Will you pay extra for the Living Wage?

Fundamentally most of us believe that the reward for a fair day's work should be a fair day's pay, so why is it taking so long for the Facilities Management industry to embrace the UK Living Wage? People tell me that it's because no one wants to pay extra, but what most don't realise is just how much that decision costs. In this blog I argue that the Living Wage is a lot more commercially viable than is popularly believed.

For those not familiar with it, the Living Wage is quite simply the hourly-rate a person needs to earn before they no longer qualify for state benefits. It's a little more complex than that of course, but that's the synopsis. If you're interested in learning more check out  the Living Wage Foundation (livingwage.org.uk) which promotes a scheme of accreditation for employers who voluntarily agree to pay these rate. The UK Living Wage (LW) is calculated to be about 20% above the National Minimum wage (NMW). In London it's approximately 40% due to the cost of living in the capital.

Though I promised that this blog would be about the commercial aspects of the LW, rather than the moral justifications, it's still worth saying that in 2014, we should all feel a little outraged at the idea of employers earning a profit whilst paying people less than they need to live on and passing on a burden to the tax payer. Some might think that statement evocative, but in an age of Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR), there's a growing expectation on employers to act responsibly towards both their own staff and the communities they are part of (it's why tax evasion gets so much press) and the above demonstrates neither. Ok, moral-rant over, let's get commercial.

I'm going to start building my case with a simple statement: Good, well motivated, loyal employees are more reliable, more productive and less likely to be absent. I'm not going to bother backing most of that up with facts: it's not exactly controversial stuff. But there is one statistic from the Living Wage Foundation that I do want to quote: 80% of LW employers have noticed around a 25% reduction in absenteeism. Let's talk about that for a second shall we?  It is generally agreed that high rates of absenteeism are indicative of poor workforce motivation and loyalty. They're not the only indicator, but they are more quantifiable than others like productivity, dedication and time-keeping and are therefore considered good leading indicators.

The FM industry is full of low-paid service jobs; no pun intended, but you might say they are ten-a-penny, particularly in services like cleaning, catering and porterage. At the low-end of the wage scale, loyalty and motivation are low, churn is high and as a result there is poor consistency in productivity and quality.  How many times, have you found yourself telling someone or being told by someone that quality issues are the result of changes in personnel or difficulty attracting and retaining the right people?  This is the reality of a low-pay workforce: managing them to ensure good standards of quality and productivity isn't at all easy.  It takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of effort and (most importantly to my case) it takes a lot of money.

It's not controversial to say that absenteeism costs money – it's a foundation stone of Health & Safety principles. When staff are absent, there are overtime costs, temp labour, lost productivity, time and effort wasted on ringing around to sort things out, etc. It's also agreed that employee churn costs money too: there are recruitment costs, training cost and supervisory time amongst others. Finally, managing poor performance can really drain resources too: It's not just the money credited back to customers or the time spent dealing with complaints, it's the supervision, the retraining, the formal meetings, the letters from HR, etc. Basically, choosing to pay low wages, is also choosing to incur a lot of additional costs. Now some will argue that; wages are direct costs and the costs I've descibed are indirect and therefore difficult to quantify in any meaningful way. In one sense they're right, but in another they're wrong. They are hard to quantify, but the total cost information can usually be found in the service tender proposal: Its the line item on the breakdown identified as “management costs”. 

In low-wage service contracts, management costs are often one of the largest cost areas (after wages). Depending on whether things like training & recruitment (and sometimes profit) are included in them or listed separately, they could account for a significant proportion of the total contract cost. I've even once or twice seen proposals with combined management costs that almost equal the wages costs! The point here is that management cost are built into the contract delivery cost at the commercial tender stage.

