Futures shock

by The FM World Team — Originally published in the February 25, 2016 issue of FMWorld–February’s Workplace Futures conference saw presenters speaking about FM at a point in time in which the sector has the potential to have a fundamental impact on its own workers and the people they serve. Is the sector ready for the challenges ahead? Here, the FM World team selects some of the key quotes from the day.

• Cant spoke expansively about the FM sector’s ‘direction of travel’, suggesting FM is in the unique position of caring for the wellbeing of huge numbers of workers in an era of great social and technological change.
• “We are not the technology people or the construction people – in fact, we are the social infrastructure people; we are the owners of the social infrastructure of a business”.
• These were workers who needed to be engaged rather than merely left to clock on and off each day; people who can become disaffected by every passing change to working conditions, particularly those driven by the relentless march of technology.
• “We’ve got to be careful about this,” said Cant. “We need to be aware of how each technological step forward affects their own personal environment.”
• “Either we take on the role of social responsibility and drive it, or we don’t. And if we don’t, all that our workers will ever do is simply clock on and clock off.” “We also need to be much more articulate about what we are going to do for each specific client’s needs rather than simply saying who we are. I still see lots of bids where it’s all about us. It’s not about us, it’s about them.”

• Raikes spoke of his firm’s work on London’s Olympic Stadium, which Vinci is contracted to manage despite many challenging circumstances.
• “There were a number of changes during 2015 which we had to be flexible for,” said Raikes, pointing to a seven-day turnaround from hosting a Rugby World Cup match to mobilising the stadium – which is also undergoing construction work to turn it into a football stadium – into a racetrack for Formula 1’s Race of Champions event and, later in 2016, hosting rock band AC/DC.
• “We had to be flexible, catering for journalists, athletes and their entourages, and thousands of fans. We had to make sure all access points were OK, that we were compliant with fire safety legislation at an ever-changing venue.”
• “The FM industry played its part in the Olympic success of 2012. FM was dealing with an enormous amount of change [in the build-up] and still it was a success. It was not only a success for GB athletics, but for GB construction, and it was a success for GB FM.”

• Ankerstjerne predicted a stark change in the way outsourcing of FM is perceived, with price becoming less of a factor in outsourcing decisions, particularly in the private sector.
• Ankerstjerne also suggested that the future of FM outsourcing could see the “uberisation” of contracts, in which individuals providing facilities services are crowdsourced.
• Similar to large asset-free large organisations such as Uber, Airbnb and Facebook, Ankerstjerne suggested that FM could soon have service companies that employ no service individuals.
• “You could go online, book a service employee – a caterer, a cleaner, a security officer – and you could share that with our customers,” said Ankerstjerne. “You could rate that person, and put that online for others to see.”

• Hughes spoke of his work at Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, where he urged organisations, particularly PFI partnerships, to work as collaborative and not contractual arrangements.
• “We need to understand the NHS long-term vision to help the FM team shape its strategy over the next 10 years.”
• ”It’s important to make a concerted effort to have conversations with trust boards so that we can showcase the real opportunity to expand on what the FM team can offer.”
• Hughes’ FM team undertook dementia awareness training so that the catering staff and engineering staff could understand the delicate nature of working on the wards:  “We asked the nurses what we as an FM team could do to help. It’s about engagement and making patients feel comfortable.”
• To achieve this, family rooms are not like ‘your typical hospital’, said Hughes. “You’re staying with loved ones, possibly sharing the last few hours or days that you spend with them. So we wanted rooms that were a bit more comforting. It’s important to go beyond; to bring in a better quality of life in the hospital through FM.”

• “Technological advances and expanding choice in everything from TV channels to cars means those now entering the workforce do so with high expectations – but that can lead to more confusion. Which is why it is important to find out the facts about your work space and the people who work for you.”
• “In the next three years we will see five generations grace our workplace. There is a lot of hysteria around what this will mean.”
• “American psychologist Barry Schwartz wrote that the more choice we have the more freedom we have and by default, the more wealth that we have. That’s so engrained now that we just accept it as a good thing.”
• “We need to think about how people interact with their workplace. It’s about the dynamic alignment of three things: space, people, technology. You need to find out how they work and how they interact because they all overlap.”
• “It’s about balance. Some choice is better than none – but it doesn’t follow that more choice is better than some choice.”

• Stirk’s presentation focused on the financial performance of FM suppliers and other outsourced suppliers over the past four years, growth pegged at 3.7 per cent in 2015 compared to 9.3 per cent in 2012. Share prices for FM companies have underperformed the wider stock market over the past six years, too.
• FM customers are becoming more sophisticated as contracts mature and intermediaries add market intelligence.
• The role of consultants has expanded from merely negotiators of price to providers of market insight, finding the provider and deal best suited to a given client’s needs.
• Even allowing for fierce competition and demanding customers, FM businesses often invest significant resource in bidding unsuccessfully.
• … and even when bids are won, profit delivery is often highly inconsistent.
• What’s more, FM contracts typically suffer from margin dilution at contract renewal – particularly in second and third-generation contracts.

   Stirk’s agenda for change:

1. Build propositions that genuinely affect customer’s business-critical outcomes
2. Identify customer segments where there is clear need – and communicate in their language
3. Bid with discipline
4. Mobilise and deliver systematically
5. Think like a data business