Steven Ee’s Blog for FM Practitioners

For the next few writings, I will respond to some of the concerns raised by participants during the recent workshop on “Managing Service Level Agreement in Facilities during Tough Times”.

My opinion why companies would want to outsource the FM and support services is as follow:

• Too much time spent on reactive maintenance
• HIgh employees turnover
• Low customer service
• Budget out of control
• Lack of skills in managing and executing the FM activities
• Lack of tasks priorities
• No way to measure performance
• Unable to project manage change implementations
• Unable to register asset (monitor & track)

Why outsourcing fail?

Organisations outsourced because of:

• cost savings alone
• getting rid of jobs the staff don’t understand or don’t want to take responsibility for
• believing that major changes will happen right away
• Poorly defined goals and measurement means
• lack of communication between service provider and client

There are so much that we can discuss on concerning outsourcing. Keep the questions coming so that we can share on this blog.

To your FM success!

Steven Ee

Making a difference in FM…..

www.fms-1.com

www.fmsolutions.biz

Hi, I was away on 9th (Singapore’s National Day) & 10th Aug, to be with a group of wonderful learners, in Malaysia, doing a 2 days workshop on “Managing SLA in Facilities During Tough Times”

We had a great time of learning and sharing. Some pointer shared are:

• know what FM is, in accordance to IFMA definition & its core competencies (in a very short time)
• know the benefits & why SLA for FM
• SLA may be a potential strategy to transform what FM often viewed as cost centre to PROFIT Centre.
• The importance to be mindful of the Critical Success Factors to support, the KPIs in supporting the core business functions and enabling them to successfully align with the business objectives and goals.
• In tough times, FMers ought to be flexible and adaptable to change. Know that FM is a management discipline….beyond the bolts and nuts.
• Important: What not measured cannot be managed

I like to thank the following wonderful, fellow FMers and learners, for being so participative and supportive towards the success of the workshop:

• Sabri, Rafi, Reza, Nelson, Moly
• Krishna, Anto, Ibrahim, Faizal, Izwan
• Karam, Elly, Rai, Alif, Shariri & Vanz

To Your FM Success!

Steven Ee

Making a Difference in FM…..

What did I speak on during the Facility Management 2009 Conference?

I was privilege to start off the conference by sharing on how we as FM practitioners can possibly overcome financial challenge in managing facilities efficiently by:

1. Explaining the potential of the practice of FM as a value-added function and business advantage to organisations
2. Reducing Costs while giving quality services
3. Shifting from preventive maintenance to pro-active maintenance
4. Battling with increasing energy costs
5. Identifying facility management goals that align with corporate goals
6. Maintaining a competitive edge while providing efficient facilities

It was a challenging delivery for me as I was requested to address the above concerns with 40 mins. My goal for the presentation was not to impress but impress upon fellow FM practitioners that this is the time that we can demonstrate our value-add capabilities and potential advantages to our organisations. 

To Your FM Success!

steven@stevenee.com

“making a difference in facility management….”

Hello, I know it’s been a long silence…..one reason is because I was involved in the FM2009 Conference jointly organised by Ahrals & IFMA-Singapore Chapter. Thanks for your concerns.  I will catch up with the questions posted to me.

As a Speaker   

As a Moderator for Panel Discussion

It was a good learning experience from the FM experts which include representatives from the BCA, NUS, SIArch, Premas, CPG, Temasek, and well known private organisations. The theme was “Managing Through the Economic Crisis” , which I thought is timely and appropriate for FM professionals to get together to learn and share.

Topics delivered include:

- Overcoming financial challenges in managing facilities efficiently

- Looking into the benfits of otsourcing facilities

- Sustainable facility management for improved profit and improved CSR

- Facilities Management of PPP Projects

- Global solutions for strategic property and facilities management

- Understanding the responsbilities of facilities managers under the Worksplace Safety & Health Act

- Holistic approach in designing of physical protectio system

- Security solutions that enhance FM

- BCA Green Mark guidelines for existing buildings

- Performance benchmarking and best practices for facility construction projects

- Paving the way forward for intelligent facilities

- Green solutions for a “Sustainable Tomorrow” faciities

From the topic current topics of interest also indicates the trend of FM as we are experiencing the financial crisis.

Catch up soon.

To Your FM Success!

steven@stevenee.com

“making a difference in facility management….”

Some of you may have noticed, when attending my training, that I mentioned at the start that “I tend to agree with your disagree”. That was intended to preframe that my comments and solutions are suggestions for consideration. No one FM practitioner is expert in all things. That is why I encourage networking among FM practitioners and emphasise the need and tremendious benefits of helping & sharing (pushing & pulling) one another, together everyone achieves more ( 1 + 1 = > 3).

As to disagreeing without being disagreement is something which I thought as FMers we need to learn. Especially, how we present our views will determine how we are perceived by our fellow colleagues, the internal customers and the management.

As a facility management practitioner, at times we will need to present alternative opinions and disagree with people. It comes with the job! Of course you can use the power of your position to force through an opinion through. You might win few times with these tactics (if you are in senior management position).