Let's talk about commercial tendering for low-wage contracts. Most tenders are calculated using pre-defined formulae. If we over simplify it: some basic volume data (such as square footage) is entered to give an idea of hours required. This figure is multiplied by a wage rate and other costs are calculated as percentages of that resulting figure and added together to generate a total contract cost. There's a little “commercial” wiggle room of course, to give the sales-person something to play with, but in a nutshell, that's how it works. So here's the issue I have with that: Surely the management costs should be calculated using a sliding scale which significantly decreases as the wage rate increases?  We've just established that if wages are increased 20% absenteeism reduces by 25%. We also accept that recruitment & training costs will decrease. We accept that less time will be required to supervise and manage both performance and customer dissatisfaction. There will be higher quality, less refunds and fewer complaints. Yes, many of these things are difficult to quantify, but let's not mistake difficult to quantify for unquantifiable or non-existent.

In fact, a move to higher wages creates a lot of potential for cost-saving, especially when combined with good people management practices. So surely the correct way of considering LW commercial viability is to (at least partially) fund increased wages, using management cost savings? Should customers pay extra to support the Living Wage? I don't believe customers should accept a pass-through uplift on wages, but I do believe that there are alternative solutions which are not just palatable for customers, but commercially viable or even, commercially advantageous, for suppliers too.

And here's one final point to consider. In the fiercely competitive world of FM Services contracts, real commercial viability comes not from undercutting to win volume, but through retention of business. During a re-tender process motivated,loyal staff and happy customers, are worth their weight in sales-people and corporate hospitality.

The FM's Party Survival Guide

Traditionally, the beginning of December heralds the onset of the work's-Christmas-party season. Whilst there are many who look forward to the prospect of getting a little tipsy and having a boogie with colleagues, for many in the FM  industry the very thought of sitting down to a turkey dinner with work's-people fills them with dread.  In this blog I explore the reasons why and give some of my party survival tips.

So what exactly do Facilities Managers have against the work's-Christmas-party anyway?  Well for a start it's not just the Christmas party.  In fact, it's not even just work's-parties:  A lot of us have a beef with parties in general.  And it's not because we're cantankerous, Victor Meldrew types either:  It's because in almost any party situation it's virtually inevitable that someone will ask you what you do for a living and if you work in FM, 99% of the time that conversational thread will lead to the point where you end up having to say “Well no, actually! Not like a janitor at all!”  This will be followed by about an hour of explanation as to why being an FM is not like being a janitor.  Not that there's anything wrong with being one, but it's just that the effort of having to spend all that time at parties explaining what you do (when you should be having fun) can really grind you down.

Still it could be worse: at least we're not Health & Safety Officers!  That might sound harsh, but honestly, those poor guys have it way tougher than Facilities people.  If, in a party situation, you ever find yourself foolishly happening to admit that your work involves being responsible for managing Safety, the best course of action to follow is to immediately get up from the table, step outside, hail a cab and go home...... because that's your night done!  If you're stubborn enough to stay, you'll spend the rest of the night having to justify or refute every safety measure or myth ever conceived to people with a chemically-diminished capacity for logical and reasoned discussion. It's a no-win situation.

But if parties in general are bad, in many ways the work's-party can be the pits. For a start everyone already knows that you're not a formula one driver and to make matters worse;  everyone, and yes I do mean everyone, will talk shop to an FM at a work's-party.  Now there are those who say that talking shop is par for the course and to a certain extent they're right. But....... there is a world of difference between gossiping about who is and isn't getting promoted and the relentless barrage of gripes and grumbles some FMs have to put up with. At the work's-party, an FM can find themselves facing a steady stream of people who, on account of the fact that they've just bumped into you, decide that it is surely the perfect opportunity for passing on that complaint about the air-conditioning that they haven't got round to emailing you about yet. I mean why not? It's not like you make it easy for them to catch up with you during the 'normal' working day by being at work, having a phone and an email account is it?  At Christmas parties past, whilst everyone else has been busy occupying themselves by eating mince pies and trying to work out who Sarah-from-Accounts has been disappearing into the stationary cupboard with,  I've had my evening wasted justifying the recycling policy, getting feedback about cleaning, explaining air-conditioning, hearing everyone's opinion of the vending coffee, etc, etc, ad infinitum. And it's not that I normally mind talking about that stuff, it's just that, well...........it's a party: I'm here to have fun like everyone else!

