Integrated facility services – managing labour capital improvements
Well managed Service Integration provides simplicity and efficiency. Upskilling staff to enhance servicing however is not as straightforward as it might seem. It requires careful consideration of staff capability, applicability and appropriability across a range of skills and duties.
Investing in your people…
Establishing an integrated facility services model, and the benefits it derives is a goal of the majority of Facility Managers today. Every provider and every customer seek to achieve some level of integration to achieve simplicity and efficiency. However, it is worth stepping back and questioning: what exactly is service integration and why is it valuable?
Service integration can be the packaging of appropriate service streams under one provider, through direct delivery or sub-contracted providers, giving a “one hat” solution. It can also be the provision of an entity in-housing key service personnel, to the delivery on KPI’s via contract management, or the opportunity to assess and find greater utility in the teams and staff which are already in place.
These possibilities all raise similar questions, which stem from assessing the people who deliver these services; evaluating their utility, cost, applicability and appropriability across a range of skills and duties. For instance, an unlicensed worker, such as a cleaner is not appropriate to service fire assets, neither is a plumber able to conduct thermographic image scanning of a mains distribution board. Yet there is an opportunity to analyse the tasks and duties and find potential opportunities. Not only capacity but also competency building by upskilling. There is a twofold opportunity presented here; firstly to enable staff to grow and increase their capacity, but even more attractive is the opportunity to create buy-in through generating a greater sense of ownership of their duties, workplace, and career.
Approaching this idea with a realist perspective would immediately rule out the misidentification of staff not suited or situated to a role/duty requiring significant statutory license requirements. In between the statutory and sometimes within, there is an opportunity to upskill site staff to delivery more in their BAU duties. This opportunity, however, requires careful consideration and thoughtful allocation.
Accordingly, with higher duty/responsibility, fair and comparable remuneration is to be considered. Upskilling could take the shape of a site supervisors providing and conducting audit services as part of their daily/weekly inspections. Cleaners could be upskilled to mend minor maintenance tasks, such as tightening handles, hooks and door stops.
The idea is to expand our staffs’ abilities and create opportunity for them to improve their skills and provide enhanced servicing. To achieve this, we look to upskilling and cross training staff, bundling and harmonizing tasks as outlined above, where appropriate.
GJK invests heavily in our people and prides itself on advocating on behalf of our staff. We believe in opportunity for all and are steadfast in our commitment to equal employment opportunity, the protection of human rights, and the prevention of human trafficking. All employees are encouraged to engage in training, which is recorded and maintained to ensure a high-quality service delivery with opportunities in career progression and overall improvement. It is through our people that we grow and facilitating that growth is at the heart of our success.
MATTHEW ZANNER LEADS PROJECTS AND MAINTENANCE AT GJK FACILITY SERVICES. WITH A WIDE RANGE OF EXPERIENCE IN FACILITIES MANAGEMENT, STRATEGIC ASSET MANAGEMENT AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, HE HAS OPERATED ACROSS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS, AS WELL AS NON-GOVERNMENT ORGANISATIONS IN AUSTRALIA AND ABROAD.