Nine Questions Overwhelmed Facility Managers Should Ask Service Providers

Black & McDonald blog article 

It can be argued that the job of a facility manager is one of the most demanding roles for an organization, whether they are supporting the front lines within healthcare or safeguarding commercial or major manufacturing plants and facilities. 

As we move towards COVID-19 recovery, the demands on facility managers will continue to accelerate. No matter the setting, the skillset required to innovate, adapt and overcome challenges will be paramount.  

To ensure facility managers are adequately prepared to master the new normal, here are nine key questions that every facility manager should ask their organization for the second half of 2021.

1. How do I protect our workplace as COVID-19 restrictions ease?  

Once the impacts of COVID-19 are ease more, you may need to stage your staff’s return. Even with growing immunization, returning will require safe planning, spacing for distancing, doubling down on hand hygiene and personal protective equipment, and confirming adequate ventilation. Make sure your facility services providers are offering advice, options, tools and all that is needed to comply with public health authorities’ guidance and smooth the transition.

2. How can I maximize interoperability to better operate our systems?

A new generation of facility managers well versed and reliant on smart phone technology is now entering the industry. Your systems must be interoperable and interconnected. Your platform must be user-friendly, with the ability to access data and mesh with multiple devices. If your provider is behind, find one that can offer you the kind of flexibility, project management tools and options that promote innovation and support Internet of Things technology.

3. How do I continue to make improvements to decrease energy use?

Your service partner should conduct an energy audit and offer a plan to economize lighting, improve temperature control, suggest chiller and fan-unit upgrades, implement HVAC system gains, and lead building insulation improvements. These will save money, time and lower energy usage. Service partners that are proactive and knowledgeable can create opportunities to improve efficiency while reducing existing costs.  

4. Can I improve the sustainability of our operations to meet carbon reduction targets?

The transition to a cleaner future is already underway and the groundswell for change has shifted perspectives of existing infrastructure assets and operations worldwide. Beyond setting reduction targets, more than 40 governments around the world have adopted a price on carbon, through direct taxes or cap-and-trade programs. Green buildings will now play an important role in the equation to post-pandemic recovery.

There are many first steps you can take to decarbonize your facility for long-term sustainability, most importantly by taking a holistic view of your operations. Make sure your service partner can provide you with opportunities to leverage new technologies that can monitor and curtail GHG emissions. Regardless of the maturity of your current sustainability program, revisiting the plan will ensure your organization can meet its aspiration and goals.

5. How can I use a proactive maintenance strategy to save?

Facility managers generally pursue either reactive or proactive maintenance strategies. The issue with a reactive maintenance strategy is it waits for equipment to fail unexpectedly, which can lead to costly downtime and lost productivity.

Advocating for your organization to use a proactive maintenance strategy will ensure parts, components and equipment issues are addressed more efficiently prior to failure. Such a strategy will in turn reduce and control the operational costs of your facilities, improve your awareness of equipment condition, and employ a solution that focuses on eliminating downtime. A proactive services partner can save you money, reducing stressful and often costly critical failures. Your services partner should be continually providing you with opportunities to improve your facilities and equipment reliability.

6. How do I stay on top of my asset management?

The first thing facility managers should revisit is their equipment inventory, to ensure it is current and accurate. If this inventory has become outdated, you will need to conduct detailed asset evaluations and populate a comprehensive inventory management database.

Once you can properly track all your assets and their associated activities, you will be able to better plan for maintenance, disposal, and replacement. Ensure your service partner is able to leverage technologies that enable better decision-making on assets. Your service partners must support a strategic approach and long-term view of asset management.

7. How can I provide clear and consistent communication on site?

“The rule of seven” states that a person needs to hear a message at least seven times before it makes an impression. Any communication strategy to shape your users’ needs must maximize exposure through many channels, using clear and consistent key messages. You need to engage your workplace in creative and proactive ways through feedback loops. Maybe your office has video screens in the elevators, an intranet, SMS text messaging or a staff bulletin board. Make sure you capitalize on these resources to influence and shape behaviour to achieve your goals.

8. Can human factors improve health, safety and security?

Facility managers need to assess the overall effects of facilities on the operations within. Your vendors must understand your workplace environment, occupant services, occupant health, safety and security needs, and ensure your users are protected from danger and are confident to perform their best. Your partners must anticipate how human factors can lead to harm and avoid it while continually reviewing the process for efficiency and effectiveness.

9. Is there a seamless way to cut risk?

Lowering risk requires a plan for risk identification, analysis and evaluation. Your facilities must undergo emergency preparedness, response and recovery, and practise these processes regularly. Your service partners are vital for confirming facility resilience and business continuity.