The list of minor groans and grievances you can face at a party can almost be enough to put you off going. Almost. But you shouldn't be deterred: FMs make a huge contribution to an organisation's success and they have every right to celebrate that success with colleagues.  Not only that, but it's a great way of engaging in the culture.  In fact, one of the reasons many FMs suffer from such a hard time at work's-parties, is that they fail to identify it as an engagement opportunity and therefore don't go adequately  prepared. 

So if all of this sounds a little too familiar, allow me to share with you my top tips for Christmas-party survival.

1:  If you're off the clock, be off the clock

Some people say that that listening to moans and groans goes with the job, but I say that it's just plain rude.  Between courses I might well spend time engaging in speculation with colleagues about the extent of Sarah-in-Account's extra-curricular activities, but if I was to collar her at the bar and give her a hard time about the speed and accuracy of her invoice coding, most people would say I was "bang out of order: It's a party for heavens sake!"   So be prepared to politely and firmly stand your ground:  There is absolutely nothing wrong in saying “I'd really like to talk to you about this on Monday, but it's a party so do you mind if we don't talk shop?”

2:  People love to hear themselves talk

Something that not all FMs realise is that......... it's not just FMs who feel like nobody understands what they do and how important it is.  Honestly: it's true! If you don't want to be caught with the what do you do? question, why don't you be the one who asks it instead?  Making people feel like they're important to you and that you want to understand them is a great way to forge new alliances and build trust.  And who knows: you might just find out something useful.....

3:  The best defence..........

If like me, you are one of those people mentioned in the tip above who really love do to hear themselves speak, you just might struggle a little with my second tip, but that's ok I have a third one for you:  try treating it as a public relations opportunity. Instead of waiting for people to approach you with a complaint, why not go in armed with your list of recent successes and exciting future plans and solicit feedback?  Try saying things like, “We're considering going fair-trade when we re-negotiate the vending next year..... do you think we should?“  Of course, everyone is going to say yes and you're going to do it regardless anyway, but.... they don't know that: Their perception could be that they are making a contribution to the decision making process and when you eventually  bring it in, they may even see it as a shared success. Result!

4: The three-hit-combo

As any boxing fan will tell you, victory rarely comes with a single blow, but through skilfully delivered combinations.  To make the best of these tips, use them all together: Ask about them, fend off the complaint then solicit some positive feedback.  It takes skill and practice but master it and they'll be putty in your hands.  And if all else fails, there's always tip number five.....

5: The master avoidance strategy

If you've tried all the above and you're still getting grief, it's time to beat a tactical retreat to the dance floor. Now let me tell you, many people claim they can multi-task, but it is quite literally impossible to have a serious discussion about car-parking whist doing the Macarena or the Cha-Cha-Slide. Frankly anyone who can manage it probably deserves their own parking space anyway! Now if you've seen me busting-my-moves, you'll understand that this high-risk strategy is not to be taken lightly, but it can be brutally effective in a sledgehammer-to-open-a-walnut kind of way. There is even a very slim possibility that if you manage to pull it off extremely well, then at next years party you might just discover yourself being the subject of speculation about what Sarah-in-Accounts has been up to! Now go! Get out there and have fun! 

Merry Christmas.

Dances With Wolves

If there existed such a thing as a Facilities Management rule book, it is generally held that rule number one would be “develop good relationships with your stakeholders”.  So why does the idea of engaging certain groups of stakeholders fill an FM with dread?  Let me explain using one of my favourite techniques: the animal simile.  Stakeholders are like wolves.

