Facilitate - May/June 2022 (Full)

INFORMING WORKPLACE AND FACILITIES PROFESSIONALS

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THE JOB WITHOUT A TITLE

POWER PLAY

A DISRUPTIVE INFLUENCER

No future for the role of building safety manager

Tackling the sudden and unprecedented energy crisis

Georgia Elliott-Smith on having a broader sustainability mindset

MAY-JUNE 2022

THE SMART BUILDING ECOSYSTEM ● TACKLING THE ASB ESTOS PROB LEM ● UNLOCKING DATA'S P OTENTIA L ● GENDER-NEUTRAL WASHROOMS

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Who do we think we are?

Dealing with individuals' uncertainty and sector self-confidence

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Some call it the

INTERNET OF THINGS

We call it keeping hospital staff and patients safe Where smart sensors monitor footfall in real time so our cleaning teams and fleet of robot assistants can prioritise where they clean.

This is the Science of Service This is just the start mitie.com/scienceofservice

The exceptional, every day

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MAY-JUNE 2022 / FACILITATE

CONTENTS

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FRONT DESK 06 Government must solve asbestos issue within 40 years

Stephen Timms MP has called for action to tackle modernity’s great workplace tragedy

08 An interconnected future

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Developing and sustaining future smart building ecosystems

10 Data for better work lives

FM in search of the holy grail to unlock the true power of data

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13 Newsmakers

Stories selected from the unique content publlished by Facilitate online during March and April

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15 Job to do, but no title with it No building safety manager role – so what happens next?

FEATURES 16 Who do we think we are?

Examining the profession’s issues of self-confidence

24 The disruptive influencer

Ditch the greenwashing and become environmental activists, exhorts Georgia Elliott-Smith

28 Power play

Finding the starting point from which to tackle the energy crisis

VIEW POINT COVER: LOU KISS

38 Perspectives

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Four FM professionals seek to influence your insight agenda

42 A bit about you

Glimpse into the jobs of Amrit Tiwari and Fahim Saiyed

KNOW HOW 45 Brought to book

How one award-winning security officer helps catch criminals

49 Neutral zone

Best practice for delivering gender-neutral washrooms

53 Burnout prevention

Tech solutions can protect employees from overworking

54 Eat for energy

Avoid the afternoon slump with these nutrition tips

55 Pain in the neck

Health advice from a corporate wellness physiotherapist

57 Neurological inclusivity

How to support neurodivergent employees in the workforce

59 Know How Crammer

Key takeaways from three of our online-only articles

SUPPLY SIDE 61 Sodexo supports growth with results

The service firm has reported a 19% growth in revenues in the first half of fiscal year 2022 FACI L I TAT EM AG A ZI N E .CO M

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FACILITATE / ONLINE

ONLINE WE BINA R

STRATEGISE YOUR WASTE MANAGEMENT Despite their best efforts, many organisations fail to make waste management a strategic priority.

Even with a keen focus on recycling, a significant amount of residual waste ends up in landfill or is incinerated.

Facilitate, in association with Advetec, hosted a lunchtime webinar to assess and address how businesses can improve on waste.

From preparing to face legislative changes to aligning waste management with organisational sustainability goals, the panellists, which included Advetec’s Dr Stephen Wise, consultant Lucy Jeynes and Sodexo’s head of waste Catherine Burrows, and Crown Workspace and IWFM Sustainability SIG’s Ann Beavis, argued that waste management ranks high on the business agenda. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-Waste

REPORTS

Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management Charringtons House, 1st Floor South, The Causeway, Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire CM23 2ER, UK

22% industry growth over seven years

+44 (0)1279 712 620 • admin@iwfm.org.uk • www.iwfm.org.uk

Big earners, big employers, big potential for the industry, according to a report by the British Cleaning Council.

tinyurl.com/ Fac0506-growth Inflation’s impact on fitout costs is being felt

Higher fit-out costs, reflecting material and labour cost inflation, are creeping through in some office markets.

tinyurl.com/Fac0506-cost

RESEARCH Tech’s big role in work

88% of business executives say AI will be key for “radical transformation” in the 10 years.

WEBINAR

tinyurl.com/Fac0506-tech

Low-carbon ventilation

Two-thirds or companies struggle to scale sustainability across business units.

Listeners heard in a BESA webinar that cutting carbon and improving ventilation is “not an either/or issue”.

tinyurl.com/Fac0506-Vent

Sustainability challenges

tinyurl.com/ Fac0506-sustainability

FACILITATE

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Facilitate, incorporating FM World, is the publication of IWFM, the professional body for workplace and facilities management. For information on membership, qualifications and training contact us:

thinking.

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COMMENTS / LEADER

COMMENTS MA RT IN REA D

From the editor

I LINDA HAUSMANIS

ILLUSTRATIONS: SAM KERR

THE TIDE IS TURNING “I have written 11 books, but each time I think, ‘Uh oh… they’re going to find me out.’”

These are the words of late literary legend Maya Angelou on being visited by that merciless voice of self-doubt known as imposter syndrome.

Our minds can feel like a lonely place when doubts creep in, but as Maya’s words show, even the most revered among us can experience it.

After all, we are all only human.

Given the circumstances our young profession has worked under, it’s little wonder FMs can experience doubts. It spent years in the background, out of sight and out of mind of the C-suite and decision-making. The impact of this was captured four years ago in our briefing paper FM and the Future World of Work, which found that many in the profession felt misunderstood and disregarded.

But the tide is turning. The pandemic has transformed working practices; insight from our recent Outlook Survey suggests it has highlighted the work FMs do and the value they add. One in three who contributed to the research agreed that the FM team is now better positioned in their organisation. Read more on our website.

I have said before that individual achievement, particularly CPD, is key, but it’s equally critical that we stand together, celebrate our impacts, and ensure that the world understands our influence.

I hope you will join me and our wonderful volunteers in celebrating World FM Day this month. Likewise, I hope to see you at IWFM Conference on 8 June, when we cast doubts aside and equip you to be the ‘agents of change’ we know you all are.

LINDA HAUSMANIS is CEO of the IWFM

f I have a clear message this month, it’s that there can be times when clarity becomes fogged – because ‘wriggle room’ clouds it.

The bimester* just passed has seen this sector’s famous adaptability to circumstance highlighted again, just as happened when the pandemic hit, and just as happens on a day-to-day basis. Except this time these were discussions about impending adaptation, not FM’s typically adept emergency pivots.

Last month the government ditched its much-trumpeted building safety manager (BSM) role. Not the responsibilities previously attributed to the role, mark you, just the role itself. Too rigidly defined, argued the levellingup secretary. Instead, let’s let individual organisations decide how best to staff up delivery of their responsibilities under the building safety act.

Also debated has been FM’s involvement in designing, running and optimising future smart city ecosystems, by which buildings across a city are linked through tech to maximise interconnected efficiencies.

Another hot potato discussion, albeit a longer-term one – but with a similar undercurrent: let’s not fix too rigid a set of digital principles on which to build our fabulously interconnected, new inter-business building networks; you wouldn’t want to be so tied to one framework that another emerging later would embarrass you, would you?

Again, let ‘The Market’ sort it out. Leave ‘wriggle room’ for interpretation.

But in doing so, as with the stillborn BSM role, allow a morass of varying approaches to emerge – around which FM invariably has to work.

FMs are famed for dealing with such non-decision decisions. They adapt, evolve, and innovate as best they can in the circumstance. Fine, but we also need sector representation in at the beginning to influence and perhaps push back on policies that allow so much interpretation that they lack the strength of a stronger common baseline. The good news?

IWFM, in both cases, is in there doing just that.

Room booking is a staple FM function; perhaps ‘wriggle room wrangling’ should be MARTIN READ is the editor added to the skillset too. (* = two months) of Facilitate magazine

All too often, FM deals with the aftermath of these non-decision decisions

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF EMERGING THEMES AND TRENDS

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FRONT DESK

Smart building ecosystems: an interconnected future, but what is FM’s role in it?

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How can buildings data be linked to making people feel better?

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Newsmakers: key stories from Facilitate online in the months of March and April

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What happens now that the building safety manager role has been scrapped?

A S BESTOS

Government urged to solve asbestos peril in real estate within 40 years

by Herpreet Kaur Grewal

L

ast month, the government was told by a group of influential MPs that it must commit to a strategy to remove all asbestos from public and commercial buildings within 40 years.

They argue that the longer it takes to remove asbestos, the more the risk to health “is likely to increase as buildings are adapted with the move to net zero”.

The report from the Work and Pensions Committee highlighted how, despite being banned more than two decades ago, asbestos persists as the single greatest cause of work-related fatalities in the UK. There were more than 5,000 deaths in 2019, including from cancers such as mesothelioma.

It says it is regrettable that an endeavour meant to make buildings more energy efficient and the health of the general planet and populations better should have such a problematic consequence.

The increase in retrofitting in response to net-zero ambitions means that more asbestos-containing materials will be disturbed in the coming decades, states the select committee.

Many of these deaths will relate to exposures from 35 or more years ago.

The available evidence indicates that cumulative exposures are much lower now for younger age groups, but more data is needed to understand the current picture.

As asbestos remains in about 300,000

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non-domestic buildings and a likely dramatic increase in disturbance from netzero retrofitting is likely, the committee says that reliance on the current asbestos regulations will not be good enough. It concludes that a cross-government and “system-wide” strategy for the long-term removal of asbestos is required.

The report calls on the government and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to back

While the late-20th century exposures are behind us, the risk remains real Stephen Timms MP up its stated goal of removing all asbestos by committing to a clear time frame and strategy. The plan should strengthen the evidence base on safe and effective asbestos removal in the first instance before prioritising removal from the highest-risk settings, including schools.

The government must also guarantee adequate funding for HSE inspection and enforcement of the asbestos regulations, which has declined in recent years.

Professor John Cherrie, emeritus

professor of human health at Heriot-Watt University and principal scientist at the Institute of Occupational Medicine, told the committee that “although we know that the exposures are most probably less than they were in the past, we have very little idea about current situations”.

He said there was “no systematically collected information” on how many people “may be exposed or the levels of exposure that they may experience.”

Moreover, he added that there was “no attempt to systematically collate that evidence and use it as intelligence to understand what the problem might be for the whole of the UK.” Hence, the report also recommends that the HSE should develop and implement “a robust research framework for the systematic measurement of current asbestos exposures in nondomestic buildings, using a range of measurement and sampling techniques and informed by international experiences and approaches”. It should also ensure that adequate consideration is given to exposure measurement in schools and other public buildings.

It recommends that the HSE should publish its framework by October 2022 and produce findings at frequent intervals thereafter.

A spokesperson for the HSE told Facilitate: “HSE can confirm it has

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PHOTOGRAPHY: PAUL RAPSON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

ANALYSIS / FRONT DESK

received the select committee report and will consider its findings and respond in due course to any recommendations and observations contained within it.”

Stephen Timms MP, committee chair, said: “Asbestos is one of the great workplace tragedies of modern times and while the extreme exposures of the late20th century are now behind us, the risk from asbestos remains real.

“The drive towards retrofitting of buildings to meet net-zero aspirations means the risk of asbestos exposure will only escalate in the coming decades.

Falling back on regulations that devolve responsibility to individual building owners and maintenance managers will not be sufficient to protect people’s health.

“Setting a clear deadline of 40 years for the removal of asbestos from nondomestic buildings will help to focus minds. The clock is ticking and the government and HSE must now come up with a strategic plan which builds the evidence on safer removal and prioritises higher risk settings such as schools.

“This is no time for laissez-faire. The government needs to fund the HSE properly to allow it to reverse the decline in enforcement activity seen in the decade before the pandemic and ensure that asbestos, and its removal, is managed safely and effectively.”

Raising awareness

Becky Crosland, head of health & safety at the Building Engineering Services Association told Facilitate that the report was welcome because “further education was needed” on the safe removal of asbestos from buildings and “more focus is needed on this before we start ripping asbestos out of buildings [for retrofitting”.

“There is still an awful lot of asbestos in non-domestic buildings. Mistakes are made every day by workers. I regularly get calls of someone on a site disturbing asbestos,” she said.

Crosland added that asbestos surveys “aren’t common” and “a lot of our housing stock is really old”. But the onus will be on the building owner in the newly passed

Building Safety Act 2022.

She states that the HSE “needs to secure extra funding” to action greater regulation and control of how asbestos is managed. “[The report] is commendable but we have a lot of buildings that are falling apart and we have to have better education, training and awareness [regarding asbestos removal]… before making buildings zero carbon.”

Focus

This is a message echoed by Ruth Wilkinson, head of health and safety at the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. “We support the recommendation for there to be an overall ‘plan’ developed by the government and Health and Safety Executive, but we urge caution over doing this without research and evidence around safe removal and disposal.

“Removing asbestos is something which is fraught with risks, so any decision to do so is something which cannot be taken lightly. Full consideration must be given to how the people removing it are protected and where the asbestos goes from there, including its packaging, transportation and final disposal – particularly when considering the large number of buildings this plan will relate to.

“So we would expect to see that any such plans will include detailed information on how these risks will be managed to prevent significant exposure during this process.”

Wilkinson added that should a 40-year plan be set, there would still be a risk for anyone coming into contact with asbestos during that time. “It is crucial that greater protection is offered to these people, and that a risk-based approach is taken as recommended by the committee.

“There is currently a lack of consistency in managing asbestos among duty holders and a lack of awareness and knowledge about it among those who are coming into contact with it, particularly in smaller businesses. We would like to see a collective effort by policymakers, government, regulators, employers and worker representatives. This should include improved training for employees in how to deal with asbestos, clearer guidance around working with asbestos and more awareness-raising about the dangers of exposure.”

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FRONT DESK / ANALYSIS

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S MA RT CIT IES

Smart building ecosystems – an interconnected future

By Martin Read

claiming that such a system ‘can be defined as’ rather than ‘is defined as’ what is then described. That’s important – these are early days.

The discussion touched on moving on from the workplace and facilities management sector’s often fragmented approach to these critical issues of developnent, instead seizing the initiative and playing its part as an integral part in the many complex discussions ahead. Here are the key takeaways:

PHOTOGRAPHY: ISTOCK

he concept of a smart city ecosystem – and how workplace and facilities managers can help in developing and sustaining one – was the subject of a round table event held recently at Microsoft’s offices in Paddington, London.

Entitled ‘The Smart Places Ecosystem – Unlocking the full potential of SMART assets/ buildings/cities/portfolios’, the discussion was the first part of a project being undertaken by the IWFM in partnership with Microsoft to produce further guidance on the topic.

The smart city ecosystem notion is rooted in the idea of previously independent local buildings becoming increasingly linked by technology, enabling interconnected efficiencies across a variety of perspectives from security, productivity and, perhaps most topically, energy management. Except, that’s just the most immediate description from an FM point of view. More broadly, a ‘smart city’ comprises processes and policies as well as enabling technologies, all collaborating towards a wider range of required outcomes across this interlinked ‘estate’.

The question, tackled by an audience representing FM service providers, technology providers, researchers and clients, was the extent to which FM is, or can be, a key factor in both the developing and sustaining of such ecosystems.

After all, IT ecosystems operate pretty much everywhere – it’s just the extent to which they are connected that’s questionable.

A critical starting point is to realise that even in published literature the term ‘smart places ecosystem’ is a relatively recent one, with most definitions to date

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ANALYSIS / FRONT DESK

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From a business perspective, we’re in the very early stages of these kinds of ecosystems and the technology that supports them. Many large client organisations have yet to start on this journey, although they are most certainly interested in the potential benefits.

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There is a tension between the need for a smart city ecosystem to prescriptively set out what is possible through a standardised framework,

yet simultaneously allow for new technologies to supplant existing ones. How far back in the development of the ‘open system’ approach to software development do you go? Which leads on to point 3…

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The question of who owns or oversees a smart city ecosystem is not settled. If the ecosystem itself needs to articulate what it is possible for organisations to achieve within it, as suggested during the discussion, who should

be responsible for this? The intriguing scenario is one in which no single organisation or standard dominates or dictates how different systems should interoperate, instead, a looser approach is taken. But can this work if, as suggested “‘a true ecosystem needs to ensure all parties gain from it”?

particularly when with FM it has historically all been about squeezing the margins.

A ‘leap of faith’ would be required. But could it be that an interdependent smart city ecosystem breaks this cycle, making visible both internally and externally the benefits of FM’s hands-on approach?

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Good news for FM: the sector’s notoriously wide-angled view of an organisation’s buildings puts it in pole position to unify such a system. Yes, there is building information model data and the use of digital twins, but what facilities management can bring is accurate and realtime operational data for more immediate decision-making.

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Bad news for FM: There is a huge amount of education required among existing FMs if they’re to take such a lead role, and there may be too few digitally native FMs coming through to seize the initiative.

Signs are that the generational shift to more digitally native FMs will help, but will enough of them come through in time?

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Workplace and facilities management as a sector needs to improve its evidence gathering if it is to have a deciding role in what data it needs and how it can be used – otherwise large multinational software players are likely to come in and do it their way.

There may be too few digitally native FMs coming through to seize the initiative. Signs are that the generational shift to more digitally native FMs will help, but will enough of them come through in time?

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Many other ‘value creators’ are likely to influence a smart city ecosystem, ranging from national and local government to residents and other local firms.

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Unsurprisingly, concern was raised about the business case necessary to start a project in this area,

The FM sector should not be afraid to work together to come up with common initial approaches that could then be built on by individual service firms. Similarly, suppliers working down the chain will gain from all this interconnectedness and will put on their own pressure.

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The need to retrofit systems to improve building performance will put pressure on asset owners and on their FM teams to step up.

But there are internal obstacles to overcome to change the culture of some firms. No more information silos can be allowed to exist.

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The UK, from the perspective of the maturity of its FM sector and the availability of technology, is in a ‘Goldilocks sweet spot’ and could become worldleading in the development of smart city ecosystems.

Next Steps

The next stage of this project is a ‘Living Labs’ process in which issues raised are evaluated point by point.

IWFM and Microsoft previously collaborated on a report, Bridging FM’s Digital Divide, to help the profession overcome the tech barrier and realise its potential to impact workplace performance.

FURTHER READING Bridging FM’s Digital Divide tinyurl.com/Fac0506-SCE FACI L I TAT EM AG A ZI N E .CO M

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FRONT DESK / ANALYSIS

M E ASURING WO RKPLACE VALU E

How can data be analysed to make workers feel better?

By Herpreet Kaur Grewal

C

omedian Stewart Lee has a joke about arguing with a cab driver, only to be silenced by the driver’s retort: “You can prove anthing with facts.” While the joke is more about the era of post-truth, it’s a valuable reminder that without data, we can’t prove anything.

So when Steelcase consultants Anisha Patel and Cara Sugrue told the audience at Workplace Trends Research Summit that an attractive office matters to employees and, globally, 87% of people want an office to go to, they had analysed data from 12 primary studies, 11 countries and 57,000 responses to prove it.

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Equally, creating the type of attractive workplace that people want to visit, requires access to reliable and real-time data. A recent survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) showed that refining how the sector uses data in buildings would improve energy use and inform decision-making.

Yet, more than 75% of respondents – facilities managers, service providers and consultancies – said data was not being used effectively.

This has long been a complaint: we know data is important but we need to do more with it.

Even as the industry gears up to acquire more data and use it more effectively, public concern

over the capture, storage and use of data, as well as data privacy regulations are ramping up.

