Employee of the Month: Elizabeth Alfaro
By Caitlin Manningly
 For the past nine years Elizabeth Alfaro has been a dedicated worker for United Services of America. Originally from Ancash Peru, Elizabeth came to the United States in 1991 and began working for United Services shortly after. While in Peru she attended Peru University and graduated with a degree in Business Administration. She is currently assigned as a matron at Government Center in Stamford.
Over the years Elizabeth has maintained a hard work ethic that has not wavered. Her supervisors say she has a strong desire to do her job efficiently. According to Carole Bianco, Customer Support Manager for United Services, "Elizabeth is a great employee who is always striving to do her best and always has a smile. She is ready to help our clients in any way possible."
Recently an employee in the Government Center building, Kathi Cavanna, asked Elizabeth to keep an eye out for an earring she had lost. A few weeks later, as she was performing her duties, Elizabeth found the missing piece of jewelry and returned it to the rightful owner's office. Cavanna was so pleased she sent an email to Elizabeth's supervisor expressing her gratitude.
"[Elizabeth] is a good person and a conscientious worker," the email said. For Elizabeth, it demonstrates what her supervisors say is her strong ethical makeup and her commitment to the helping clients.
But, this was not the first time Elizabeth has reunited a lost treasure with its owner. On a previous occasion another employee at Government Center lost a gold and diamond ring, but Elizabeth found the ring and returned it to the owner right away.
"Elizabeth strongly believes that she should treat other people as she would like to be treated herself. She is very honest," said Bianco. "She knows how upset she would be if she lost something of such value, and so she went out of her to way to find it and return it."
Upon learning of Elizabeth's efforts to find this latest lost and cherished item, United Services President Paul Senecal said, "Nothing pleases me more than when one of our employees finds a treasured possession and promptly returns it. I applaud Elizabeth for this act of good faith that helped put our customer's mind at ease."
Because she is conscientious and hard working, Elizabeth Alfaro is being recognized as Employee of the Month for November. United Services is proud to have such a hard working employee, who always has a smile on her face and who goes out of her way to help its customers
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Event Listing | |
November 17
Tax Issues: How they will affect your property
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Giovanni's II
2748 Post Road
Darien, CT
Members $45
Non-Members $65
December 2
Holiday Social
5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Sponsored by
Hoffman Architects
Carriage Barn Arts Center
681 South Avenue
(Route 124)
New Canaan, CT
www.soctboma.org
November 17
Tax Issues: How they will affect your property
7:30 to 9:30 a.m.
The Society Room of Hartford
31 Pratt Street
Hartford, CT
Members $45
Non-Members $65
December 16
Annual Holiday Social & 2010 TOBY Awards Dinner
Come celebrate the season and honor the 2010 TOBY Winners. The following awards will also be presented: Member of the Year, Corporation of the Year, Allied Member of the Year and Engineer of the Year.
5:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Room 960
960 Main Street
Hartford, CT
www.bomahartford.org
For more information and to register for all BOMA events, please contact Sharon Moran at smoran@ssmgt.com
or 860-243-3977.
November 17
Security for our Facilities and Ourselves
December
Holiday Event
LOOKING AHEAD
January 2011
New Member Breakfast
February 2011
IFMA Headquarters Presentation (tentative)
For more information on all IFMA-Hudson Valley events, please visit the online calendar.
Conscious Decisions
November 17
The Third Annual Fairfield Noon to 4:30 p.m.
Business-to-Business Expo
6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Consumer Show
The Pavilion
Stamford Marriott
Hotel & Spa
243 Tresser Boulevard.
Stamford, CT
Click here for more event information and to be an exhibitor. RSVP here.
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Greetings!
