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Conference - first day round-up
28-03-06 0:0 FM World
Around 400 delegates braved a wet and windy day in Oxford for the first day of the BIFM's 2006 annual conference - FM - the leadership challenge.
BIFM chairman Mick Dalton kicked off the event with an update on the institute and the areas he sees are crucial for today's FMs: embracing new technology, sustainability and increased legislation. He introduced Reg Allen, managing director of the event's lead sponsor Harrow Green, who welcomed delegates and talked about the leadership issues and opportunities within the FM industry.
The keynote address came from Bill Callaghan, chair of the Health and Safety Commission, who argued that director leadership on health and safety equals sound governance and business benefits. "Director responsibility is a key factor in achieving our targets for health and safety improvements," he told delegates at Oxford's Keble College.
The HSC has published guidance to promote director responsibility in health and safety, and this sets out five action points which Callaghan explained: acceptance by the board of its role in health and safety leadership; acceptance by individual board members of their role; to consider the health and safety implications of all board decisions; to engage the workforce in health and safety matters; and to appoint a board health and safety champion - an H&S director.
Callaghan's key message was that health and safety management driven by the board improved a company's bottom line and he looked at several case studies to underline this point.
After the coffee break, Callaghan was followed by Jim Nixon, global practice leader at Hewitt Associates' real estate services, who delivered this year's Hugh Channon Memorial Lecture, "The future of FM in the global economy".
Nixon had plenty of advice on the tricky matter of cultural variations: "Understanding, listening, learning and socialising will go a long way in making the first endeavours successful." Nixon stressed that there would naturally be scepticism from a local set up as the visitors "from HQ" arrive so good preparation and sensitivity are needed. Financial factors like varying accounting systems and local economic indicators, like inflation, were crucial. Nixon also stressed that environmental concerns in developing are well wide of the corporate policy that FMs may be used to.
The conference then split into four parallel sessions. Jean Hewitt, director at Cromer Portland and chair of the BIFM's access and inclusion special interest group, gave an excellent presentation examining the role of the facilities manager in championing an inclusive workplace. The FM has a key role to play in making a workplace inclusive by managing external routes, car parking, internal layouts and spatial arrangements, acoustics and background noise, maintenance regimes and cleaning times, assistitive aids and signage and displays.
But it is not about throwing money at a problem, said Hewitt. Lots of money had been wasted on items such as Braille lift buttons when only 5 per cent of the blind population could read Braille. Instead Hewitt recommended that FMs install raised numerals which are useful for everyone. “The average cost of an 'inclusive office' change is 50p. It can be something as small as having meetings on the ground floor to help people with special egress needs,” she said.
One of Hewitt's more innovative recommendations for those with dual sensory impairment, such as the deaf blind, was planting different smelling plants, such as lavender, to help people to orientate themselves.
And making a workplace inclusive was just about removing physical barriers, but also about training staff to understand the needs of visitors and other staff. She pointed to the example of a cleaner who left a vacuum cleaner in the disabled toilet in the area needed for a wheelchair transfer as where more training is needed.
“Providing an inclusive environment is never over and finished with. Access is a journey, not a destination, Hewitt concluded.
Meanwhile in a pacy and enthusiastically delivered presention, Dr Marie Puybaraud and Dr Anne-Marie McEwan looked at ideas and finding arising from their recently established HR and mobility network. Puybaraud, programme director at Johnson Controls, talked of how FM is providing the physical environment for the new culture of worker mobility. IT and HR made up the other sides of this evolutionary process. While FM and IT were collaborating well Puybaraud questioned whether HR, in the form of training staff to optimise methods of flexible working, was doing enough. McEwan, MD at Bizintel, spoke of how new ways of working would require a mindshift at a senior level. The network was predicting an end to commuting and an embracing of new working methods like 'swarming' with all the workspace implications that would have for FMs. McEwan and Puybaraud concluded the session with a vision of 2015 in which they employees not ties to any asset or service and using super-fast connections which were universal and free of charge.
In another parallel session Dr Michael Pitt, reader in FM in the school of the built environment at Liverpool John Moores University, delivered a presentation entitled “FM - the business dimension”, which gave delegates insights into how they can achieve innovation in managed service provision. Pitt stressed the importance for FMs to understand the complex nature of business dynamics through the full process life cycle.