However, in long-term effectiveness, it depends on how you handle disagreement. In my opinion, you can do that by focusing your disagreement on the issue, not on the person with whom you are disagreeing. For example, you may make the distinction by saying something like “Kevin, I respect you and your work. However, I must disagree with this (decision, process, conclusion, etc), and this is why…..” 

In facility management, we will be far more sucessful if we do not create enemis when you disagree with people. When we create an enemy, that person may spend time, energy and perhaps using his / her influential power to retaliate.  When that happens, we will likely need to respond, zapping our time, energy, and brain cells from far more important matters.

Do not mistake being nice for being weak. As we go higher in an organisation, we will find many nice people too. Most of them got there by building relationships, not destroying them, and few would call these people weak.

Just to share this good learning as I learnt it from Bruce Hyland and Merle Yost. I thought it will be good to write on how to “Handle Challenging Facility Management Customers”, which can come in handy, with solutions / strategies in handling, so as not to be taken off guard :)

Until next time, To Your FM Success!

steven@stevenee.com

Making a Difference in Facility Management………

Hi Fellow FM Practitioners,

As I relate to facility management profession, how then can we make a difference as FMers? 

Facility management cannot yet be described as a fully established discipline as compared to architecture, civil engineering, surveying, etc. However, the rate at which the discipline is developing suggests that its status will continue to rise, bring to the point where it will be on par with other professions.

In my opinion, to make an impact in FM, the three main attributes that we ought to possess are INTEGRITY, ORGANIATIONAL SKILLS and COMMUNICATION SKILLS.

FM is not just about looking after buildings & their systems & equipment. FM is the creation of built-facilities to support the core function of the organisation. Knowing how occupants within an organisation make use of the built-facilities, how those occupants / people can perform at their best - is the key to understanding facility management.

Facility management practitioners need to understand how the buildings, built-facilities behave and function to support people in their work. In today’s dynamic business environment, a fundamental charateristic of the environment is CHANGE and so one of the main competencies that facility management practitioners should have is an ABILITY TO MANAGE CHANGE. Other competencies include organisational management, financial management and customer service.

I will touch further on FM professional development which are concerned by most fellow FM practitioners.

To Your FM Success!

steven@steven.ee.com

Making a Difference in Facility Management…….

Hello Fellow FM Practitioners,

Please visit the “Link” that I’ve created: “IFMA-Insider” where you can read updated industry news relating to facility management from the International Facility Management Association.

To Your FM Success!

steven@stevenee.com

Making a Difference in Facility Management….

Many FM practitioners expressed their frustrations and challenges faced, especially in today’s competitive business environment. The more we need to hang on and PRESS ON!

I come across this passage which I thought will be useful for us as FM practitioners:

“Most people give up after the first or second try. Very few last beyond three attempts. All it takes is one bad experience, a lot of us will tend to “chicken-out”. Some never try again.

However, we all eventually learned to walk. The reason we did that was that we just kept trying & falling down until we finally succeeded. Nobody with a normal mind ever stops a child trying to walk because they have fallen on the floor a few times!

The problem with being an adult is that the risks of failure seems too great for us to be willing to take chances. We often afraid of what other will think of us if we look foolish. They abandon their goals because of concern with what others think of them should they fail.”

I hope this is useful for us to PRESS ON!

To Your FM Success!

steven@stevenee.com

Making a Difference in Facility Management…..

IFMA-Singapore Chapter was invited by Ngee Ann Polytechnic on 20th November, 2009, to present “Career Talk” for the final year “FM” students. Myself, the Professional Development Chair, and a Past President of IFMA-Singapore Chapter presented on: Background of IFMA, FM Credential Programs, FM Career Trend & Oppotunities.

That was a mission to create awareness and promote the profession of FM that aim to provide FM graduates to be, motivation and inspiration, towards being a FM practitioner.

Should any organisations or institutions be interested to find out more about IFMA-Singapore chapter, do log on to www.ifmasingapore.org.sg

To Your FM Success!

steven@stevenee.com

Making a Difference in Facility Management……..

Last week, I had the privilege to conduct a one day seminar to a group, mostly from government agencies, on how facility management can be a value added function in an organisation.

I’m glad that FM is beginning to be recognised of its importance in supporting its organisation’s core business activities and its potentials to operate toward as a profit centre (rather as a cost centre).

Like other private companies, one of FM focus is on quality management, particularly “Key Performance Indicators” (KPIs) and alike Performance Measurements. That make really sense as what that cannot be measured cannot be managed and when quality aspect is ensured, the outcome can experience tremendous benefits, such as achieving more effective and efficient results, which will add value to organisation and contributes to potential cost reduction.

On the financial aspect, ways that can add value to  organisation  are through Value Creation, Sustaining Values, and Income Generation.

Before these value-add activities can be possible, first it must begin with our mind that FM can be a value added function to organisations. Right?

To Your FM Success!

steven@stevenee.com

Making a Difference in Facility Management….