COVER STORY


of our industry. Though many have recognised this and have begun improving standards and pay for their teams, it shouldn’t have taken the dawn of a pandemic to do so.


At Unify, paying the Living Wage is very much a starting point in ensuring our people are happy to work for us. We know that people want secure employment, to engage with us as their employer, to achieve flexible working and those from diverse backgrounds want equal opportunities to progress up the ladder.


“Let’s be proud of what we’ve achieved, and no longer sit back and allow others to tell us about our industry’s reputation.”


Since March this year, we’ve been accredited as a Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter Supporter, demonstrating our role in providing our local community with fair and equal access to employment. In August, we were promoted to Member status in recognition of our levels of workplace engagement, our excellent recruitment and progression practices, our outstanding people management and ability to offer a productive and healthy workplace.


Our aim is to create a workforce that has a passion for what they do – passion crafted out of our care for them as people. And part of our role in the Charter is to encourage other businesses to follow suit. When huge sacrifices have been made to put the wellbeing of people first, there’s an opportunity for us all to take a mass of learnings forward and improve employment across the board.


Invest in the next generation As we return to normality, collective steps must be taken to ensure that we’re creating a new generation of skilled technical and cleaning experts so we can continue delivering the services which have become essential to keep society functioning as normal.


Recently, we’ve overhauled our online learning provision to ensure it can be delivered by smartphone to our 400 operational team members who work across multiple sites and don’t have a HQ to call their professional home. We also provide on-the-job training to multi-skill our workforce. Our belief is that to provide most benefit for our customers, our team should be able to deliver more services from under the Unify umbrella. It improves productivity, creates a greater sense of job satisfaction and also means that we have a more reactive team who can problem solve outside of their traditional remit. The more competent and multi- skilled a person becomes, the more we can pay them, the more opportunities will be provided to them and the more engaged they will be with us as an employer.


That means also creating the opportunity for people from diverse backgrounds to join your team. At Unify, we


www.tomorrowsfm.com


see the world differently. By encouraging, championing and celebrating all of our colleagues’ unique voices, experiences, and ideas we foster a safe and inclusive culture with opportunities for everybody. We focus on the individual, recognising their strengths, attributes and experience. We encourage applications from everyone regardless of age, disability, gender, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation and welcome candidates to discuss any flexible working options at any stage of the recruitment process. For example, we’ve partnered with charity Pure Innovations through the Supported Internship programme to support young people with disabilities and from disadvantaged groups into the industry.


In doing so, as well as diversifying the recruitment pool in facilities management, we’re ensuring more young people are offered a chance to join an industry which is currently thriving. Everyone should have the opportunity to influence and actively challenge the norms of our sector and by broadening the scope of the typical cleaner or FM technician, we’re playing a pivotal role in creating an industry that’s prepared for the future.


Broaden the services horizon Playing a role in transforming our sector often means having to think outside the box and look at how you can broaden your offering to make the industry more multi- faceted, helping businesses create greater efficiencies, become more sustainable in their operations and create more modern ways of working.


One such opportunity we’ve seized is to transform the way commercial energy is supplied to landlords, managing agents and tenants in multi-tenanted office spaces. Unify Energy is now a fully licensed and OFGEM-recognised energy supplier providing an end-to-end solution from supply and sub-meter management through to occupier billing.


Our approach is beneficial for everyone working within a multi-tenanted building; users are treated as our main contact, receiving a truly personalised invoice with up-to- date and accurate readings, while landlords and agents are relinquished from the menial task of calculating individual invoices for customers. Plus, we provide granular data to help customers gain a holistic view of their energy usage, so everyone working within a building is able to identify the steps they can take to reduce their carbon outputs and create greener working environments.


Our industry is constantly evolving and aside from anything else, the pandemic proved our ability to adapt and step up to an existential challenge with a moment’s notice. Let’s be proud of what we’ve achieved, and no longer sit back and allow others to tell us about our industry’s reputation. Let’s, instead, shake things up to craft our own, which is based solely on making a difference to people – whether they’re our colleagues, customers or contacts. Let’s shout about good news, promote our progress, reflect on our mistakes and be honest about how we can do better. And let’s do it while supporting one another.


www.unifysolutions.co.uk TOMORROW’S FM | 29


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