The ‘holy grail‘

Data is already a big deal and will only grow in importance – especially if the workplace and facilities management profession wants to deliver an attractive workplace and enhanced employee experience. These desires are why Ian Ellison, co-founder of consultancy, 3edges Workplace Ltd, set out with his colleagues to develop another new framework with the aim of “assessing workplace experience holistically, with respect to people, spaces, technology and business impacts”.

Ellison, also at Workplace Trends Research Summit, presented the model to the audience, and mentioned that a peer-reviewed article is soon to be published in the Corporate Real Estate Journal.

The model, Ellison told Facilitate, is based on gathering data to reveal how a worker feels.

“We are trying to demonstrate that the workplace especially is about more than just space.”

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PHOTOGRAPHY: ISTOCK

ANALYSIS / FRONT DESK

He said the workplace experience is “made or broken by how companies are providing it and how it is felt by workers”.

Rather than “seeing that as a threat”, Ellison reasoned that the sector should be more willing to see the links between how workers feel and what practical solutions within the facilities management domain could improve that. The result, he argued, would be to “make life better for people”.

Improving lives could be as simple as a providing stable internet connection to make someone's job easier, or it could be more complex by, for example, resolving plumbing problems in the toilets. The question to ask and answer is: How does the need to remedy maintenance tasks such as these affect workers’ feelings and productivity levels?

It is “not just about cost, it is about value and what if you could show that causal link?” asked Ellison. “A framework that spots that is what we need.”

Think of FM data capture, measurement and interepretation as the “holy grail”, Ellison said, “finding a way to evidence at scale the link to business impact

We are trying to demonstrate that the workplace especially is about more than just space to people’s feelings and how the working is getting done… this framework is a way to prove it because the linkages are in the analysis techniques”.

Encouragement

In the paper, the authors “actively encourage readers to use [the] novel framework to explore their own organisational workplace and workplace experience contexts”.

By presenting the framework and encouraging its use “as a tool to understand, measure and potentially improve ‘workplace experience’ from the lived user perspective, the authors believe that the paper is a new way to practise “expert workplace management… in the face of global workplace attention and disruption”.

As Ellison said: “I [as an FM] could only focus on one building at a time, I could be committed. But if there was a technique to capture all the data – not as the bottleneck – the data can show you what’s going on with everyone at scale and you’d have a permanent source of information coming in.”

Framework

Ellison added that whie he believes his model is sorely needed by the industry, “we are not claiming it is a new invention”. It is, instead, a “holistic amalgamation of great work in the past” but with a difference. “We’ve taken lots of different threads and brought them together like no one has done before. Can we finally demonstrate impact to improve things? We are excited [about it] but not hubristic.”

The framework has drawn upon long standing research by renowned experts including Franklin Becker and Francis Duffy. “None of it is new but we bring many ideas together… It refers to many different experiences – all of it has a home in this framework,” said Ellison.

A PPLIE D DATA

BUSINESS

THE 'HOLISTIC WORKPLACE' FRAMEWORK

Performance how organisational work is going

Reputation attractiveness of an organisation to buy from or work with

SOURCE: ELLISON, PINDER & MORIARTY (2022)

Appeal attractiveness of an organisation to work for

Impacts how working at an organisation affects us

CULTURE Community who people work with

Drivers why people work the way they do

Activities what people do to get work done

SPACES Locations the localities people work from

Such a framework is needed, Ellison argued, because “FM is not particularly research-focused” and the industry was often seen within companies “as operational but as not having the data and not knowing how to present it” which “does not show us in a good light”.

Settings the spaces people work in

Features specific elements of work settings

Behaviours how people go about their work

TECHNOLOGY Services amenities available to people where they work

Hardware tech equipment used by people to work

Software tech applications used by people to work

Connectivity ability for people to connect using their tech tools

Tech support elements that enable people to use tech tools

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Support comfortable and productive work everywhere See how at the Facilities Show from 17 to 19 May in Ergotron stand FM1220

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TOP STORIES / FRONT DESK

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Number of milligrams per cubic metre of air (µg/m3) by 2040 proposed by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; an airquality ‘headline target’ that halves the current limit. However, it’s still double the World Health Organization’s target of 5 µg/m3. The Building Engineering Services Association says the UK should be more ambitious.

42%

Organisations setting up thermal energy storage projects, according to the Johnson Controls Energy Efficiency Indicator Survey.

That’s up from a figure of 27% recorded in the same survey five years ago.

£288 MILLION

ILLUSTRATIONS: NOUN PROJECT

The size of the UK Government’s Green Heat Network Fund, grants for which will be available over the next three years for “schemes that will deliver clean heating to homes, offices, commercial and public buildings”.

21%

Percentage of workers preferring to work from the office, compared with 45% preferring working from home and 34% with no specific preference.

(Furniture manufacturer Steelcase assessed data from 57,000 individuals, 500 from the UK.)

£736 MILLION

NEWS IN NUMBERS

The amount that the UK hospitality industry is missing out on each year because of outdated FM practices, according to a Cloudfm survey with the University of Essex.

SCAN FOR THE FULL STORIES

£1.8 MILLION

Funding for Nobel Laureate Sir Christopher Pissarides’ expansive three-year research project focused on the future of work and wellbeing. How inequalities, health and location can be affected by automation is a particular focus of the project.

50% The government’s targeted cut to the amount of residual waste going to landfill or incineration by 2042.

29.7 MILLION The (record) number of payrolled employees in the UK in March, according to The Office of National Statistics – representing a 275,000 increase in a single month.

69,005 Number of businesses in the cleaning, hygiene and waste sector in 2021, between them employing 1.47 million people, or about 5% of the UK’s workforce, according to a report by the British Cleaning Council (BCC).

FACI L I TAT EM AG A ZI N E .CO M

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27/04/2022 14:14

PHOTOGRAPHY: ISTOCK

POLICY PIPELINE / FRONT DESK

BUILDING S AFETY

A job to do – but no title to go with it What does the government’s recent announcement – that it has scrapped its own proposed requirement for building owners to appoint a building safety manager (BSM) – mean?

T

he government’s shift in position, announced as an amendment to what is now the Building Safety Act, came as a surprising setback, given the considerable work already conducted to get to this stage, and to which IWFM has contributed over these past five years.

The aim of the building safety manager role was to look after the management of fire and structural safety in higherrisk buildings on a day-to-day basis, establishing a single point of contact for fire and safety issues for the building’s occupants. With the concept progressing from a single identifiable contact to organisational delivery driven by competent people, a Publicly Available

Specification will now detail what the needed competence framework will be.

The government said scrapping the requirement would help leaseholders “avoid unnecessary costs”, allowing “a more proportionate and flexible approach that enables ‘accountable persons’ (typically building owners) to meet their obligations in a way that is most effective for their buildings and residents”.

As it is remains the responsibility of ‘accountable persons’ to ensure they have the necessary arrangements in place, the Act has still created the need for someone competent to look after those ‘accountable persons’ duties. And while the BSM role is gone, the Fire Safety Act 2021 will also

BUILDING SAFETY BILL ● The bill received Royal Assent as we went to press.

KEY CONTACTS Sofie Hooper Head of Policy

SOCIAL VALUE CLIMATE EMERGENCY GROUP ● IWFM is contributing to a working group of the National Social Value Taskforce that is reviewing how to strengthen the Social Value TOMS framework on effective climate measures.

EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION FOCUS GROUP ● This group is moving from developing the IWFM action plan to supporting its implementation, shaping the 2022 Impact Awards and beyond.

SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS GUIDANCE PROJECT ● Various Special Interest Groups are feeding into an SFMI project driving a

become applicable, and with it the scope extension of the Fire Safety Order, which will explicitly include flat front doors and cladding in fire-risk assessments.

Furthermore, as the confusion around personal emergency evacuation plans is not quite lifting, we will engage with yet another consultation on the subject that will now make reference to emergency evacuation information-sharing or EEIS. What, then, will the golden thread – the information allowing a user to understand a building and the steps needed to keep it and its occupants safe – look like? In occupation, how easy will it be to deliver?

We see maintaining the golden thread as critical; it’s about bringing relevant information all the way through from the construction phase into the operational use of the building. There remains a gap between information required during the construction phase and that which ultimately becomes routinely available for use in occupation. The focus needs to be on what should be included and whether it will give members the tools to do a better job of building management as systems and approaches become embedded.

In this wider building information arena, there is still much work to be done.

We will continue to collaborate with partner organisations and our life safety working group will continue its input into the testing of new models and guidance.

We at IWFM will now focus our building safety work around these three themes: 1 Building safety competence – both of the organisation and the individual PAS8673; 2 Fire Risk Assessment and the newly strengthened Fire Safety Order; and 3 Building information – how should members adapt their safety management systems – what is proportionate?

standardised approach to align measuring scope 3 emissions with decarbonising FM services.

NEC CONTRACTS ● Practice Notes supporting the new NEC Facilities Management Contract continue to be published – members are advised to look out for our request to join the IWFMNEC FM Forum.

WORKPLACE CONVERSATIONS ● IWFM continues to explore the future of work debate through a variety of tools.

GET INVOLVED ● Our policy work is informed by our members’ priorities. You are invited to share your views on policy matters with us at policy@iwfm.org.uk

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O H W 16

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From individually experienced ‘imposter syndrome’ to the sense of a lack of overall sector confidence, workplace and facilities managers have often had to fight to determine how they and their work is perceived by others, internally and externally. Bradford Keen and Martin Read consider how they can instead be seen for the dynamism they routinely bring to their organisations’ performance and productivity I L L U ST R AT I ONS: LO U KI S S

K N I TH

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?

E R A E W

I

magine it’s 1982 and you’re a facilities manager at a dinner party. Someone walks up to you and asks: what do you do for work?

“You couldn’t answer in two or three words. It was as bad as that,” says one of the profession’s pioneers, Marilyn Standley. “In the beginning, we didn’t even have ownership of the term ‘facilities management’, far less ‘workplace and facilities management’. We didn’t know how to describe ourselves.”

Defining, when asked, precisely what the profession does wasn’t easy. But while Standley felt moments of doubt in her career, she’d never have called it ‘imposter syndrome’, the term coined first as ‘imposter phenomenon’ in 1985 by US clinician Dr Pauline Clance, and which refers to the

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fear of being found out as not being sufficiently capable, knowledgeable or worthy to fulfil a role.

Specific to the workplace and facilities management profession, Standley questions the relationship between imposter syndrome and whether or not the organisation considers the FM’s role to be core or non-core to its primary purpose – a lingering sense of being ‘outside of the loop’ and so not directly affecting their organisation’s purpose. “A lot of support functions are not seen as core, which may lead to people being less certain of themselves at work,” she explains.

Take a museum, for example. FM’s role in safeguarding the historical artefacts may not be seen as core to the organisation – that would rest with the conservation team – but FM would take care of fire safety, security, environmental conditions, which are all necessary conditions that need to be maintained to ensure the safety of the artefacts. FM, then, can be seen as core, or at least ‘core-adjacent’ – it just requires someone, and perhaps a particular type of character to champion the case (see box, ‘A complex situation’)

A question of belief

“Imposter syndrome is prevalent at every level, and in every role. It’s just that some people don’t talk about it”

It’s worth reiterating at this point that ‘imposter syndrome’ as defined in 2022 is a sensitive psychological condition. The past few years have seen it increasingly recognised as a mental health issue, one brought to the fore through the experience of young people, in particular those newly entering the job market in these immediate post-pandemic times.

It has also, however, been a shorthand for describing that sense of being out of place, of questioning whether you either deserve or are sufficiently capable of carrying out a job. That’s been the experience of various FMs over the years; individuals inhabiting a role that did not exist before the 1980s, perhaps struggling to define the specifics of the role, to explain what they do to others, as in Standley’s case, or indeed to make their case today within the organisations they serve.

Conrad Dinsmore, head of projects at CBRE’s Facilities Management Division and a former IWFM newcomer of the year, says that he’s seen this feeling of imposter syndrome in people coming through graduate programmes. “People don’t know how good they actually are; but maybe that’s

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JOB MA RK ET A S S ES S MEN T

THE RECRUITER’S PERSPECTIVE “Imposter syndrome definitely exists within FM with some commentators even suggesting that the industry itself has imposter syndrome,” says Michelle Connolly, strategic development director of FM specialist recruitment firm 300 North.

“And Covid hasn’t made life any easier for those with imposter syndrome. While it has brought about greater recognition of the sector and opportunities within it,” Connolly argues, some managers might feel anxious trying to navigate an evolving role of hybrid working and changing workspaces, along with unoccupancy, energy management and so on.” To overcome this anxiety, Connolly’s advice to managers is to “curate the right team” and ensure that it is based on “mutual trust”.

Currently, says Connolly, it’s a candidate’s job market – and candidates know this. “Many are sure of their value, allowing them to consider all of their various options before taking on a new role,” she says. “Many are comfortable selling their skills to recruiters, particularly those who worked throughout the pandemic, and especially those who managed to change jobs during it.

“There is a flip side to this, however. Some people who were made redundant or spent much of the pandemic not working have found it has knocked their confidence and felt they needed to take on a role as quickly as possible, even if it meant going for something a step down from their previous role.”

Managers who join the FM profession without sufficient training or those who lack technical expertise may experience feelings of imposter syndrome when trying to oversee a team. Plus, reports of mental health concerns in the wake of the pandemic along with remotely managing team members have also contributed to a sense of doubt and anxiety in some, says Connolly.

Managing people is, of course, not the same as managing a building – but being adept at the former is increasingly more important as the numbers of qualified FMs increase and technical expertise is more routinely outsourced.

“Management throughout FM roles has often become less technically focused,” says Connolly, “with people coming in from different talent streams including areas like soft services and university tracks which has helped to lower the age of management teams and has broadened the experience they have, moving away from technical expertise.

“A management team should cover a range of experiences, including technical, but also should include people with good customer service skills, and those with an eye for numbers, able to deliver costeffective projects.

“Managerial confidence, largely, has shifted to more individual skill sets, particularly as companies’ expectations for managers have changed and as the backgrounds and skills of managerial teams as a whole have changed.”

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because they don’t know what good actually looks like,” he says – another issue we will return to.

Although contemporary imposter syndrome tends to be attributed to the young, Dinsmore believes that senior professionals, despite their experience, also suffer. “It’s maybe not reflected in certain parts of the industry or in certain organisations, but people are affected by it. They don’t truly understand what their next step should be or believe in their capabilities. You hear them saying, ‘I’ve been in this job for 10 years but I don’t know what’s next or whether I can do it’.”

Supply side FMs constantly questioned by increasingly inquisitive clients “could affect an FM who doesn’t trust or believe in what they know”, continues Dinsmore. Hasty and thus poor decision-making to reduce costs could be made, “or they might change the scope or approach to something that wasn’t best for that workspace just because the customer challenged their decisions”.

Generational differences

Much like Standley, Simone Fenton-Jarvis, workplace consultancy director for Relogix, believes that imposter syndrome is specific to the individual rather than the role, but tends to be

more prevalent among “women and underserved populations”, with potential differences emerging when looking at sectors or verticals.

“Certainly there are verticals that can fuel imposter syndrome,” she says. “For example, a working-class FM in a legal firm working alongside high-powered legal professionals. The imposter syndrome may be fuelled by the fact that they don’t feel as important, equal, or as intelligent”.

Younger generations, Dinsmore reasons, tend to think of their professional trajectory as being projectbased, taking on stimulating roles to learn. “Then we want to move on to the next thing. That mindset has pushed young people not to be afraid to move faster onto new jobs.”

Nevertheless, as new professionals emerge in the sector, armed with formal qualifications, they will arrive with the effective combination of “feeling competent and being competent”, contends Fenton-Jarvis, with the added benefit of the “wider organisation acknowledging such expertise too”.

“Where an organisation has the skill sets and qualifications in-house, I have seen the management team have more confidence and pride, feeling confident that they have the answers as a team,” she adds.

Qualifications and company recognition help, but it’s still up to the individual to adopt the mindset that they are suitably capable.

Failure to do so might result in a workplace and facilities management professional who “devalues their role and the key part they play in the organisational functioning and employee experience”, says Fenton-Jarvis.

“This plays out in them not going for that promotion, not speaking up, not putting forward their innovative ideas, being self-critical and being the ‘FM ninja’ we always talk

“Does the body of FM at large have an inferiority complex?

I think you can see signs of it all the way through” FACI L I TAT EM AG A ZI N E .CO M

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“A lot of support functions are not seen as core, which may lead to people being less certain of themselves at work” about… just getting stuff done, staying quiet and ‘just doing their job’. It’s up to the organisation to acknowledge the role FM plays – and we all know how little that has happened in the past.”

Not so suite spot

Liz Kentish doesn’t care for the term ‘imposter syndrome’. The managing director at Kentish & Co

thinks of the “internal conversation we’re having with ourselves” as being potentially positive or negative, depending on how severe it is.

A more positive spin, says Kentish, is having a healthy dose of self-doubt and introspective tendencies. “If it keeps us honest, it’s a good thing,” she explains. “If it keeps us striving to be better at what we do, and to have an even greater impact it’s a good thing.”

When imposter syndrome “rears its ugly head”, Kentish’s advice is to check in with ourselves and those we trust. “It’s important to have our tribe of people, your safe community of people who will be honest with you, hold the mirror up to you, and help you find what’s working.”

In 2020, Kentish launched Plan B, an FM mentoring programme. The more than 100 mentees have all been women but the

SE C TO R CO NFIDENCE

A COMPLEX SITUATION Lionel Prodgers has been involved in shaping FM in the UK and internationally since its inception. He sees that there has been, and remains, a wider problem for the sector.

“Does the body of FM at large have an inferiority complex? I think you can see signs of it all the way through; as a body we’ve never really stepped up confidently,” says the managing director at consultancy Agents4RM. One key issue from Prodgers’ perspective is a lack of consistency over the years as to where the workplace and FM function reports into in terms of corporate governance.

“You’d be surprised at the variety of organisational structures I’ve seen,” he explains. “I’ve seen FM reporting into personnel, finance, IT; sometimes directly to the CEO or COO; a whole range of areas where it fits, or perhaps doesn’t fit because no one knows where to put it.”

To Prodgers’ mind, this lack of consistency leads to individual FMs unable to collectively talk to their peers about the same things at the same level. Accordingly, this results in too much variation in how good the typical FM is at articulating their value proposition, the understanding of which is needed for wider organisational acceptance. It’s a classic catch-22.

20

Emerging governmental decrees about the environmental performance of organisations and the buildings they inhabit “are part of the solution,” accepts Prodgers. “The fact that corporates are going to have to report on environmental performance, FM should be rising to that challenge.”

But the sector “needs to come through with solutions that are generally accepted across the sector and that show to others we know how it should be done”. He adds: “It comes back to that inferiority complex, of not being confident enough.”

Prodgers believes that there is an underlying fear within the sector of being criticised (“that’s the impression I get; not enough boldness”) and that an insecurity exists that needs challenging by a more concerted effort at membership organisation level. Visible influencing of government policy must be the goal, but for Prodgers “the institutes who are representing the discipline aren’t really engaging in these issues.”

Charisma and authority The problem is compounded by the sector’s work continuing to suffer from being seen as dispensable whenever economic conditions, over which even the most brightly shining exponents have no control, suddenly

conspire against them. Prodgers talks of extraordinary talents within FM, past and present, whose bodies of work have been undermined by such conditions and, most recently, the impacts of Covid-19. He likens this all too casual dismissal – of FMs who may have been improving processes in leaps and bounds – to the thought process through which an organisation decides it can blithely cut out its maintenance budget for a year and, having survived without consequence, try it again the following year. That this sense of dispensability continues to exist is a reason for any continuing inferiority complex and the need to fight it. individuals with the right combination of charisma and authority to break through this cycle are an important part of the solution, says Prodgers, not least because any FM proposing major projects “is going to need plenty of confidence in his numbers when dealing with the finance director”.

