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Tag: workplace

100% Compliance – really???

Posted on by Ian Adams

A cursory search of FM trade press websites identifies only a handful of recently published articles relating to the important subject of compliance. Those news pieces tend to focus on new appointments, mergers and acquisitions, or specific compliance features related to asbestos, water and fire. Very few address the broader relevance of compliance in the workplace and its key role in FM service delivery.

Why does this important aspect of a Facilities Manager’s responsibility receive such a low profile, in comparison to “insight” on popular themes such as technology, wellbeing, hybrid working and productivity?

We asked Q3’s Compliance Manager, Annie Simpkin, for her thoughts on why that might be.

Here’s what she said:

Ha! If you want to make yourself invisible, take on the role of Compliance Manager! It’s a sure-fire way of becoming the most ignored person on the FM roster!

And yet, it’s such an important role because we are dealing with the most safety-critical part of any FM’s responsibilities. FMs are charged with serving the people and assets in a building and compliance exists to mitigate risks, prevent accidents and ensure the safety of both. In my book, safety and compliance has to be the top priority for any caring, law-abiding organisation. But it isn’t, is it?

Perhaps compliance is low profile because it isn’t “sexy” and falls into the “too difficult” pile? After all, who wants to become an expert on the intricacies of electrical fixed-wire testing, fire regulations, legionella, TM44 and F-Gas Compliance, and filling out pages and pages of those tiresome risk assessments?

The fact is that compliance is simply misunderstood by many people in the industry. It’s quite common to find clients who are uninformed and even naïve about compliance. Often, they confuse responsibility with accountability and there’s a big difference. There are legal implications associated with non-compliance, which means in a worse-case scenario, one of the client’s directors could end up going to jail! And it’s no good hiding behind the FM company, because you can’t contract out legal responsibility – the buck stops with the client!

Because people cannot grasp all the complexities of compliance, they tend to simplify the whole thing into a tick-box exercise, generating statistics to help them understand the big picture. These compliance figures are presented monthly to the client and often the board of directors, but the focus is on the performance of the numbers themselves (and whether they go up or down), rather than the underlying story they are trying to tell.

Let’s not kid ourselves, in some organisations, I’m sure that there is even some gentle bending of the rules to make the numbers tell the right story. But realistically, if you are reporting 100% all the time, who will ever believe that the figures are credible and true? It’s fooling no one!

It’s sad that compliance should be devalued to a function for creating figures that make the board feel warm and fuzzy. It needs to be about active management of compliance in the real world, and these figures must be meaningful and to stand up to scrutiny. They also need to be both accurate and auditable, not an echo chamber, where the figures report only what the board wants to see.

I feel passionately that compliance is important in the workplace and above all, it’s about embedding honesty. The dilemma is how we get to that point, how we ensure accuracy, capture every detail and get to the truth. We talk a lot about people’s wellbeing in the world of work because it’s important to ensure that temperature and noise levels, food and drink, and quality workstations are all contributing to a positive user experience. But how important is all that when the building catches fire? In what may be a life-or-death situation, you want smoke detectors and alarms that are fully tested and working, fire extinguishers available and operational and sprinkler systems primed and working. Similarly, the coffee may taste great but is the tap water safe to drink? Staff and customers need assurance that when they go to that site, they know they are safe. This is when safety trumps wellbeing.

In Q3’s engineering and maintenance services operation, compliance is the foundation around which we deliver everything else on that contract. It’s not simply about assets, tasks and activities, it’s an end-to-end process, encompassing everything from the competency of the person carrying out a task, through to properly closing out the last remedial. If you can’t manage and control this competently and end-to-end, you aren’t doing the job correctly and you are letting down both yourself and your client.

In an ideal world, we will take on a contract on day one, with a full asset list. That’s not always the way it is in real life, so if we don’t know every asset, then we set out to understand at least what types of assets we have at a site, and taking a risk-based approach, create a plan to address that through remedials.

Sadly, remedials is an area that is also poorly executed in so many instances. Not knowing about an issue is not a great place for an FM to be in, but knowing and doing nothing about it, is even worse. Identifying a non-compliance issue and sending an email to get it fixed, is NOT closing off the remedial. There is no 60-day window to sort something out, obtaining a bit of paper is not the same as compliance, and if a problem is the landlord’s responsibility, it does not negate your responsibility to ensure it is resolved, and to chase it down until it is.

At Q3, we have invested in clever CAFM software from Facilio with proper systems underpinning it, to ensure end-to-end responsibility and use a RAG categorisation for classifying the status of all compliance issues. It makes the whole process run much more smoothly but it doesn’t take away the Compliance Manager’s responsibility for getting it right. Our teams understand the importance of compliance and are trained to make sure they DO get it right. Our clients too, because we often take them on this compliance journey, walking them through the process of reporting compliance truthfully and in a meaningful way which can be understood by all the directors.

