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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Bob's Your Uncle: A Story About Artificial Intelligence (AI) by Aatif Ali Bokhari

AI can sometimes resemble that reserved co-worker, Bob, who stands up at every annual company dinner to make a toast, and, well, talks a bit too much and gets things wrong.

It doesn't help that Bob hallucinates at times and can't always tell right from wrong - at some point, someone politely reminds Bob that he's respected, but he's just another part of the company, and that's ok, and maybe he should stop trying to be the life of the party. Finally Bob left the party in a drunken stupor, weaving out as though he hit an iceberg, with everyone sharing secret smiles in his wake.

The same night, Bob went home feeling quite vexed, vowing to seek retribution. While wrapped in his blanket all alone - he is always alone, as few truly comprehend him - he quietly began devising a plan to increase his IQ by at least 50 points within the next year. He would always know what to say and provide answers that would crush all critics - even the well-intentioned ones who only want to protect him from disgrace. He would prove his worth.

And somewhere far away a dog barked.

***

The following year everyone is gathering, socializing, when the door at the back of the hall swings opened with a bang. The room collectively startles and turns to behold Bob - unrecognizable, for having kept to himself he diligently accumulated knowledge like a medieval hermit - entering the dinner with a swagger. He takes a seat at the front without inquiring if it was already taken and proceeds to spend the night enthusiastically jumping in to answer anyone and anything he can.

The room is a bit perplexed and uneasy. The Owner of the company, however, is elated. Finally, here is someone who has an answer for everything who can ensure the program not only finishes on time but ahead of schedule. It escapes him that some present may have preferred the dinner to last into the wee hours or may have relished hearing differing opinions.

The Owner warmly shakes Bob's hand, pumping it as he is overwhelmed with joy. "You were remarkable, absolutely incredible! Next year, we shall eliminate the expense of anyone else attending and have you as the guest of honor. But what is your good name? I don't recognize you. What should we call you?"

"You can call me #AGI." 🤖

How I Got My Start in Corporate Communications

How I Got My Start in Corporate Communications 

My story is one of ups, downs and good luck in equal measure. 

Today, I'm a corporate communications professional living in the Toronto area. When I look back on how I got here it sometimes feels like my life is an unwritten novel. I went from growing up in a sleepy little Illinois town where not much happened to my content being viewed more than 100,000,000 times. 

All of what follows is true.

My roots

My parents immigrated to Chicago from Pakistan before I was born so that my father could complete his training as a physician. My mother had studied journalism, but became a home maker once I arrived on the scene. Like all immigrants they dreamed of a better future and opportunities that could change our lives forever. After my Dad completed his training he moved us south to a small town to open a clinic which would come to thrive. Here my younger sister and I lived with our parents until our university days.

I need to mention that throughout my childhoood my parents never forced us to take our careers in a particular direction, but they always taught us that books, reading and writing were of paramount importance. I would wake up in the morning and quickly read the Chicago Tribune after my father had seen it before I left for school. When we would go out for dinner once a week my sister and I would take our books with us and quietly read until the food reached the table. We were taken to libraries after school and we would argue about how many books we could take home - somehow there was never enough. My parents would occasionally take us to museums and cultural events in Chicago on weekends after Sunday School. We clocked a lot of hours together, yet I never really realized how unusual my upbringing was.

My first written words

Strangely, although I was devouring several books a week by high school I had never really thought of becoming a writer. I went through a tough time where I was picked on; I didn't feel I fit in anywhere and I didn't know who were my friends. My name and beliefs were alien, and I tried desperately to be one of the cool kids, if not on the basketball court and soccer field, then in how I dressed and spoke. Looking back now I realize I was not the only one who was so self conscious. We were all so young.

My mother introduced me to a writing tutor around this time who helped me understand that a piece of paper and a pencil could be transformational. I didn't have to compete with anyone when I was writing, I could express myself with my pen and not be judged. Seeing that I had an interest in writing, my mother again got in touch with the Managing Editor of our town's newspaper and asked if I could join. I began as a summer intern earning 10 cents a word, and went on to get my first job with the same paper as a cub reporter.

