For employees, the workplace is like a second home. Keeping a clean, safe workspace is essential to retention and satisfaction and often results in documented productivity gains. For employers, the demand for quality space accelerates in tight labor markets, and as a business owner who is constantly trying to maximize returns, devoting time and energy to the quality of your office set-up can feel like a chore.
If you have begun to question whether the time and energy devoted by you and your staff to upkeep and cleaning could be better allocated, you may be in need of a dedicated facilities manager or management system.
Here are a few things to consider when deciding whether or not to hire a facilities management professional in West Virginia.
What does a facilities manager do?
Facilities managers specialize in helping a business’ office or physical plant operate effectively. Facilities managers create schedules for and perform cleaning tasks, ground maintenance, overnight and daytime security, management of utilities such as water and gas, as well as managing budgets for said items that ensure cost-effectiveness for the structure and your organization at large.
How can a facilities manager free up your team’s time?
Some organizations pride themselves on a 360-degree approach where all the employees take a share of the duties that keep a business operating effectively. Your salespeople can also be custodians, and your clerical staff can also serve as a plumber if need be. The all-in mindset or start-up mindset serves some organizations well but what if your organization is better served by keeping your sales team focused on B2B sales and your clerical staff best used for processing documents and recording receipts?
This productivity test is one every business owner has encountered as they have grown. You need to ask if your business is making the most money per employee to drive your bottom line. At a certain point, employees are more effective (and happier) when doing the jobs they were hired to do, and unless you’ve hired a janitor, your employees don’t want to be cleaning toilets.
Engaging professional services around facilities management allows managers to focus on the responsibilities that drive their business and devote the background tasks of maintenance and cleaning to a manager or team who specializes in the tasks. A professional facilities manager is well equipped to plan and schedule maintenance for the facility.
They understand when repairs are necessary and when prescriptive measures should be applied. They keep up to date on health and safety regulations mandated by governing bodies, have resources to handle contracts with third-party contractors, and build and execute plans to ensure the property is safe, clean, and secure.
The peace of mind achieved from freeing you and your employees from the background tasks that bookend your days allows you the time to chase the results that really matter.
When does hiring a facilities manager make financial sense?
Businesses in West Virginia know which activities drive profits and which create waste and bottlenecks to productivity. They are experts at their business. Where they may not have expertise is in relation to costs of operation. Facility management professionals know the costs of operation of a physical structure.
Facility managers know how a replacement air filter can keep an HVAC system running efficiently, reducing energy consumption. They understand how the scheduling of lighting systems and air heating and cooling can be timed to meet peak usage and reduced for low usage hours. They can alleviate problems with finicky elevators, doors, windows, sinks, toilets, electrical systems, and countless other systems that are essential to business operations but aren’t tied to the business plan.
Hiring a facilities manager can keep your business from shutting down for extended periods due to emergency maintenance, can lower insurance and fire service fees through security measures, and can help your employees stay healthy and productive through a host of cleaning cycles and routine maintenance plans.
Bringing a facilities strategy to your space
One of the most overlooked aspects of property management professional services would be their expertise in space maximization. The Covid-19 pandemic changed the way many think about and operate their working environments. Needs related to social distancing, ventilation, and overall cleanliness took center stage, but as many employees shifted to working from home, business owners were left wondering how they could operationalize spaces left vacant by workbound employees.
Facility managers are experts at optimizing and monetizing spaces. Their varied experience in dealing with multiple properties and setups allows them to draft and devise work plans that would see employee setups altered to free up additional space. For the business that is watching their bottom line, freeing up additional space could allow for another industry to lease available space in the newly designated area, providing even more operating capital to your business.
For the seasoned facility manager, the ability to engage cost savings approaches while also maintaining cleanliness and safety standards is second nature. Engaging the right facilities manager can often mean the difference between a prolonged office shutdown, or a thriving office environment with multiple income streams.
If you are wondering how a facility manager could help your organization, reach out to the team at PMC. Trusted in the Mid-Ohio Valley since 1980.