It seems the holiday season comes quicker every year. We would like to take the opportunity for thank all our employees, customers and vendors for their commitment and loyalty to our firm. 2010 has been a good year for Affineco and we hope it has been a good year for all our friends and associates. We look forward to seeing every one during this festive season and send along best wishes to all friends and family.  Sincerely,
Paul Senecal |
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BOMA Benefits Members
By Matt Ellis
2010 has been a banner year for the Southern Connecticut BOMA chapter. Under the guidance of chapter president Jodi Gutierrez,
 | | Chapter President Jodi Gutierrez. |
BOMA has established a committee to improve emergency preparedness planning for commercial properties, organized the sustainable Stamford Corporate Challenge to increase building efficiencies and adoption of sustainability policies and presented new education programs. "It's been a very rewarding year so far," said Gutierrez, Vice President of Property Management at George Comfort & Sons in Stamford. "We have a great board and a proactive membership. People have really devoted themselves to get so much accomplished in this year."
The Southern Connecticut BOMA chapter has been the leading trade association for the region's commercial real estate industry for 25 years. A division of BOMA International, the Southern Connecticut chapter extends south from New Haven to the New York border. The chapter shares a handful of members with the Hartford chapter which covers New Haven north to Springfield, MA.
"We have had a good year even though many are still concerned about the economy and layoffs," said Sharon Moran, Executive Director of BOMA Southern Connecticut. "It amazes me that so many of our members can find the time to spend on the volunteer committees. It shows how important they feel the issues are."
For the members - both the Principals (building owners and managers) and Allieds (vendors and service providers) - BOMA is a dynamic association that provides information, education and the ability to network and socialize with others in the industry.
"Principals come to build their relationships. They work together and help one another. And, when they need services, they prefer to do business with the Allied members because they are supporting the association," Moran said.
As an Allied member, the Affineco companies of United Services and Premier Maintenance appreciate the opportunities that come with membership.
"From my perspective, this BOMA chapter focuses a lot of effort on providing valuable, timely and proactive information to its members," said Paul Senecal, United Services President. "BOMA has always been an integral part of my business as well as my social life and the friendships I've developed through it will last a lifetime."
Senecal estimates 50% of the combined companies' business stems from their affiliation with BOMA. And, he says, one of the reasons they do so much business with Principal members is that they are careful about integrating sales into discussions at BOMA meetings.
"I believe it's really important to keep those conversations outside of the meetings because those should be a safe environment for Principal members. They feel comfortable coming to meetings knowing they're not going to be solicited," he said. Senecal says he's proud that all the Allied members in this chapter are respectful of the meeting format and have been "great about playing nice in the sandbox."
Gutierrez says that with all BOMA Southern Connecticut has accomplished this year, there's even more ahead. "This upcoming year we will host our trade show where our Allied members will have an opportunity to display their products and talk about their services and we're very excited about the upcoming holiday social which is being held at a new venue for us - the Carriage Barn at Waveny Park in New Canaan," she said.
Thanks to the leadership of its president, board and the commitment of its members, BOMA Southern Connecticut continues to demonstrate its value. "This has been a well established association for a number of years," said Moran. "Even in this economy, our membership is holding steady at 115."
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Affineco Evolves with Technology
By Susan Minichiello
Premier Maintenance and United Services--divisions of Affineco--continue to pull out all the stops to achieve the highest levels of efficiency, effectiveness and environmentally friendly operations. This means keeping pace with and embracing new technologies that are inherently green and that offer improved methods for doing business.
"It is a core part of our culture to embrace new technologies so we can ensure we are providing cutting edge, green opportunities for our clients," said Paul Senecal, President of United Services.
Paperless Proposal 
Recently, Affineco began working with PaperlessProposal.com based in San Diego. Paperless Proposal is a web-based program that facilitates the entire proposal process via the Internet. The program enables Affineco to originate, edit, manage, store, retrieve, track and send proposals paper-free. Since a typical proposal is 35 to 40 pages long, the amount of paper, ink, hardware wear-and-tear, etc. being saved is quite substantial.
Paperless Proposal has a wide range of capabilities. By automating the majority of the process, it empowers Affineco to be more green and to spend less time writing and editing. Designed to help the company win more business, the program creates persuasive, professional and customer-focused bids.
