Due to client confidentiality, we will use Customer A instead of the real name of the organisation.

Customer A called us to inquire about the possibility of auditing the effectiveness of their facilities management team and practices, and also wanted to know if what they spend is in line with other organisations. We exchanged a few emails and within a week we had one of our consultants on their site.

Our Findings:

• Almost half of their facilities assets that were supposed to be maintained in line with statutory requirements were not maintained, including boilers and the HVAC system.
• Several buildings were in a state of disrepair.
• In the same week, a legionella report showed that an area of the building had legionella present.
• A few facilities team members were long-term sick.
• The facilities team members were not communicating with each other.
• “Everybody knew what they were doing,” but there were no task lists in place.
• The facilities manager handed in his resignation a week before we arrived on site.
• In some areas, the organisation was spending way below what they should have, and in others, overspent due to ineffective management.
• The grounds looked nice.

Our initial findings showed that there was no effective management of the facilities team, with very little engagement and almost no accountability set in place. The business manager trusted that the facilities manager knew what he was doing, although she noticed that the team hadn’t been that active lately.

As a result of our facilities management consultancy report, we agreed with our customer that change management was required to address the following:

• Immediate water treatment for the legionella issue, including the implementation of a weekly flushing regime.
• A comprehensive building maintenance asset list.
• Immediate engagement with third-party maintenance service providers for the maintenance of high-risk assets.
• A comprehensive and tailored facilities management plan that included a detailed maintenance plan.
• Our company provided each facilities assistant with a daily task list and a yearly schedule to help them understand what is expected of them. These tasks then became part of their yearly performance review.
• They agreed upon training provision for the following three categories: The Operator (facilities assistants), The Manager (facilities manager), and The Responsible Person (the business manager).
• We carried out a full health and safety audit with quarterly follow-ups.
• Implementation of routines to improve the health and safety culture.
• A return-to-work plan for the long-term sick team members.
• A new and experienced facilities manager took over, showing a great understanding of the operational needs.

What We Must Learn:

• Facilities management is not a project but a continuous activity that requires continuous attention, training, and dedication.
• Having regular meetings with the maintenance team will provide management with useful insights about the health of the team.
• Regular checks by external auditing companies will provide you with objective recommendations and will allow you to see where you are with your compliance.
• Allocating tasks to facilities assistants is important as long as there is effective monitoring in place.
• Setting a health and safety culture requires routines and commitment.

How Long Did It Take: Approximately nine months to set the basis of a health and safety culture and approximately six months to address most compliance issues. Total time spent on-site: nine months.

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