“Without being too simplistic,” he continues, “the people who will shine through will always shine through; again it’s that combination of charisma or authority, if you like.

And there are many examples in facilities management.”

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SECTOR CONFIDENCE / FEATURES

mentors comprise women and men. “Imposter syndrome is prevalent at every level, and in every role. It’s just that some people don’t talk about it.

“Some people say it’s a gender thing. You read research saying that if a man and a woman go for the same job and the man’s only got 70% of what the job is asking for, he’ll apply anyway. And the woman won’t. I think that’s an urban myth. It comes back to character again; some of us just think we can learn with the help of a supportive organisation and a great manager. I truly believe we all, at times, suffer from imposter syndrome.

But as I said, it’s not always a bad thing.”

One thing that won’t help is any lingering fixation of ‘recognition’ by the ‘C-suite’.

“I used to be convinced that it was all about getting FM a seat at the table, a voice in the boardroom,” says Kentish, “but I’m not convinced anymore that it’s as important.”

After all, “will having a voice in the C-suite help us work more collaboratively with our colleagues in HR and IT to create that workplace experience everybody wants? I’m not convinced that being visible at that level will drive those outcomes.”

The solution is in the data

There is a notion that FM, necessarily generalist as it is, is obliged to defer to the ‘experts’ it oversees and is thus less visible as a specific discipline. Could this have an impact on FM’s sense of imposter syndrome? Kentish has her doubts, but she asserts that FMs are specialists.

It is perhaps ironic that the FM role of being a broad-shouldered generalist, commissioning and

SIMONE FENTON-JARVIS Workplace consultancy director for Relogix

MICHELLE CONNOLLY Strategic development director of FM specialist recruitment firm 300 North

MARILYN STANDLEY Non-executive director of IWFM and veteran of the profession

LIZ KENTISH Managing director at Kentish & Co

CONR AD DINSMORE Head of projects at CBRE’s Facilities Management Division

LIONEL PRODGERS Managing director at consultancy Agents4RM

“If it keeps us moving forward, striving to be better at what we do and have an even greater impact, then it’s a good thing” conducting the work of specialists, is in itself a specialist skill, albeit an invisible one to most.

And yet, because of this intrinsic breadth of responsibility, the role may well be one that more routinely triggers feelings of self-doubt whatever the seniority level.

For both Kentish and Standley the answer, for individual practitioners and the wider sector, is to be found in the data analytics that environmental performance legislation obliges. Demonstrable truths exposed by data and necessarily addressable by the FM function will help. And ultimately, says Kentish, “you’ve got to have the evidence to quieten those voices in your head”.

For her part, Standley doubts whether the typical client-side FM has properly seized the outsourcing opportunity to the extent that they can free themselves to focus on the more pressing, strategic matters that quality time spent analysing performance data will expose.

“If you’re going to be seen as having successfully contributed to your organisation by outsourcing some of the more functional attributes of facilities and workplace management, you really need to be on top of your information and your data,” says Standley. “You need to find ways in which you can link that data to the key business metrics of success. I think that’s an interesting area for exploration because those metrics very often are performance-based, designed to enable the provider to get paid, as opposed to determining where they’ve brought success to the business.

“They’re more related to the performance of the outsource provider in delivering the KPIs than they are to delivering the business metrics. And I think one of our functions, if we’re in a small team managing a variety of outsourced arrangements, is how do you get those metrics to really translate into things that matter in the boardroom?”

It is this that, ultimately, that will settle any argument as to what the workplace or facilities manager brings to organisational performance – and how they themselves feel about the sector and the work they do within it.

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GAME CHANGERS / GEORGIA ELLIOTT-SMITH

distillation of Georgia Elliott-Smith’s message is simple enough: it is time we all got real. For this environmental consultant, keen to popularise the idea of ‘disruptive sustainability’, it’s time to ditch the greenwash, ‘micro-consumerist bollocks’, the ‘that’ll do’ tick-box sustainability initiatives and their base minimum level of legal or standards-based environmental compliance. It is, she exhorts, time, to raise our game and to lean into the more considered, fundamental sustainability mindset that will be required from all of us in the years ahead.

This transformation in attitudes to corporate sustainability “is about going back to first principles,” she explains. “‘Disruptive sustainability’ is about a joined-up, honest approach to sustainability.”

There’s much to unpack here, but first some background. If her name sounds familiar, it’s possibly because in recent years Elliott-Smith has hit the headlines, having taken the government to the High Court over its Paris agreement carbon

emission commitments. Delegates to Workplace Futures this year will also have seen her passionate speech there.

Originally from Cheshire, ElliottSmith started out as an undergraduate environmental engineer with Bovis. She set up the London-based waste management and environmental consultancy, Element Four, in 2003, since which she has developed a portfolio of project work for construction and real estate clients including names such as Landsec, Deloitte, Bank of England, Accenture and Microsoft.

Active travel

Like those of her clients, Elliott-Smith’s attitudes to sustainability steadily evolved – until 2018, when that ongoing evolution was replaced by a visceral reawakening.

At the Workplace Futures conference in February, she explained what happened.

“I had a kind of rebirth as an activist.

The IPCC report had come out with its 1.5 degree report telling us we had only 12 years before catastrophic tipping points were reached. I’d also been watching the David Attenborough documentaries and I realised that in my entire 20 years at that point it was just token things we were doing. A little bit here, a little

Environmental consultant Georgia Elliott-Smith has taken the government to the High Court, become an Insulate Britain activist – and is now exhorting workplace and facilities managers to take a more fundamental approach to the environmental impact of their operations. Martin Read reports PH OTOG R A P H Y: PET ER S EA RLE

THE DISRUPTIVE I 24

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“There has never before been this link between a business’ financial viability and its environmental performance”

INFLUENCER

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bit there. I’d been enabling corporates to say they were doing enough, but they weren’t”.

And so, Elliott-Smith joined Extinction Rebellion, took her place on Insulate Britain marches and became an ‘out and out’ activist.

“Activism should not be a dirty word,“ she reasons. “Everybody in the construction industry should be part of Insulate Britain; it’s an absolute travesty that we have allowed our building stock to become so poor.”

She is incensed at how the media has painted Insulate Britain as ‘extremists’, thereby “discrediting the people and thereby the message. Because when you think about what Insulate Britain is asking for, it is just, right and fair”.

Everybody should become a legal activist for climate change, she says, not least because the UK is no longer subject

“It’s an absolute travesty that we as an industry have allowed our building stock to become so poor” to any of the case law from Europe.

“As climate litigation moves forwards, with all these cases starting to present legal precedents, the UK is now an island. So we need lots of British legal activists taking government to court to set these precedents.

Elliott-Smith’s own carbon emissions High Court case concerned how waste

incinerators were excluded from the UK’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) calculations, and what she saw as the resultant excessively high emissions cap to help industry, thus helping the UK dodge the ‘substantial and immediate emission reductions’ component of the Paris agreement. The Court, in accepting that the Paris agreement was a relevant consideration, considered the government’s interpretation of key articles as “tenable”, dismissing the challenge. But Elliott-Smith had made her mark. And she’s pleased that other cases are now citing hers as precedent. ”Even though we didn’t win the case,” she says, “it’s important to have brought the action because these micro decisions within the macro judgment are the bricks in the wall.”

Time for FM to step up

A WID E R PE RSPE C TIVE

CHANGING THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS Perhaps it’s no surprised to find that Elliott-Smith is excited by the sciencebased approach to sustainability performance. She is a Chartered environmentalist and a member of the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA), while she volunteers – alongside developers, engineers, architects, planners, academics, contractors and FMs – with the London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI), a network of built environment professionals.

“LETI realised that the Building Regulations were not fit for purpose, that we’re facing a climate emergency, and that we have to be the grown-ups in this room and come up with our own guidelines about how the hell to achieve net zero, because we’re not getting the right guidance from government.”

Elliott-Smith has a disdain for traditional hierarchies, talking of how LETI is working alongside the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority on its London Plan – an example of new and often more direct ways of getting things done.

“It’s not just linear anymore,” she says.

“It’s new technologies, a new societal model, a new way of thinking about how society works, instead of going up in layers until you get to the decision-makers;

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because now there are little cells of activity going on with experts in different areas, and they’re, in turn, linking out to different decision-makers.”

Elliott-Smith is an ambassador for Fitwel and a WELL Standard Accredited Professional, with her consultancy’s projects frequently built to meet these standards. (You can case studies of Element Four’s work on the Here + Now project in Reading and at Duo 280 Bishopsgate by scanning the link opposite.) Yet she is again keen to highlight how it’s all a question of starting point. “I don’t think these certifications are necessarily silver bullets. Some people will go through BREAMM and pick all the low-hanging fruit, the cheap options, so the building ends up with a mishmash of features that don’t genuinely benefit anybody. Instead they should look strategically at the opportunities in that building and use these certifications to max out the best positive interventions.”

Again, it’s that need to consider a wider perspective. And it’s why ElliottSmith also believes that gender balance within organisations is a key element of true sustainability solutions. “We still have a huge problem with gender balance – are FM firms doing enough here? Is this a strategic priority too?”

For facilities management, what’s required in Elliott-Smith’s judgement is a strategic approach. At Workplace Futures she took aim at workplace recycling points (“I hate to break it to you, but this doesn’t matter; this is not strategic”) and suggested starting from much further back. You may be chipping away at metrics such as waste diverted from landfill, or carbon used in construction – but in your specific case, do they actually matter? Instead, start by considering both ‘what is meaningful to this business’, and ‘what is meaningful on a global scale’. Of course consider what happens to a product at its end of life - but did you really need it in the first place?

What of your supply chain and their ESG practices? Are they addressing poverty through their employment practices? Are you supporting sustainable consumption?

One way to introduce this mindset, she suggests, is if organisations match their activities against each of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) – with perhaps a particular emphasis on SDG 12, ‘Responsible Consumption and Production’ – and then work outwards from there.

Reporting the difference

While this recasting of approach is a key message, Elliott-Smith thinks fresh legislation for 2022 will force the sciencebased approach she is so keen to promote.

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to propagate greenwash, so that if an organisation makes unsubstantiated environmental claims about its product or service, it can be prosecuted. (That could clean up my inbox – Ed.) “We’re moving into an area where [an organisation’s] approach to making money is intrinsically linked to its approach to sustainability, and I welcome that so much. I just wish it moved faster. The green claims code, the TCFD, they’re great – but we need more of it.”

Of hybrid working and the re-evaluation of CRE space requirements, she says: “I welcome the churn, because it gives us an opportunity to refresh the requirements and do those retrofits that previously you couldn’t justify.”

Strength in numbers

At Workplace Futures she spoke of the Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor (CRREM) and its use to demonstrate whether buildings are on track against the UK’s decarbonisation curve as outlined in the Paris agreement commitments, and so at what point retrofitting may be required. She further champions measuring building performance through target setting via the science based targets initiative (SBTI). “By using sciencebased metrics [to measure building performance], we start to get that broader perspective. Are we contributing more or less to the overall impact? Forget everybody else, what’s our impact?”

And when we meet it’s just days after the introduction into law of an obligation for companies with more than 500 employees and a turnover of more than £500 million to disclose climaterelated financial information using guidelines set out by the Task Force Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Organisations in this bracket are now duty-bound to report any potential risks and opportunities associated with climate change, including the impact that changing climate is having on their assets. In other words, investors now get to see whether or not specific built assets are becoming liabilities, and they get to understand what mitigation is required. How would a building respond to overheating? Flooding? What climate adaptation measures are needed to

At time of going to print, Elliott-Smith was ensure its resilience? preparing for the local elections on 5 May, “I cannot stress how important this when she is standing as a councillor for is,” beams Elliott-Smith. “There’s never the Green Party. She is married with two before been this link between a business’s young children, and I wonder about how financial viability and its environmental she finds time - and whether she is positive performance. I like that TCFD is making about what the future will bring. investors nervous. This is about hitting their “Well, it’s not a job to me, it’s my life ability to get finance; and if suddenly they purpose and I feel passionate about what can’t, they’ll change their ways quickly.

I do – so absolutely, yes I’m positive. I do “When does this building have to be go through periods of despair when you retrofitted in order to decarbonise in line see just how big the problem is. But we are with the Paris agreement? It’s a simple billions of people and if we all stop being calculation, but it takes us out of the frozen with this paralysis of not knowing what to do, if we start day-to-day and has us acting together, we asking ‘how are can tackle all these we performing in a problems.” global context’?

Her departing Does decarbonisation rallying cry for facilities on this building matter, managers is best or should we focus our FURTHER READING summed up as ‘get your efforts on a different Scan for related content hands dirty’. asset that’s performing SBTI (Science based targets initiative “We have to stop worse?’”

CRREM (Carbon Risk Real waiting to be told “You don’t need Estate Monitor (tool) what to do, because investors to care about TCFD (Task Force on Climatethe people telling us the environment, they Related Financial Disclosures) what to do don’t have just need to care about Knowledge Hub RESET Standard the right answers and the prospect of their Carbon Brief (the science and policy regulation moves assets being devalued.” policy of climate change) at a glacial pace. We And there’s more.

LETI (London Energy need to say, ‘what does Elliott-Smith thinks the Transformation Initiative) Green Claims Code meaningful change look competition Markets Element Four Case Study: like? Not only for our Authority (CMA)’s Duo 280 Bishopsgate company, but for our green claims code is a Element Four Case Study: industry – and how can positive too. The code Here + Now, Reading we contribute?’” makes it an offence Presentation Workplace Futures FACI L I TAT EM AG A ZI N E .CO M

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lectricity costs are up by 50%, gas, in some cases, by 120% – and estates, building services and FM teams are caught in the eye of the storm. How, then, to deal with 2022’s energy crisis?

First, should we even be in this position? Right now, decisionmakers – landlords, owner-occupiers, estates teams, FMs – are like the stranger asking directions from a local while out on a walk. Too often the reply is: “I wouldn’t start from here.”

David Stevens, vice-chair of the Chartered Institution of Building Service Engineers’ (CIBSE) FM division, agrees. “That’s spot

on. Before looking at the energy crisis itself, we need to consider what we are working with. Buildings are known to rarely perform as designed; the majority are seldom truly energy efficient. Despite great sector improvements there remains a performance gap between what is designed, what targets are set and how buildings really operate. What we have to focus on is reducing that performance gap.”

CIBSE has long campaigned for designing in greater resilience into new buildings, giving FMs a much more integral role in decision-making. Despite the warnings, the problem persists.

“Predictions about power shortages and cost rises have been in the media for some time, compounded by the risk of warmer

POWER PLAY Dealing with a sudden and unprecedented energy crisis, FMs need to mitigate spiralling costs yet continue delivering the levels of service expected of them. But addressing these fundamental building performance issues means knowing where to start from, as Bill Dolsworth explains

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“Before looking at the energy crisis itself, we need to consider what we are working with” summers and harsher winters,” Stevens argues. “The industry has long known the risks. There are solutions to combat exposure but in many cases they should already be in play.

“The decision [now] is how they might balance short-term measures and still consider the longer-term ideas requiring more capital expenditure.”

CIBSE’s Guide M for Maintenance Engineering and Management, a guidance document for those responsible for energy efficiency and maintenance delivery, points to an opportunity for the FM sector to demonstrate its role at the heart of the UK economy, Stevens believes – with now being an ideal opportunity.

“Gaining a sound understanding of how a facility is meant to operate at both a strategic and detailed level will identify areas of improvement,” says Stevens.

ILLUSTRATION: STUART KINLOUGH / IKON

Applying solutions locally

All well and good. But what immediate steps can be taken? And how do you balance any such steps with the nascent decarbonisation agenda? In an ideal world, you wouldn’t start from here if you were hoping to minimise the impact of the energy crisis and decarbonise at the same time.

Andrew Holt, director, operational buildings at Hilson Moran, says the sector “needs to get a grip on the operational facts of current building or portfolio operation before it can appropriately map the correct path to decarbonisation”.

An immediate gap to fill is by addressing the all-too-frequent lack of engagement with the technical FM service providers who have the delegated responsibility for managing and controlling most of the high-energy consuming plant in a building. In this regard, Holt wonders if the

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sector fully understands the scale of the challenge.

“As consultants, we are incredibly connected to the issues and the various industry initiatives aimed at meeting the challenge,” says Holt, “including government policy and work by the UK Green Building Council, the built environment professional network LETI and the Better Buildings Partnership.

The challenge for the sector is in applying those high-level principles to often bespoke, practical and commercially acceptable solutions for the existing built environment.

“While there are common themes arising from our work for specific clients and individual buildings (see box, Checklist – energy reduction priorities), detailed solutions will invariably be tailored to each building and affected by building type, location, size, age, use, occupancy – and investment potential.”

The advice from Carl Brooks, global head of sustainability at CBRE, is: “Focus on the things you can control. Get that right and then look at the medium, say five-year plans covering repairs, replace

The American Geophysical Union building (above) in Washington DC includes the command center (below) a space designed specifically to educate guests about the energy control strategies in use throughout the building

E NE RGY B ILL S

Many businesses are overpaying on energy costs because they aren’t taking the time to check their bills and catch any errors or mistakes, argues Pradyumna Pandit, MD, Mitie energy and sustainability services.

He says that Mitie Energy’s bill validation team saved customers £4 million in the last financial year simply by checking all their energy bills were accurate.

Strong governance needs to be in place regarding the impact of pricing on energy procurement decisions, especially in these highly volatile times.

Having the right kind of agreement is important.

A contract with additional flexibility, for example, being able 30

to buy energy in smaller blocks, allows for not having all of your eggs in one basket. With a risk strategy in place, businesses can manage their price and volume risk and decide whether to bring in other purchasing routes, such as long-term power from power purchase agreements.

“With today’s price volatility, our advice is for businesses that can afford to hedge their energy bills at current levels to lock-in price stability now, as prices are likely to stay higher for longer. This offers certainty over costs for the medium term while other options to keep bills down are explored. Energy markets are complex and have many drivers, but getting it right pays dividends.”

PHOTOGRAPHY: ERIC LAIGNEL

A BITTER BILL TO SWALLOW

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AC /DC

FOR THOSE ABOUT TO TAKE STOCK A legacy of Edison and Westinghouse’s ‘War of the Currents’ in 1880s America was the decision to use the less-efficient AC current instead of DC distribution in buildings. But now, factors have emerged that will allow FMs to reconsider the potential of DC in their future building design plans. ● The massive adoption of electronic/digital technology means we need DC more now; ● The rise of renewables and electrical energy storage (ESS) means we have more DC now; and ● The development of power electronics means we can now distribute DC to drive big appliances like refrigeration and HVAC more efficiently than with AC. The technology isn’t yet ready to allow for designing or managing a building that only accepts DC at the point of supply. But what FMs can do now is specify infrastructure so that it is possible to plug DC energy from local assets directly into devices that need DC, without wasteful AC-DC conversion.

The principle is proven in DCexclusive buildings such as the Circl Pavilion in Amsterdam, while a good example of hybrid AC/ DC is the American Geophysical Union building (see pictures), which incorporates solar electric PV and DC controllers among a whole suite of passive and biophilic features.

When designing for DC ● Engage specialists who understand energy, construction and technology as a whole system; ● Design for DC from the start and from the ground up – the most important part is the infrastructure no one will ever see; and ● Involve all stakeholders in the journey; this includes your supply chain, particularly in the construction phase.