An Affineco proposal template is hosted online by Paperless Proposal and contains the basic information repeated in all bids, such as the company history and management team. When a new proposal is needed, Affineco is able to use this template and upload additional pages and information to customize the proposal to a particular property or potential customer. Sophia Chung, Affineco receptionist, gathers property- and customer-specific details and moves through a guided series of fields and steps online to input the information. Once Chung has entered the relevant data, Paperless Proposal assembles a cohesive, well-structured document. Chung can further edit and refine the proposal before sending it electronically to the Affineco staff members who need to review it and provide feedback. She can then track online who has received, viewed and downloaded the proposal as well as manage, sort, archive and edit all saved proposals.
"The Paperless Proposal is a new technology that is more efficient because it removes the need for our customers and for us to make multiple copies. It eases both the delivery and distribution of our proposals," Senecal said.
TEAM Software
In July, United Services began piloting a new web-based accounting system: TEAM Software. TEAM is designed specifically for building service and security contractors and boasts the most powerful, fully integrated products in the market. TEAM's programs are all accessed via the Internet, so there is no physical software to purchase and install. By implementing TEAM's payroll, invoicing, ordering, customer relations and internal reporting applications, United is streamlining its accounting processes and achieving a more cost-effective, accurate and green system.
In terms of payroll, TEAM enables a telephone timekeeping process through which employees punch in and out by calling into the system when they arrive at and depart from job sites. This system has eliminated United's use of paper time sheets altogether. Operations managers can access each employee's time sheet online and can verify and edit information as needed before sending it along to United's accounting department. Ultimately, United will utilize TEAM's voice verification system, which will randomly validate that the person calling in is the actual employee.
"TEAM will improve our payroll process," said Senecal. Since it's collected by phone, we will save on paper, postage and time. We won't need to shuttle payroll forms from the site to our main office."
And, TEAM allows United to invoice customers electronically instead of printing invoices and sending via regular mail. Each United customer can also opt in for online access that creates a home page specific to them. United can post customer-specific messages to that home page so the client will see the message upon log-in (this is also the case for United's own operations managers). By opting in, customers can also access their invoices and statements directly online.
United is also beginning to implement TEAM's purchase order system to enable electronic supply-ordering and invoicing from its vendors. By generating orders via the Internet, United staff members will no longer need to write out and then fax purchase orders. United has initiated this process with one of its main suppliers so the division can not only order supplies electronically but also download the vendor's invoices for importing into the accounting system. This supplier alone generates a couple hundred invoices per month for United, so this new process will significantly reduce paper, postage, etc. and increase productivity.
The TEAM system also enables paperless internal reporting. United's accounting staff can initiate and send electronic reports as needed to operations managers and upper management, eliminating the need for faxing such information. With the new accounting system online, United is exploring the possibility of allowing its accounting staff to telecommute on occasion. Since the staff can access the new system remotely, they would be able to accomplish certain work from home, saving on fuel and other transportation-related costs for United's company cars.
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Lanartco Performance Tip of the Month
Have you heard that positive reinforcement in the workplace has a time and a place?
If you haven't, that's okay because Lanartco has.
We all want to be rewarded for the things we do well. However, as managers, we need to know when and how to communicate to our staff. Not only that, but we need to recognize that our multi-national workforces have different cultural views on patting each other on the back. Stay cognizant and positive and offer up your comments in an appropriate fashion. To read more from Jill Diamond, see her blog post, The Blind Are Happy?, and add your comments or questions. Jill Diamond is a communication coach and the Founder/President of Lanartco, Inc. Read more about Jill here. Lanartco is a learning and development boutique that provides communication performance skills solutions. To learn more about how you can enhance your vocal presence, your presentation style or your communication effectiveness, visit us at www.lanartco.com or contact us at (212) 206-3900 or admin@lanartco.com. Lanartco is happy to help you put your best self forward! |
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