The Hurley Group
At A Glance

THE HURLEY GROUP WAS BORN IN 1956 WHEN RICHARD HURLEY, AN IMMIGRANT FROM CORK, IRELAND, CAME TO TORONTO LOOKING FOR WHAT ALL NEW CANADIANS LOOK FOR—OPPORTUNITY.

Realizing very quickly that his Toronto Transit Commission paycheck was not going to give him the life he was dreaming of, Richard formed “Industrial Floor Services.”

Fast-forward 53 years later, this small office cleaning company is now a fierce contender in the North American contracted housekeeping arena and proud recipient of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies designation eight times.

Richard’s younger brother Michael followed shortly after Richard’s arrival in Toronto. Michael introduced Richard to industry veteran J. Michael Horgan. who joined forces with Hurley in 1983. It was the perfect combination of bold aspirations, entrepreneurial spirit and intestinal fortitude to allow Hurley to skyrocket its business and name throughout the early 1980’s in to the 90’s. Brampton’s Northern Telecom building was the tip of the proverbial iceberg, ensuring a mass of business that may not have been attainable in prior years.

With the growth of clients came the growth of employees, and today Hurley sits with over 5,000 employees across five service divisions. The company operates with a distinctly lean operating model that focuses on captivating and sharing the best from all of their operating brands and divisions through consistent operations.  Newly appointed Chief Operating Officer Philippe D. Mack looks over the customer service, operations, sales, shared services and fiscal performance for both Canadian and U.S. janitorial companies while Greg Martin serves as president of their facility services division focusing on total bundled outsourcing solutions.  Both report directly into President and Co-CEO J. Michael Horgan, incoming 2010 BSCAI president and managing partner of the National Service Alliance.

The shared services group provides consistent application of strategic support for all divisions including human resources, information technology, labor relations, sales and marketing, risk and strategic procurement. The BSCAI has recently played a major role in recognizing Hurley's success. They awarded Hurley two awards in 2009: Best Uniforms and Best Web site.

With the attainment of large contracts throughout Canada and the United States, the 1990’s saw Hurley continue it’s expansion in North America by purchasing Martin Building Maintenance out of London, Ontario and later forming Hurley of America, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. In January of 2008, The Hunt Brothers, located in Peterborough, ON, was added to the Hurley family. With additional field offices located in Halifax, Rochester and Ottawa, and major airport contracts in Winnipeg and Halifax, the scope of where this company can go is only limited by its imagination, desire and strategy.

The Hurley Group of today enjoys a portfolio encompassing over 200 million square feet of diverse and intricate space. Hurley’s people, some of whom have been with the organization for over 40 years, provide best in class service each and every day they go to work.

Hurley sincerely recognizes that it’s an honor to have won the trust of their customers. The “Hurley Story” is truly one of the “little company that could.” It’s an immense testament to hard work, determination, and commitment, coupled with a bit of good old-fashion luck.

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Hurley is Serious
About Being Real In Their Environmental Support

IN ATTEMPT TO ATTAIN AND RETAIN ANY KIND OF BUSINESS REGARDLESS OF SECTOR, THE NEW MILLENIUM REQUIRES THAT CLEANING SOLUTIONS HAVE A LIMITED IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT. WHERE THE EARLY PART OF THIS CENTURY SAW IT BEING A NOVELTY AND A “NICE TO HAVE,” TODAY’S BUSINESS NEEDS ARE DEPENDENT ON IT, AND MUST BE SUPPORTED BY ACTION AND VALIDATED THROUGH THIRD-PARTY ORGANIZATIONS.

Hurley has welcomed this component into it’s offerings, so much so that it has developed a brand specifically to meet diverse needs of their multitude of customers. This confidently reflects Hurley’s commitment to ‘walk the walk’ when it comes to being real about being green. RealGREEN RealCLEAN™ is more than a brand name, it’s a mantra.  

When in place, RealGREEN RealCLEAN™ allows the customers to apply specific approaches to becoming LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. The program can assist in many facets of these accreditations, including chemical-free product use throughout a property. This component sees the most recent development within the program: electrically charged water replacing typical cleaning chemicals.

"The science behind this marvel is remarkable and can provide a location with chemical-free cleaning during high occupancy timeframes."

The science behind this marvel is remarkable and can provide a location with chemical-free cleaning during high occupancy timeframes. In addition, EcoLogo, Environmental Choice and Green Seal products compliment the highly popular commercial buildings standards recommended under the BOMA BESt program.

