THE FUTURE OF THE OFFICE AFTER COVID-19 - FACILITIES MANAGEMENT - Berka ...
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT THE FUTURE OF THE OFFICE AFTER COVID-19
Portobello Institute | info@portobelloinstitute.com | www.portobelloinstitute.com Portobello Institute | info@portobelloinstitute.com | www.portobelloinstitute.com
Change is
Here
COVID-19
Covid-19 has emphasized the need for of flexibility for office-based employees. In 2020, a
survey carried out by the Boston Consulting Group found that 60% of their 12,000 respondents
would want flexibility in when and/or where they worked in the future.
After a couple more months working under Covid conditions, this number jumped to 73% in a
Microsoft study of 30,000 people from 31 countries.
Everyone has always wanted some flexibility. Working when you want for how long you want
and where you want is an all-encompassing dream. But Covid changed the dynamic. The
Microsoft survey concluded that employees now “expect businesses to provide options.” The
days of everyone being in the building from 9-5 every single day are likely gone.
This is also true of the office enviroment in Ireland. Thousands of open plan office spaces have
sat idle for over 12 months and while many employees will be happy to get back to the office,
the majority now want a hybrid model to suit their needs.
“Extreme flexibility and hybrid work will define the post-pandemic workplace,” according to
Microsoft.
So what does that mean for the Facilities Manager industry?
For Clients: For Service Providers:
p What needs to change to enable p How is this change going to
“Extreme flexibility and hybrid businesses to meet the needs of impact on the delivery of services,
their employees? the scope of variables and cost
work will define the post-pandemic models?
p What is the Cost of Services impact?
workplace” p What solution will clients need?
p Can real estate/utilities/service costs
be reduced? p Will technology drive change?
p Where will the finding come from?
Capex planning?
3 4
Portobello Institute | info@portobelloinstitute.com | www.portobelloinstitute.com Portobello Institute | info@portobelloinstitute.com | www.portobelloinstitute.com
THREATS AND
OPPORTUNITIES The revenue reduction created by smart
In this new post Covid-19 workplace there is a threat to labour and technology poses a significant threat to
opportunities for organisations.
an industry that is already operating at
Smart technology is at the foundation creating this crossroads. It
will enable organisations to be flexible and more efficient in their
low margins and with poor investment.
utilization of the existing workplace. It will also serve the future
workplace and adapt as it continues to change. While it will help
to meet the needs of employees and also allow organisations to Organisations aren’t going to pay for services they no longer
reduce annual operating costs and capital costs, there’s a trade-off need because it’s handled by smart technology. That will then
for service providers. enable organisations to replace labour and lower headcount
numbers within facilities.
5 6
Portobello Institute | info@portobelloinstitute.com | www.portobelloinstitute.com Portobello Institute | info@portobelloinstitute.com | www.portobelloinstitute.com
DIVERGING
FUTURES
It is clear that there will be a change of dynamic between client organisations and service providers
in the future. The scope of service and the model of service delivery will need to change from
traditional models to ones with a foundation in flexibility and adaptability. This presents three real
challenges within the industry if organisations are going to meet the needs of employees.
The first challenge; how do you define and deliver services
1 consistently if the scope of service is constantly changing?
We are moving towards operating in a VUCA environment
that is volatile, complex and ambiguous.
Traditional Facilities Management models are based on contractually
set Service Level Agreements with clear service scope boundaries
and KPIs.
To take it a step further, from an agency theory perspective, client
organisations are already struggling with oversight ensuring service
providers are aligned to the same strategic goals. They find it difficult
to verify the delivery of services across their portfolios. Adding in
a constantly changing environment will mean service governance
will become incredibly difficult and lead to a potential lack of trust in
outsourcing. It will become extremely difficult to verify and validate
why and what work has been done.
Employees of the client organisation will be seeking the constant
adaptation of their work environments (flexible work spaces and
technology enabled real-time demand services), so does the client
need to seed the unfettered delivery of services to their service
provider?
And if so, how do they ensure performance, compliance, customer
focus and cost control?
7 8
Portobello Institute | info@portobelloinstitute.com | www.portobelloinstitute.com Portobello Institute | info@portobelloinstitute.com | www.portobelloinstitute.com
The second challenge will be the change in commercial models that will be required to meet the changing model
2 of service delivery. Reduced fixed scope services will impact on the revenue potential for service providers and
will lead to a higher ratio of variable revenue within contracts. This financial uncertainty will add a higher level of
risk to the service provider, who will seek to mitigate this risk through higher margins, thus driving cost inflation.