Those who know me well, know that I love a good simile. And no, that’s not a miss-spelling of smilie, although if you follow me on twitter (@JGurd) you’ll know that I also love a good smilie :)  . People are always saying that standards in education are declining, but ask any 8 year old what a simile is and quick as a flash they’ll tell you that it’s a figure of speech which is used to compare things to one another by using the words like or as. Pretty smart people, those kids and they even know a thing or two about smilies, but that’s digressing even more so I’ll try to get broadly back on track with the point I was making; I am particularly fond of the animal simile.  Through popular culture, childhood impressions, etc, we naturally endow certain animals with particular qualities or characteristics; lions are regal, mice are quiet, foxes are cunning and donkeys are well.........  well, let’s say fortunate.  And this is kind of my point, I haven’t said it, but you know exactly what I mean and this is why the animal simile works so well – the associations feel perfectly natural.  So let’s get back to my rather outlandish statement shall we? Not the one about donkeys, the other one.  Why is it tempting for a Facilities Manager to hide out in the plant room all day and avoid their stakeholders? Because stakeholders are like wolves.  Allow me to explain......

Regardless of how soft and furry it may appear on the outside, we instinctively understand that deep down  a wolf can be a fearsome predator, with sharp teeth, wicked claws and a killer instinct.  They might look a lot like man’s best friend, but they’re feral beasts and an unplanned or unexpected encounter with one and you could well end up with more than a few chunks being torn off. Basically, just like stakeholders.

Of course there are degrees of deadliness: The lone wolf, grizzled veteran of a thousand fights can be the most fearsome of all, but even a cub can take a finger if you’re not paying attention.  But worst of all, just like stakeholders, wolves are at their deadliest when they hunting in packs.
Almost all Facilities Managers will have at some time experienced that entering the lion’s den feeling that is a prelude to meeting with a large group of stakeholders.  They tend to be monthly meetings and I have a theory that I’m working on that it has something to do with lunar cycles – I can’t prove it, but mine mostly seem to fall on the same day as the full moon..........  Coincidence I’m sure.

As we step into that meeting, we know that we are going to be significantly outnumbered. It can feel like being circled by sharks and you know that as soon as they scent blood in the water, there’s going to be a feeding frenzy.  As you shuffle your agenda and your notes from the previous meeting, your pulse quickens and from somewhere deep down something primal pushes to the surface. Instinctively you prepare yourself for fight or flight.

So should you fight or should you flee?  Which is the best choice? Actually it’s neither. There is a third way which is all about getting your attitude right in advance as I’ll explain shortly, but first, let me try to explain why you should ignore that instinctive response.

Ok, so we wouldn’t actually fight in a meeting and probably wouldn’t go quite as far as running out the door screaming either, but in a modern day business context, you could think of them instead as going in all guns blazing or adopting a strategy of appeasement. 

Fighting it out can seem initially attractive. You can refuse to accept any criticism or blame, counter your opponent’s claims and blind them with science, etc. If you’re aggressive enough, you can probably even push the blame right back at them for failing to read the memo, not filling in the form, etc, etc.  If you go in all guns blazing, you’ll probably put the fear of god in them and they’ll never dare criticize you again which is a surely a good thing right? Well not really. It doesn’t actually work like that: if they don’t feel like they can talk to you, in the future, they’ll just go behind your back, around you or over your head. As an FM you almost certainly have the skills to win most of your battles, but FM is about cooperation not confrontation; what are you fighting for? If you’re trying to win hearts and minds, winning battles can cost you the war.

With that in mind, you might decide it’s just easier not to be confrontational at all. If you just give everyone whatever they ask for, they’ll all be perfectly happy and they will just leave you alone right?.  Well.... before you choose a strategy of appeasement, there’s something you should know: it didn’t work in the run up to the Second World War and it doesn’t work now.  Ultimately, demands are not always reasonable; if you agree to everything, eventually you’ll end up promising things you can’t deliver and your stakeholder frustration will increase.

So let’s talk about the other way instead.  Our ancestors learned how to domesticate the wolf and we too can learn to tame the stakeholder.  There are limits of course: they’re not going to chase sticks or retrieve your slippers, but it is definitely possible to develop mutually beneficial relationships and even get them working for you, being your eyes and ears and championing your causes. The key is getting the balance right; less fear, more respect, more confidence, less aggression. Most importantly of all, remember that communication is a two way process: if you give you should also take.