“I’d go as far as to say that there’s a flagrant misuse of power in most kitchens” and any investment for operational expenditure. Then look at capex after that.”

For Brooks, identifying what form shortterm gain projects can take will have been made easier by two years of lockdown.

Stevens concurs that for many, a new balance between office and home will have shifted some responsibility away from corporate buildings.

“Factories and production facilities cannot just close for a day or two,” accepts Stevens, “but an office can easily say to staff ‘you’re not coming in Tuesday and Wednesday’ and gain energy savings overnight – although this does transfer the energy responsibility to the homeowner.”

The rise of hybrid working has proved that productivity need not be affected by adapting the workplace, although how the workplace is managed can maximise energy efficiency and space at the same time. There are twin gains to be pursued: repurposing or even mothballing whole buildings or floors is one tactic, but a simpler one is to challenge the behaviours of end users and occupiers.

Amid ongoing concerns about corporate cohesion, hybrid working does allow for the potential hibernating of buildings when empty. Pradyumna Pandit, who is managing director of Mitie energy and sustainability services, says its work with clients has included helping to introduce behavioural change through ‘comfort policies’ for temperature and lighting settings. But Pandit also points to what if not already actioned must now be glaring opportunities; he estimates that Mitie helped customers to cut energy bills by 30% on average in 2020 by changing to LED lighting – much trailed – and by installing motion sensors, the latter leading to HVAC settings automatically adjusting based on

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C HE C K LIST

ENERGY REDUCTION PRIORITIES Hilson Moran’s Andrew Holt offers the following advice: Top priority: ensure that there is sufficient metering and monitoring and use this data to derive a benchmark to understand what changes can be made to meet ambitious (but necessary) energy use intensity targets (as established by UKGBC) over the next few decades.

A note on heat pumps: Many people are latching on to the sound bite that heat pumps are the way forward. Subject to detailed feasibility, they are, but there are so many energy and carbon reduction priorities to focus on before jumping to plant replacement and new technologies.

These include: 1. Reducing energy consumption ● Are plant systems only operating when they are absolutely needed? ● Are system controls actually functioning as intended? ● Have you engaged with occupants to ensure that they understand their responsibilities? (eg, accepting broader temperature limits within their

space, turning equipment off when not in use, and so on) ● Are KPIs for FM service providers being set and incentivised based on supporting client and occupier ESG, energy and carbon objectives? ● Is metered and other data being used to inform new operating strategies?

2. Specifying energy equipment and infrastructure ● In many instances improvements will have to be made to building fabric and air tightness before alternative technologies can be considered and deployed to their full potential. Often termed the ‘fabric first’ approach. ● Does the building have a fully considered and managed life cycle plan (PMR/FMR) to identify when existing plant, equipment and systems require replacement? ● Has the impact of lease breaks been considered in terms of opportunities to carry out and fund works? ● Does the client fully understand the significant and cascading implications of changing to new technologies? Taking the example of replacing boilers with heat

pumps this is not simply a case of taking one out and putting the alternative in – namely, plug and play. Changing to a heat pump requires a detailed feasibility study to consider viability across multiple factors in the target building. ● The debate on the future of hydrogen as a viable solution for the built environment adds another dimension to be considered in helping clients decide on the right upgrade strategy for their buildings and portfolios. We can only work with what we know today but nobody will thank us for recommending removing fossil fuel boilers and all the gas infrastructure to install heat pumps if, in five to 10 years’

“Does the client fully understand the significant and cascading implications of changing to new technologies?”

PHOTOGRAPHY: ISTOCK

the number of people in the building.

IoT laggards just might be able to show surprising cost cuts to their C-suites.

So, practical measures and behavioural change play a part. But ultimately “it’s still about measurement,” says Brooks.

“We need data to understand what is going on and to then make tactical and strategic decisions. We still need to measure to manage.”

Simply use less

Chris Craggs, CEO of food equipment maintenance provider MCFT, says that there are lessons for everyone from his company’s work in the catering sector – and they’re

mainly to do with swapping old for new.

This is where explanatory arguments with procurement must be won. Craggs suggests that the energy crisis has come along at the same time as a new generation of more efficient kit, making the old argument of a short-term cost being far outweighed by savings and efficiencies easier to make. The difficulty is in finding time to research and present the necessary business case.

“Kitchens are inherently energy inefficient not because of the equipment but because of how it is used,” begins Craggs. “I’d go as far as to say that there’s a flagrant misuse of power in most

time, hydrogen (however unlikely it looks today) in the gas network is viable and the gas infrastructure and boilers need to be put back in. ● Are clients prepared for the possibility that while every effort will be made to reduce energy consumption in the sizing of replacement plant, the payback may not be able to be judged in financial terms but purely in terms of improved carbon performance and building energy rating? ● The addition of other renewables to the building (eg, solar PV) must again be approached very carefully. Specifically for solar PV, aside from physical space and orientation, there are two key issues to consider.

One is the embodied carbon in the manufacture, supply and installation of the renewable technology being added to the building. The second is that as the electricity grid gets rapidly greener, the carbon that is saved by solar PV becomes less relevant.

kitchens. A simple solution is to use more modern, efficient equipment – but use it less.” Likewise, simply using equipment more intelligently can cut operating costs. Says Craggs: “Kitchen operatives love switching everything on to prepare for service. But nowadays, systems are so good that ovens, grills and hobs do not need to be fired up hours before opening times. Kitchens are like everywhere else: we need to run stuff less.”

With this in mind, the checklist starts writing itself. Is the air-conditioning running overnight? Are the chillers at the right setting?

“Workplace management has

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made significant use of movement sensors to track the usage of space,” says Craggs, “and the technology can be applied to how we use the energy in that space too.

For example, in a kitchen we use sensors to track how often a fridge door is opened and how long it remains open, hence demanding more energy for its systems.

Knowing this, we can encourage shifts in work patterns and reduce the movements of food from one cold storage to another to save energy.”

For those about to cook

If we can make savings by prompting behaviourial change, can we also find efficiencies in the technical form of power supply itself? Perhaps there are savings to be had here. Allan Burns, who sits on the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s built environment panel, says that it’s time to look at how buildings can be retrofitted to use less ‘alternating current’ (AC) electricity and more ‘direct current’ (DC) instead (See box, AC/DC – For those about to take stock).

“The vast majority of appliances in modern buildings use DC electricity,” explains Burns. “From the light bulb in the ceiling to the Tesla in the VP’s parking space, they all have to use devices to convert wavy ‘mains’ AC electricity into flat Direct Current (DC) electricity. These converters range from ubiquitous ‘wall-warts’ and ‘lumpin-lines’ which we can see, to powersupplies hidden in all digital devices like monitors.

“The characteristic they all share is that they waste energy as heat, typically between 10-20% and sometimes up to 40% where there are multiple conversions. That’s a massive potential saving. The adoption of electronic/digital technology in the past 20 years – IT, servers, you name it – means we need DC more now. It’s not easy, but FMs and building designers need to devise an infrastructure so that it will be possible to plug DC energy from local assets directly into devices that need DC, without wasteful AC-DC conversion.”

All of which is what Brooks might bracket under longer-term capex.

And yet actually, it is already here, albeit in beta form. Burns and his IET colleagues are already testing the IET’s

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“The adoption of electronic/ digital technology in the past 20 years – IT, servers, you name it – means we need DC more now” own refurbished HQ in Stevenage. The reason he is advocating DC over AC is not because it is easy – it isn’t – but, he says, it should be considered “because it’s the right thing for the planet. And also, if it’s done right it will increase your ROI over the lifetime of the building.”

Time to get serious

The ‘quick wins’ may come through smaller equipment procurement cases; the longer-term gains may build on behavioural changes initiated in lockdown – but the energy crisis is a hard obstacle to handle. It’s worth starting from the premises that power prices, particularly for electricity, are always volatile and that an efficiencyfirst mindset should not be an optional one. Right now it is time to heed the lessons of how we reached this point – and to build policy and performance foundations to get through the current crisis and fix the focus on 2050.

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THE BEST OF THE SECTOR’S DISCUSSION AND DEBATE

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VIEW POINT

Perspectives: Claudio Rojas, Vic O’Farrell, Dave Cairns and Julian Fris

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Tamara Cruickshanks, Account Manager of the Year finalist in the 2021 IWFM Impact Awards

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IWFM Chair Mark Whittaker invites eligible members to shape the Institute’s future

Where are we now?

Since the pandemic, there has been a shift in consumer behaviour, impacting retail trade turnover and profitability.

Much of this has to do with the change to homeworking, which has continued post-pandemic. In addition to that, the shift to online purchasing has meant that influencing a consumers’ choice to visit a retail destination is more important now than ever. Furthermore, the prevalence of vacant unit space resulting from a major brand and independent traders’ collapse alters the landscape and perception of a town centre’s viability.

Where do we need to get to next?

We need to revitalise our town centres and retail destinations with a dynamic injection of alternate uses, while being mindful of the cost of operation. We must provide value for money for our occupiers yet still provide a safe and attractive environment for customers. For

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Amrit Tiwari and Fahim Saiyed offer us insights into their jobs

example, we reached out to Hartlepool Borough Council’s children’s services department and converted a vacant unit into an exciting alternative use for our community. Hartlepool Borough Council delivers integrated services for young children, carers, and families, focusing on closing the achievement gap for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Trading spaces Changing consumer behaviour means reconsidering the use of retail space, says Mark Rycraft

How do we get there?

We need to lift the lid on our perceptions of retail places only being about retail. We need to review expenditure across all aspects of service delivery to ensure we provide a quality, value-for-money service; generate dynamic interest within the community by creating meeting places and spaces to build loyalty; but, more importantly, be flexible and open-minded.

MARK RYCR AFT Seek out ideas is centre manager and be bold in for JLL at your thinking Middleton Grange and approach.

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C LAUDIO ROJAS

V I C O’ FA RREL L

GET YOUR HEAD OUT THE BOX

QUIET IS NOT WEAK, LOUD IS NOT STRONG

CLAUDIO ROJAS is managing director at Alex Young Recruitment Ltd

VIC O’FARRELL is founder and director of Queen of Behaviours

W

hat frustrates me – and I know it frustrates many of you – is that when it comes to hiring staff, so many companies are poor at employing FMs without sector-specific experience.

So those in healthcare, for example, won’t necessarily look at those from retail.

We love to celebrate how many of us come from different walks of life. We know colleagues who are ex-military or former engineers. We know those who started out as cleaners, receptionists or in the post room.

However, we don’t keep this in mind when it comes to hiring new people. I posted on LinkedIn about how one doesn’t need an engineering background to run a hard services contract or one doesn’t need experience managing a service charge budget to do so in a new role.

For an industry that prides itself on being people-focused, we’re still scared of climbing outside of the box to look for talent that doesn’t meet the status quo.

We complain about the talent shortage, but if we shift our thinking a bit we’ll find so many capable people with transferable skills.

Someone who has managed a budget or P&L is likely to handle a service charge just fine; a senior account manager with 20 years’ experience of delivering TFM who doesn’t have an engineering background will be able to run a hard FM contract. They have the necessary management and client relationship skills at the appropriate level to make it happen.

I hate telling great candidates that I can’t consider them for certain roles just because the client won’t look at anyone without sector-specific experience. How can we discount their experience and achievements, and what they could bring to the party?

Next time you’re hiring, look at people from different sectors within the FM industry. Their transferable skills might surprise you.

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H

ow often have you heard a colleague call out another colleague JUST because they are different?

Our autopilot is to see the world through our own perspective, so when we meet someone who is different from ourselves, we’re initially negatively biased. This is not wrong, it is human nature; however, if we retrain to challenge our biases and adopt more positive thought processes, we could see others’ different behaviours as strengths.

I spent several years working among sales people. I was a salesperson in my past. Like me, they were outgoing, generally loudly spoken and outwardly confident.

The accounts team were generally quieter, softer spoken and more reserved in character.

I used to find it frustrating when I asked them a question and there would be a pause and silence before they answered. Even before answering, I would reframe the question thinking, “Don’t they understand?”

It had never occurred to me that their thought processes had them internalise the question so when they answered, they knew it was as correct

and cohesive as they could possibly answer it.

I used to think they were shy, cold, a little dull.

They thought I was loud, brash and impatient. How wrong could we both be?

Eventually, we took time to understand each other, and we realised we both had strengths to bring to the team, the organisation and the end goal.

I used to think they were shy, cold, a little dull. They thought I was loud, brash and impatient We naturally migrate to people of a similar behavioural style to ourselves because it’s where we feel comfortable.

But don’t look across at those who are polar opposites and think they are quiet and weak or loud and strong. Teams need to be a blend of all styles.

Diversity is not just about our ethnicity, sexuality, or culture – it is also about our behaviours. My advice is to always STOP, THINK and RE-EVALUATE.

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PERSPECTIVES / VIEW POINT

Visit www.facilitatemagazine.com for more regularly posted opinion columns. Topical, inspirational, angry or amusing – we consider all relevant comment. Get in touch at editorial@facilitatemagazine.com

DAV E C A IRNS

JUL I A N F RIS

PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY

INNOVATION FROM ADVERSITY

DAVE CAIRNS is senior vice-president of office leasing at CBRE Canada

JULIAN FRIS is chair of the IWFM Catering SIG and founder of Neller Davies

A

side from an employee’s choice to frequent their company office, there is no “amenity” more valuable than psychological safety.

Covid-19 has brought this into sharp focus.

To borrow an example from personal life, many can recall an intimate relationship or friendship that we remained in for too long even though it wasn’t serving us. We stayed in it until an outside factor like an egregious betrayal helped us to make a change.

At work, Covid has been that outside factor.

Many of us are yawning (sometimes puking!) at the idyllic picture being painted about prepandemic office culture and the ‘utopia’ of inperson collaboration.

Why? Because we are now acutely aware of inequities and exclusionary practices at work like never before. Some of the lucky few with privilege are seeing theirs in a new light and those without it are arming themselves.

Social media is full of disgruntled employees

calling leaders “tone deaf” but ironically contextless messages such as “it’s the hallway conversations, lunches, dinners and drinks that help the next generation learn the business and grow their careers. None of this can be done from home in your sweatpants…” continue to be proudly stated by top execs without consideration of their own privilege or awareness that these “traditions” were never evenly distributed.

These leaders want their people back in the office, but they don’t seem to recognise that one of the greatest risks to willing (the operative word for an engaged employee) re-entry is a lack of psychological safety.

For many folks, it will be more tolerable to be overtly or covertly abused through a screen than at the office. They have a choice to leave. But far scarier for companies could be if a growing number of unengaged folks stay.

As the saying goes, it’s time to pay the piper for many organisations.

We are now acutely aware of inequities and exclusionary practices at work like never before

W

hile the war in Ukraine has accelerated some of the major challenges in the foodservice industry, many of these issues had been brewing for years.

The pandemic, Brexit and wider food inflation have been a concern for the sector for quite some time.

Caterers are facing cost control, resourcing, and wider sourcing issues.

Whether it’s sourcing ingredients and materials to meet orders, the rising cost of equipment and longer lead times, price inflation, or staff shortages owing to Brexit, career changes, and Covid – it’s a challenging time for the sector.

Caterers and FM companies are having to rethink their offers in the short and medium term to stave off the worst impacts.

Right now, mitigation strategies are being deployed across the board, with progressive businesses taking the opportunities to take stock and reset what has been done before.

There is no denying the difficulties that catering companies are facing, but innovation can be born out of adversity.

We are already seeing major moves being made to look at alternative solutions such as the consideration of more automated services (minimarts, smart fridges,

vending), delivered-in solutions, greater use of dark kitchens, and subscription-based services.

In an industry that prides itself of agility, the core organisational attributes are being challenged now more than ever before.

Businesses will have to absorb cost centrally and write it off against increasing staff productivity – more and more clients are giving food away free in a bid to get people back.

More and more clients are giving food away free in a bid to get people back From a contractual perspective, rather than re-procure services, which might have an adverse effect with risk-averse bidders, businesses will have to consider more collaborative ‘vested’ solutions and work together to eliminate additional cost from performance-based contracts: that is, focus on incentives, shared vision, strategic objectives, and desired outcomes.

FACI L I TAT EM AG A ZI N E .CO M

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VIEW POINT / WINNING WAYS

Get in touch at editorial@facilitatemagazine.com or reach us @Facilitate_Mag

VOL UN T EER V I EW P OI N T ACCO UNT M ANAGER OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Tamara Cruickshanks ● What? Selected as a finalist in the account Manager of the Year category at the 2021 IWFM Impact Awards for my management of one of Atalian Servest’s high-profile client contracts. ● My role? I oversee a contract with more than 250 passionate and responsive operatives, who deliver catering, cleaning – including hygiene and window cleaning provisions – security, concierge, post room, housekeeping, pest control, gritting and horticulture.

I have also developed and rolled out various client programmes to drive innovation, best practice and service excellence. Focusing on customer satisfaction and operational excellence, the objectives of the programmes were to increase uptake of the quarterly customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey,

and to improve the results. As part of this, I developed a live dashboard to transform the survey delivery, managing feedback in real time to improve responsiveness and service delivery. ● The impact? My team successfully transformed the contract in just three years. We boosted the uptake of the CSAT survey from 34% to 75%, and overall satisfaction scores from 75% to 97%, retaining our soft service contract for another two years. The new survey delivery platform is used in other contracts within our business and has led to Atalian Servest winning a hard services contract with the same client for planned and reactive maintenance. ● What’s next? Although everyone has a different leadership style and a different definition of management excellence, my goal is always to be evaluating and improving my performance. By being accountable and trustworthy, I will continue to focus on building up my team through bespoke training and development, and always encouraging them to do better. You cannot be an effective manager without a team that fully supports you.

TAMAR A CRUICKSHANKS is account manager at Atalian Servest

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HELP SHAPE IWFM’S FUTURE MARK WHITTAKER is chair of IWFM

N

ominations have opened to fill two Non-Executive Director (NED) positions on the IWFM Board.

Could you play a role in shaping the Institute’s future direction?

As a former NED, I know that it’s an extremely rewarding experience. You will see the work that goes into bringing members closer to their professional body, giving our profession a voice, informing and inspiring members, and working effectively with volunteers and staff to ensure the Institute is fit for purpose and providing the best service possible.

IWFM is committed to improving Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) across the Institute and profession so we encourage participation from all members, regardless of gender, age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, belief, marital status, pregnancy or any other personal circumstances.

To be eligible to stand or vote, however, you must be of IWFM Member grade or above. Eligible members can self-nominate, but you will need two members (also of Member grade or above or a main contact of a Group or Corporate member) to second your application.

How do you know

you’re eligible? You will have received an email from our independent scrutineers, UK Engage, explaining the process and how to self-nominate via an online platform. Check your junk/spam box so you don’t miss your chance.

In terms of skills, the IWFM Board is looking for high-quality, experienced candidates with commercial acumen, industry knowledge and insight, strategic thinking, commercial and financial competence, and the ability to navigate political environments.

NEDs are unremunerated but have the same statutory duties, responsibilities and liabilities as their executive counterparts.

Nominations close on 27 May, so if you believe you could be one of our next NEDs, don’t delay.

To find out what happens after the nomination stage, visit IWFM website for more information. Good luck!

