If you have turned on a radio, watched television or read a newspaper recently then you have heard the buzzwords “Going Green”.   But what does it really mean to go green?  With an increasing population, unprecedented carbon dioxide emissions, full to capacity landfills, increased water consumption, a deteriorating ozone layer, global warming and rapid consumption of natural resources, it is easy to see why some Americans have begun an aggressive campaign to turn around what they deem an environmental crisis.  American Window Cleaner Magazine wondered what, if anything, does this “crisis” mean to our industry?  We asked a variety of people - from association members to suppliers to cleaners - what they think about the recent national trend towards “Going Green”... 

While the U.S. is on the eve of an historic presidential election, scores of window cleaning company owners continue to dwell on concerns of immediate importance - expanding their client base, profitability, and safety on the job. This article focuses on the latter because of the three; safety is a substantive matter of life and death.

Unequivocally, IWCA is the standard in the industry when it comes to safety training and certification, as well as safety promotion. After all, the association pioneered the field and no other organized entity to date rivals it in that regard. From high-rise to residential, IWCA was and is the all-about-safety Messiah. However, some have begun to question whether the association has lately become profit motivated to the extent that its safety programs are now unattainable and unaffordable for the small and one-person operations that make up the bulk of the industry. This comes as still others are promoting a powerful alternative to IWCA’s safety certification program. Compared to the IWCA program, it comes at a fraction of the cost and expense and has federal Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA) and state government seals of approval.

The employee handbook is one of the most important vehicles of communication between the employer and employees. In addition to providing important information about a business and its operations, it also sets forth what the employer expects from employees and, in turn, what employees can expect from their employer.

Creating an employee handbook does not have to be a difficult task – in fact, it is best to keep the handbook as simple and straightforward as possible. The following are some important components of the employee handbook, plus some guidelines employers should follow when creating or updating the document.