Another incredible kudos roundup worthy of celebration!!
Karen Bryant for performing a classroom clean at SEH: “The technician was fantastic. Wonderfully considerate.”
Edward Oliver for his rapid response to a clogged toilet at Ames Hall: “Thanks for getting to this so quickly”
Raymond Wallace for recalibrating the thermostat and adjusting the temperature in an Enterprise Hall office: “Quick service, he was professional and friendly. He kept me updated and it was resolved quickly! THANK YOU!!!”
Wallace Vauss for unclogging a bathroom sink and tub at JBKO: “Works great now thank you!”
Kenyatta Butler for performing a floor clean at an SEH classroom: “I can’t tell you how incredible the floor now looks. It couldn’t have been an easy job, as the floor was littered with piece of tape and labels that were stuck to the floor. Deeply appreciative! Please thank the person who did this amazing job.”
HR Training on Talent and Organizational Development Learn about the Talent and Organizational Development team and learn about the programs this team offers such as new employee orientation and training and development opportunities. You will also learn about the performance management process at GW.
Protecting Information while using virtual meeting applications. Virtual meetings, conference calls and webinars are now a constant of modern work. This workshop will cover best practices and available conference settings that will help you protect the privacy and security of personal information of your meetings and webinars’ attendees, as well as your meeting content’s confidentiality.
Each week we’ll be sharing the upcoming training and professional development opportunities available here at GW.
Thursday 1/25
HR Training on Equal Employment Opportunity and Access As part of HRs ongoing effort to support managers, HR is offering HR training sessions designed to help you better understand the full scope of your role as a manager in key parts of the employee experience related to HR. In this session, you will learn about GW’s EEO and Access team, important things to know as a manager related to EEO and Access, and additional resources.
HR Training on Talent Acquisition Learn about the Talent and Organizational Development team and learn about the programs this team offers such as new employee orientation and training and development opportunities. You will also learn about the performance management process at GW.
Miguel Alvarez for warming up a Phillips Hall office: “Appreciate the prompt response – office is now warm!”
Frank Fasi for replacing a key reader battery in Guthridge Hall: “Very nice”
Debebe Demeke for fixing a microwave door at Amsterdam Hall: “They also fixed our stove! So nice”
Duke Nyangau for fixing a thermostat in a Mitchell Hall room: “The technician was great and fixed the problem swiftly and efficiently.”
Aaron Ferebee for solving a gas smell at District House: “It was great. They came fast and helped solve the problem super quick. He was lovely and friendly”
As we get settled into the new year, let’s take a look back at one of the last events of 2023. To wrap up the year, DSF hosted an event featuring the GW Women’s basketball team vs Stonehill College. GW dominated, winning 67-34.
Watch as our Facilities team members go head to head during halftime!
Interim Vice President for Safety & Facilities Baxter Goodly sent the following message to staff earlier this month.
Happy New Year, Team!
I trust your time away from campus gave you a chance to recharge and that you’re ready to tackle 2024’s fresh challenges.
We had a very productive 2023 – and I do mean productive. Our Facilities team completed over 23,000 service call phases since August. That’s a big number indicating all the hard work our staff is doing each and every day, but I actually want to focus on the decrease we’ve seen since implementing zones in Facilities Buildings and Grounds. During the 2021 Fall Semester when we were still primarily operating as individual shops, we had almost 2,500 more service calls. More impressively, the average time it took to complete service calls dropped from 10.59 days in November 2021 (the month we began the shift to zones) to 4.23 days in November 2023. I attribute these decreases to both the preventive maintenance and the increased teamwork that have resulted from moving to zones.
FBG accounts for the majority of our staff, but we can’t forget about the tremendous contributions from the rest of FPCM.
Transportation and Logistics expertly transitioned us to a new shuttle provider with little disruption and completed almost 1,600 phases between trash removal, furniture projects, and relocation services.
Utilities, Energy, and Engineering modernized elevators in several buildings and got to work on a cogen optimization project. They also had high profile achievements like the approval of the Southland Energy project expected to save us 1.5 million dollars in the first year and an energy management pilot program at Smith Center now expanding to more buildings on campus. Construction Management and Campus Planning earned notable publicity as well from renovations at the Smith Center, the solar system now operating at Thurston, and prominent renovations in Duques.
These accomplishments leave no doubt we’re well prepared to take on all the projects we have slated for the Spring Semester. FBG has begun work on a strategic plan for the next two years that will involve input from many on the team. Across Foggy Bottom, we have HVAC work scheduled, including refurbishing systems in both Ross Hall and Academic Center, replacing the heating and cooling systems in Amsterdam, and restoring building services in certain parts of Gelman.
Finally, we are continuing our efforts to refresh AiM and FixIt. These systems touch every part of FPCM, meaning successful completion of this project is critical. Once we’ve reached the finish line, we’ll have created a system that better empowers our customers, increases technician productivity, helps managers improve operations, and strengthens our ability to collect and report on data and trends. We’ve already spent over 650 hours on this project already and I thank all those who have helped ensure we stay on schedule and on budget.
