. The first page will be the standard itself an explanation of the standard and how to comply.
Perform Gap Analysis
Review each standard and what is required for compliance. If you currently have a process in place that you are happy with and it meets the compliance requirement place the process behind the appropriate tab and put a green flag on it. If you have something in place that meets the requirement but you would like to improve it place the documentation behind the appropriate tab and place a yellow flag on it. If you have nothing that meets the requirements place a red flag on this tab and move on to the next standard until you have completed all sections.

6. Changing Red Flags to Green Flags
Once the gap analysis is completed for all sections, return to the beginning. Assign responsibility as needed for all red flagged standards. Once you have completed design of a new system or process You will need to train all appropriate staff on the new systems or processes.
Review Completed Section
Submit completed section to your consultant for review and move on to the next section. Follow the same process through all sections.
Yellow Flags
Once you have removed all red flags and replaced them with green flags you can go back to the yellow flags. Remember the yellow flags are already in compliance so you can prioritize in order of importance to your organization and work on them in a systematic manner until they too are turned to green flags. Some of these may need to wait until after your assessment.

7. Provide your assessor all of your materials
Mock Assessment
Champion and or consultant will randomly select both front line and management employees to interview and ask them the same questions the assessor will at a later date. Do a walk through of buildings and storage closets for compliance of PPE and other OSHA requirements. Review the mock assessment and make necessary changes.
Provide your assessor all of your materials
Provide the assessor a list of clients as required by the standard, this will vary by the size of the organization. Provide assessor the employee rosters for these accounts. or send assessor thumb drive of all documentation just as you have it in your binders. Inform the assessor you are ready for your site assessment.
Site Assessment
Once the assessor has selected the clients and employees to interview make appropriate lodging reservations for your assessor and schedule all appointments in order to make the site assessment efficient and meet all of the requirements of your assessor. Notify your assessor that you would appreciate it if at the end of the assessment they would let you know of any opportunities they see for your improvement. Remember you can learn a lot from your assessor so at the very least plan on your champion accompanying him/her nearly every waking hour.

8. Celebrate
Relax! Celebrate your achievement with all members of your staff. And let them know that they all share in the success.
Marketing
Market the heck out of your new certification. Get the certification on your web site , brochures, bid packages and in the local newspapers business section and of course into the hands of each of your customers. Certifications don’t mean anything if people don’t recognize the certifying body. If your certification is CIMS or CIMS-GB, you will need to let them know that ISSA is the largest cleaning association in the world with nearly six thousand organization members from all facets of the cleaning industry. There are approximately 70,000 cleaning contractors in the U.S. plus thousands of in-house operations and you are among the first two hundred to be certified. If your certification is with Green Seal under GS-42, let them know Green Seal was the first organization to offer third party certification of cleaning organizations.