Proving our worth
Following on from the Workplace Futures 2013 debates of the
last week I was thinking about how FM can get its seat on the board – get its
voice heard – and prove its worth - to the organisation. In times of budget cuts and shrinking margins
FM is seen as an easy target, a non-front line service that won’t matter to the
organisations business goals.
Wrong! – here are 5 steps to making FM strategic:
1. Combine the property strategy with the FM
service provision
Most organisations (public or private) will grow or shrink
their property portfolios to suit their business. The FM team need to change their delivery
model to adapt to this change.
Supporting the workforce in the workplace change – be it space planning
or minimising moves disruption will go a long way to maintaining a productive
business.
2.Support the workforce and the changing nature of
the workplace
Can FM move itself away from the “Facility Manager” to the “Workplace
Manager”? One manages buildings, the
other manages workplaces. The workplace
is changing, there is a higher proportion of home workers, field workers and hot-deskers.
- Is this a reason for needing less office space? Providing workplace support will move FM in
to areas of ICT, Fleet, and Regus style services – expanding the role of the Facility
Manager.
3. Have a demonstrable effect on the businesses goals
Whatever the business, there will be primary business
goals. If the FM service can measure
their impact on those business goals, then they will be directly proving their
worth to the organisation. For example,
in Local Authorities this could be local employment, training local people or
supporting local businesses. FM can buy
local, employ local people and train those employees. This contributes to the economic development
of the local area – and Local Authorities will see this as a benefit.
4. Provide a highly efficient and modern service
In a constantly changing business environment, any service
can ill afford to stand still. There is
no getting away from the need to constantly be providing a cost efficient, lean
and productive service. Either if FM is
in house or outsourced – innovating through continuous improvement will keep
the service modern and cost efficient and be seen less of an easy target.
5. Award Winning
What could be a better endorsement of your FM service than
an industry award. There are many
available – Go for it! and don’t just prove your worth to your organisation –
Prove it to the industry.