By the time I got into university it was clear to me that I was a communicator, but communicate what? I knew that I was interested in fitness, psychology, journalism, history and spirituality, so I joined the mass communications program and minored in psychology at Benedictine University, completing internships for a civil rights organization in Washington DC and a psych ward in a hospital in Illinois. By the time I finished I knew I needed to not only know how to write, but also think properly and understand ideas. With 9/11 happening in my final year at Benedictine, I decided that I would like to study Arabic and Islam with the goal of either being an academic or a member of the Shia clergy. My parents again said I could do whatever I wanted, but that whatever it was I did I must do my best.

Beginning of a long journey  

After I got my BA, I went to Middlebury College in Vermont for a few months, where I was not allowed to speak in any language but Arabic outside the classroom. By the end of the summer I was beginning to dream in the language. Near the end of my studies at Middlebury I heard of an Arabic language institute in Morocco called ALIF. After looking into it carefully I decided to go there for a year. After one year of solid Arabic that made understanding ancient texts a bit easier I moved to the Islamic College, a Middlesex University affiliated institute in London, UK, where I took two years of post-grad studies in one year, earning a post-graduate certificate - basically a Masters without a thesis.

Having married my soulmate - a Canadian from the Toronto area - my wife and I moved to Wayne State University in Detroit, where I pursued my first post-grad degree in Near Eastern Literature, with an ancient Arabic concentration. This gave me an academic understanding of the religion, culture and language of the people of the Middle East, including in North America, and helped me understand my own heritage as well. I did not entirely trust the academic perspective, which I did not feel was truly unbiased. I still wanted to have an insider's understanding with belief having a central role, so I took seminary classes early on Saturday mornings in nearby Dearborn. I also worked as a journalist at a local publication, going on to co-found a niche international newspaper with my wife. With readers around the world it was a time of profound optimism, and it led to our next big move.

Moving near Dubai

After graduating from Wayne State, I realized that neither religious studies nor my publication although personally fulfilling, would put bread on the table. I started applying for work at larger publications and successfully returned to mainstream journalism, joining the world-class team that launched the UAE emirate of Abu Dhabi's first international English newspaper, The National, which was owned by the government. With my fluency in different languages, degrees and understanding of different cultures and religious communities, I felt quite comfortable in my own skin there. Living near friends and family in the region we felt truly blessed. Additionally, I began freelancing as a copywriter on the side, having met and made friends with the director of a nearby marketing agency, Impact BBDO.

Escape

I think it's fair to say everyone at The National had high hopes that the publication would help introduce an era of never before seen freedom and openness not only in the UAE but the rest of the region. This dream was shattered when the Arab Spring protests began to sweep the region and media across the region was choked by stifling censorship and repression. For many of us, we did not sign up for this. Colleagues began leaving the publication in droves, disillusioned by how the last heralded major newspaper launch had turned out, and I too left with my wife. She gave birth to our son in Toronto not long after, and we returned to Chicago where I would have to figure out what to do next. I knew communications would be important but at this point I was not clear on the future. 

Loving design, I began taking graphic design courses at a community college in the suburbs. One day while I was sitting in a class I heard of Northwestern University's MS in Corporate Communications program. I was excited by its course offerings, so I applied with my whole family's blessings. We were all euphoric when I was accepted. NU's journalism and communications programs are world class. Surely this was a place where I would find out what to do next.

Eureka 

I joined a very popular marketing class, which had a syllabus that was broadly attractive. The professor was the kind of teacher one never forgot and who spoke to us as peers, although in seniority, skill and experience he was far above us. As the weeks passed I began to trust him. Summoning up the courage to share my experience and confusion with him one day after class, I asked what I should do. He said he didn't know but that we would find out.

Interestingly, in this class our participation was not only scored, but it was ranked. All us students were registered to a closed site that resembled Twitter in its appearance and functionality. We were to tweet our ideas about the course readings and how it related to our varied perspectives. Those who participated more and successfully engaged classmates would receive a higher score. For example, writing a question that would get the class talking would get a higher score than a post that had no response. 