Black & McDonald is an integrated, multi-trade facility services provider, with insight into directing a diverse portfolio of public and private facilities. Our clients partner with us to ensure facilities are safe and efficient for all users, and that service excellence and best value are delivered throughout the life of our agreements. Our experts help identify opportunities to improve facilities and to develop tailored solutions for your operations.

Four approaches for facility managers to adopt so they keep virtual workplaces viable

Black & McDonald blog article

Even before COVID-19 struck in the first quarter of 2020, there was a lively debate about the role of virtual offices in facility management. Virtual work was defined by tasks conducted outside the traditional physical work space. That definition has broadened to encompass allowing home-based teleworkers, after-hours workers, on-the-road technicians, offsite service partners, and even outsourced workers.

As we begin the recovery from the pandemic, this trend has accelerated and will continue. Facility management and operations will have evolving needs—so to remain productive and profitable, clients and their facility service companies must find the best way to accommodate them. Thus, what is the best way to create an efficient facility operation through a virtual workplace?

The answer lies in ensuring your facility service leadership keeps four key concepts at the forefront of design and practice. The concepts to remember are strategy, communication, productivity and balance.

Focus on strategic priorities

During the once-in-a-lifetime crisis we all are going through, many organizations became distracted from their strategic priorities to address the health, safety and ongoing productivity issues that the pandemic created. Now is the time to refocus on the corporate priorities established, or adjust them to reflect the new circumstances. A teleworking or hybrid model with a virtual workplace will likely be part of the path forward. Leaders will need to act now to help their employees and organizations make the transition, or risk a loss of momentum and a loss of talented people. Be it a health care clinic, a transportation hub or a power generation plant, you need to build a work environment that ensures your professionals stay engaged with your vision and mission, whether they are onsite, offsite or working remotely from home.

Keep Communication Frequent, Transparent and Consistent

Virtual working can leave members of your team isolated. To overcome this, successful leaders and organizations communicate frequently, transparently and consistently. When you have a widely distributed team, you need the digital tools and infrastructure that best enable daily or weekly interactions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations heard from leaders often and they spent extra time explaining the business impacts, decision making, board feedback, and leadership mindset. A recent report in the MIT Sloan Management Review cited the use of webinars and video updates as more effective than simple emails. The same survey also found the greatest obstacle to effective communication was mixed messages coming from the organization. Your facility needs to be consistent, regardless of the function or level in the organization. It could be from Human Resources, Finance, Technology, Legal or Operations, or from the CEO to a front-line lead—in all cases, the messages must be consistent.

Stay productive and engaged

To keep teams productive and engaged, enterprises must use technology to improve physical infrastructure and deliver optimal solutions and services for use across the new work environment. The pandemic proved some of the benefits from task productivity gains, but it also saw six in ten workers feel isolation, decreases in collaborative productivity, and disconnection that led to fewer perceived rewards and career promotions. Keeping productive and engaged involves a rethink. Everything from ergonomic workstations to collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams or Zoom, along with other services and amenities for employees, must create the optimal work environments that serve onsite, offsite and remote workers. To keep facility operations seamless, it is important to integrate the physical and the digital workplaces, and to actively signal staff and facility service companies that they are part of the success of the organization.

Keep work and life in balance

Virtual workplaces have posed another paradox. Enabling remote work may have given time back to employees through less commuting and more flexible schedules for family. But for some people, it has also blurred the lines between the personal and the professional, and created a perception of 24/7 availability to their employer. Studies indicate that remote workers log more hours than their onsite counterparts. The remedy, here, for ensuring your people avoid burnout is a combination: time allowances for flexible scheduling to handle personal obligations, workload adjustments for family responsibilities, opportunities for team building and social interaction, and time blocking and personal days for rest and relaxation. These steps all sustain the goal of a healthy work/life balance for every member of your staff.

Many leaders emerging from the pandemic are keen to redesign facility workplaces to capture the benefits of what we have learned from virtual work models during the pandemic. We can help with the right solutions and create an efficient facility operation that reflects your strategy, encourages communication, promotes productivity and preserves the work/life balance that is right your people.

Black & McDonald is an integrated, multi-trade Facility Services provider, with experience operating and maintaining a diverse portfolio of facilities across both the public and private sectors. Our experience includes commercial offices, healthcare environments, major transportation hubs and airports, cultural facilities, life science laboratories, municipal government properties, educational institutions, data centres, utility infrastructure, and major manufacturing and distribution plants.

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