The IWFM Board is looking for high-quality, experienced candidates

FAC I L I TAT E M AY-J U N E 202 2

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CALLS TO ACTION / VIEW POINT

D I A RY

Events, activities and publications for your attention 17 OC TOBER – LON D ON

KEY EVENT 8 JUNE

IWFM Conference 2022: time is running out so book your spot Focused on creating an ethical, fair and sustainable future together, our speakers will inspire you to be an agent of change.

Exclusive ticket price for IWFM members. tinyurl.com/IWFMConference

INDUSTRY WIDE 11 M AY – G LOBAL

World FM Day Themed 'Leading a sustainable future’, World FM Day celebrates workplace and facilities managers. tinyurl.com/ Fac030422-WFMD

18 MAY – HAR ROGAT E

North Region Golf Day 2022 Join the 2022 IWFM North Charity Golf Day – one our the most popular members' events. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-golfday 30 MAY – LIV ERP OOL

Facilities Show Connecting the FM supply chain to explore sustainable solutions. tinyurl.com/Fac010222-FacShow

Skills for leaders: Leading change workshop – Women in FM SIG IWFM Impact Award winner Kate Morris Bates will help you to boost your skill base and confidence. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-WIFM

15- 16 JUNE – LONDON

7 JULY – MAN CH EST ER

17- 19 M AY – LONDON

CIPD Festival of Work Develop yourself, your people, and your business. tinyurl.com/Fac010222-CIPD

IWFM EVENTS 11 M AY – G UERNSEY

Better Journeys: leading the way to more sustainable travel – IWFM Channel Islands Region Sustainable Active Travel will deliver insights, healthier staff and reduce your carbon footprint. tinyurl.com/Fac050522-travel 12 M AY – DURHAM

Durham Cathedral tour – IWFM North Region Tour Durham Cathedral and Spire before afternoon tea, cakes and networking. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-Durham 18 M AY – LO NDON

IWFM Rising FMs networking at Facilities Show Network with peers as they support IWFM at this year’s Facilities Show. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-risingFM

IWFM North Region Charity Ball The black-tie event includes a champagne reception, threecourse meal, live music, charity raffle and DJ until 2am. tinyurl.com/Fac010222-Northball 28 JULY – LON D ON

IWFM AGM 2022 Engage with the Board and vote on the Institute's future direction at the 2022 Annual General Meeting. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-AGM 28 SEPTEMBER – BIRMI N G H A M

Women in FM Annual Conference – #Breakingthebias Speakers will share their knowledge and experiences to help you break the bias. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-WIFM2 13 OC TOBER – D URH A M

North Region Durham University Tour of Castle College and breakfast Breakfast networking followed by a tour of Durham University’s Castle College. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-Durham2

IWFM Impact Awards 2022 The prestigious event celebrates best practice and ingenuity from an influential profession operating in multiple sectors. tinyurl.com/Fac010222-Awards

IWFM WEBINAR SERIES IWFM’s webinar series covers a variety of topics with expert guests.

Listings may be subject to change.

Visit tinyurl.com/IWFM-webinars 11 MAY– T I ME T BC

‘The importance of embodied carbon’ with IWFM ISIG 2 5 MAY – 12 P M

Scope 3 emissions 15 JUN E – 12 P M

‘Hybrid working and the future of work’ in partnership with Envoy 6 JULY – 12 P M

‘Fire safety’ in partnership with Plan Radar

20 -2 2 S EP T E M B E R – LO N D O N

Effective FM professional - 3 days Find out how to create and sustain effective operations. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-Effective 11-12 OC TOBE R – LO N D O N

FM strategy - 2 days Evaluate and improve your business strategy's impact. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-FMstrat 17-18 OC TOBE R – LO N D O N

Effective property management - 2 days Manage your property portfolio with an effective property strategy. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-propman

IWFM LIVE VIRTUAL TRAINING 2 9-3 0 JUN E

Managing building services - 2 days Reduce risk and better manage your building services. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-MBSS 5 JULY

IWFM FACE-TO-FACE TRAINING

Better supplier relationships - 1 day Build partnerships and manage contracts and supply chains. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-supplier

27 - 28 JUN E – LON D ON

18 -20 JULY

27-28 JUN E – LON D ON

7-8 S EP T EMB E R A N D 6 O C TO B E R

5 JULY – LON D ON

13 -14 S EP T EM B E R

6 JULY – LON D ON

19-20 S EP T EM B E R

Operational space planning - 2 days Design and use space effectively to improve customer experience. tinyurl.com/Fac0910-op-space Contract management: commercial models - 2 days Got a failing contract? Learn how to put it back on track. tinyurl.com/Fac0910-contract Creating better workspaces - 1 day Explore workspace design and the role it plays. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-create Leading successful workplace change - 1 day Successfully lead people through workplace changes. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-change

Introduction to FM - 3 days Want to pursue a career in workplace and facilities management? Find out more. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-introFM Essentials of workplace 2 + 1 days Understand the business value of your workplace and learn to lead. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-WPE Contract management: commercial models - 2 days Got a failing contract? Learn how to put it back on track. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-contract FM strategic sourcing: ISO41012 - 2 days Use strategic sourcing to reduce costs and deliver better outcomes. tinyurl.com/Fac050622-ISO41012 FACI L I TAT EM AG A ZI N E .CO M

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VIEW POINT / A BIT ABOUT YOU

What do you do? I manage UK workplace operations. I collaborate with our design teams to offer inclusive and diverse office design to enhance company culture, provide best-in-class facilities, enabling our people to do their best work.

If I wasn’t in FM, I’d probably be… A

secret services agent for MI5 or a detective solving cases to help victims get justice.

What attracted you to FM, and how did you get into the industry? I

How long have you been in your current role? Since the summer of 2020.

Do you see yourself predominantly as a task or a people manager?

When focusing on people, I’m building strong relationships, community and collaborating, while my task-orientated side thinks of solutions and gets things done.

Would you describe your role as predominantly operational or strategic? Operations

strategy! My role develops the office plans and policies for using the business premises to support its long-term goals, ensuring the workplace’s vision, mission, and goals are aligned to strategic objectives.

How many people are there in your FM team, and to whom does the FM team ultimately report? We have a global

workplace team that reports into the CFO, with more than 100 workplace employees managed by regional facilities directors for NAMER, EMEA and APAC.

My top perk at work is…

LinkedIn premises offer state-of-the-art facilities to support hybrid working alongside dedicated wellness and catering spaces to make sure you stay nourished and energised when at work.

42

Which “FM/Workplace myth” would you most like to put an end to? It’s not just about breakages and leaky taps!

BEH I N D T H E JOB

Amrit Tiwari What has been your biggest career challenge to date? Influencing leadership

and shifting the mindset to recognise that facilities professionals bring so much more to a business than just maintenance and dealing with contractors.

If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be? Facilities leaders

should have a seat at board level, demonstrating how property strategies align with business and people strategies – providing valuable insights into technology, innovations, and services to enhance the employee value proposition, experience and productivity.

Build strong relationships, be the person that people want to go to

Any interesting tales to tell?

I was invited to a client event in Monaco, where I had a pit-stop seat to watch Lewis Hamilton win the race!

What single piece of advice would you give to a young facilities/workplace manager starting out? It is a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality, comfort, safety, and efficiency of any built environment by integrating people, place, process, and technology. Ask questions, be a good listener and communicator who is ready to be a change agent, flexible to adapt. Build strong relationships, be the person that people want to go to.

What was the weirdest day you’ve had in the office? The weirdest day was

when we watched the UK go into our first lockdown during the pandemic. The streets of London transformed from lively to deserted, like a scene from a movie.

Early bird or night owl? Early bird!

What FM job in the world would you love more than anything? A workplace

experience role at Nasa!

And where would FM be an absolute nightmare ? A nuclear plant!

Your life outside FM mostly involves…

Being a yoga practitioner for over 15 years has helped me reach many people from all over the globe to help them on their wellness journeys.

You can mostly find me upside down!

AMRIT TIWARI is a workplace manager at LinkedIn

PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY / SHUTTERSTOCK / ISTOCK

inherited facilities early on in my career and I was given the opportunity to develop a team to deliver a refurbishment project. I loved creating dynamic environments for businesses and their people. There were also not many women in FM at the time and I was curious to learn more.

FAC I L I TAT E M AY-J U N E 202 2

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A BIT ABOUT YOU / VIEW POINT

What do you do? I manage facilities and safety matters at the company’s three offices that affect employees wherever they work.

What attracted you to FM, and how did you get into the industry?

My liking of architecture and buildings attracted me to this field. My early career was running and maintaining hotels. After gaining experience and qualifications, I found many of my skills were in demand in the FM world.

How long have you been in your current role?

Seven years in July; my role and its demands have kept changing gradually.

Do you see yourself predominantly as a task or a people manager?

I was based at an 18th century grade II listed mansion in the countryside that had regular VIP visits. My team successfully managed to run it as a conference centre with the latest audio and video facilities as well as considering all safety and security aspects. Every other month was an opportunity to learn and to be creative.

During the pandemic, the significance of FM work and FM strategy was better understood

Mostly a people manager. The safety consideration of my role is people-centric.

Task management is important – this is often the very purpose of the building, but these are carried out keeping the wellbeing of people in mind.

Would you describe your role as predominantly operational or strategic? A good balance of operational

If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be? During the pandemic,

the significance of FM work and FM strategy was better understood. The industry people must now be more involved in the business planning and design stage of a building – FMs understand people, processes and equipment.

Any interesting tales to tell? Once, while lone working in a basement server room at night, an intruder tried to attack me and ran away. After

restaurant owner and manager. I can create a couple of dishes and drinks of my own.

What single piece of advice would you give to a young facilities/workplace manager starting out? Not to stop the learning and have regular professional developments. There is plenty of online learning material and regular seminars.

What was the weirdest day you’ve had in the office? I had to come to my London

office during the city’s first lockdown.

The once-busy streets and buildings were all empty. I only saw a handful of construction workers and police still carrying on, but on that day nobody knew when things would get normal.

These past 10 years, I’ve been an early bird. I meditate, enjoy my breakfast, and plan my day.

How many people are there in your FM team, and to whom does the FM team ultimately report? I have two team

What FM job in the world would you love more than anything? An FM job in

a space science or astronomy-related site; The buildings, machines, and people there are quite innovative.

members directly working with me. We have staff from our contracts and partners that I also manage. Our FM team reports to the finance director.

And where would FM be an absolute nightmare? Mines and tunnels. These

My top perk at work is… ‘Wellbeing’

remote sites have all kinds of big and small machines and manual work.

initiatives and knowledge is shared to have a good lifestyle. There is also generous health insurance, free coffee, fruits, and chocolates.

years ago,

If I wasn’t in FM, I’d probably be… A

Early bird or night owl?

and strategic. Being hands-on helps me to understand the process and people.

What has been the biggest career challenge to date? A few

I radioed security, we could not find anyone on the premises anymore. We remained anxious because it used to be a morgue many years ago.

Your life outside FM mostly involves…

BEH I N D T H E JOB

Fahim Saiyed

I have an active family life with my three little kids. I regularly do DIY at home. I used to FAHIM SAIYED is a facilities volunteer in a library manager at and provide IT training the Association for adults. I’d love to of the British volunteer in the area of Pharmaceutical mental health support.

Industry FACI L I TAT EM AG A ZI N E .CO M

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ru Tim nn e in is g ou t

Workplace and facilities management’s role in an ethical, sustainable future.

8 June, Euston, London Standard ticket price £250 Exclusive IWFM member price £149

Christine Armstrong ‘The future of work: navigating the next workplace frontier’ Insight sponsor

Book here: iwfm.org.uk/conference

Prof. Kevin Fong OBE ‘From NASA to the NHS: risk and decision making for leadership’ Technology sponsor

Exhibitor packages available, contact corporate@iwfm.org.uk for more details.

FMW.MayJun22.044.indd 2

Ruby Wax OBE Closing keynote ‘Reconnecting: how to get free from our frazzle’

Matt O'Neill 'Game changers: FM's role in creating effective, sustainable workplace change'

F dr oll in ow ks e on d b th y n e e ro tw of o te rki rr ng ac e

Yewande Akinola MBE Opening keynote ‘Agent of change’

28/04/2022 16:28

PRIMER / KNOW HOW THE LATEST LEARNING AND BEST PRACTICE

46

K N OW H OW

Recycling waste is only part of the solution; FMs need to take care of residual waste too

48

Challenging traditional gender roles will improve the experience of all employees

50

How to determine when it’s time to switch from ERP to EAM?

H

asan Afzal is a security officer at a West London Retail Park, which like all sites of its kind can suffer from issues associated with antisocial behaviour and elements of criminality. It is a single-person site, where Hasan has created an exemplary environment of retail security operations that recently earned him the title of Outstanding Security Officer at the 2022 UK Outstanding Security Performance Awards (OSPAs).

Here, Afzal shares a key component of his award-winning security strategy: creating and maintaining a secure library of information.

PHOTOGRAPHY: ISTOCK

What is your library of information and what is included in it?

Hasan Afzal: It’s a secure record of known offenders, as well as targeted locations, dates and times of criminal incidents, and CCTV footage of any suspicious behaviour. The library helps me in my role to be more effective at monitoring and preventing any crime across the park.

I work closely with the local police and I understand the importance and value of data, which is why I ensure that I keep a good record of everything that is happening at Kew and that can later support the store’s safety or prove useful to the police.

I always store important data within a secure area and keep it locked in my security office.

Anything held electronically is on the company device and is password protected on the internal cloud system to ensure that only

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Key considerations when catering to neurodivergent employees in the workplace

in and out of the retail park during patrols and via CCTV. Whenever I spot a familiar face known for criminal and/or antisocial behaviour, I inform the store managers to warn them about the potential threats. If I spot any acts of criminality, I immediately contact the police directly.

Over the years I have assisted the police with hundreds of incidents, many leading to convictions and, in the process, I have helped to recover thousands of pounds’ worth of goods for the targeted stores.

SECU RI T Y P ERS ON N EL

Brought to book By creating and maintaining a library of information, security officers can be far more effective in their roles, says Hasan Afzal in this security best-practice primer article people with approved access can see it. I am the only person with access because of data protection and only share incident footage upon request from the police.

HASAN AFZAL is a security officer at Atlas Security

How have you used the library to support your clients and authorities to solve crimes and convict criminals?

HA: I keep a close eye on people

A note from Facilitate: Over the past four years, Afzal has recorded more than £130,000 across 565 separate incidents at the retail park – that’s an average tackling and solving 12 incidents a month.

What do you consider the three most important characteristics to be an outstanding security officer?

HA: That’s simple: 1 Be honest and trustworthy; 2 Be fair and impartial; and 3 Think outside of the box.

A message from Afzal’s employer Gary Stanton, managing director of Atlas Security: “Hasan is a shining example of what can be achieved with focus, drive and a desire to consistently operate at the top of one’s abilities. His enthusiasm for the job is contagious and his commitment to the safety and security of those who visit the retail park is second to none, making all of us at Atlas Security feel incredibly proud and lucky to work with him.”

FACI L I TAT EM AG A ZI N E .CO M

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03/05/2022 10:18

KNOW HOW / EXPLAINER

W

hile businesses have become much better at recycling waste, current current rates still sit at around 4555%. What’s left over, and how it is dealt with, remains a key sum of the waste management equation.

“We’re very focused on ‘hidden waste’ – the residual waste left behind after all the really good work of recycling,” says Dr Stephen Wise, chief strategic development officer at Advetec, an environmental biotechnology company focused on waste management and sponsor of Facilitate webinar held in March.

Wise urged organisations and waste service firms to do more to tackle waste at the source before it is removed from site.

Reasons to tackle at source: ● Reduces carbon emissions caused by transport; ● Reduces waste management costs to the waste generator and/or facilities management company; ● Transforms waste into a product and commodity; and ● Helps an organisation move closer to net zero.

How Advetec’s biotech works

Advetec’s biotech processing units – varying in sizes from a shipping container to a box that is 3m long by 2m high and able to fit a typical shopping centre parking bay – can process up to 10 tonnes of residual and organic waste a day.

Put in the residual waste – such as contaminated food packaging, unseparated food waste, and “all of those things you find in a general residual bin at home or at work” – and the bacteria breaks it down, generating heat and drying up moisture. The result is a material with: ● 50% reduction in mass; and a ● 70% drop in volume.

WA ST E MA N AG EMEN T

Hidden value New tech enables on-site processing of residual waste. Here are the key takeaways from our recent webinar on the topic

What normally takes four to six weeks to occur in nature, the biotech can do in three days. And even if the residual waste ends up in landfill, it will release less methane

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EXPLAINER / KNOW HOW

From operational to strategic

as it doesn’t need to break down and it won’t release any CO2.

It’s more than diverting waste from landfill or following a typical energy from waste (EFW) process.

“We have increased the value of that material through what we call the thermal hierarchy,” Wise explains.

“We’ve generated solid recovered fuel that can be used in cement kilns and for coal combustion.

We’re tying the circular economy to chemical and fuel production to replace carbon and fossil-based sources of fuel.”

The biotech machinery can either run on electricity – “it’s not a huge user,” says Wise – or it can run off-grid through solar or wind, which is useful for sites in remote locations.

Challenges to overcome

The UK sends about 11 million tonnes of waste to landfill every year. Roughly half of that, Wise reveals, comes from industrial and commercial sectors. It’s key for generators of this waste to know what their waste management partner does with it.

1

People don’t challenge their waste contractors.

Wise gives the example of an NHS trust that thought none of its waste ended in landfill. However, upon questioning its waste contractor, the trust discovered 200 tonnes of waste went to landfill each month.

2

PHOTOGRAPHY: SHUTTERSTOCK

Energy from waste (EFW) is not straightforward.

There are only a few EFW facilities in the UK and most do not use the heat that is generated. Feedstock waste, for example, goes into the combustion process, and only about 40-45% is used to generate electricity. The rest is wasted heat.

3

There’s a lack of innovation.

Wise says smaller disruptive companies are entering the marketplace challenging larger contractors that are typically averse to risks and change.

WEBINAR

PARTICIPANTS: DR STEPHEN WISE Chief strategic development officer at Advetec LUCY JEYNES Managing director at Larch Consulting CATHERINE BURROWS Head of waste management at Sodexo UK & Ireland ANN BEAVIS Head of sustainable development at Crown Workspace and IWFM Sustainability SIG

On the webinar, Larch Consulting’s Lucy Jeynes said that one issue to tackle is the classification of where waste management sits within an organisation.

“Waste isn’t really considered to be a strategic part of FM and clients find it quite confusing compared with other FM services,” Jeynes explained. “Clients don’t necessarily know which area to be looking at first. Is it technology or behaviour change, or creating the right balance between them?”

Take the example of a big sports club site using post-mix Coke, Coke in cans and bottles across the cafe, and Coke in vending machines.

“You have three waste streams for one product. Who’s going to take the initiative to pick just one to make waste management more efficient? It’s not clear who would be the lead person.

“Waste usually goes with cleaning rather than with sustainability.

So there’s a lot of work to be done between us as an industry and the clients to get the dialogue going with the right people inside the client organisation.”

Immediate questions a client might ask about tackling waste at source include: 1 How much space does it take up?

2 How much labour do you need to get the waste into the thing?

3 How messy would that be?

4 How near can it be to other buildings?

What FM providers can focus on

Sodexo manages more than 100,000 tonnes of waste a year for its clients across healthcare, corporate live events and government sites.

Waste management, said Catherine Burrows, head of waste management for Sodexo UK & Ireland, is one part of the greater net zero and sustainability focus.

