Feature Six Step approach to
building a best practice organisation
Most organisations responsible for supporting their company’s real estate (RE) or facility management (FM) operations function quite similarly to their industry peers in dealing with activities such as property management, leasing, maintenance and space management. In today’s business environment, it would also be difficult find- ing an organisation not utilising technology or external partnering (even if only in an ad hoc way), so similarity again prevails.
This observation aside, the fact that RE/FM organisations have traditionally been able to “fly under the radar” when it comes to upper management visibility has too often allowed mediocrity to settle in. “Keep the lights on and the roof from leaking” has been the primary driver for many RE/FM organisations over the years. Meanwhile, the corporate world has dramatically changed in the last few decades. Thus, RE/FM operations must also adapt to new or improved processes, services and partner relationships in order to align with - and deliver against - today’s new business paradigm.
Therefore, the challenge is to build a
best practice RE/FM organisation effectively enabling the workplace to support this new operational reality. Described below in six steps, the roadmap for this transformation is applicable to any type of business faced with growing pressure to save money and deliver a better product or service.
Defining the who & what
The key to any organisation being successful starts with a clear understanding of who they are and what exactly they must do to bring value to their corporation as a whole. After all, the advice to Alice given by the Cheshire Cat, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there,” applies here, too. Regrettably, all too many RE/FM organisations try to solve problems with quick, typically tactical solutions without a well-defined roadmap to vet the solutions against. In short, they apply a solution before knowing where they need to go and, as with Alice, they end up far from where they expected their investment to take them.
40 fmuk That is precisely the situation which Six
Steps help managers avoid by delineating the “who & what” required to build a successful operation structured around an intelligent business strategy for a cohesive solution. Best practices are proactive, creating and nurturing an optimal environment where companies can consistently do their best work beyond “the way we’ve always done it.”
Taking the strategic steps
The approach laid out below provides management the optimum alignment with business needs, with Step 1 focusing on business strategy. RE/FM management must understand corporate goals and the true value that real property assets should bring to the equation. This means getting outside of the current comfort zone of tactical service execution (such as renewing leases and negotiating service agreements) and into focusing on how facilities can best maximise the corporation’s value as a whole. Issues that did not even exist previously
now must be dealt with, such as with the world of mobility and alternative work. When managers provide high-quality workspace but employees typically do not physically come to the office, then the corporate mission isn’t being optimally served. Increasingly, the best solutions may not even revolve around space but rather around enabling people to work where they are. The key is to codify how the services being offered align with the company’s overall mission.
Step 2 focuses on understanding
the enterprise service lifecycle. Conversationally stated, “Are we doing
everything we should be doing and not doing anything we shouldn’t?” First, management must understand their organisation’s role and only then focus on improving that role while shedding antiquated services that may have outlived their real value. Step 2 also requires managers to consider how the unique and independent service offerings they will continue to provide can and should interact with each other. A key component of Step 2 is understanding the relationships between the various processes addressed in later steps, to ensure the overall service lifecycle is not compromised. If this “Big Picture” step is skipped, it will be very easy to optimise service silos while actually creating service breakdowns upstream or downstream of a specific activity.
Step 3 focuses on an honest assessment
of how managers and their teams will be measured: What does the organisation expect of its facilities investment, how will they view RE/FM managers and their respective team and how will the services and people providing those services be measured by within RE/FM? Remember the old truism, “What isn’t measured isn’t done.” More than a numbers exercise, as a
real-time barometer KPI enables finding out immediately the “hot buttons” impacting the organisation and aligning services in support. In practice, the number of metrics will be relatively small (12-15 is optimal) and usually only one or two KPIs. Keep in mind that metrics are primarily historical and used for trending (square foot per employee or cost of facilities as a percentage of sales). While
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