ADVICE & OPINION
SOCIAL - BLOG
18 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2019
BLOG FROM RORY MURPHY, COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR, VINCI FACILITIES
THE PUZZLE OF PRODUCTIVITY
It would be impossible throughout the
latter part of 2018 to ignore the endless
debate around Workplace. The BIFM has
now formally morphed into the Institute
of Workplace and Facilities Management
(IWFM) and November also saw us celebrate
Workplace Week London with a series of
presentations and discussions across various
workplaces in the capital.
The incorporation of Workplace into the new
BIFM branding is designed to ‘raise the status
of our profession and help you take your career
further’. The linkage between managing and
operating assets and the enhancement of both
customer and employee experience is at the
heart of the push for workplace recognition.
A professional that can manage and develop
the working environment and all that goes
towards enhancing employee engagement
and productivity is surely a valuable resource
and so the status and worth of these new
workplace professionals is assured…. Or is it?
The productivity of UK PLC continues to lag
way behind many of our European neighbours
and has experienced a slump in productivity
growth since the financial crisis that shows no
sign of coming to an end.
Productivity is traditionally measured as
the value of goods and services produced for
each hour worked. The average British worker
produced 16 per cent less on average than
our equivalents in the Group of Seven leading
economies in 2016, per data from the O ice for
National Statistics.
But why should we worry? We should
worry because achieving higher growth in
productivity — or output per hour worked — is
the countries way of raising living standards
and allowing government to have the resources
to improve public services or cut taxes.
A report by the FourFront Group published
in November looked at this very issue of
productivity and challenged some of the
perceived wisdom around the impact of
the workplace.
The FourFront report surveyed 120
individuals around the globe and looked at
four key drivers of workplace productivity,
namely Leadership, Wellness, Environment
and Technology. Overwhelmingly the biggest
driver for increasing productivity was found to
be leadership with over 53 per cent believing
that leadership was the biggest influence on
performance whilst less than a fi h named
environment, tech or wellness as being
important.
So what does this tell us about this
emerging role of workplace managers? The
survey reinforces the complexity of driving
productivity and whilst not the most significant
workplace driver our ability to influence the
environment, technology and wellness are
Rory Murphy, Commercial Director, VINCI Facilities
all positive aspects where we can bring our
knowledge, skills and influence.
Wellness has been an emerging trend over
the last few years and many businesses are
focussing on not just the physical but also
the psychological impacts of the business
structures that they create. As facilities
managers we have developed a strong
understanding over the past decade of the
impact of the environmental aspects of
improved performance with temperature,
acoustics, lighting and comfort all key issues
for employee performance.
Technology will continue to play a
significant part in productivity going forward
although the research did show a growing
tension between the human and the tech in
terms of the stresses being created through
new ‘flexible’ ways of working. The importance
of data and managing workflow remained a
strong ingredient and once again this is an area
where facilities managers will remain strong.
Workplace clearly remains an important
aspect for employees but those of us that lead
our sector need to constantly make the link
between our role and the emerging challenge
of increasing productivity.
The workplace professional of the future
needs to understand that clear leadership and
clarity of purpose drives employee productivity
more than any physical factors of their
environment. The challenge will be to fully
embrace their organisations vision and
mission to ensure service delivery fully aligns
and supports the organisational outcomes
and aims.
Kath Fontana FRICS
Managing Director, ISS Technical Services.
RICS Senior Vice President.
“Kicking off with the important topic
of education at @RICSnews Governing
Council day two. Did you know that there
are multiple ways to qualify? Great
opportunities for experienced facilities
managers to #GetChartered ! #facman
#professionalism”
@Simonheath1
Management Consultant, Artist and Communicator
was on hand to illustrate the BIFM relaunch event.
“Had fun with the lovely @BIFM_UK
caterpillars this evening as they
metamorphosed into fabulous IWFM
butterflies. The elephant in the room was
acknowledged but it’s time to move on and
build the future.”
@Whitbags
Mark Whittaker FM Solutions Consultant with @
ThomsonFM, and Chair of @IWFM_North
@Whitbags “At the @UHEI_UHEI
Conference. Interesting comparisons to
be drawn between the estates strategies
within both sectors, but also some very
different challenges in terms of asset
management/lifecycle data & availability of
capital to fund improvements. #universities