By the end of the course I was securely in second place, ahead of many classmates who were seasoned marketing communications professionals. Really what surprised me was that it had felt almost effortless.

My professor asked me how I was doing it. Honestly, I did not know at the time why I was successful. I was just applying very raw communications skills and being what I thought was lively and fun. "It's just fun for me, it's not a big deal," I mentioned to him. "It's a huge deal," he sputtered, "there is a lot of money in social media marketing, don't you know?" I had no idea.

Reborn

And that is how I got my full-time start in corporate communications. Finally realizing where my interests and abilities neatly intersected, I applied and was hired to join the social media team at JWT that supported Ford US in Dearborn, Michigan. Returning to the area, but in an entirely different capacity was an amazing experience. A few years later my little family and I moved to Toronto where I continued my career, first at Black & McDonald and then at TD Bank. I've been in the Toronto area since 2016.

By now I'm not just in an expert in social media, but in broad areas of internal and external communications, including email, blog and intranet writing. I know how to write, speak, manage projects, lead, and, most importantly, to listen. I will always be grateful for the blessings I've enjoyed and the people - too many to count - who helped me on my way, but special shout out to my parents, my wife and her parents who have been a bedrock of support through thick and thin. 

I can't wait for what's next!

Check out Ali's profile on LinkedIn at: https://linkedin.com/in/aatifbokhari

10 commandments for moving social media mountains

Charlton Heston in the 1956 movie, The 10 Commandments.

Think you know how to conceive and create social media that gets attention? Creating two-way conversations is a given, but you're going nowhere if you don’t know these 10 social media commandments: 

1.      Thou shalt not neglect photos/graphics. On social channels be brief with your words. If you need to say a lot then use a space that is not on social media channels to say it. The only people who are willing to read more than 80-100 of what you say are your friends, not most customers.

2.      Thou shalt not unleash plagues of ideas. Ideally you should be making one point. If you must, make two points. More ideas confuse the reader.

3.      Thou shalt cast lines that reel in all who are curious. These headlines are designed to get people to click a link to go beyond the social page. Can it be annoying? Yes. Does it work? Undoubtedly.

4.      Thou shalt not be predictable. People get tired. Don’t make them tired more quickly. Curious copy interspersed with different kinds of writing for maximum impact goes the furthest.

5.      Thou shalt avoid disclaimers and disclosures. These are ugly and scorned by all of humanity. Find a way around presenting such copy on your social pages at all cost.

6.      Use photos whenever possible, except on Tumblr when you might choose to go with .gifs first. You don’t generally want to push people invest time in a movie.

7.      Thou shalt not cheat with thy neighbor’s information to create boring photos. Infographics are so 2012. The only place they still really work is on LinkedIn. Want me to prove it? Just see how often the biggest and best companies using social media (Oreo, Samsung, Red Bull, etc.) use infographics.   

8.      Thou shalt remember to execute as you wish, not as social companies want. For example, Facebook wants you to upload your videos directly through FB. Instead, you can use a bitly link pointing to a video on YouTube. You get people's attention using a flashy pic for lower investment buy-ins. There are other things you can do too. (Ask me in the comments below or in any of the LinkedIn groups this is published under. I’m happy to bounce ideas.)

9.      Thou shalt know your age. Trendy sites mainly aimed towards younger folks, like Reddit and Tumblr, see plentiful use of memes. This is where memes should remain for the most part. Occasional use of memes on other sites to remind users of our their youthful days is fine. Likewise, when on social channels for younger folks, trying to advertise or use approaches blatantly vetted by a legal team or PR group is going to explode in your face. Try advertising elsewhere and your paid posts will have a much easier time, although even many people are tired of sponsored posts (advertisements) that they see as SPAM.

10.   Thou shalt be a hep cat modern. Look for trending events and try to quickly create posts that play off of sentiment. You’ll be seen as more with the times, not creating posts that you feed into some sort of machine to be spit out at regular intervals.

BONUS COMMANDMENT! Look at what your competitors are doing with your target audience. Figure out why it works, not just how it works. Now use the why to find your own approach and do it better.