Sodexo has committed to being net zero by 2045 with a 55% carbon reduction target by 2030. Initiatives to reach this kind of target include the following:

● Focusing on waste hierarchies or designing out waste by eliminating certain products from the supply chain and procuring recyclable and reusable products when possible; ● Challenging waste and other supply chain partners to design out waste too, whether that’s through plates and cutlery, cleaning mop buckets or technical services equipment; ● Changing behaviours of clients, service users and direct staff to segregate waste streams better and understand disposal routes; ● Aiming to reduce food waste by 50% by 2025 through a mix of better menu planning, produce sourcing and anaerobic digestion; and ● Optimising waste collection scheduling to accommodate changing workplace occupancy levels and variations in amounts.

Burrows urges all clients to audit their providers and consider it a core part of their duty of care.

Beware new legislation

Ann Beavis, head of sustainable development, Crown Workspace and IWFM Sustainability SIG, says she recently met with Defra and that “there’s going to be more legislation coming through [with] consultation in the last couple of years around business weights feeding back into the formation of new targets.”

Advice from Beavis is to: ● Investigate what can be done with waste to maximise its economic and/or social value; ● Turn waste into a tactical aspect of FM services by emphasising the connection between waste and organisational sustainability goals; ● Get to grips with emissions generated by an organisation’s supply chain partners; and ● Free up resources to determine what innovations are happening in waste management and how these can be applied in your case.

To watch the full webinar: tinyurl.com/Fac-0506-Waste

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KNOW HOW / EXPLAINER

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Extend paternity leave We assume a pregnant woman will take time off work to care for her baby but we

don’t assume it will disrupt the career of her male counterpart.

It’s not about changing the priority of family but about encouraging men to share caring responsibilities.

Companies that incentivise men to take paternity leave during the first five years of a child’s life signal to everyone – male, female, parent or childfree – that the organisation wants men and women to succeed at home and work, and understands that both are equally likely to take care-based breaks during their careers. Let’s not assume that only women will be a compromised resource so we can balance everyone’s value to the company.

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Update policies to address the new reality of ‘family’ The family unit is no longer

G E NDE R- RO LE A SS UMPTIONS

Leading roles Challenging assumptions about gender roles will deliver a truly human-centric workplace that benefits everyone, says Braelyn Hamill

just a heteronormative couple and 2.5 children. There are single-parent households, co-parenting partnerships, same-sex marriages, multigenerational households, those who foster, adopt or care for family members, and single people with pets.

Many benefits packages typically focus on providing maternity/paternity leave. As the definition of ‘caring’ adjusts, and workplaces embrace new perspectives on the human experience, definitions of leave should shift too.

Amid this cultural shift, companies have to understand their employee’s needs to support them. As our work and personal lives become increasingly entangled, organisational support to help employees care for their varied family units will be integral to enhancing their experience, attraction and retention.

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Support a variety of ‘success pathways’ Success often looks the same: one partner, two kids and owning a home. This definition is problematic as it assumes:

BR AELYN HAMILL is senior workplace strategist at Cushman & Wakefield 48

● Everyone wants the same from life; and ● Women who climb the corporate ladder without at least two of the three have done so at great cost.

The definition also diminishes people’s aspirations outside of the ‘family ideology’ of success. For example, it’s more acceptable for colleagues to leave work for child care than to spend an hour in the gym. In the modern workplace, companies need to value everyone’s time and personal definitions of work-life balance.

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Reconsider what it means to be human The future of work requires an inclusive human-centric ecosystem, but data, office culture and design standards are still based on white, male metrics. This ignores women’s biological and physical needs – just think about room temperatures, table heights and widths of chairs. Think too about women’s ongoing fight against the assumption that they are weak.

One in three women deals daily with hormonal complications while at work but talking about it remains taboo. PCOS, endometriosis, menopause, periods, and IVF treatments – women are dealing with a lot. Ignoring this leaves an important part of women’s lived experience at home, and this ignorance extends to mental health requirements for all colleagues.

Without a cultural shift that normalises open discussions about our biological needs, mental health and physical requirements, any claim to inclusivity will be an empty gesture at best.

This article has been adapted from a longer piece at tinyurl.com/ Fac050622-Hamill

ILLUSTRATION: ISTOCK

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orking women operate within a system that assesses their potential to contribute based on an antiquated view of gender – that their work will be compromised by an and inevitable familial disruption.

The result is many companies unconsciously prefer to hire ‘the unencumbered worker’.

If we don’t change our assumptions and expectations for all employees, we won’t equalise women’s experience.

We will keep signalling to women that success requires balancing home, work and career progression. But change is possible. Here’s how to start.

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EXPLAINER / KNOW HOW

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e have witnessed an enormous rise in requests for ‘gender neutral’ or ‘unisex’ washrooms.

We work across a range of sectors – including commercial, healthcare and education – but the commercial sector has gravitated towards genderneutral facilities more so than any other.

Progressive company cultures, coupled with limited space compared with schools or hospitals, for example, tend to be the reasons for their interest.

Space considerations

There is little requirement for additional space when retrofitting gender-neutral toilets, as you are removing the need for two separate spaces. However, you still need to provide enough toilet cubicles so it’s important to calculate how many toilets are required to accommodate all genders in one space or over multiple spaces.

Calculating the number of conveniences in a workplace washroom depends on the size of the workforce. According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the number of toilets and washbasins for mixed use in an office setting can be broken down as follows: Number of people at work

Number of toilets

Number of washbasins

6-25

2

2

51-75

4

4

1-5

26-50

PHOTOGRAPHY: ISTOCK

76-100

1

3

5

1

3

5

When it comes to the provision of genderneutral toilets, be sure to take all of the following into consideration.

Privacy: Toilets need to be separated using floor-to-ceiling cubicle walls, with a door that is lockable from the inside. Avoid urinals in gender-neutral washrooms as a courtesy to all users. Additionally, there is currently a decline in urinals in male-specific washrooms as urinals are notoriously unhygienic. They also lend themselves to unsociable behaviour among users.

Hygiene and finishes: Regardless of gender, there are people who respect hygiene and others who are less inclined to clean up after themselves. Increased cleaning is a solution, but so too is your choice of interior finishing touches, which

G EN D ER-N EUT R A L TOI L ET S

Neutral zone Privacy and hygiene are core considerations for gender-neutral washrooms, says Jason Hubbard

practice for all facilities to replace manually operated flushes, lights, taps, soap dispensers and hand dryers with smart automated systems. Since Covid-19, the desire to reduce touchpoints in washrooms has become as much of a priority as the interior design itself.

Remember to provide: Muted tones, beautiful lighting and automated technology (smart lighting, sensor flushes, taps, soap dispensers and intelligent hand dryers).

Take your employees on a journey

can improve hygiene and increase the It’s impossible to generalise how users of lifespan of the washroom. any organisation will adapt or react to the Hygienic cladding has been engineered introduction of gender-neutral washrooms. as an impervious, smooth surface that can The best solution is to involve your be moulded into corners to reduce joints workforce in the decision-making. In the where dirt and bacteria build up. The waterfirst instance, we recommend that the resistant surface is hardwearing and can employer informs staff about why they withstand tough cleaning products. Not only intend to retrofit gender-neutral facilities. does the wall surface optimise hygiene, it’s Then, follow up with a staff survey that quicker to install than standard tiles and asks the team about their preferences comes in any colour. It can even be printed and concerns. That way the employer can in a design of your choice. make an informed decision and Cap-and-cove non-slip vinyl address any issues based on their flooring is a good hard-wearing vinyl feedback before proceeding with floor with a slight curved cap-andthe design and fit-out. cove system around the outer edges Finally, we recommend so you can mop into the corners for a sharing the survey results with genuinely good clean. your fit-out contractor. An JASON Reduce touchpoints: This experienced contractor will be HUBBARD is isn’t specific to gender-neutral able to offer solutions that you director at JBH washrooms but it is increasingly best may not have considered.

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pecific asset intensive (SAI) industries tend to rely on traditional ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems to register and track their assets.

This is fine if the need is to ensure you have a register of all assets so you can manage and report all associated costs and have visibility of the estate from a finance perspective.

Such an approach shows the organisation is responsible and answerable for all their assets and costs. They can report on: ● Where an asset is; ● When it was installed; and ● How much it cost.

Given the above checklist, along with asset capability, integration, finance and accounting, inventory, supply chain, HR, and projects, both ERP and EAM (enterprise asset management) will facilitate better asset management.

Transport, FM and utilities

An SAI organisation such as a facilities services provider – or one operating in transport and utilities – should opt for EAM. It is crucial for FMs to oversee work management for assets and have visibility of the assets and associated costs. Using complete enterprise systems that can integrate to other business areas will: 1 Benefit the asset; 2 Help an organisation understand the life cycle of the investment; and 3 Introduce best-practice processes, data management and compliance management.

Planning and scheduling

Organisations can upgrade their asset management in areas that currently use traditional ERP systems. Systems that are implemented with foundational maintenance regimes per the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) standard are rarely reviewed and optimised to increase the life cycle and look to reduce maintenance costs. This is not to say the OEM should be changed, but an EAM system implementation will incorporate optimised data management to include: ● Failure data management; ● Condition monitoring and meters; and ● Optimisation of processes for planning and scheduling, inventory management, work execution, and mobility.

EAM addresses the entire life cycle management of an organisation’s physical assets. It covers design,

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construction, commissioning, needs and the assets’ life cycles. operation, maintenance, and Standard ERP systems do not decommissioning or replacing deliver this type of optimised plants, equipment, facilities, and work management data. high-value assets.

Although the ERP system A high-value asset has a is capable of inventory TANYA significant operational and management and materials PIERRE-JAMES, EAM and AM financial impact on a company’s management, the EAM system specialist main line of business and also includes service and failure at Peacock profitability. What makes it management, and predictive and Engineering an ‘enterprise’ is that it spans compliance management. departments, locations, facilities, SAI industries operate in business units, and regions. highly competitive markets. The key to Managing assets this way includes: success includes maintaining availability, 1 Improving utilisation and performance; reliability, profitability, and operational 2 Reducing capital costs; safety of plants, equipment, facilities and 3 Reducing operating costs; other assets.

4 Extending an asset’s life; and Each time an asset fails it can be 5 Improving ROA (return on assets). disruptive and costly. At the same The data captured in an EAM system time, organisations must adhere to from optimised work management can be stringent occupational safety, health, provisioned to managers and other decisionand environmental regulations. A fully makers through business intelligence integrated, optimised EAM system helps reporting to give them visibility of assets’ with all of these, raises timely alerts to health and performance, and enable them to enable asset longevity, and maximises make informed decisions about investment investment return for the asset.

ILLUSTRATION: SHUTTERSTOCK

KNOW HOW / EXPLAINER

AS S ET MA N AG EMEN T

Should I stay or should I go?

How do you know when to switch from ERP to EAM? asks Tanya Pierre-James

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EXPLAINER / KNOW HOW

E M E RG E NCY LIGHTING

Emergency monitoring Technology enables accurate remote management of emergency lighting across multiple sites, says René Joppi in this primer article

T

PHOTOGRAPHY: SHUTTERSTOCK

he Fire Safety Risk Assessment legally requires that all premises accessible by employees and the public should undergo ongoing maintenance and testing of emergency lighting.

Monthly function testing and yearly duration testing is recommended, but this makes the manual method – turning a key switch on a wall, observing the result, and maintaining the logbook record – time-consuming for those tasked with managing emergency lighting at multiple sites.

Automatic testing systems are common in new buildings but not in older estates. In some cases, a single FM team might be responsible for multiple sites – such as at social housing estates, retail chains, hospitals, or university campuses.

Maintaining consistent standards without automation to streamline the process is challenging.

Automating emergency lighting testing on an estate-wide basis and even in older sites is possible.

Cloud technology

Cloud technology enables those managing lighting across multiple sites to view the status of emergency installations remotely on a single interface. Retrofitting existing

buildings with smart devices – IR sensors, emergency lighting and heat sensors, air purification sensors and conditioners, and even smart blinds – removes the need for continuous safety checks on site and improves the accuracy of fault detection through real-time system updates – so management teams know which part of a building needs attention.

Connecting disparate estate-wide installations – such as university campuses, hospital trusts, social housing, and hotels – to a central infrastructure enables remote monitoring of luminaires and components that may need maintenance. These emergency light installation costs are very manageable with an existing central infrastructure becoming more efficient specifically with wiring and forerunning online capabilities.

Reporting can be done with the aid of a basic guide document so no training is required. This enables scalability and transparency for various users of the system.

Each building may require a different methodology to allow for efficient installation and commissioning of its automated test system. For example, new commercial buildings are often equipped from the first day with

digital wired or IP cabled solutions.

Older buildings may be better suited to wireless technology because of the difficulty and cost of installing a control wiring system within concrete walls or ceilings, and disruption caused to the building’s main installation.

These platforms report information to a single cloud interface where data is stored and analysed, providing maintenance teams with a single source of data, regardless of the technology deployed in any single building.

Secure record-keeping

Having automated processes in the daily management of emergency systems enables secure recordkeeping and greater accuracy in the log of every test, along with the result, and any previously detected issues.

Test reports can be accessed remotely and non-compliance issues and maintenance requirements can be visualised and implemented remotely. Each test is triggered through an online end-user device such as a laptop or tablet.

Cost considerations

RENÉ JOPPI is managing director at Mackwell

Although automated technological devices can prove costly by design, creation and instalment, the longterm cost and operational benefits, and enhanced security reliability, outweigh the short-term investment.

Automated test systems require higher capital investment but have lower maintenance costs. They reduce manual trips to sites, monthly and yearly testing and reporting, and mitigate maintenance. Standard payback is within three years.

The number of different platforms being used across sites and estates can become overwhelming. However, by hosting an entire emergency lighting system on a single interface the issue is resolved, enhancing and streamlining the maintenance and management of emergency lighting systems to provide security and safety for all and in complete compliance with building regulations and the law.

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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE / GOODMAPS “Quite simply the most compelling solution to a known problem.” – NHS-X (DHSC User Experience) of wayfinding by introducing an infrastructure-free installation process with sub-meter location accuracy.

With our fully accessible platform, employees and visitors can efficiently, effectively and without anxiety be routed around your facility.

A true digital twin

INDOOR NAVIGATION AT YOUR FINGERTIPS How often have you visited a location and felt completely and utterly overwhelmed? Physically understanding the layout of an unfamiliar space with a continually evolving purpose can be daunting, often evoking stress and discomfort for even the most experienced person. At GoodMaps, we want to help

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ith Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) on 19 May, it’s time to improve accessibility and usability for all.

“As the hybrid working environment builds traction, buildings need to be fully accessible to everyone.” – HSBC As organisations transition to hybrid schedules and their workspaces morph to fit an increasing variety of functions, its workforce and society at large deserve a sophisticated approach to facilities engagement through a system that empowers, engages, and promotes the collaboration that we all seek.

The single greatest challenge introduced through the continued modernisation of the workplace is knowing where you are, where you’re going, and where you’ll be.

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GoodMaps can help. We provide a highly innovative indoor navigation system that easily prepares your commercial real estate through the interaction of physical and digital worlds.

Our Universal Indoor Navigation is flexible and interoperable and provides a range of Building Information Modelling (BIM) systems suitable for all environments.

“Revolutionary. Game-changing. The biggest advancement in passenger autonomy in the last 40 years.” – FirstGroup (TransPennine Express) What began as a project geared towards accessibility for the visually impaired immediately proved beneficial for all users. At GoodMaps, we intend to change the possibilities

When you build an immersive digital twin of your commercial space, its digital simplicity overshadows its physical complexities. Through this provision, locations can be augmented digitally with an easyto-utilise – and quick-to-deploy – solution that empowers hasslefree wayfinding that removes the burden of indoor familiarity, allowing individuals to operate harmoniously in any environment.

No installation. No hardware.

No beacons

Using state-of-the-art LiDAR technology, GoodMaps provides a non-intrusive, non-destructive method to modernise your facility, enabling you to anticipate and accommodate Contact the evolving needs of all users. us today to With our LiDAR backpack, we learn abo u can capture 360° images and GA AD 20 t our 22 C create fully-immersive digital promotio RE goodmap n. re-creations of a building, which s.com/ good-ma thus enables a user to determine psfacilities location and other services in a given environment.

“We’ve been looking for a solution to efficiently and effectively guide people through our spaces for more than 20 years.” – Procter & Gamble GoodMaps: meeting you at the intersection between the digital and physical worlds.

29/04/2022 13:11

EXPLAINER / KNOW HOW

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he Workforce Institute at UKG found that 51% of UK workers have been regularly working more hours since the start of the pandemic. As a result, reducing burnout and improving retention have become core focus points for employers. Understanding employees’ needs can help reduce the risk of burnout.

ILLUSTRATION: GARY WATERS / IKON IMAGE

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Stay connected In the FM sector, where employees work in a variety of environments, staying connected with staff helps to drive safety, wellbeing, and compliance.

Workforce management and HR service delivery tools create a multidirectional exchange of information: ● Employees are able to share information about their health and wellbeing. A feature called ‘attestation’ in workforce management applications delivers customisable surveys to employees when they clock-in or out of their shifts – capturing information about their physical and mental health status or whether they experienced any difficult incidents at work.

The data enables managers to address the issues affecting burnout and retention. ● Employers can share organisational news and information with employees through their mobile devices, remaining connected no matter where they work. A mobile-first approach to communication is inclusive of all ages. And being able to stay in touch with employees with or without company email addresses boosts trust, respect, and transparency with all colleagues. UKG data shows that employees who feel their voice is heard through effective communication channels feel more engaged at work, more effective at their job and confident to share ideas and feedback in the future.

E M PLOYE E WELLBEING

Burnout prevention Employers need to reduce employee burnout by using tech solutions, says Neil Pickering

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Build high-quality schedules An overworked, unhappy and disengaged employee is not as productive and will leave your business sooner.

Organisations need to be flexible to accommodate an individual’s needs.

It’s essential, then, to build schedules that align with customer demand, workforce skills, certifications and availability, labour budgets, labour rules and regulations, and employee contracts. Schedules must factor in the likelihood of burnout. For

example, consideration should be given to the physical demands of the role, length of shifts and physicality of the worker. These schedules must also consider the individual needs and preferences of employees where possible; namely, where and when an employee is able to work.

Using workforce management solutions that are powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning can simplify the scheduling processes by forecasting customer demand and the likely cumulative toll on workers. Take the example of a cleaner working for a facilities services provider. Sharing staff resources to fill gaps and maximise support is essential. Forecasting customer demand ensures cleaners aren’t spread too thinly and overstretched, and are placed where they’re needed.

3

Empower employees to take control Employees are demanding greater autonomy and flexibility – and they’re happy to change employers to find it.

Giving workers self-service access to HR and workforce management tools that empower them to take control improves their experience and reduces the administrative burden on managers, giving them more time to spend with employees and customers.

According to our data, more than a third (36%) of employees surveyed started using mobile applications to complete some work activities and nearly a quarter (24%) were empowered to leverage more selfservice solutions.

In addition to recording hours worked and attesting to health and wellbeing, mobile workforce management apps enable employees to self-service actions such as: ● Booking leave; ● Swapping shifts with colleagues; ● Requesting additional shifts; ● Viewing time cards and balances; and ● Viewing payslips.

Using manual methods would require HR, payroll or line managers to handle this, wasting time and money. Instead, HR and workforce management technologies enable employees NEIL to take greater control of their PICKERING work, helping them to feel is industry more valued, productive manager, EMEA at UKG and engaged.