So how does that work in reality?  Well this blog was inspired by some advice I recently gave to a peer about stakeholder meetings which went something like this:  You should always participate in meetings as an equal: remember that you are there because of your skills, knowledge and expertise. Be confident but not aggressive:  you are not there as a punch bag and you are certainly not there to spend your time apologising for the level of service, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen and learn. Don’t be defensive; accept constructive feedback and never tell people that their experiences of the service are wrong – if someone is cold, no amount of telling them that they're not will make them any warmer or happier. If you can learn something from the things they tell you, you may be able to improve the service.  Most importantly, remember that communication is a two-way process; the pact you make with your stakeholders is that; in return for getting direct access to you to raise team complaints, you get to use them as a conduit for communicating information in the other direction.  And it doesn’t hurt to give a little constructive feedback of your own. After all, if you’ve listened to their views about the way the front desk works, then quid pro quo, you’re perfectly entitled to ask them to try and get their teams to be more considerate when using meeting rooms.  Finally, remember that, this is your opportunity to talk about the good things you’ve done and the good things coming up. It’s your chance to spread the vision.

So going back to wolves. As I mentioned earlier, like stakeholders they can be at their most effective when they work as a pack and with the right balance of attitude, respect and communications, you could find the pack working on your behalf; disseminating your message and spreading your vision.  And when that happens, the sight of the moon, full in the night sky will have you howling for joy, rather than trembling in fear.

Holding Out For A (Silent) Hero

Facilities Managers are heroes. Fact. When the chips are down and it’s all going wrong, you can rely on an FM to swoop in and save the day. But is this really something we want to be known for? In this blog post, I make the case for keeping your pants on under your trousers.

The idea for this blog started with a snatch of overheard conversation: an FM colleague was asked to describe their role in Facilities Management to which they responded: “we’re the people you turn to when it all goes wrong”.  It’s a description that many would agree with.  After all, Crisis Management is an important part of any Facilities professional’s role and most are justifiably proud of their problem solving abilities. It is these moments of extreme adversity that enable us to show people what we are really made of, prove our value and earn the respect that we truly deserve. These moments of converting mountains into glorified molehills become personal pinnacles of achievement, each one a badge of honour on our CV. Surely we should embrace these difficulties for presenting opportunities to bring our skills into the limelight?  Or should we? Before we get too carried away thinking about what a crisis means to us, maybe we should try to consider what it might mean to others.

No such thing as bad press?

It is said that there is no such thing as bad publicity, but I'm not sure I agree. Averting disaster and turning failure into success is undeniably personally rewarding, but whilst you are basking in the glory of being the man (or woman) of the hour, others may be looking around for opportunities to apportion blame and if you’re distracted by enjoying your moment in the sun, you could easily find yourself becoming a scapegoat. Now you may argue that this won’t happen to you because your organisation operates a "no blame" culture, but at the end of the day, human nature will almost certainly trump organisational policy and it is human nature to speculate about who got what wrong.

You see whilst we might be acutely aware that managing to get that aged chiller up and running in two days (even though the parts had to be shipped from Belgium) was nothing short of miraculous, there's a good chance your customers will just see it as one more failure that occurred on your watch.  Of course you and I know that that’s not really a fair assessment of the facts because………. you did try and replace it last year but the board wouldn’t release the funds. You may choose to tell customers this and shield yourself from the blame, but before you do that, maybe you should have a good think about whether this is a story that you really want to share.

The blame game

Blaming the boss may help build some common ground with your customers, but pointing the finger further up the chain isn't going to win you any friends there. These are the people who can directly influence your resources to do your job: unless you think you can use the situation to launch a full blown coup and win total control of your own budgets, sooner or later you'll be crawling cap in hand to them trying to get the money for something else.  These are people you need as friends not enemies.  Besides, there are those who will point the finger right back at you for not making the business case compelling enough.

Survival training

Ok, so I’ll admit the picture I’ve painted is pretty bleak, but there’s no need to despair just yet, for all is not lost. With the potential pitfalls I’ve described above, it’ll come as no surprise when I say that good Facilities people need to develop highly effective political skills to be successful in a corporate environment. Crisis is your opportunity to hone these skills.  Here are a few points to consider.

