Facilities Management Archives - Page 7 of 8 - Facilities Management Forum | Forum Events Ltd
Posts Tagged :

Facilities Management

Forums vs Expos – how to maximise your precious time out of the office…
By:

With a majority of ‘expert’ advice on Expos being somewhat outdated or, like with many businesses, asserting too much emphasis on easy routes rather than methods that actually work, it’s no wonder people get frustrated and disconcerted when they are looking to effectively network and source new connections without it lessening quality time spent in the office.

Amplified by the dominant presence of social media quick fixes such as: setting up a LinkedIn profile; increasing your Twitter presence; scheduling a large number of email marketing campaigns; and collecting as many business cards as possible at industry events – are key solution in helping you to be astute in intelligently selecting what methods best suit you and your way of working.

Expos can also have a somewhat ‘lazy’ association to it: people picture the huge halls and countless stands as a way of picking up leads and justifying their time out of the office, but realistically a large percentage of exhibitors won’t be of necessary relevance, or the person you need to speak to has decided not to attend at the last minute.

So set aside any previous experiences you may have with networking and Expos, and garner some quality connections by attending one of our Forum Events. Our formula ensures that buyers can increase their knowledge of how, why and where to invest without hanging around waiting for the wrong supplier; as well as ensuring that all suppliers are provided with qualified leads and valuable business is made as a result.

Events relevant to you may include the Facilities Management Forum taking place on January 30-31, 2017. Contact the team today…

AUDE: Effective estate management ‘key to HE standards and student experience’…
By:

In conclusion of a new study commissioned by the Association of University Directors of Estates (AUDE), two-thirds of the 2,000 university students surveyed agree that an educational institution’s facilities is crucial to choosing a place of study; making it the third-year where libraries and IT hubs came out on top and beating facilities such as entertainment and social establishments.

Quality of accommodation also continues to remain a top priority, with 57 per cent affirming that living standards played a crucial role in their final university choice; as well as the actual course itself (79 per cent), location (69 per cent), and academic ranking (44 per cent).

AUDE chair and director of estates and facilities at the University of Surrey, Trevor Humphreys, said of the findings: “Effective estate management is key to ensuring that higher education institutions deliver the best possible student experience, both academically and socially, so it’s encouraging to know that despite many sector challenges a very high level of students feel their university offers clean and well-maintained buildings.”

Guest Blog, Simon Field: Loud noises and preventing damage in the workplace…
By:

When it comes to facilities management, it is not just the health and safety of your employees that you have to worry about, you also need to protect contractors and visitors.

Due to the varied tasks taking place within the facilities management industry, one of the biggest dangers can be exposure to loud noises. Simon Field, a technical specialist at science-based technology company 3M, discusses how a four-step approach can help to keep everyone at your facility safe. 

While the effects may not be immediately obvious, exposure to loud noises can have really harmful – and irreversible – consequences.

Anything from construction work to even lawn mowing could create damaging sound levels and if the correct steps are not taken, it is not only people’s health which is at risk – companies can also face legal action.

One of the most common health issues caused by high levels of sound is noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) – which is a completely preventable but incurable condition.

In the past year around 15,000 people have suffered from NIHL caused, or made worse, by work. It is the most commonly reported occupational medical condition in the EU and between 2011 and 2014, NIHL insurance claims increased by 189 per cent.

As well as NIHL, loud noises can also result in tinnitus, which could lead to associated health problems such as insomnia. Safety can also be compromised, as people may not be able to hear warning messages or alarms if noise levels are too loud.

At 3M, we have devised a four-step approach to help companies keep everyone protected from loud noise.  

Detection

The first step in protecting your employees, contractors and visitors is to assess the noise levels to see if there is a problem. Start by asking yourself some straightforward questions such as, do employees need to raise their voices when speaking to each other or is the noise intrusive? If the answer is yes, then the noise levels are likely to be too high. Noise measurements should be conducted in any areas highlighted during your initial assessment. Noise surveys can be carried out in-house or by hiring a consultant.

It’s important to use the results of noise surveys effectively; deciding on noise control methods, re-evaluating risk assessments

and selecting appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE).

Protection

As part of The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005, employers are required to eliminate or reduce risks to health and safety from noise at work.

Depending on the level of risk, you should:

  • take action to reduce the noise exposure
  • provide your employees with suitable personal hearing protection

When deciding on hearing protection equipment (HPE), it is crucial to select a product that employees are motivated to wear. If the HPE does not fit correctly or is uncomfortable, the user is less likely to use it properly, which can significantly reduce the level of protection.