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KNOW HOW / EXPLAINER

9 steps to fight the energy slump

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Get off the blood sugar roller coaster: Snacks combining protein, fibre, healthy fat and carbohydrates slow the sugar release into the bloodstream. For example, wholegrain toast (carbohydrate + fibre) and poached egg (fat + protein) = slow-release energy, and white toast (carbohydrate) and jam (carbohydrate) = fastrelease energy.

2

Choose whole grains and fibre-rich carbohydrates: Slow-release, fibre-rich carbohydrates provide

3

Protein – consume a little and often: Eat it at each meal – lean meat, fish, low-fat dairy products, eggs, tofu, tempeh, beans, lentils, chickpeas, nuts and seeds.

4

Avoid the lunch coma: Eating too much can lead to a post-lunch slump. Be mindful of portion size, especially with carbohydrates and fats. Eat a nourishing snack later if hungry.

N UT RIT ION

Eat for energy Employees consume about 60% of their daily food while at the workplace so they should choose to eat healthily, says London nutritionist Lily Soutter in this primer on workplace nutrition

Health tips for employees

Perhaps your employer does not provide workplace catering; you can still make good choices.

Taking breaks is beneficial for us, but research shows: ● 52% never leave the office at lunchtime; ● 24% work through their lunch breaks; yet ● 90% of employees who take a proper lunch break feel more refreshed.

To help you eat healthfully and mindfully: 1 Take a break to enjoy a nourishing lunch; 2 Eat away from your desk and devices for better portion control and digestive health; 3 Prepare snacks ahead of time so you have a healthy option in your desk drawer or bag.

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sustained fuel all day. Opt for wholegrains such as brown rice, brown bread, brown pasta, chickpeas, lentils, beans, quinoa, oats, and sweet potato.

5

3pm snack premeditation: Avoid sugar cravings by having healthy snacks to hand. Choose fresh fruit with a small amount of healthy fats such as apple (sugar) dipped in a little nut butter (healthy fat), or a banana (sugar) with unsweetened yoghurt (fat). Other options include roasted peas, hummus and crudités, boiled eggs, nuts and seeds.

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Stay hydrated: Dehydration leads to low energy, headaches and poor mood and concentration. The average adult requires 1.5 to two litres of fluid a day, however, you can monitor your hydration status by checking the colour of your urine, which should be a pale straw colour or clear. If you struggle with plain water, infuse water overnight with fresh berries, ginger, lemon or mint, or choose fruit and herbal teas.

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Maximise matcha green tea: L-Theanine, found in matcha green tea, helps with relaxed alertness and clarity.

Think of it as jitter-free coffee (matcha has a little caffeine).

8

Check your nutrients: A simple blood test with your GP can give insight into your nutrient status on iron (red meat, fish, beans, lentils, spinach, tofu, dried apricots and dates), Vitamin B12 (meat, fish, eggs, fortified breakfast cereals, yeast extracts) and vitamin D.

9 LILY SOUTTER is a corporate wellness nutritionist based in London

Stay active, reduce stress: Movement can jolt us out of our lethargic state. Take a quick power walk around the block or try a walking meeting.

PHOTOGRAPHY: ISTOCK

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he nutritional quality of catering provisions can vary drastically between workplaces and even with healthy options available, employees won’t necessarily choose them because of: ● Cost – healthier lunches and snacks can be costly so employers should offer affordable healthy alternatives; ● Lack of awareness – healthy catering is not promoted so employers should create awareness by, for example, displaying nutritional information of dishes at point of purchase or in canteen queues; ● Insufficient employee engagement – employers need to consult with the workforce when changing menus; ● Improper placement – place healthy options instead of high sugar, salt and fat items at checkouts of workplace restaurants or kitchens; and ● Nutritional nudging – display fruit at eye level or provide healthier snacks in communal spaces to encourage healthier choices.

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EXPLAINER / KNOW HOW

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s a musculoskeletal physiotherapist, I see a variety of injuries such as back pain, frozen shoulders, sprains, strains and tears.

However, with more people working from home during the pandemic – and with many organisations not ready to facilitate this change – we are seeing an increase in patients with pain in their lower and upper back and neck, inflamed wrists, elbows and hip tendons. This is because of poor posture and prolonged sitting.

Not having ergonomic office equipment has led people to work from their beds, couches or chairs that do not support their posture while working. So they started experiencing more pain in the neck, lower back and upper back.

Many use kitchen tables as desks, but dining chairs are lower than office chairs and non-adjustable, increasing pressure on tendons/nerves and caused back and neck problems. Moreover, people were less active during the pandemic, increasing other long-term health risks such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, depression and anxiety.

Maximise your temporary set-up

The first step is adjusting an improper workspace to mitigate risks of injury.

Equipment such as adjustable tables and chairs, laptop raisers, ergonomic PC peripherals are critical. It’s crucial that employers take appropriate steps to support their remote employees just as they would in an office setting.

PHOTOGRAPHY: ISTOCK XXXXXXXXX

In the interim, people might: ● Use an ironing board as a table because the height can be adjusted; ● Place laptops on a pile of books to raise the screen to eye level; and ● Adjust chair heights using cushions or try to create a footrest for better posture.

Note: these solutions are not a longterm substitute for a proper home working set-up.

Employers can help remote workers by: ● Launching wellbeing programmes such as physical activity challenges; ● Encouraging walking meetings; and ● Reducing the duration of meetings so employees can step away from their desks.

CORP OR AT E P H YS I O

Pain in the neck We should take a holistic approach to wellbeing, understanding the interconnectedness between physical, mental and emotional health, says Kubra Senol Hamid Out of hours

Your workstation is one consideration, but so too are your health behaviours. Start with regular physical activity. Exercise is incredibly important for improving your posture, overall physical and mental wellbeing, and quality of life. Aim for 150300 minutes of moderate physical activity a week as well as muscle strengthening exercises twice a week.

Other factors to consider: ● Sleep for at least seven hours a night; ● Eat a balanced and healthy diet, avoiding unhealthy snacks; and ● Drink enough fluids.

Additionally, prioritise social connection. Loneliness inhibits human flourishing and can have similar impacts on wellbeing and longevity as obesity or smoking.

Meeting with friends and relatives, helping others and having conversations with new people can help people feel socially connected.

The employer’s role

1 Train managers to support

their team’s physical, mental and emotional wellbeing; 2 Arrange workshops about exercising, sleep, nutrition/hydration and stress management to build awareness of core musculoskeletal and mental health issues; 3 Carry out workplace audits to ensure work culture, office facilities and remote work infrastructure support employees; 4 Conduct employee assessments to understand employees’ musculoskeletal disorders as early as possible; and 5 Provide access to virtual or face-to-face physiotherapy sessions to help employees get support quicker.

KUBR A SENOL HAMID is a chartered physiotherapist and co-founder C | P | W, a corporate physiotherapy and wellbeing provider

Having a dedicated budget for employee wellbeing and making it a key pillar of the workplace and HR strategies is critical to reduce sickness absences and presenteeism, thereby boosting productivity and staff retention.

Organisations will find it helpful to partner with a corporate wellness provider to support employees’ wellbeing.

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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE / CLEANKILL

Go to cleankill. co.uk or call 0800 056 5477

MAINTENANCE CONTRACTS ARE VITAL WHERE BIRD NETTING IS USED W

hen netting is damaged birds can get tangled and trapped, resulting in them getting injured or starving to death.

There are many different solutions for discouraging pest birds and using netting is one of them. We can’t stress enough how important it is for the netting to be maintained.

There was a recent example of birds getting trapped in netting at a supermarket. It was not only distressing for the birds themselves, but horrific for shoppers. In addition, the supermarket faced prosecution.

All wild birds, including pigeons and gulls, and their nests are protected under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 (as amended).

It is an offence, except under licence, to intentionally kill, injure or take any wild bird.

Animal Welfare Act

There is also the consideration that if the birds are considered to be ‘under the control of man’ (for example, as a result of having been captured or confined – such as becoming trapped in netting), then an offence could be

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Pest controllers from Cleankill are horrified to regularly come across large buildings where bird netting is installed but no one is maintaining it, says Paul Bates, managing director of Cleankill Pest Control committed under the Animal Welfare Act, which specifies the duty of care conditions that must be applied to any trapped animal.

With summer on the way, now is the time to make sure your property is protected from nesting birds and ensure you have a contract with pest control experts such as Cleankill.

As the days get warmer, birds will start to look for places to settle such as outside ledges and exposed pipework.

Their droppings will collect on the floor below causing an unsightly and dangerously slippery mess.

Natural bird control

As well as netting there are many techniques available such as birdfree gel, sprung-wire systems and bird spike repellents. Or, for natural bird control, Harris Hawks are the

PAUL BATES MD of Cleankill Pest Control

ideal solution. Cleankill has a team of expert handlers and Harris hawks that are proving extremely effective at deterring pigeons and gulls from roosting and nesting in a wide range of settings such as warehouses, industrial parks, and blocks of flats particularly throughout London and the South East.

Pigeons – or ‘flying rats’ – carry diseases and nearly all pigeons carry bird mites, which are tiny spiderlike creatures that feed off the bird and make humans itch and scratch.

Pigeon fouling and nesting material also provide a home for many other insects such as clothes moths, carpet beetle, mealworm beetles and various fly species. Dry fouling creates airborne bacteria affecting anybody who may be susceptible to asthma and other breathing difficulties.

Cleankill offers a specialist bird control service, from the initial survey and specification through to the final proofing solution. As registered waste carriers, Cleankill can carry out fullscale removal of bird fouling, as well as contaminated goods and furniture, from infested properties.

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EXPLAINER / KNOW HOW

L

ee Chambers was diagnosed with autism in adulthood. Early on in his professional life he was “quite often labelled as that young black man with an attitude”. He’d hear himself referred to as being “disruptive” or “that young black man who has a problem with everything, who always questions things”.

Dealing with the intersection of race and neurodivergence has been stressful for Chambers. “Part of the stress was due to the challenges of constantly modelling and masking to keep going in a neurotypical environment, and to try to suppress elements of myself to continue to conform enough,” he explained in a webinar about supporting neurodivergent people in the workplace, hosted by Genius Within, a social enterprise that helps neurominorities unlock their talents The stress of masking, along with missing out on a dream job in financial services because the economic crisis hit, bouncing around undesirable jobs and launching a business landed Chambers in hospital in 2014. He was unable to walk for 11 months.

He is now a business psychologist and founder of Essentialise, a workplace wellbeing and corporate coaching business, having learned much about what neurodivergent employees need, and now helps employers do the same.

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES

Start with recruitment practices – an EY lesson

Having learned to interview well, Chambers said the recruitment process creates a lot of stress for neurodivergent employees who, given an alternative process, could better showcase their skills and talents.

Also on the webinar was Tori Roberts, a technologist who leads EY’s Neurodiverse Centre of Excellence. As 20-30% of its employee population have neurodivergent traits, EY has been eager to move away from traditional recruitment processes.

Now a four-stage process, the recruitment journey culminates in a four-day ‘Super week’ work simulation conducted on MS Teams.

“It gives our candidates an experience of what it would be like to work with us and for us to experience their skills and their strengths. And the feedback we had from our first UK super week in November last year was overwhelmingly

CREATING A NEURODIVERGENT-AWARE CULTURE Building a culture that is inclusive of neurodiversity increases inclusivity for all marginalised groups. It allows everyone’s talents to be leveraged through a personalised approach.

Organisations that get this right will reap rewards because neurodivergent employees have often faced challenges and developed skills and a tenacious attitude to cope. Benefits they bring include: ● Cognitive diversity

positive,” Roberts explained.

For example, people reported being grateful for the choice of turning their videos on or off.

Candidates also said that instead of experiencing “crippling anxiety” they felt appropriate levels of nervousness, and they were

N EUROD I V ERS I T Y

Neurological inclusivity Creating a culture of ‘confident curiosity’ will enable neurodivergent employees to thrive, reports Bradford Keen

that can be applied to problem-solving, decision-making and strategy design; ● Innovation through their unique perspectives; ● Sustained attention to detail; and ● High levels of productivity.

grateful to showcase skills through practical tasks rather than explain them verbally in an interview.

“It’s a huge commitment for the candidate as well as ourselves,” Roberts said.

“But the response has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Create a culture of confident curiosity

Chambers explained that employers should create a “culture of confident curiosity”, which would enable them to support neurodivergent employees by finding out about their unique needs.

Neurodivergent employees are often mistakenly thought to have mental health challenges, Chambers said, or for being underperformers when their productivity drops. But the truth is that these employees just need particular support during that period or to manage a specific task. An essential means of enabling this supportive culture is through training and awareness.

Managers should learn to understand neurodivergent people on their teams. Some of the lessons include: ● Setting clear expectations; ● Giving more explicit and congruent feedback; ● Providing consistent and comprehensive communication; and ● Becoming more sensitive to people’s unique needs.

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17 October 2022 JW Marriott Grosvenor House London

   #IWFMAwards2022 @IWFM_Awards

FINALISTS ANNOUNCED Thursday 21 July 2022

Table bookings are now open for all Awards entrants to book their tables.

Premium tables and tables of 12 are limited so book early to secure these tables before they sell out!

Contents

iwfmawards.org For further information on sponsoring the IWFM Impact Awards email sponsorship@iwfmimpactawards.co.uk or call +44 (0) 20 7880 6206

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Sponsors

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<

CRAMMER / KNOW HOW

1

REPLACE OR REPAIR?

Key takeaways:

There’s no simple calculation to determine when to replace or repair a commercial water heater, but it’s important to get it right if facilities managers want to avoid damage and costly unplanned downtime, says Dustin Bowerman, senior director – field services for Bradford White Water Heaters

2 THE NHS’S NEW EFFICACY AND EXTERNAL AUDITS

The National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness introduced three auditing systems for NHS Trusts, but besides the technical audit with its 50-point check; what are the other two? asks mpro5’s Dan Teare

● Industry-standard warranties range from three to five years, but the unit’s lifetime can vary widely based on local conditions, application, and maintenance. It’s not unusual for commercial water heaters to perform effectively for twice as long as their warranty term. ● It’s usually better to repair than fix, assuming that you have been regularly maintaining the water heater and it is within its expected lifetime. ● Answer the following: Will a new unit save money and improve efficiency in the long term? Has hot water demand Read the changed since the full article unit was installed? at tinyurl.com/ Does the unit require Fac050622-water frequent servicing?

The Know How learning continues at facilitatemagazine.com.

Here is a summary of the key takeaways from a selection of our onlineonly articles Key takeaways: ● The efficacy audit has been designed to measure how you clean, as opposed to what you clean and how frequently.

Efficacy is determined using evidence-based, scientific methods, which includes checking that the cleaner is using the right colour coding for cleaning procedures, wearing appropriate PPE, adhering to safe ways of working, and rectifying actions are being taken in a timely manner.

● The external audit involves collaborating with neighbouring facilities – also known as ‘auditing your mates’. Teaming up is a quick and easy way to find suitably qualified staff to act as auditors, often on a reciprocal basis. This third-party audit plays a vital role. There are no scores involved: it’s all about the systems you have in place.

3

THE BENEFITS OF BESPOKE LEASES Staff want choice and employers need flexibility with their real estate. The solution is bespoke leases, says Matt Watts, commercial officer at coworking provider LABS Key takeaways: ● Bespoke leasing – layering on space and services to tenants’ exact requirements – enables customers to customise the CRE products they consume. ● Partner with an experienced operator to assist with cash flow.

Instead of spending £100,000 to build out a space, a bespoke lease can provide a low cost of entry and easy exit provision. ● Choice is the aim but bespoke leases have some limitations based on the building’s condition and planning status, and the timelines businesses are working towards.

Read the full article at tinyurl.com/ Fac050622-leases

Read the full article at tinyurl.com/ Fac050622NHS-audit FACI L I TAT EM AG A ZI N E .CO M

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Are you ready to step up?

Are you due an IWFM membership upgrade? More importantly, are you selling yourself short?

Your grade reflects your career; it demonstrates to employers, colleagues and recruiters your knowledge and experience, and the impact you can make in an organisation. These factors affect your marketability and career trajectory.

If you feel you are ready to step up, please send your CV to engagement@iwfm.org.uk For more information, log into your IWFM account and click on the ‘Membership’ tab.

Contact us today E engagement@iwfm.org.uk T +44(0)1279 712 650 iwfm.org.uk

Professionalising the workforce

IWFM Apprenticeship Pathway

Our common framework for workplace and facilities professional development can help your business ATTRACT, DEVELOP, and MAINTAIN your employees.

MEMBERSHIP GRADE*

ASSOCIATE

AFFILIATE

IWFM MEMBERSHIP GRADE

AIWFM

QUALIFICATION LEVEL

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APPRENTICESHIP

CERTIFIED

MIWFM

3 FM Supervisor

CAREER LEVEL

4

5

FM Manager

FELLOW

CIWFM

6

FIWFM

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TYPICAL JOB TITLE Support to Supervisory

Manager to Senior

Senior to Executive

Executive

JOB LEVEL

Our products and services are underpinned by the IWFM Professional Standards, developed with industry experts and bespoke to workplace and facilities management. The Standards provide a global competence model for the profession.

*Membership grades are awarded upon assessment of the level and length of experience in facilities management and the qualifications held. They provide professional recognition at key stages as the individual progresses through their career.

If you’re an employer looking to develop your teams, please get in touch.

Contact us today E membership@iwfm.org.uk T +44(0)1279 712 650 iwfm.org.uk

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OUTSOURCED SERVICE MARKET NEWS AND ANALYSIS

62

S U P P LY S I D E

As The Office Group and Fora amalgamate, what now for the serviced office market?

64

Q&A with Steve McGregor, group MD at DMA – why FM must adopt smart tech fast

FINA NCIA L RESU LTS

65

Wates Group secures £90 million sustainability linked loan

our Appetite for Action campaign.”

On the closure of Covid-19 test centres in England, Haley said: “We are proud of everything our teams achieved to support the government’s response to the pandemic. We are committed that every one of our colleagues and casual workers is treated fairly and recompensed in accordance with their employment rights and are doing all we can to help them secure new work and prepare for their future.”

“We are pleased to see our Sodexo Live! business reinvigorated and workplaces welcoming workers back; this is helping us offer our test centre colleagues redeployment opportunities as we strengthen in these areas.”

“We remain committed to ensuring that through our operations we have a positive impact on the communities in which we live, work and serve, and will continue to do all we can to support the health and wellbeing of our colleagues.”

Sodexo reports growth with results

by Facilitate Team

PHOTOGRAPHY: ISTOCK

S

ervice provider Sodexo announced first-half fiscal year 2022 results that indicate a 19% growth in revenues. Organic revenue growth was around 15% and underlying operating profit at a margin close to 5%.

Citing several sizeable contract wins over the past six months, Sean Haley, region chair for Sodexo UK & Ireland spoke of sustainability and social value objectives.

“We continue in our

commitment to grow responsibly with a defined purpose and over the last six months have made advances in our positive impact on the communities in which we live and work. This includes the publication of our roadmap to net zero and decarbonisation of our business. One area of progress on this is our engagement with industry and political stakeholders to address the urgent issue of tackling food waste through

Find out more Visit facilitatemagazine.com for daily outsourcing news

ACQ U I S I T I O N

NG BAILEY FINALISES ACQUISITION

Engineering and services provider NG Bailey has finalised its acquisition of Cambridge-based Kershaw Service and Maintenance business to bolster its position in the hard FM sector. Kershaw Service and Maintenance was formerly part of Kershaw Mechanical Services Ltd, a provider of mechanical, electrical and hard FM services that went into administration earlier this year.