• Keep your cool.  At the end of the day, and even with the most meticulous planning, disasters will happen. They will still need to be managed and Facilities people will almost always play a vital role in doing this.  But be careful not to get too caught up in the drama. Do communicate your successes, but don't oversell them, you will build a far better reputation through calm efficiency in the face of adversity, than you will for rushing to the edge to pull the company back from the abyss.
• Be careful not to court disaster.  Career defining challenges might boost the adrenalin and raise your profile, but a Facilities Manager has a management responsibility to manage risk. When things go wrong make sure you take the opportunity to learn lessons and take action to prevent it from happening again.  If you ensure that any learning points form part of your communications strategy, you will be able to raise your profile by developing your reputation as a good risk manager.
• Think very carefully before pointing the finger - some people might think you're passing the buck and you could easily make powerful enemies. If the root cause sits further up the chain, a more strategic approach could involve outwardly shielding the responsible party and playing down the severity of their error, whilst speaking frankly to them about it directly. You may take a little more heat from your customers than you would if you just pass the blame onwards, but you can play this down by choosing your language carefully and in the longer run, you may well earn the gratitude of a powerful ally.

As I said, disasters do happen and as a Facilities Manager, you'll almost certainly have to be part of the solution, but I hope I've adequately demonstrated in this blog that there is much to gain by not always making too big a deal about being the hero.  Maybe next time you've got to save the day, rather than rush to the nearest phone box, like me, you'll take a more strategic view and keep your pants on under your trousers instead.

SLAve to convention

Conventional FM wisdom tells us that we should manage our client/supplier relationships with SLAs, but maybe some of us would be better off ditching them altogether.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs for short) are an agreement between the customer and supplier about the extent, the quality or the speed with which a service is provided; 90% callout within 4-hours is a commonly used example.

In theory, SLAs are a way for the customer to make it clear to the supplier what standards they expect (that’s the Service Level part) and for the supplier to confirm that those standards can be delivered (that’s the Agreement part).  Measuring how well the SLA is achieved enables both parties to be clear about whether the service being provided is meeting expectations; this in turn helps the supplier to prioritise resources and actions to help ensure the customer gets what they wanted. That’s the theory anyway.

The trouble is; I don’t really buy into it. 

Stick to carrots

One of the big issues I have with SLAs is that they are often written into service agreements; effectively they become glorified “get out” clauses, to enable customers to terminate suppliers who fail to meet the mark.

Of course I’m not saying that having the flexibility to break of relations with a supplier who is seriously underperforming is a bad thing, but I wonder if the approach is a little short-sighted: human nature dictates that if you are going to give someone a stick to beat you with, you make that stick as small as possible. 

Does the use of SLAs actually encourage us to strive for mediocrity rather than success?  Remember that agreement part of the SLA?  Well it often seems to me that suppliers are reluctant to agree to SLAs that they couldn’t easily meet. For example, let’s go back to the 90% callout within 4-hours example cited at the beginning of this blog.  I work in Berkshire. I’d happily place a wager on the fact that in 4 hours, I could be in Swansea, Manchester, or maybe even France, but the SLA would have me believe that just getting to my office from their's (which probably isn't in Manchester by the way) in the same timeframe is some kind of indicator of successful service provision.........  So does that really drive performance in the way I’d like it to?

Not that suppliers get all the blame here.  Realistically, the service provider could probably manage 90% callout in 2-hours, but if the price of failure is losing the contract, you can’t really be suprised if they choose to play it safe. Perhaps the better approach is to prefer the carrot to the stick.  I suspect we prefered incentives to penalties, then service providers would be more willing to accept  challenging targets and this would drive better service.   

Sample size

One of the other concerns I have with SLAs is sample size.  SLA achievement data is supposed to be representative of the service performance, but for statistical data to be useful, it needs to come from a decent sized sample.

My career to date has always been in client-side (in-house) FM; I’m generally a buyer, rather than provider, of services. The supplier relationships I’ve had have been small in comparison to say, for example, large TFM relationships. The truth is, that in my area of operations, many of the standard issue SLAs fall down as a result of scale.