To acknowledge its importance, compliance must have a presence at the top table, like at Q3, where compliance statistics for all our clients’ contracts are reported and reviewed each month, at board meetings. It occurred to me that one day that you could draw comparisons between compliance in FM and Infection Control in the NHS. There may be some amazing, exciting and ground-breaking developments happening around surgical techniques and treatments for previously incurable conditions, but if you don’t get the basics of infection control right in a clinical setting, they are all irrelevant, if the patient get sepsis!

I think you’ll get from my feelings on compliance, that I have a passion for this Cinderella FM subject! It needs to be a much bigger part of the agenda on the future of workplaces amongst the movers and shakers in the FM community. It should be rubbing shoulders in the pages of the FM press with topical FM subjects like wellbeing, technology, hybrid working and all that other stuff passing as insight.

And with the FM awards season fast approaching, have you noticed that there are never any categories for compliance? I’m not saying I would win, (but I totally would), if they were to introduce a Compliance Manager or the year award!

Let’s hope this short article will start a new debate on a key subject.

Reproduced from an article originally published in PfM magazine, September 2024

Our thanks to Salesforce for use of areas of Salesforce Tower for the location photos

The Hybrid Hustle: How FM can make the office a magnet for employees

Posted on by Ian Adams

Lynne English, Operations Director in Q3’s IFM division, shares her thoughts on how we have collaborated with clients to help their staff re-engage with the workplace, in the hybrid working era.

(Reproduced from an article originally written for  FM Director publication)

The rise of hybrid working has fundamentally changed the way we use office space, so long-gone are the 9 to 5 days of dedicated desks and predictable occupancy. The change created by Covid has been seismic, and many organisations are still struggling to resolve the question of the future “purpose” of the office in this new era. A few high-profile organisations have even tried to mandate a full, or partial return to traditional, office-based, without truly addressing that whole issue of purpose.

Sadly, I doubt many of these return-to-work edicts have been based upon facts and science. More likely they are based simply a gut feel that it the right thing to do. It’s probably fair to say that many board members see home working as “out of sight and out of mind” and a recipe for slacking. Perhaps they also see their half-empty buildings and feel the need to realise the ROI on their huge corporate real estate investments?

From the workers’ perspective, there has been a fair amount of resistance to going back. After all, it’s difficult to promote such a policy when a Covid-enforced, remote-working model proved that people could be equally productive, and perhaps even more productive, when working remotely.

Unsurprisingly, employees have totally embraced the flexibility provided by home-working and the positive benefits it offers for a healthy work-life balance. Maybe people have grown to love hybrid a little too much, if the battle employers are experiencing to get them back, is any measure!

But consider for a moment the downsides of the dispersed working model. If you started your working life during the Covid lockdown, you would have been robbed of many of the benefits of office-based learning and induction, at a key time when the corporate culture would normally be embedded in your psyche. New employees have subsequently returned to the office in a cultural void, not knowing peers and colleagues, or even the basics of where things are, and how things work. Ironically, more people have got to know the name of the cleaner, than the name of the person sitting next to them. It’s not difficult to believe that on one of our contracts, we even introduced name badges to overcome this problem!

It’s easy to belittle the office, but there are benefits to office-based work. In one client’s operations, the contact centre team was reconfigured to home working during Covid, to ensure business continuity. The system worked and their customers’ needs were met, but an unexpected thing happened – the Net Promoter Score (NPS) dropped significantly. Coincidentally, when lockdown ended and the team returned to the office, the NPS suddenly improved again. Coincidence? Or was the collaboration, community environment and team interaction, responsible for stimulating better results?

So, how should corporate leaders address my earlier comment on defining the new purpose of the office. My view is that we should frame the purpose of the office around outcomes. Outcomes in relation to culture, community, commercial return, and customer experience. And if we accept this premise, the next logical question is, what do we need to change about our FM approach to maximise the benefits of a workplace-based workforce?

FM can be an important part of that change process through its ability to transform workplaces into dynamic, welcoming, and compelling places where employees want to spend their time. We can help people appreciate that the office is a destination where they can achieve corporate and personal goals, not just a place to sit down in front of a screen, while ignoring the people either side of them.

Certainly, it reinforces the belief we at Q3 have held for some time, that FM must prioritise the needs of the building occupants, ahead of simply looking after the buildings.

