FEATURE


IS WORKPLACE MANAGEMENT REPLACING FM?


The FM sector is constantly evolving and so is the workplace, Facilities Managers need to keep abreast of the changes and expectations. Rebekah Thompson spoke to Peter Titus, Managing Director of DCT Facilities Management and Phil Roker, Commercial Director of specialist London caterer Vacherin, to find out how companies can meet the needs of their staff.


TFM


Peter, how is the workplace changing and what impact does


this have on Facilities Managers?


Peter Titus (PT): Essentially the demands on the workforce are getting tougher and companies are pushing for increased productivity and value from all budget areas so we constantly have to evolve our services to make sure that we’re being as efficient as possible. These days we need to do that by using the principles of Workplace Management rather than traditional FM.


TFM


What is Workplace Management and how does it


differ from Facilities Management?


PT: Workplace Management is an evolution of FM. It’s about running the services for the occupiers; workplaces that are not focused on people are just places. FM is traditionally focussed on running a building, making sure it works, whereas Workplace Management takes the next crucial step and looks after the end users. We’re now not only managing the building, we’re also focussing on the occupants; the users of the workplace; it’s a more customer-focussed version of FM.


TFM


So what does this mean in practical terms for the


building occupants? PT: It’s all about FMs really


18 | TOMORROW’S FM


considering the needs of the building occupants and identifying what elements impact on their ability to do their job and what solutions we can develop to remove any of those barriers. For example, if a photocopier is provided, we make sure that it’s regularly checked throughout the day and filled with paper, toner is topped up, and so on – it’s not enough to just provide a helpdesk number to call if something goes wrong and give them a fault log number. People have enough to do in their own jobs and they want these problems and distractions taken away from them, or better still, they want the problems to not arise in the first place.


This ethos extends to remote workers too. Just because a company’s staff are home workers or based at one of their own client's sites, doesn’t mean they don’t get support.


TFM


How do you provide this support in practical terms?


PT: One of our clients is a City law firm. We base 12 Facilities Co- ordinators on the fee-earning floors. Everyone knows where to come to ‘dump and run’, be it copying, archiving, scanning, stationery, signature runs, booking Fine Dining for a client lunch, reporting a fault or to simply ask for assistance with a problem they have.


TFM


What has the impact of this approach been on


building users?


It’s all about making peoples' lives just a little bit easier. By creating a great workplace environment, and giving excellent customer service, removing the frustrations and distractions of office life, like bulk copying, scanning, post, booking couriers and so on, we are taking small steps towards making their work lives less stressful.


TFM


So given the future of Workplace Management,


where does the staff restaurant fit in with this model?


Phil Roker (PR): Well, you could argue that the traditional concept of the staff restaurant is actually dead. When I first started in the City in 1994 there was no real competition available other than a handful of old style sandwich shops, and people mostly stayed in the office and used their ‘canteen’ but that’s just not the case any more.


TFM


What are the biggest differences between then and now?


PR: The key thing is the enormous scale of the High Street competition


twitter.com/TomorrowsFM


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