Let’s say, for example, my vending contractor offers me that 90% callout in 4-hours SLA.  Each month they report 100% success and everyone is happy because they get here so quickly?  Well not quite.

You see the reality is that the machines are quite new. The 100% success rate is actually telling me that they rarely break down, not that the supplier responds quickly. If the machines only break down once a month or so and the SLA is reported every month, there’s really only two ways it can go: 0% success or 100% success. Simply put, the volume of transactions is just too low for the SLA to be a useful indicator of success. Perhaps reporting it over a longer period (say a year) might be better, but I suspect that it would only really work over a much larger contract.

The other thing I really need to ask myself is, if they always get here in 4-hours anyway, should I really be focussing my energies on an element of the service that has room for improvement?

Choose wisely

Despite my opening statement, I’m not actually suggesting we all dispense with our SLAs, but I do think that both customers and suppliers need to give much more careful consideration to what their SLAs are doing for them if they want them to be effective.  Measure what is important to the relationship: use SLAs to drive positive success by measure the areas you want to improve. Don’t just measure what everyone else is measuring; don’t just be a SLAve to convention.

Agile Working – Should We All Just Pack Up And Go Home?

Information Technology has freed us from our desks. Fact. As a workplace, the humble office is losing market share to the kitchen, the coffee shop, the train and the pub. The question is; what are we going to do about it?

The great unasked question

The extent to which agile working practices will reduce the need for offices in the future is one of the hottest topics of debate in the FM industry at the moment. The subtext of that debate is clear; "what will become of us in a world without offices”?

The debate so far seems to have mostly focused around two key questions; Can Information Technology really deliver all that it promises? Will our employers and employees actually buy-in to it?

The answers to these two questions are pretty straightforward; Yes, it probably can and no, they probably won't. Well, not all of them, but of course some of them will.

The Facilities industry seems to be taking quite a passive approach to this issue, with FMs roughly falling into two camps, those who think it will be as bad as we imagine and those who don’t. I’m raising the flag for a third camp – it’s time for FM to fight back.

The good, the bad and the untapped potential

There are plenty of good reasons to work from an office and plenty of things that the home can’t do for you. Over a period of time, many employees will start to realise this for themselves.

However relying on negative factors to dissuade employees from home working is a poor strategy. Negative factors are obstacles, but obstacles can be overcome - you might not have an ergonomic chair at home, but you could get one. A better strategy is to focus on the positives, what the office can do for you that the kitchen table, the coffee shop or the pub can't.
An even better strategy is to focus on what the office could do for you.  Forget the pros and cons for a minute, and think about potential? What new things could you offer to your customers and how are you going to market them?  Think big.

iBuildings (if Apple made workplaces)

I’ve always thought that FM's can learn a lot from the wider world of business. Let’s view the problem in a business context: We provide a service (a place from which to work) and some of our customers are choosing to use a different service. So how do we win them back? Let's draw some inspiration from technology and marketing giants, Apple.

Years ago, Apple was in the home computing business. Ok, they still have a toe-hold in it, but these days they are mostly known for mobile devices. At one time Apple and Microsoft were evenly placed competitors in the home PC market, but Microsoft eventually won the market share and dominated for decades. Apple's response to this loss of market share is one of technology’s greatest success stories. They took their product and they changed it.

Apple took the computer made it into a fashion item and marketed it aggressively. It was cool. It was sexy. It came in different colours and it appealed to people who had never wanted a PC before.

They took that lesson and they made their computing devices smaller, portable. They innovated, bringing new technologies to their products; colour screens, touch screen, voice control, etc, until eventually they became the technology powerhouse we all know.

Imagine what Apple might do if they were in the FM industry: how would they respond to agile working?

Counting our blessings

Compared to the situation Apple found themselves in, we in Facilities actually have things easy. Apple had serious, organised, competitors. We don't. 