Here are a few ways we have helped some of our clients to define a new purpose for the workplace, by creating a culture that thrives in the hybrid era:

Designing workplaces for collaboration, not just concentration

Offices should prioritise collaboration spaces, to maximise the opportunities for face-to-face interaction. Invest in flexible spaces and furniture arrangements that can adapt to brainstorming sessions, team huddles, and client meetings. Consider designated “collaboration zones” equipped with whiteboards, high-quality screens, comfortable seating and good, accessible catering, that also allow easy socialising.

Make technology work to ensure seamless integration

Bridge the gap between remote and in-office teams with top-notch video conferencing technology. Make sure the tech is easy and trouble-free, and that technical support is readily to hand. Ensure all meeting rooms are equipped for seamless virtual participation and invest in room booking technology and desk reservation systems, to avoid scheduling conflicts and optimise space utilisation.

Put wellbeing first and create a destination experience

Employees are easily repelled by a sterile office environment. To counter that feeling and make it more attractive, do the obvious things like investing in ergonomic furniture, good lighting, clean workspaces and temperature control systems designed for people not BMS engineers. Get the FM team walking the floor and engaging with people, so they are accessible, can provide assistance, and resolve minor problems on the spot, without staff having to resort to calling the helpdesk.

And, if you want the workplace to be truly welcoming, why not start by doing just that! It’s as simple as coaching your reception and front-of-house teams to physically ‘welcome’ people by name, as they arrive. It’s very powerful and means that folk always start the day with a smile on their face.

Put the emphasis on wellness and wellbeing – set aside dedicated wellness spaces like meditation rooms, on-site fitness centres and quiet spaces. And think about creating spaces that aren’t just about enabling work, by creating breakout areas with comfortable seating, games, a well-stocked coffee area and somewhere to eat and drink– anything that will foster social interaction and that is not necessarily work-related.

Generating a positive ‘experience’ is where Q3 has really played a significant role in helping achieve change on our client sites. At our monthly client meetings we focus on the calendar, around which we design engagement events that provide a social focus and a good reason for everyone to be in the office. Proper relationships are forged at events and recently, we have had Easter egg hunts, pancake day competitions, charity fund raisers and even yoga sessions. Organising that last event provided me with the challenge of writing one of the more difficult risk assessments of my career!

On days when the directors are in for a board meeting, we also invite staff to a meet and greet session, when they can have a coffee and a chat with people from the senior team.

Good communication is key to making these events work, so we get involved with all the internal comms, including email, intranet announcements and posters. Then on the day, it’s all about seamless logistics, such as laying on the bacon butties, pancake mix, pastries or yoga mats!

Gather employee feedback and adapt

The key to a successful balance between remote and office working, is understanding employee needs, so it’s important to conduct regular surveys and focus groups to understand what employees need to achieve their work objectives. This is an area led by the client but supported by feedback and data provided by the FM company. Then it’s a case of translating those needs into new layouts, amenities, and even cleaning schedules to optimise the office experience. Recently, this has prompted initiatives such as locker storage and showers to facilitate cycle-to-work schemes, as well as the installation of transport charging points for the growing number of staff travelling to work by electric vehicle.

Our contribution to creating compelling workplaces is working, because staff are voting with their feet and showing a real commitment to coming back to the office through choice. If you feel that some of these ideas may work in your organisation, give it plenty of thought before simply replicating our approach. Remember, one size doesn’t fit all and researching and understanding the needs of the workplace occupiers must be the first part of any strategy for creating a compelling workplace.

FM in the real world

Posted on by Ian Adams

Thoughts on the evolving role of technology and innovation in the real world of FM. An opinion blog from Mark Hazelwood, Managing Director, IFM, Q3 Services

Mark Hazelwood evaluate the IFM Model

Ball-gazing

There’s been a trend for some time for the Facilities Management industry to gaze into the crystal ball future of FM, and chatter on about how technology will deliver some magical Nirvana.

Listening to the soothsayers, this change is long overdue, and our industry is ripe for technological disruption. For years now, we have been sold the dream of intelligent workplaces utilising sensors, beacons and swelling data lakes from which AI will create a virtually self-reporting self-managing, self-maintaining facility.

Really? How many examples of this grand utopia do you know of? Let’s be honest, this industry’s history of deploying innovation is often not that great, and more about “talk” than “do”. In fact, there is quite a long history of the latest tech NOT delivering, and unsurprisingly, people have become cynical.

Some years ago, I recall industry articles about the Uber-isation of FM, where a client could employ cleaners, HVAC engineers, or security guards, through an app/algorithm that sourced a quote from the cheapest, local FM supplier on the open market, and billed the service transaction (plus commission), all in one single-swipe. Wow! But is anybody using it? Similarly, we braced ourselves as the flexible, co-working revolution was set to transform the entire workplace model… before Covid initiated its rather sad and premature decline.