NG Bailey said the takeover allows it to strengthen its presence in the hard FM field, with a focus on mechanical and electrical services.

The acquisition is set to generate over £4 million of additional annual turnover and more than 25 skilled employees from Kershaw’s service team will join NG Bailey. The team will operate within its established facilities service business unit.

The Kershaw service and maintenance business has supplied hard FM services across a range of sectors and supported clients with planned, reactive and project services for at least 75 years.

David Hurcomb, NG Bailey’s CEO, said: “Bringing the Kershaw service and maintenance business into the NG Bailey fold provides a natural extension to our already successful range of services.”

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SUPPLY SIDE / BUSINESS NEWS

Current TOG and Fora tenants include BP, GSK, Ocado, AMC, Adobe, British Fashion Council, Tortoise Media – and now Redactive, publishers of Facilitate.

Olsen said: “The strong strategic and cultural fit between our two businesses and the supportive market dynamics, as more businesses embrace flexible working, make this merger an exciting proposition.

“We have seen a clear and growing need from corporates for better-quality environments, with great amenities, beautiful design and that are easily accessible. The combination of our businesses would ensure that we are best placed to meet this growth opportunity in the UK and Europe, offering existing and potential members even greater choice.”

O FFIC E S

Employees calling the shots

What now for the serviced office market?

By Facilitate team

I

n recent weeks, fexible workspace firms (The Office Group (TOG) and Fora announced their intention to amalgamate, subject to approval. The combined group intends to be the ‘leading flexible workspace company in the UK and Europe’, the merger bringing together complementary businesses with similar cultures and design-led workspaces.

Although the financial terms of the proposed merger have not been disclosed, the move is indicative of a served office sector responding to the initial impact of mainstream hybrid working.

The demand for flexible workspace is growing rapidly across all sectors

as businesses seek greater employee productivity, comfort and wellbeing, as well workplace designs and amenities to suit different working styles in wellconnected locations.

The combined group would manage 72 locations across London, Cambridge, Oxford, Reading, Bristol, Leeds, Berlin, Frankfurt and Hamburg. There are also plans to expand into other European cities.

The co-founders of the two firms will manage the new entity. TOG’s Olly Olsen and Charlie Green will serve as executive chairman and president respectively, with the founder of Fora, Enrico Sanna, acting as chief executive (see image, right).

IN BRIEF

East London (UEL) has partnered with Siemens to deliver net-zero carbon by 2030 at its campuses in Docklands and Stratford.

The partners will collaborate to identify opportunities to reduce overall energy use, drive the shift to renewable

Airedale Group buys Network Catering equipment installer and service company Airedale Group has acquired Halesowen-based Network Catering Engineers Ltd. 62

Network, founded in 2000, employs more than 90 engineers and delivers maintenance services to a broad customer base of at least 90 clients across the UK. UEL links with Siemens to achieve Net Zero The University of

energy and transform its campuses, using digitalisation to not only make its urban sites net-zero carbon but also to enhance student and staff wellbeing, foster inclusivity by creating learning opportunities, and support a digital-first culture through the

Sanna explained the move as follows: “Businesses are increasingly recognising that the workplace is no longer a commodity, but rather a space that can be used to actively drive improved productivity, collaboration and the wellbeing of their teams. The combined portfolio of TOG and Fora will meet this need and evolving expectations, offering high-quality and flexible locations that are design-led, with a range of services and amenities that are conducive to enhanced employee and business performance.”

Jonathan Ratcliffe, spokesperson for Offices.co.uk, a national provider of serviced offices and flexible workspaces, says it “all boils down to value”.

“The big change with Covid is that now the employees call the shots – persuading WFH staff to come back to the office means that the standard of their workspaces needs to match or exceed the standard of their home (plus some)

roll-out of intelligent technology.

Yorkshire based CSG FM sold Insolvency practitioner SFP has finalised the sale of business and assets of CSG FM Ltd, a West Yorkshirebased FM and cleaning business.

The company, formed in January 2019, entered administration on 11th April. It provided cleaning and FM services to manufacturing, distribution, logistics, corporate and public sector businesses across the Midlands and north of England.

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BUSINESS NEWS / SUPPLY SIDE

and therefore the easy fix for any CEO in recovery mode is taking a pre-built, managed and flexible workspace which makes their staff happy.

“We are seeing many firms dropping from, say, 100 fixed desks to 25, with another 25 in a shared environment. Staff working from home may only come into the office for a few days a week; often the financial savings are half that of before Covid. Perks are a huge thing for employee happiness too, with barista coffee, staff welfare, gyms, social events and even beer taps all being standard in the larger buildings now.”

PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY / FORA

Central management advantage

Georgia Sandom, director at Office Space in Town (OSiT), told Facilitate: “Companies of all sizes, from startups to multinationals such as Currys, are shifting to serviced office space because of the flexibility it provides, but increasingly because it also allows them to fit into an ESG strategy that, like the workspace itself, is managed on their behalf.”

Sandom says environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns “are driving demand for serviced offices, with restrictions on leasing buildings with energy ratings worse than “D” placing a premium on sustainably managed space”.

She added: “Serviced offices have a competitive advantage because their central management of utilities makes energy provision more efficient, while the controlled costs charged to occupiers mean the latter can enjoy financial peace of mind as well as a clear conscience on environmental issues. In addition, leaders in the serviced office industry have not only committed to reaching Net Zero, they have set out a roadmap of how to get there.

In its first year it achieved a turnover of approximately £10 million, and a profit of more than £600,000.

Amey sells utilities division Infrastructure services and engineering company Amey has sold its utilities

business to industrial private equity investor Rubicon Partners. The sale was finalised on 12 April and the business will now operate as a separate entity. Amey is now focused on three main divisions; consulting, transport infrastructure, and secure infrastructure.

Andrew Mawson at consultancy Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA), does not

think serviced offices will be the future for all businesses.

“Serviced offices and co-working spaces will no doubt serve the needs of small organisations and those that need high levels of flexibility to grow / shrink,” said Mawson, “but for more mature organisations that have a public face and see a need to have their own demise and make visible their own personalities and culture, we don’t think serviced offices and co-working spaces will cut it.

“We know that many large organisations will be seeking ways to monetise empty space that they no longer need in the coming years,” continued Mawson, “but subletting whole floors to single tenants may prove difficult in a conventional sense as those potential tenants themselves adopt hybrid ways of working and operate off a much smaller footprint that they would have done traditionally.

“Right now, we are working with a number of high-profile organisations with similar cultures and complementary needs that are seeking space that will provide a shared facility for a number of organisations that have something in common. We call these communities of affinity. These companies are not interested in taking conventional leases, nor are they interested in serviced offices.”

The future, says Mawson, is likely to be one in with “different models suiting different organisations” and that “one size won’t fit all”.

Avove, as the utilities business will now be known, provides water and power maintenance services to clients such as Yorkshire Water and Severn Trent. It will retain the same structure and management team as when owned by Amey, but

services and maintains commercial pumps across the south of England and Johnson Controls plans to integrate the company into its fire suppression and wider pumps operation. Powertec Pumps’ teams maintain and service

We have seen a growing need from corporates for betterquality environments Holding themselves to account with the proper reporting will be absolutely vital as serviced offices strive to deliver the ESG credentials that occupiers demand.”

Ratcliffe says serviced or managed office space could account for 30% of office space within the next five years – which could be “a worry for those transitional FM companies who work with smaller tenants”. But he added that it could also offer opportunity “by making sure they are working with some of the high-growth independent serviced office providers - because their growth ambitions are huge, and they have big-money backers”.

Ratcliffe thinks “what we are seeing is an employeeled move to a more flexible workspace – this isn’t necessarily a top-down trend; many of our clients are middle management providing workspace options for themselves (signed off by their CEO) in a place they want to work”.

Cultures and needs

will appoint a new managing director.

Johnson Controls buys Powertec Sustainable buildings technology specialist Johnson Controls has acquired Readingbased Powertec Pumps Ltd. Powertec Pumps

both on-site and off-site pumping operations, and work in several sectors including fire sprinkler pump systems, pump stations, clean water booster pump systems, process pump systems, rainwater harvesting, flood relief and borehole pumps.

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SUPPLY SIDE / BUSINESS NEWS

better customer service.

We are on the cusp of an inevitable fifth industrial revolution, fuelled by Steve McGregor, Group MD at DMA A-to-Z automation and Group, on the maintenance sector artificial intelligence. The and the fifth industrial revolution pandemic has magnified that necessity. Our industry must accelerate adoption of What needs doing to improve the smart technology to get the basics right traditional maintenance industry? and to deliver well at scale.

“Research from the Building Services Research and Information Association over 15 consecutive years confirms that How has DMA most customers are unsatisfied with turned learning their mechanical, electircal and plumbing from its own maintenance provider when measured mistakes into against the same 10 KPIs. Now is the better practice? time for drastic change. Collectively, the Having been around property maintenance industry must for over 200-years, let go of its traditional past and embrace we realise we have smart technology to attract and retain been part of the the best talent and to deliver consistently problem. We, and the industry, must act. Like everyone else, we struggled to manage complex transactional scale without technology.

And let’s be clear, proprietary CAFM did not solve all those problems. In most cases it masked them because the front-ends were slick and pretty, whilst the fundamental areas needed improvement, and the remedial hard-yards, remained untouched. As we understood those remedial needs better than any software maker, we designed our own platform to solve those problems.

Those problems were common, from an inconsistent view of statutory compliance, lack of consistent workflows, inconsistent control over resources, parts and planning.

How can you recruit more young people or skilled professionals like engineers, into the industry?

IN BRIEF

managing director of Umbrella Training in a newly created role. Roberts will oversee operations and develop the strategic direction of the business, working with founder and CEO Adele Oxberry. Roberts has worked for a range of companies

Steve McGregor

Modernisation can help us to create a more compelling career choice for younger generations. They expect smart technology. Imagine spending years of academic studies using an iPad or other touchscreen devices only to enter an industry that still relies on paperwork.

Can you imagine how demoralising that must be for new entrants?

We need to make it an attractive option. Property maintenance needs to be driven by technology and be something to be proud of.

We are on the cusp of an inevitable 5th Industrial Revolution, fuelled by A-to-Z automation and AI. The pandemic has magnified that necessity

Suffolk Group to trade as Vertas Suffolk Group Holdings, the wholly owned company of Suffolk County Council, has revised its portfolio so that all its firms will now trade 64

as Vertas Group. As of 1st April, Vertas Group Concertus Design and Property Consultants Limited and Opus People Solutions Limited have been taken into one leadership structure while maintaining their individual brands and identity. Ian

Surtees, who has been with Ipswichbased Vertas Group since 2014, becomes group CEO. Matthew Self, previously group director – commercial and operations at Concertus Design and Property Consultants Ltd, has been appointed managing director. Brad Sinclair

is now managing director for Opus People Solutions Ltd, after being its finance director. Duncan Johnson will continue as non-executive chairman.

Roberts named Umbrella MD Sara Roberts has been appointed as

Can you tell me specifically how customers can be effectively educated?

It’s important that customers recognise and embrace the fifth industrial revolution if they want improvements.

And without maintenance providers accepting their current limitations and failings, it won’t happen. Several customers have had their ‘eureka moment’, but until we have a critical mass of ‘awakened’ customers we won’t see real, enduring change in expectation or procurement. Customers must challenge the staid and traditional procurement processes to more assertively drive maintenance providers towards digital automation. Our research shows 77% agreeing that the FM industry is ‘behind the curve’ when it comes to adopting smart technology.”

PHOTOGRAPHY: SHUTTERSTOCK / WATES GROUP

Q &A

including QA, Avado Learning and Arch Apprenticeships.

Roberts started her career at American Express in sales and marketing, where she spent 10 years working with hotels, restaurants and other businesses within the hospitality and travel industry.

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BUSINESS NEWS / SUPPLY SIDE

SO C IA L VA LUE

and promoting healthier lifestyles within the communities it operates.

3. Boost the number of women in senior leadership roles to balance representation as part of its inclusion and diversity strategy.

Philip Wainwright, Wates Group’s chief financial officer, said: “Sustainability is a key element of our Guiding Framework – that’s why we launched our 2025 sustainability goals in 2020. We are continually reviewing how we can embed sustainability into what we do and we’re pleased that we have been able to identify and agree on three additional metrics with our lenders that will drive sustainability outcomes and demonstrate our commitment on Scope 3, social value and diversity.”

Max Jones, relationship director in Lloyds Bank’s construction and infrastructure team, said: “Now’s not the time for firms within the built environment to rest on their laurels when it comes to creating a greener, more welcoming industry. Wates have long been a leader for sustainability in the industry – we look forward to helping them build upon that position.”

Wates secures £90m sustainability loan

By Facilitate team

W

ates Group has secured a £90 million sustainabilitylinked loan (SLL) from a syndicate of three banks led by Lloyds Bank.

Lloyds acted as the sole ESG coordinator for the SLL, which Wates will use to achieve its ESG objectives and work towards three KPIs to achieve margin discounts on the funding. HSBC and AIB also provided equal funding on the deal of £30 million each. The threeyear facility is believed to be the second-largest SLL provider in the sector.

The three KPIs:

1. 35% of Wates’ top 200 suppliers must have Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) approved targets in place by December 2024. This is linked to the company’s Scope 3 emissions, which make up around 98% of its greenhouse gas emissions.

2. Create nearly £370 million of social value over the next three years by creating jobs, supporting growth

NG Bailey launches EV unit NG Bailey has launched its electric vehicle (EV) charging business unit, to meet increased demands from businesses for vehicle charging solutions.

Operations director Darren Slade will lead its facilities

services arm, which offers end-to-end EV infrastructure and solutions services. The firm will offer national coverage through its delivery team, plus consultancy, feasibility study and design, commissioning and infrastructure installation, cellular

and network connectivity, and maintenance and aftercare.

Mitie acquisition Mitie Group has acquired specialist telecoms tower design company P2ML for £2.1 million.

Glasgow-based P2ML provides a

range of engineering services within the telecommunications industry – mainly the design, construction, inspection and maintenance of telecoms towers.

The deal further expands Mitie’s telecoms capabilities in the wake of last year‘s acquisition

A P P OIN T MEN T

MACE ANNOUNCES NEW CONSULT BUSINESS COO Global consultancy firm Mace has appointed Richard Green to its newly created role of chief operating officer for its Consult business.

Green will take on leadership of consultancy practice groups, helping to grow the business’s capability and services to clients globally, in line with its 2026 business strategy. He will be responsible for driving innovation and identifying areas of investment to maintain Consult’s market competitiveness.

Green, previously managing director of the Corporate Centre of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), led on organisational change and supported business and service transformation in response to Covid-19. He has also held senior roles with Jacobs, Crossrail and the British Army, managing large teams to achieve successful project and programme outcomes.

Jason Millett, CEO for Mace Consult, said: “In his new role as Consult COO, Richard will be able to drive our expertise in data management and cost consultancy to ensure we deliver best in-class services and distinctive value for our clients globally. I look forward to seeing us grow from strength to strength.”

Richard will be able to drive our expertise in data management and cost consultancy

of DAEL Telecoms.

P2ML carries out design, construction, inspection and maintenance services for cellular telecoms infrastructure.

Xcell Misting taken over Smart buildings company Johnson Controls has acquired

Xcell Misting Ltd, a fire protection company that designs and installs fire suppression and detection systems.

Johnson Controls said its clients would benefit from the firm’s experience by gaining access to the latest fire suppression technologies.

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BACK PAGE / NOTED AND QUOTED

EPHFMER A “Culture is not bean bags, free beer, or a free subscription to a meditation app…

Your actions define your culture. Your culture defines your brand. People don’t leave because they don’t have free stuff, they leave because they can recognise the difference between a good culture and a bad one.”

C HRIS DO NNE LLY, FOUNDER OF VERB & CO - FO UND E R O F LOTTIE, OFFERS AN IM PO RTA NT RE M IN DER AS EMPLOYEES RE TURN TO TH E WORKPLACE

A DAM TR A NTE R , WEST MIDLANDS CYCLING & WALK ING CO M MISSIONER , FOU NDER & C E O O F FUSIO N MEDIA

“Dame Jo da Silva said, ‘We need to reduce demand; why is it acceptable for my teenager to wear just a T-shirt indoors in December, and claim the house is cold? This is as socially unacceptable as smoking.’ If we don’t think differently, we don’t act differently.”

DAVID STEVENS, DIREC TOR OF ESTATES, FACILITIES & CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT AT EAST LONDON NHS FOU NDATION TRU ST, SHARES INSIGHTS FROM THIS YEAR’S CIBSE AWARDS

“I’d like to think, as we drag ourselves out of the shadow of Covid, that those who kept buildings, offices and facilities clean, safe and secure are at the very least rewarded with appropriate NLW pay” LING FIE LD PO INT ’S ESTATES MANAGER MICK AND E RSO N STANDS WITH FRONTLINE WORKERS

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“TENSION CAN EASILY ARISE BETWEEN PEOPLE WHEN THEY DON’T RECOGNISE EACH OTHERS’ COPING STRATEGIES… OR MAYBE DO RECOGNISE BUT DON’T RESPECT THEM.” L EA D ERS H I P A N D L EA RN I N G COACH TA MS IN T W ED D EL L REMIN DS REA D ER S TO CO N S I D E R A N OT H ER P ERS ON ’ S P ERS P EC T I V E FOR BET T ER WORK P L ACE REL AT I O N S H I PS

“If we’re going to be truly humancentric in our workplaces, we need to deconstruct the gender role assumptions permeating all aspects of work and life.

Only by redefining the expectations placed upon all of us – everyone – at work, can we start to really level the playing field.”

“Did you know that 59% of GenZ-ers and 55% of millennials say YouTube is their favourite way to learn? Now think about the last training session you provided to your teams.

Did it live up to YouTube content?”

G R A EME L I PS C H I T Z , V P OF IN N OVAT I O N , T ECH , A I A N D DATA AT ED UTA IN M E N T PROV I D E R BOX P L AY, Q U E ST I O N S T H E EF F ICACY O F CO R PO R AT E T R A IN I N G M O D E L S

BR A ELY N H A MIL L , S EN IOR WORK P L ACE ST R AT EG IST AT CUS H MA N & WA K EF IEL D, IS S UES VA L UA BL E I N S IG H T IN TO WORK P L ACE EQUA L I T Y

“RUBY WAX, JUST ONE OF THE REASONS TO LOOK FORWARD TO @IWFM_UK CONFERENCE. SUPPORTING #WORKPLACE AND #FACILITIESMANAGEMENT PROFESSIONALS BE THE #AGENTSOFCHANGE.” CEO L IN DA H AUS MA N IS LOOKS A H EA D TO T H E IW F M CON F EREN CE ON 8 JUN E

“Hybrid WFH is here – offices are still only 40% full while leisure activities have returned. Office occupancy will eventually flatline at about 60% once the return to office is complete (3-2 hybrid for the average employee).”

STA N FOR D E CO N O M I C S P ROF ES S O R N I C K B LO O M MA K ES PR E D I C T I O N S A BOUT T H E F U T U R E OF WO R K

IMAGES: ISTOCK / SHUTTERSTOCK

“IF YOU’RE HOPING CONNECTED AND AUTONOMOUS PRIVATE VEHICLES WILL SOLVE YOUR CITY’S TRAFFIC PROBLEMS, THEY WON’T. NOT EVEN [ELON] MUSK, ONE OF THE FEW PEOPLE WHO STANDS TO BENEFIT FROM THIS TECH, AGREES WITH YOU.”

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