In fact, in the task of turning the office workspace into a must have product, we can apply quite a lot of resources. We can use our knowledge, skills and experience to find out what our customers need and give it to them. We can use our industry knowledge and networks to create dynamic, exciting and inviting environments within which to work: the kind of environments that drive collaboration and innovation and foster a sense of community culture. And to top it all off, we can devise a strategy to market this must have product to our customers and make them want to be a part of it.

Against all of that, John Smith's kitchen table doesn't have any resources at all. In fact, it's got nothing. It can’t compete.

Information Technology may have started off the game, but the ball is well and truly in FM's court now. It's time for the Facilities industry to step up to the line and show them how we play the game.

TwitterComm’s for Facilities Managers.

If something’s worth saying, then it’s worth saying in 140 characters or less...............  Welcome to TwitterComm’s for Facilities Managers.

TwitterComm’s is a communications technique based around the popular micro-blogging website.  I have been using this technique for a few months now as part of my wider communications strategy and have found it to be not only very effective at delivering information, but also popular with my customers.

What is TwitterComm’s?

In a nutshell; TwitterComm’s is about making sure that the information you communicate is properly targeted, relevant and delivered in palatable and bite-sized chunks.

The aim of TwitterComm’s is to improve the chances of the message you send being read and assimilated, rather than ignored or deleted.

Despite the name, I’m not suggesting you use Twitter as a corporate communications tool (even I’m not that much of a maverick), but I am suggesting you treat your emails as if they were tweets.

140 Characters or less

Ok, so getting across all you need to say in 140 characters or less might be a bit of a stretch, but there is a principle here: time is money.

Each email you drop into a customer’s inbox is a demand for their time. Their time is as precious to them as yours is to you. If you can’t keep the salient points to a few sentences, they’ll soon stop reading. Remember you can only lead a horse to water............ you can’t make it drink.

There is some good practice to be learned from Twitter about how to keep things concise. Twitter provides you the opportunity to expand your message by adding a link. If you are communicating a new policy, ask yourself if you have to send the whole thing or can you post it on your intranet and send a synopsis and a link instead? People will know the policy has changed and they can “click through” at a time which is convenient to them.

Here’s a top tip from me: Clicking through provides what Sales people call an up-selling opportunity. Can the link take people to a directory page where they can also browse other policies, news, etc, rather than straight to the policy itself.

Need to know, want to know, nice to know

Relevance, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. People will not thank you for taking up some of their precious time to communicate something which they feel does not affect them. They will forgive you an occasional transgression, but do it too often and they’ll start to treat your emails like spam.

You should think about who your information is relevant too. It might be easier to send out an email to the ALL_STAFF distribution list, but do people on the top floor really need to know about the broken toilet on the first floor?  Can you send a targeted email to just the first floor?

Personally, I want my customers to know that when I send something to them, it’s relevant and/or, important to them. I try to apply the need to know, want to know, nice to know test.
If it’s something they need to know or have said they want to know, I send it to them direct. If it’s something that is nice to know, I try to put it where they can easily find it, i.e. on the intranet, notice board, next to the lunch menu, etc.

The power of positive thinking

It’s the nature of what we do, that most of the need to know information we communicate has a negative implication; failed air condition, car-park restrictions and out of service facilities are our bread and butter. But do we really have to be the harbingers of doom?

Your choice of words and language can drastically affect how your message comes across: are things broken or are they being repaired; are rooms out of use or are they being refurbished. Are improvement works taking place?

If you have been properly targeting your communications, you’ve already fought half the battle. Remember that broken toilet on the first floor? If that email went out to ALL_STAFF, then people on the top floor will have a perception that “the toilets are always broken in this place” even though problems with their facilities might be few and far between.

Strategic thinking

Whilst TwitterComm’s is a good way of delivering your message, It’s not without its drawbacks; some people will feel that you are not providing enough information or that they are not getting the level of interaction they would like.  As an FM you have to play these things by ear and be prepared to be flexible to your customer’s needs.

However, used properly, I believe that TwitterComm’s can form a very effective part of your wider communications strategy. It enables you to engage quickly and easily with your customers in a way which lets them know that you understand that their time is valuable.