FMJ Facilities Management magazine providing industry-specific intelligence to FM and property professionals
THE FM CONSULTANT’S VIEW
JULIAN HARRISON,
BUSINESS UNIT DIRECTOR, MYFM
They used to say the only things that are certain are death and taxes …maybe we could now include change. What is our response and what is the impact for FM?
Like it or loathe it, FM remains the biggest industry that no one has ever heard of. Let’s be honest, don’t you let out a deep sigh when you meet someone new and they venture the question “So, what do you do?”… Do you lead with FM or try to explain it in a more pseudo intellectual fashion, like “putting astronauts on the moon” or “making business better!” I once participated in a recruitment event for my business, HFM, and had an enthusiastic applicant. All was going well until he enthusiastically informed me that he… “had always wanted to work for my radio station!”
So, MOST people don’t really know what FM is and this includes our clients; not the individuals that manage our contracts but those in the boardroom that hold the purse strings. Yes, they know that the doors open when they show their pass, and that someone must clean the building. But mostly, FM is seen as part of the business overheads, a necessary, if unknown, cost centre and we all know what to do with costs in times of economic uncertainty, we reduce them.
The lack of alignment between FM services and organisational success means that FM is often a high priority for cost reduction, especially when the latest unprecedented time arrives. Whether it’s taking a management chunk out of cleaning, reducing the canteen subsidy, losing the workplace benefits or halting noncritical maintenance, FM is squarely in the firing line.
We should be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. That is, if the solution is the resilience and success of the client, as opposed to the FM entity. This is where we must adapt and act as a strategic partner. But how do we do that?
We stop talking about bogs and basins and start to invest management time and energy to understand the client’s business, their drivers for success, threats and challenges. We need to get rid of our sense of entitlement and grumbling about the importance of FM and start moving the goalposts to an evidence-based discussion where the FM organisation aligns its business and key success factors to the client’s needs including cost saving measures. We must deliver change that supports our client’s goals, while leveraging the FM services as an enabler of (our client’s) business success. Rebranding FM as a business improvement venture, with the service provider as a strategic partner to support the wider business goals.