Procurement departments will need to reconsider the contractual framework agreements that house the delivery of facilities
management services, taking into account this changing environment.
02
As we have seen during Covid-19, this changing
environment has elevated the profile and importance
of facilities departments within organisations.
This realisation has moved facilities departments to an organisational position that is recognized
as business critical. And that will influence the type, duration and structure of contract models.
In the region of 89% of outsourced FM contracts are based on fixed price, fixed scope contracts.
As such we must ask if fixed price contracts are to die, then what will replace them?
The third challenge is the question of where should
3 technology lie, both from a development and delivery
perspective. What is the role of technology in enabling the
needs of employees? While FM service providers have been busily
developing technological solutions as part of their product offerings,
these are focused as tools to lock in the service provider with their
client. That is done by limiting the clients’ ability to change service
providers as the cost of change becomes restrictive.
These service provider platforms tend to be closed protocols
and lack the functionality to migrate their data effectively to other
platforms.
Additionally, traditional facilities service providers do not tend to
have a core competency in software development and therefore
are not necessarily the best organisations to develop the necessary
technology platforms to support the industry into the future.
Client organisations are in the same boat as they do not have
the expertise, strategic intent or knowledge base to develop the
technology required to meet the demand needs of their employees.
9 10
Portobello Institute | info@portobelloinstitute.com | www.portobelloinstitute.com Portobello Institute | info@portobelloinstitute.com | www.portobelloinstitute.com
We are starting to see more software organisations moving into this space, which
is changing the dynamic of the competitive environment within the industry. This
is probably the biggest threat to existing service providers and also the greatest
opportunity for client organisations in a post-Covid era.
If the future of the workplace is based in smart
buildings meeting the needs of the building
occupiers, then the future Workplace Solutions
may well be delivered by organisations that can
deliver the smart technology enabled services
rather than resource-based service providers.
This could potentially reshape the industry through technology-enabled contracts that
utilize the gig economy and ‘technology as a service’ solutions. It would radically alter
the service delivery within workplaces of the future and the role of facilities managers
within organisations. Moving to a hybrid work model that allows
employees to both work form an office location
and a home location depending on their personal
PRACTICAL CHANGES COMING
OUT OF COVID-19 choice will put pressure on employers to utilize
Clearly the above challenges will define the future of the workplace and the FM
the workspace differently.
industry.
Most client organisations have to wrestle with what the immediate changes will be. That challenge and the challenges of a variable scope of service delivery, are the two
What is needed as employees are vaccinated and the opportunity to return to a normal most pressing challenges that employers will face.
working environment presents itself.
While many office environments have been closed for the last 15 months, progressive
organisations have been busy fitting workspace optimization technology to their real
estate and have restructured open plan office spaces to meet the needs of hybrid
working arrangements. In contrast service contracts, that have been suspended and
scaled back what will now need to be re-enacted. The reality is that little has changed in
terms of commercial models and scope definition, and therefore the re-establishment of
services will potentially be as ad hoc and chaotic as the ramp-down was at the start of
Covid-19.
Client organisations need to seize the opportunity to drive change by reimagining what
the future looks like and put in place a plan to navigate the choppy waters ahead.
11 12
Portobello Institute | info@portobelloinstitute.com | www.portobelloinstitute.com Portobello Institute | info@portobelloinstitute.com | www.portobelloinstitute.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bernard Mac Oscair is a Senior Executive with a proven
track record internationally in multisite and multidisciplinary
Operational Excellence, Business Development, Project
Management, Utilities and Facilities. Bernard is a lifelong
student of organisational behaviour and operational
excellence with over 15 years of experience in lecturing,
training and development. He is the Managing Director of
Berka Solutions, holds an MBA in Knowledge Management and an MSc in
Program Management. Read more about Bernard here.
Get involved in the conversation! Follow Portobello Institute on Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
This ebook was designed by David McSwiggan and edited by Cian Fahey.
13 14
PORTOBELLO INSTITUTE 43 Dominick Street Lower, Rotunda, Dublin 1, D01 XD86 P : +(353) 1 892 0000 M : info@portobelloinstitute.com W : www.portobelloinstitute.com/ © 2021 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
You can also read