Sadly, despite all our best efforts, FM in its current form, is still not seen as either business critical or “sexy,” particularly at board level. And this irks many in FM. So, in a vain attempt to elevate its profile, the industry has focused instead on the future promise which technology and innovation offer in such great abundance. To me, this seems like a strategy doomed to failure from the outset. An automated FM panacea requires a huge leap of faith, but this is at a time when we struggle to see very few fully deployed and utilised CAFM systems, working properly in the UK.

Resistance is futile

Let’s look for a moment at this vision of techno FM, as it is unfolding in the real world, in the space which most of us poor souls currently occupy.

We see semi-comedic LinkedIn videos of robotics deployed in public spaces, gliding endlessly around a very small area, often on an already spotless floor, not really cleaning anything. (Although, I concede they are acting as a great, moving, promotional billboard for the FM company.)

Granted, robots in the right environment can be productive and cost-efficient, but these are few and far between compared to the situations where they can’t work – emptying bins, cleaning desks, changing light bulbs, servicing washrooms and toilets, and so on. Unlike the Daleks, who eventually worked out the art of levitation, robots are still limited to cleaning flat floor surfaces without too many obstacles. So now, we revert to cobotics, where robots and people cooperate on FM tasks to much greater effect.

Then, there’s the familiar automated reception, with a tablet sitting conveniently in front of a receptionist who watches and does nothing, while you struggle to navigate the awful user interface. Why not move the receptionist in front of the desk and proactively greet and assist visitors with the human touch?

And think for a moment about the practical obstacles we have to navigate to achieve the brave new techno world. The assumption is that clients have modern facilities with BMS integration we can plug into, but that is simply not the reality for the vast majority of clients. Or, the challenge of upskilling a basic operative, with language barriers, on a living wage, to become a semi-skilled specialist with a reasonable intellectual understanding of tech for which they are now responsible – it’s not easy.

Even in those modern facilities where we are managing to create data-driven insight it’s only being used to affect the conventional human-based service delivery on the ground.

Achieving a step-change

If we are we are going to be credible as an industry, then we need to use innovation and technology in a way that truly moves FM service models forward, not make workplace experience worse, or introduce solutions that are less efficient and more expensive.

We have visions of technology being a strategic FM game-changer, whereas the reality is that it works best through local, tactical deployment, integrated into the overall workplace strategy for an organisation. Innovation is not a paradigm shift or a cultural change in FM, it’s simply a cherry on the top!

My view is that we should start with a clear view of what an organisation is trying to achieve, in the context of where they are trying to achieve it, and then deploy the appropriate technology. Too often, we start from the wrong end…with a great bit of sexy kit or shiny bit of software, trying to marry a solution to a problem. Instead, we should be clear on the objectives we are trying to achieve and the desired outcomes and create a plan to deliver that. If tech is part of realising that plan, then fine!

Where’s the beef?

Many clients have incredibly diverse property portfolios, so you need to be sure you can measure success from short to long term and have a clear understanding of return on investment (ROI). In the real FM world, ROI inevitably must be short because of the business model we operate in the UK. Tenders are based around the three-year contract, (plus two, if you’re lucky) so it’s difficult to be strategic, and almost impossible to justify investment in tech solutions, that can’t satisfy that timeframe. Is an FD in a client organisation going to fight for extra investment in an unproven FM tech-based solution, or in a project that will improve the value-add of his own organisation’s core activity?

And when we focus on success, we shouldn’t just be thinking purely in terms of ROI monetary return. What about workplace satisfaction, productivity and wellbeing? Assuming we can measure these effectively, are we really achieving them, and what is the impact? Also, there are so many simple things we can do that may be neither innovative nor tech-based but show real return. Such as, aligning the processes of the service provider with that of the client, to prevent duplication!

I can’t believe that the FM industry is so loathed to talk about what it actually does and the real value it creates. Is it too complicated, or are we ashamed? Innovation and technology have slid in like some modern-day Trojan horse, designed to elevate and create false kudos, rather than deliver the concerted step change in FM which clients and outsourced providers crave. I remember presenting to an industry awards panel about how we were delivering FM services brilliantly, but the constant line of questioning was around innovation and technology with a complete disregard for the exceptional achievements on that particular contract.

Perhaps it’s a cultural thing that drives FMs to talk about anything except the very things we do well and are extremely good at. I would love to see a step-change in the industry where we have that confidence and are proud of our profession, rather than trying to create pseudo-science or deploying technology in a cynical tick-box way that adds no real value.

So, instead of a fascination with these shiny things, let’s all puff out our chests and start promoting, highlighting and showcasing the best-in-class services, that can be practically and successfully deployed today.