It's a valuable occupation.

Article in FMWorld May Issue 9

The last few years have seen an explosion of growth in the accommodation committed to by many organisations, as they expanded their businesses through both acquisition and organic growth. Much of this expansion and associated commitment to long leases was undertaken without adhering to a coherent medium or long-term accommodation strategy and in some cases, without one in place at all.

The global financial crisis that has enveloped the world over the last 12 months has turned the focus for most organisations onto operating costs as the most important factor affecting a company’s financial performance. Given that property and/or accommodation charges are often the second biggest expense for a business after the human resource, it is understandable that companies seeking not just to survive, but also to thrive in the current economic climate, are looking hard at these costs and seeking innovative ways of leveraging accommodation to get the best out of it. This renewed focus is an opportunity for the Facilities Manager (FM) to re-establish themselves as key links in the business, with both the experience and the accommodation information that can be reviewed at boardroom level, to make informed decisions about future requirements.

• 1. Make accurate space and accommodation information easily accessible
  Whether there is an in-house team or if FM is outsourced in part or in total, the provision of accurate and instant accommodation information is now the key to not only the success of the department and the FM staff involved, but also the organisation as a whole.
  The global economic downturn has opened up an opportunity for the well-informed FM to bring their information and expertise to the boardroom with a pitch that can show achievable and often significant savings on the cost of the real estate.
• 2. Keep a record of occupancy rates
  One of the most effective ways of measuring the performance of the building or portfolio is to understand the occupancy efficiency. Occupancy rates concern the measurement of how many workstations are occupied on average as a percentage of the total available, across a building or portfolio. For many enterprises, these typically fall to between 50% - 60% within a corporate portfolio. Armed with this and other ownership data, the well-informed FM can drive a reduction programme to reduce the accommodation requirement by up to 20%. By introducing smarter working practices and maximising the space that is retained, the FM can both improve workflow and demonstrate clear savings.
• 3. Work with the HR department and keep employees informed
  Combining the occupancy statistics with an in-depth analysis of each staff member’s work pattern will indicate where it is possible to introduce less traditional ways of working, such as desk sharing, hotdesking, home working and non-desk based activities. Working with Human Resources departments to introduce new working methods will ease the transition and more often than not, any additional investment required for furniture or IT is funded from the savings made in overall accommodation costs. However, where new working practices are adopted that involve remote working, it is essential that staff still retain a sense of belonging and are offered opportunities to meet, interact and collaborate with other members of their team. Careful consideration must also be given to the health and safety requirements of any home-based workstation, to ensure that it offers the same or better ergonomic standards than of that of the office-based version.
• 4. Take advantage of hosted services
  Specialist providers now offer data collection and information hosting services. Companies may subscribe to a dedicated website portal, that contains all of their building drawings, office layouts, occupancy details, asset locations and a wide range of reports. All of the information can be accessed 24/7 by any pre-authorised user, from any computer connected to the Internet and users do not need any specialist software or training. The provider maintains the information and keeps it up-to-date on behalf of the client company and uploads the information to the website as it changes.
• The successful FM needs to ensure that the following information is to hand:
  a) Building drawings and furniture layouts – available in non-CAD (Computer-Aided Design) format and available online via the Intranet or Internet to authorised users. These drawings should detail department space allocation, names to desks, assets and their locations. Each individual department should be encouraged to monitor the drawings for accuracy. They can also be used across other FM systems to identify locations (for example, planned or reactive maintenance locations, people-tracking systems for post).
  
  b) Occupancy and internal space charge data – available online via an Intranet or the Internet. These reports should source data from live information, updated as it changes. Senior managers should be able to access the information and filter for custom reports to detail current vacancy rates, department space ownership by square area and/or the percentage of the whole. Security staff could be used to walk the buildings twice a day to undertake an occupied desk check. Of course, this is not a totally accurate measure, as people may be at meetings or visiting the bathroom, but if the results are averaged over a few weeks, many business will find that they have an occupied desk count of around 50-60% of the total available.
  
  c) Asset location data – again available online via and Intranet or the Internet. Authorised users should be able to search for individual assets to ascertain where they are within the building or portfolio of buildings. They should also be able to filter the audit to report on how many of a particular asset they have – information that can avoid the cost of acquisition when the buyer is unaware that valuable assets already exist within the portfolio.
  

Article in FMWorld May issue 9