Your participation in these projects and our daily operations is essential. Without you, we can’t serve GW, let alone continue our journey to improve our processes. Thanks for everything you’re doing and here’s to a fantastic year ahead!
We’ve tallied up the totals for 2023 and we’ve got three trophies to hand out for the most Five Star FixIt reviews! In total, 119 separate people received over 400 kudos from customers last year. That’s a lot of appreciation to go around! Thank you all for making 2023 a customer service success and congratulations to Souk Vongs, Brian Johnson, and Terry Branch! We’ll connect with you to make sure you get your trophies. Final results for the top ten are below.
Souk Vongs – 16 Brian Johnson – 14 Terrence Branch – 14 Carl Bryant – 12 Raymond Wallace – 12 Jose Ventura – 11 Christopher Gammon – 10 Jose Melgar – 9 Julio Martinez – 9 Nestor Fuentes – 9
A round of applause for this weeks Kudos recipients!
Monet Ballard for leading a well-organized relocation service at District House: “Monet and her team are amazing – very well-organized and easy move – thank you!”
Yared Yirgu for fixing a thermostat issue at Ross Hall: “The tech was great with following up with me”
Roger White, Souk Vongs and Tim Lindsey for their quick response to a leak at Discovery Hall: “I appreciated the prompt response by facilities and that they mopped both offices, took the soaked absorbent pads and placed new absorbent pads where we often get leaks.”
Michael Graham for replacing lightbulbs at 1959 E St.: “The technician replaced the globes and the lights work fine. It was fixed promptly. Very happy.”
William McKnight and Eric Jackson for fixing a thermostat at Lafayette: “They fixed the issue in a great way”
Jose Avila for cutting new keys for a closet at Stockton Hall: “Great! Fast and efficient “
We encourage you to read all emails sent to university employees, but we realize it’s easy to miss the details in the barrage of content sometimes. Below we’ve compiled a few highlights from recent editions of the GW Information Technology Newsletter, GWell, and Digital Download.
The myGW website and GW Mobile app are being redesigned to streamline access to the university’s online services. The new myGW mobile app is also now available for download in the mobile app stores, replacing the existing mobile app. The current GW Mobile app will continue to function until February 1st. Stay up-to-date on rollout details at the New myGW initiatives page. Access the new myGW prior to the official cutover on February 1st by visiting go.gwu.edu/mygw.
Whether you are looking to celebrate the new year or to plan your next vacation, TicketsatWork has many deals for GW employees to explore this January on flights and hotels, clothing and accessories, choices for maintaining your physical, mental, and financial wellness, and much more! To sign up at no cost, click become a member and enter our company code: GWU.
Benefits Tips and Reminders for the New Year
The 2024 Benefits Tips and Reminders (PDF) is now available to help you start the new year with the most up-to-date benefits information. This document provides step-by-step instructions for how to begin using your newly elected benefits for 2024 such as how to access your medical ID cards, how to contact our benefits’ vendor partners, how to create online accounts with vendor partners, and how to fill a prescription if you have yet to receive your ID card. You’ll also learn about important FSA deadlines and more! As you take some time to review the information provided, remember that you can always contact us for assistance with any questions regarding your 2024 benefit elections.
Quick tips from GW Communications & Marketing Digital Support
Emma Mass Email Overview
January 10, 2024 | 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Learn how you can connect with your audience using Emma, GW’s university-wide mass email tool. This training will cover the user login process, contact management, and Emma’s drag-and-drop campaign editor. Register for the Emma Training.
Each week we’ll be sharing the upcoming training and professional development opportunities available here at GW.
Wednesday 1/17
FBG Quarterly Safety Training Join us for this quarter’s safety training, which will focus on Lockout Tagout Red Tag. Lockout Tagout, or LOTO, is the de-energizing and securing of equipment, machinery, or processes so hazardous energy isn’t re-introduced during servicing or repair. This includes closing electrical circuits and valves, neutralizing extreme temperatures, and the process of affixing a label, or tag, that communicates information about what’s being done to the machine or equipment and why it’s important. This training will specifically focus on Red Tag; alerting employees not to operate tagged equipment. In order to ensure that this training is accessible to as many people as possible, participants can choose to attend either the morning or afternoon session.
Session One
Time: 7:30am-9:00am
Location: Funger 103
Session Two
Time: 1pm-2:30pm
Location: USC 307
Thursday, 1/18
Let’s Talk Privacy! General Privacy Awareness Workshop Join us and learn how to be responsible and transparent in the way we collect, maintain, and use Personally Identifiable Information (PII). This workshop will provide you with a better understanding of the essentials of Privacy, including individual responsibility to use PII only for authorized purposes and to protect it from loss.