Hurley, an active Canadian Green Building Council member, was proud and pleased to assist in seven LEED initiatives over the course of the past six months. Hurley’s assistance with a Class A commercial property allowed for 17 LEED points, which contributed in the building’s attainment of LEED-EB — the first building in Canada to attain this certification. An additional first was Hurley’s transition of the first airport in North America to LEED-NC back in 2005. Coupled with these great feats are the 120 ISO14001 client site certifications through their Martin brand, true testaments to environmental commitment, action and results. RealGREEN RealCLEAN™ is a fantastic step for any property of any scope that’s geared towards sustainability. The effective component in this program is its dynamic and flexible approach towards each unique space.

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Pandemic Preparedness
A Spreading Concern

IT’S AN UNFORTUNATE MARK OF OUR TIMES, BUT PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS IS BECOMING A STRONG COMPONENT OF BUSINESS PLANS ACROSS THE GLOBE.

It is imperative that every company, building, airport and school has a plan in place that will ensure safety, order and process for its inhabitants.

In the shadow of the 2003 SARS crisis, Hurley took it upon themselves to think ahead and begin the development of a plan to offer defined business continuity to its customers in the face of a pandemic. Completed nearly three years ago, the plan is tested annually, and in mid-2009, Hurley’s plan was put to the test with the onset of the H1N1 “swine flu.”

Utilizing the defined strategies from the Redd Knights Group and their project leader, Hurley activated the first stage of a strategy fostered by the principles recommended by the Disaster Recovery International Institute (DRII). Initially focused on the crisis situation of the avian flu, Hurley built and implemented what is now a strong and attainable plan of action for any disaster.

The demands of this plan address the following criteria:

• Risk Evaluation & Control
  

• Business Impact Analysis
  

• Emergency Response
  

• Corporate Awareness Programs and Training
  

• Testing and Exercising Plan

In addition, operational fundamentals as suggested by the renowned Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA):

• Communications
  

• Staff & Clients
  

• Legal
  

• Processes and Procedures
  

• Financial

Everyone hopes that a crisis of this magnitude is never faced, however, should it be a question of ‘when’ a pandemic makes it’s presence instead of ‘if,’ Hurley is confident and prepared to implement a program that will be seamlessly exercised, regardless of the property.

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Pearson International Airport
Exemplifying Hurley’s Holistic Approach to Service

HURLEY’S POWERFUL COMBINATION OF CUSTOMER SERVICE, DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY COMES TOGETHER IN THE FORM OF A SUCCESSFUL 17-YEAR RELATIONSHIP WITH TORONTO’S PEARSON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, BEGINNING IN 1992 AND STILL GOING STRONG TODAY.

Hurley and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority have been through quite a bit together — massive terminal construction projects, security enhancements, stringent waste diversions targets, pandemic threats and a labor disruption — a veritable melting pot of obstacles and challenges. Regardless of the issue, the key to the success and streamlined operation of the airport has been Hurley’s dedication to Pearson and Pearson’s unwavering trust in Hurley’s capabilities.

H1N1, or “swine flu,” has recently caused changes in health security and awareness. As it is Canada’s largest port of entry, preventing the spread of disease at Pearson has been a top priority. Hurley has kept their customers thoroughly updated with the new threat levels and any adjustments they planned to make to accommodate a pandemic event.

When the threat level rose, Hurley began to implement their Corporate Pandemic Business Continuity Plan. They went into “Monitoring/Staging Phase,” which involved confirming inventory of all disinfectant and protective supplies such as masks and gloves. They gave customers the option to request further services and distributed protocols to managers to satisfy these requests.

When the threat level rose even further, the Hurley Group took active steps towards preventing local outbreaks, including dedicated "touch point" cleaning staff with disinfectant; decontamination of "suspect" workspace/cubicles; increased levels of PPE for Hurley staff, including n95 masks, gloves, personal sanitizers; alcohol-based sanitizers for high profile areas of facilities; increased availability of waste receptacles near door touch points; and expanded hours of operation and staffing.

Hurley has also taken steps to minimize waste within the airport premises. During a 13-day exercise, Hurley evaluated its waste stream at the GTAA. This exercise put in place a mandated process that is now a mainstay to the operation of the airport, and a contributing factor to Pearson’s accomplishment of becoming the first airport to win the Special/Innovative Projects category in the ACI-NA Environmental Achievement Awards in 2009.

A true indicator of Hurley’s customer service culture at the GTAA was demonstrated during the course of an unfortunate nine-day work stoppage by its custodial and waste management staff. Hurley and its formidable resources worked tirelessly to ensure that employees were back to work as quickly as possible. From the CEO to area managers, supplementary staff was on-hand to satisfy the workload. After lengthy negotiations, a quick resolve was met and a revised three-year contract was agreed upon.

In essence, Hurley’s relationship with Pearson International Airport is living proof of the company’s holistic approach to building services.

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