How Compassion Transforms Custodial Teams
The second session of the 2026 Healthy Green Schools & Colleges Virtual Summer Summit, Cared For, Valued, & Respected – How Compassion Transforms Custodial Teams, explored how people-first leadership can make a measurable difference for custodial teams. The session opened with a presentation by Custodial Director at Rice University, Melissa Salinas, on how compassion shows up in day-to-day leadership, followed by an guided reflection and action-planning activity to help participants apply the ideas to their own teams and current challenges.
The conversation began by acknowledging that custodial teams are regularly asked to adjust to major operational changes. Melissa Salinas used a real team experience to illustrate what that level of change can look like in practice. Her team had navigated multiple chemical changes, a new supplier, a department merger, voluntary separations, leaner staffing, new residential buildings, as well as shift away from using bleach as a core cleaning product. Each of thse changes impacted processes, products, culture, workload, and staffing.
A key lesson shared by Salinas was that change becomes easier when employees understand what is happening and feel included in the process. For example, bringing vendors to campus to demonstrate products, answer questions, provide training, and hear feedback helped staff better understand the “why” behind changes. Asking employees about product quality and then using that feedback to follow up with vendors also showed staff that their experience mattered.
The session emphasized that successful change depends on trust. When employees are anxious, uncertain, or hearing rumors, leaders have an opportunity to either deepen trust or create more distance. Salinas described the importance of being honest and transparent, even when all the answers are not yet available. Staff needed truth, follow-through, and visible leadership in moments of concern or change.
Salinas recommended simple but powerful practices to build help your team feel cared for, valued, and respected: saying good morning, showing up at clock-out time to thank staff, celebrating birthdays and milestones, and making sure employees feel seen as people. Flexibility around time off also emerged as a meaningful way to build trust. For staff who had worked under less flexible leadership in the past, being able to attend appointments or manage family needs improved team morale.
The presentation also highlighted the importance of helping employees feel valued. Recognition is possible even when budgets are tight. For example, Salinas described nominating employees for institution-wide awards, celebrating team accomplishments, and looking for existing opportunities to publicly acknowledge strong work.
Helping team members feel valued also includes investing in them. Salinas shared examples such as English language learning classes during the workday, group fitness opportunities, tuition reimbursement support, and conversations about employees’ career goals.
The impact of Salinas’ approach to team management has resulted in greater openness to experimentation, more collaboration, stronger retention, and increased confidence that the team could move through future challenges together. Salinas shared that turnover has remained around 5–7 percent, compared with the city average of 18 percent for similar roles.
After the presentation, participants moved into an action-planning activity focused on applying compassionate leadership in their own contexts. The activity asked attendees to identify a recent team challenge or change, reflect on what the team needed from leadership, consider whether staff had a meaningful opportunity to share feedback, and assess whether the team felt cared for, valued, and respected.
Participants then reviewed possible leadership actions in categories such as listening, communicating, advocating, and developing, and selected actions they could commit to trying in the weeks ahead.
The session underscored that compassionate leadership is a practical and effective way to lead through change. When staff feel cared for, valued, and respected, they are more likely to trust leadership, try new approaches, collaborate with one another, and stay engaged through uncertainty.