The two options available are ear plugs and ear muffs. These products come in different styles to suit a range of tasks, including disposable and reusable.

When deciding on protection, you should ensure that it is effective enough to eliminate risks, but does not leave the worker isolated. You also need to consider the working environment and check that it does not interfere with other PPE.

Training

It’s important to ensure that your workers understand why they need to take care of their hearing and how they can do this. Employers need to provide suitable information, instruction and training covering the noise hazards present, the control measures to be used and the correct use of these, including hearing protection. This could include fitting technique, any maintenance requirements and where equipment should be stored.

Validation

Once you have offered hearing protection to your workers, you then need to be confident that it is protecting them. As everybody is different, it is not a case of one size fits all when it comes to hearing protection, so you need to be sure the equipment is being used correctly.

To help prevent incorrect use, 3M has recently launched its revolutionary E-A-Rfit Dual Ear Validation System. This system takes noise measurements from both inside and outside of the hearing protection, in order to calculate a personal attenuation rating for each employee. The test takes only eight seconds to complete and can be used as part of a robust training programme, showing workers how correctly inserting the right ear plug increases their level of protection.

Following this four-step approach will help employers to feel confident that they are best protecting their workforce from exposure to loud noises.

More information about E-A-Rfit Dual Ear Validation System is available here. 
If you would like more information on hearing conservation or have questions on other types of PPE, please feel free to give 3M’s H&S helpline a call on 0870 608 0060.
*3M and E-A-Rfit are trademarks of 3M Company.

 

Simon Field has spent the last five years at 3M supporting the personal safety division with technical responsibility in areas of hearing conservation, eye protection, powered respiratory systems and welding protection. He has a wealth of knowledge and expertise in this area, along with an IOSH qualification in ‘Noise at Work Risk Assessment and Management’.

Industry Spotlight: EMCOR UK’s technology expansion and dynamic mentoring programme…
By:

Since I started working for EMCOR UK as an apprentice 30 years ago, technology has radically changed the way EMCOR UK does things, directly benefiting the company’s employees and the work performed for clients. For example, in 2015 we introduced the EMCOR UK Mobile Management Application – a unique asset maintenance tool for engineers available on mobile phones. It’s an intelligent system that enables our engineers to be at customer sites quicker, work more efficiently, and assist in planning an engineer’s work day based on their location, availability, and skill-set. 

As one of the UK’s leading integrated facilities management service providers and with over 3,500 employees, EMCOR UK has a long-established, successful mentoring programme. However, after an extensive review, we recently introduced an innovative, two-way or “reverse” mentoring scheme to continue to improve performance, enhance the development of people, and enable two-way learning between generations of employees in recognition of the impact technology increasingly has on the workplace. This innovative mentoring approach enhances the more traditional mentoring practices. Additionally, EMCOR UK increasingly experienced that younger employees feel especially comfortable receiving instructions about job related projects via a handheld device as a result of them being born into the technological and smartphone age. This aptitude for technology has changed EMCOR UK’s approach towards training, especially within the mentoring programme.

The advantages for individuals of mentoring have long been established, and include improved levels of confidence and self-awareness, and better management of career goals; for mentors the advantages include recognition of their knowledge and satisfaction of developing their colleagues. For companies, and certainly EMCOR UK, benefits include noteworthy increases in employee retention rates, improvements in the ability of organisations to adapt to change, and enhanced productivity through better engagement and job satisfaction. In the old economy, mentoring was often regarded as the “long term passing on of support, guidance and advice. In the [traditional] workplace it has tended to describe a relationship in which a more experienced colleague uses their greater knowledge and understanding of the work or workplace to support the development of more junior or inexperienced members of staff.”

In the last five years EMCOR UK has experienced a significant and positive change in how younger employees interact with more seasoned colleagues. Previously there was an idea that younger people weren’t in a position to offer advice in the workplace, and this has now changed. It is a development we welcome and actively encourage at EMCOR UK. Our apprentices see that helping with the understanding and implementation of technology enables them to garner kudos with their more experienced peers, who recognise that they have inter-related dependencies.

Even the most experienced EMCOR UK employees are now benefitting from this approach. For example, Steven Mullen, a logistics manager in his fifties, is mentored by Simi Gandhi-Whitaker, a work winning director in her thirties. This shows that mentoring, no matter what stage of one’s career, means that you never need to stop learning.