Following lunch and the exhibition, in a session entitled “One stop shops - shaping excellent customer services” Alexi Marmot contrasted some varied examples of one stop shops projects from public and private sector. Marmot, director at Alexi Marmot Associates, stressed the increasing prominence that the one stop shop philosophy was playing in providing the public face for many organisations. The challenges for FM, Marmot argued, included stressing the tie-in of purpose with design and balancing the customer service needs with the requirement of staff. One particular aspect highlighted was the importance of "maintaining brand image". Apple's flagship retail stores were held up as a good example how traditional shop premises became more than just a sales outlet but offered helpdesk services and open tutorial sessions. In a non-sales, public sector environment Marmot said that a helpful, courteous staff would leave visitors with a positive view of that organisation, be it a council or NHS setting. The role of the FM was pivotal in drawing together the needs of different parties.
The conference then broke once again into four parallel sessions with a presentation on sale and leaseback from Ian Campbell, director of group property and procurement at Bradford and Bingley who discussed how to release value from freehold assets by sale and leaseback. Sale and leasebacks had been given a bad name by retail companies which implemented them when they were in financial trouble, he said. “The time to do a sale and leaseback is when you are a strong business, not when you're desperate.”
He also counselled against doing a sale a leaseback to release cash. “It's about releasing value, not cash.” Sale and leasebacks can reduce property ownership risks, release equity to invest in the core business, and have a positive account impact on the profit and loss account, said Campbell.
Campbell described how Bradford and Bingley had moved from being a 90 per cent freehold estate in 1996 to having a 64 per cent freehold today by sale and leaseback schemes in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. In total the specialist lender has disposed of 66 properties in this way since 2002. He recommended spreading sale and leaseback schemes in stages as this fed into the profit and loss every year.
Meanwhile in another seminar room Mindy Hadi and Sunil Shah presented findings from a research study into corporate responsibility (CR). The study had established how there was a clear role for FM in delivering CR, particularly when bringing to bear an FM influence at the design stage of new builds. The speakers acknowledged that this design influence was often hard to make but the FM viewpoint. One of the key conclusions was that for increased implementation of CR within FM a shift organisational culture would be necessary. This would move the profession on to a point where best practice was sought rather than making do with minimum requirements. But there was encouraging news with more than half of the study's respondents reporting that CR was being driven at senior level. This was seen as a key indicator that the necessary shift in culture had commenced.
In a parallel session Drivers Jonas associate partner Lynn Wickins and Rishi Sharma, FM consultant, delivered their findings from a survey of FMs on service level agreements and how they are actually working in practice. Wickins and Sharma said the survey had sought to find out whether SLAs and KPIs are used as a tool for conflict and penalties for underperformance of services, or as a basis for co-operation and partnering. The survey found that FMs' perceptions of the effectiveness of SLAs and KPIs vary widely: some respondents said they have significant shortcomings, but for others, they are very effective.
After tea, Anne Lennox Martin, BIFM fellow and independent consultant urged delegates to place the customer at the heart of every issue, in her presentation Leading a Customer-Centric FM service. “This means creating one FM team and not identifying subcontractors because the customer doesn't care who pays your salary, they just care that their workplace works.”
Customer centric FM is about making people feel good, said Lennox Martin, who is the only BIFM fellow to also have the BIFM Qual. Smiling, knowing peoples' names, eye contact, being out and about, not being afraid to apologise and being confident are all ways of making other people feel good, she said.
But critical to FM leadership is treating your staff as your prime customers. “If you don't treat your staff as customers , how will they know how you expect them to treat their own customers?”
Lennox Martin's main message, which she took from Tom Peters and has lived her career by ever since, was “to be a pocket of excellence”. “It all begins with you,” she concluded.
The day's conference proceeding were concluded with the Fellows Forum debate, chaired by David Tinkler, head of facilities at QVC and deputy chair of the BIFM, looking at the future leaders of the FM profession.
But the day would not be complete without the BIFM's traditional networking evening. After a drinks reception in the exhibition, sponsored by Barclays, more than 250 people sat down in the impressive dining room to excellent food and wine and an inspiring talk from Jan Meek, who joined her son to row across the Atlantic.
