Top tips from people in your industry who have been there and done it!
Joe Selby said recently on the IFMA Listserve: Find out what measures your CEO uses to determine whether or not the company is meeting its own internal goals monthly, quarterly and annually. Look at what aspects of the strategic business plan your group or department supports either directly or indirectly. For instance, most companies will include performance to budget as a major overall organizational metric, so the lowest hanging fruit of all for your group is your performance to your group/department budget. Are you over? Under? How do you keep track of this and what initiatives do you have in place to keep watch on your budget performance over the course of the year.
Your company may have an initiative related to business growth that’s tied to recruiting and headcount. That’s another area that facilities departments have a direct impact on and should be one you measure yourself against regularly.
Here’s the overall point – don’t measure pointless things that have nothing whatever to do with the success of your company and execution of your company’s strategic plan. Way too many service departments (not just picking on facilities groups here) will measure nonsense things like the number of work orders they complete in a quarter or annually. Who cares? That doesn’t demonstrate that you’re being effective. It demonstrates that you’re there and busy, period.
Being busy does not mean you’re actively contributing to the success of your organization. It can, in fact, demonstrate just the opposite (as in you’re completing a ton of maintenance work orders because you’re doing a lousy job on your preventative maintenance programs, or you’re executing lots of personnel moves because you’re doing a lousy job of space utilization planning).
Measure the things you’re doing that contribute to the successful execution of your organization’s overall strategic plan.
My number one tip to FMs (Facility managers): As you translate business goals into project requirements think in terms of constructability and operability.
Define your goals, personally and for the whole FM service. Make them challenging, specific, timed, measurable and achievable. Is it about increasing customer satisfaction, reducing deductions, or reducing staff turnover?
Be specific and make your objectives measurable. For example, by what percentage do you want to increase customer satisfaction?
Want to share your own tips? Send them to Liz Kentish, The FM Coach on Tel: 01778 561326 / 07717 870777 or email: coach@lizkentishcoaching.co.uk or comment below.