One critical and primary area of focus that has significantly benefitted from and been positively impacted by reverse mentoring is EMCOR UK’s health and safety culture and compliance. Mentoring has given young employees a lot more confidence and has empowered them to report or act immediately when they see that something needs improvement in order to optimise workplace safety. This has enabled EMCOR UK to proactively address situations where safety was a concern, or resolve a possible issue before it becomes a problem.

Health and safety management is the number one priority for EMCOR UK, and the company is proud to have consistently achieved significant recognition for this focus –  from two of the most prestigious safety organisations in the UK – a total of 8 awards in 2016 alone; 25+ in the last 15 years. These include the Gold Medal Award in the respected annual scheme overseen by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), and six Gold Medal Awards for work for customers British Sugar, Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), Public Health England (PHE), RAF Coningsby, BAE Systems, and United Utilities. Further, EMCOR UK was awarded the International Safety Award with Merit from the British Safety Council. 

EMCOR UK has little doubt that mentoring and our skilled use of technology has played a key part in the achievement of these awards, a reflection of our focus on customer collaboration and excellence of performance delivery.

 

Words by David Parker, group executive director at EMCOR UK

 

David Parker has over 25 years of experience in the mechanical and electrical industry, operating within the facilities, construction, and electrical security sectors. After joining EMCOR UK in 1983 as an electrical engineer, he quickly progressed into contract management. In his current role as group executive director, his wider remit and responsibilities also include management of health and safety – a primary focus for EMCOR UK.

BIFM collaborates with employer groups on apprenticeship standards development…
By:

The British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) is working closely with employer groups in a bid to create new standards for apprenticeships in the industry that include both degree apprenticeships at Bachelor’s and Master’s level, as well as supervisor and manager levels.

In theory, the industry body claims new apprenticeship standards will provide companies with the opportunity to employ apprentices at all levels, from senior management to strategic and operations. With the facilities management (FM) supervisor standard already approved, the development of a degree apprenticeship at Level 6 for senior FMs has also received approval, and the draft standard is due to be issued for consultation later this year.

The employment groups working on these standards submitted ‘Expressions of Interest’ to the  Department for Education (DfE) which supports the development of standards for Facilities Manager (Level 4) and Director of Estates (Masters).  The BIFM states that levels have been selected by ‘the industry’ to coincide with the ‘different occupational competencies’ required by FM professionals at various career stages.

The consultation is open for one more day (closes September 9, 2016) and the BIFM is encouraging all industry professionals complete the consultation for the proposed Facilities Manager and Director of Estates standards.  

NG Bailey further invests in specialist energy services…
By:

According to reports, the independent facilities, engineering and IT services group, NG Bailey, has confirmed that it will continue to invest in its specialist energy services by introducing a dedicated ‘central operations’ centre.

The new centre, which claims to offer support to the company’s specialist team by merging the existing facilities management, IT and engineering expertise and abilities, provides services including: energy monitoring and alarming, data analysis, mobile operations management and dynamic scheduling to its client base.

NG Bailey’s head of energy, Chris Coath, commented: “Buildings are generating more data than ever before, and by accessing and then analysing that data we can use our design, engineering and building services capabilities to improve system efficiencies, increase building performance and reduce energy usage. This enables us to generate tangible outcomes for building owners and occupiers.

He continued: “The real opportunity is in the analysis of building data, which is what our operations centre is focused on. By being able to analyse and respond, in real time, to the data that is being collected within a building, we can help customers meet their financial and sustainability objectives.”

It is thought that NG Bailey has invested an estimated £1 million in its energy services offering during the last financial year.

Guest Blog, Vince Treadgold: One Team, One Goal, One Mission…
By:

FM has drastically changed over the years. The industry has harnessed more respect as it has shifted from an emerging into a well-recognised sector. As such, facilities management is playing a bigger role in the way organisations view the world of work; however, the most evident change concerns the relationship dynamic between service providers and clients. More and more businesses are now waking up to the idea that their providers are genuine partners. With that realisation comes the mutual understanding that if organisations really want the FM solution to work, they need to be on the same page as their supplier, and vice versa.

There is now the widespread recognition that innovation is only possible when both client and provider work as one. At Servest, we have a presence at more than 7,000 sites across the UK. We’re growing at a phenomenal rate and that is thanks to two things: the quality of our offering and the relationships we are able to cultivate with our clients. For us, people are at the heart of our business, and we believe in relationships and human partnerships to create mutual success. The key to our most successful contracts is the fact that both parties work together as a team. Our mission is to get our people to understand the values and the goals that underpin every relationship, and to get them involved with both sides of the partnership.

