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Your facility manager is responsible for ensuring your company, your office, your plant, and all your physical assets are in optimal condition. Facilities managers' responsibilities include the maintenance of all systems, the monitoring of equipment and assets at work, safety and comfort for employees and visitors, and managing improvement projects. These people are the unsung heroes who keep everything running.
ACCURATE BUDGETS NEED ACCURATE DATA
As a result of the pandemic, FM budgets got slashed. The budgets for facility management are usually classified as cost centers instead of revenue centers. Since businesses have been squeezed over the past two years, facility managers are looking for ways to save money and plan their budgets more accurately. CFOs want to know which maintenance can be deferred. To answer that question from the C-suite, many building managers turn to software applications. By using these programs, budgets and reports can be designed accurately.
Facility managers have massive amounts of historical data. To handle it all, FMs rely on computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS). Programs like these can not only ensure that your facility is running at full capacity, but also provide you with the detailed reports you need for planning your budget for the upcoming year.
Here's a list of tools for FMs:
Asset Management Systems - also known as Enterprise Asset Management programs (EAM) or “equipment maintenance software”
Maintenance Management Systems - accepting, prioritizing, and assigning work orders and repair requests
Inventory / Parts Management Systems - tracking supplies necessary to keep equipment and assets in their optimal condition
Building Automation Systems - "smart" control of lights, HVAC systems, water use, security cameras, emergency systems, and door locks
Access Management Systems - monitor and manage the ebb and flow of visitors and employees
CONNECTED INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT) MONITORING SYSTEMS
Who's hot-swapping desks? Bringing in remote workers? Keeping track of space occupancy?
According to Gartner, 41% of employees will work remotely at least a part of their workweek in 2021. In most offices, it is impossible to maintain the necessary social distance once everyone is present. That's why office capacity calculators are so important.
Sensor technology is now being deployed throughout many facilities, not just in restrooms. By communicating with the building's HVAC systems, these devices can run them with a high degree of efficiency based on how many people are in the building at any given time. Sensor-driven building optimization can typically save 15% to 40% on energy consumption.
COVID-19 SAFETY PROTOCOLS ARE EXPECTED
Return to the office is being implemented in a conservative manner, and that's quite understandable. Employee surveys indicate the importance of cleaning procedures has not diminished.
93.4%—of vaccinated respondents and 82.2% of unvaccinated respondents cited workplace cleaning protocols as important as employees return to the office, with 77.2% of workers wanting the workplace cleaned daily.
Facility leadership teams are feeling the impact of COVID-19. The best course of action is to be overly cautious with budgets and protocols in 2022 and beyond. Throughout 2022, you can assume that COVID-19 protocols and procedures will be needed.
The three largest year-over-year increases in cleaning budgets per "2021 Facility Cleaning Decisions Management Survey" are: increased productivity/cleaning times (+31%); preventing cross-contamination (+31%); and improving indoor air quality (+32%).
Although the vaccine has been widely distributed, some processes implemented because of COVID-19 may become permanent as occupants and customers demand them. Temperature checks, personal protective equipment stations, self-assessment health forms, and disinfection routines, for instance, will become commonplace.
Understanding what your occupants and customers want and need is imperative moving forward. Sending out a survey, conducting interviews, or holding town halls are the easiest ways to create discussion.
Managing finances is one of the most important responsibilities of Facility Managers. It is always a tedious and time-consuming process to prepare the annual budget. In order to develop a budget for the future, you need to know what was actually spent on what last year and previous years. Along with what you know, you need to use your crystal ball to consider unknowns that can impact your budget. Occasionally, a facility manager has to make decisions about activities or costs that impact her budget without 100% certainty. A facilities budget will involve many parts and components, so being precise is key. Relying on rough estimates during the budget process can lead to inaccuracies.
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