The first step in that challenge is getting your employees on-board. Regardless of the business, it’s important to understand people and what matters to them if you’re to get the best out of a workforce. We work with our clients to ensure we listen to everyone who forms a part of that working relationship. By keeping an open dialogue we’re then able to empower people with the tools needed to act, change and innovate. Employee engagement sits at the centre of this focus. If people are engaged in their roles, and if they feel like they are part of the wider team, then they will be liberated when it comes to suggesting ideas that may move the business forward in unexpected yet profitable directions. To that end, we actually run training sessions and learning and development programmes that are open to both sets of employees, both client-side and within the Servest team.

Cultivating a culture of trust and respect is essential to the success of any business. This is even more necessary when a service provider is working on a client site. It’s important to avoid an ‘us and them’ dynamic so we really do focus on the human element with each and every contract we deliver. In order for a partnership to operate with integrity and diligence, the onsite team should jointly seek to foster an entrepreneurial foundation that drives a spirit of innovation and inventiveness. Working proactively together can ensure that both client and service provider is able to respond to the customers’ needs with the adaptability and flexibility necessary to deliver a high quality service.

Servest is often considered as an extension of our clients. We work with our clients – not for our clients – and together, we collaborate, communicate and cooperate on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis to ensure the working relationship is as fruitful as it can be. It’s only together that we can pull out all the stops in order to deliver a unified FM solution.

 

 

Vince has over 10 years’ experience of working with major retailers and was identified as a candidate for the position as Key Account Manager for Tesco just over three years ago. He has helped nurture and expand Servest’s business with Tesco and now runs the account as a separate division of our company with full P&L responsibility and a turnover of £36 million.

Sodexo ‘proud’ to partner with the Stoddart Review…
By:

The provider of specialist catering, life support and remote site facilities management services, Sodexo, has announced its partnership with the recently launched Stoddart Review in a bid to highlight the importance of facilities management roles.

The Review, which was founded in honour of Chris Stoddart MSc., FCIOB, FBIFM after his sudden passing in 2014, brings together decision makers and industry leaders in the provision of high performing workplaces; existing to put the workplace on the ‘business agenda’.

Marketing and strategy director at Sodexo, Andrew Wilkinson, commented: “I often get the opportunity to speak to organisations about their challenges in engaging employees, improving productivity or driving a culture that is more agile, diverse and collaborative.  I can see a clear trend emerging in the increasing number of clients who recognise the value that outsourced facilities/workplace management services can bring.”

He continued: “The challenge however is making this the norm, it is something we should surely all be focussed on. By bringing together the thoughts of business leaders and world-leading thinkers in the provision of high performing workplaces the Stoddart Review can only help in this as it exists to put workplace on the business agenda.”

 

Find out more about the Stoddart Review here

FM sector peaks in confidence, study suggests…
By:

A market analysis study from Plimsoll Publishing has indicated that confidence in the facilities management sector is continually rising; with 63 per cent of industry companies surveyed reporting an increase in sales in their latest year.

Delving into the status of 377 of the largest facilities management companies in the UK, the majority are delivering growth rates of 11 per cent and many of these are making a healthy profit return. Furthermore, 106 of these companies have been rated as ‘financially strong’, and, on average, each company has seen sales rise by 3.4 per cent.

Read a summary of the report’s findings here

Mitie awarded Carbon Trust Standard…
By:

Recognised for its achievement in successfully managing, measuring and reducing its carbon footprint, the facilities management company, Mitie, has been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard for Carbon certification.

Mitie reportedly achieved an 8.1 per cent ‘absolute reduction’ in its footprint for the compliance period ending March 31, 2016; and also received the highest carbon management score in its sector.

Managing director of Certification at the Carbon Trust, Darran Messem, said: “As a business that provides professional facilities and energy management services, you would expect Mitie to be good at reducing energy use and carbon emissions from its own operations. We are therefore delighted to be able to award Mitie certification to the Carbon Trust Standard, independently recognising the real achievements the company has made in making year-on-year reductions in carbon emissions.”

He continued: “I would like to congratulate everyone in the business that has contributed to this award, as well as those working with Mitie’s clients to support them on their own carbon reduction journeys.”

The Standard is an independent certification awarded on a global scale of a company’s progress in taking action on greenhouse gas emissions; establishing that a company has adopted good industry practice and equally demonstrates strong achievements in managing and reducing its carbon emissions year-on-year.

Learn more about Carbon Trust here