PROPERTY MANAGEMENT: CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD
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PROPERTY MANAGEMENT: CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD
GLOBAL REAL ESTATE SOLUTIONS Cushman & Wakefield’s commercial property & real estate services help clients turn fixed assets into dynamic assets, ready to make a significant contribution to overall corporate performance, regardless of the economy or business cycle here are various property companies around and all try to offer something a little different for their clients. Cushman & Wakefield claims that it ‘offers unique services for unique clients’ and it backs up this claim with some innovative offerings that truly set it apart. At the same time, it has added to its haul of RoSPA awards in the latest round to prove it’s not deviated from its emphasis on safety. Cushman & Wakefield provides a range of property and real estate services that include consultancy and valuations, agency and broker-
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age services, research and advice. It’s Corporate Occupier and Investment Services deals with real estate portfolios and provides solutions to occupiers and investors by running those properties efficiently and maximising asset values. Peter Drabble is Head of FM Operations within the Property and Asset Management department. That means he’s responsible for looking after over 200 properties on behalf of property investors such as Aviva, Standard Life Investments and the Crown Estate. In fact, he’s specifically responsible for multi-let properties, with single lets being managed separately, and they do require a different approach.
“On a multi-let site, every tenant will be, to a certain extent, self contained within their own tenancy,” explains Peter. “They might have one floor or a number of floors whereas, on the corporate side, the client will have the whole building and you’re managing that for them. When it’s multi-let, such as an office block or a retail park, there are car parks and common areas that we manage on behalf of all the tenants and the client, with the tenants paying a service charge for us to do that. Depending on the lease, they’ll organise the cleaning and basic maintenance within their own areas but any common services, for example, sprinklers, fire
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alarms and heating and cooling systems that encroach into the tenant areas, will be maintained by ourselves.” BUILDING IMPROVEMENT Cushman & Wakefield provides all the usual FM services, such as cleaning, security, reception and grounds maintenance. It also gets involved in projects that improve the buildings, make them operate more efficiently and generally benefit the owners and tenants, often dealing with environmental and sustainability issues. Projects are sometimes instigated by clients but, as Associate Director of Risk Management Michael Lewis outlines, as a trusted adviser, the company often takes the lead on safety arrangements: “We are driving forward and aim to be competitive in that area on a portfolio by portfolio basis, on what we think is sensibly achievable for the client. Clients’ appetites for safety
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can vary and we advise them of their statutory duties. In the main, where we can see some straightforward benefits and improvement, we do take a lead on that.” One area where it really is taking the lead is BREEAM In-Use, which it has been pushing for the last 12-18 months. “We’re pioneering it on the multi-let properties,” remarks Michael. “There’s not a competitor doing that at the moment so it is something where we’re leading.” Most people in the construction industry are familiar with BREEAM as a means of rating the environmental performance and efficiency of a new building. However, there’s been no real way of measuring the operational performance of existing buildings, which is what BREEAM InUse aims to do. In fact, it separately measures the performance of the building itself, the way it is being operated and the effectiveness of the occupiers in the way they manage their activities.
HIGHER STANDARDS Because it’s something that fits in with Cushman & Wakefield’s principles of proactively helping its clients, BREEAM In-Use has been enthusiastically taken on. Michael says: “It promotes higher standards and better efficiency, whether it be installing LED lighting or simply ensuring that there are enough bike racks and so on. It covers the whole gambit of making sure that we are providing an environmentally friendly and sustainable offer for all these properties on behalf of our clients. And because we’re doing it with what used to be the BRE, it is independently assessed.” The process involves a combination of stages, with Cushman & Wakefield first undertaking the gathering of information and then, if it wishes to take the process further, bringing in a BRE-trained assessor to confirm its findings. Although the company’s initial findings provide
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a rudimentary rating, it’s not something that can be published without it being independently audited. However, it does provide guidelines for the company internally, gives some indication of what is needed to take a building to the next level and, since there’s a fair bit of knowledge of what the assessors are looking for, it gives the opportunity to prepare for the assessment. What the official assessor’s report also does is confirm to the client the value of the preparatory work Cushman & Wakefield has already put in. It will highlight what can be done to improve the efficiency of a building and often results in projects that will create enhanced energy efficiency, which will have a set and measurable payback period. The extent of the work will determine how it’s handled, with large projects such as new heating system installations going out to tender but Cushman & Wakefield able to handle some sizeable work itself. “At our level, we’re more to do with the maintenance,” comments Michael. “So, if it’s relatively small, such as a £5-10,000 cost with a two-year payback,
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Established for over 35 years, our professional and friendly team at Aylesford Electrical Contractors has designed, installed and maintained a vast range of electrical installations for some of the UK’s leading, blue chip companies and government departments. Our range of electrical services includes: 4All electrical installations 4Planned & reactive maintenance 4Design & verification 4Lighting & power requirements 4Emergency lighting systems 4Data cabling 4Fire alarm systems 4Intruder, security & CCTV systems 4Advanced lighting controls systems 4Lightning and surge protection 4Sports & stadia floodlighting 4Festive & display lighting 4Street & highÂlevel lighting We are committed to the highest quality, safety and environmental standards. Aylesford Electrical Contractors is approved by NICEIC, SAFEcontractor and ContractorPlus and is independently certified to ISO 9001 and 14001. Whatever your nationwide electrical installation needs, please contact one of our helpful and knowledgeable team at: info@aylesfordelectrical.co.uk TEL: +44 (0)1622 763972
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’You don’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.’ Henry Ford GreenZone are proud of our long standing partnership with Cushman & Wakefield LLP and look forward to extending our award winning multi-discipline service.We offer BICSc certified in-house training and a strong and independently verified environmental focus with innovative approaches. Our highly experienced management team have the capacity to deliver our service across a wide portfolio of instructions.
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we’ll do it provided the clients and tenants agree. Above that, we have a project management department so we can pass it over to them and give them an opportunity to quote for the work.” ROSPA GOLD Cushman & Wakefield is always looking for value added services that can benefit both landlords and tenants. To achieve this, it has an extensive UK-wide CARE initiative programme in place, headed up by the Head of Property Asset Management Tony Bones, which focuses its people’s talent specifically on this. At the same time, it has continued to win RoSPA awards for its high safety standards. Having gained a gold award the previous year, the decision was taken to submit individual entries for Property Asset Management and FM Services this year, with the former winning another gold and the latter getting a silver. The success was partly due to an excellent safety record and to a high level of commitment to health and safety from the board and senior management as well as a quality team to deliver it on the ground. Additionally, as Peter recounts, the company’s unique contractor vetting and compliance checking system played a big part: “In the marketplace, there are some recognised standards such as Safecontractor, CHAS and all the normal ones that check the competency of a company’s policies through a desktop review.
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“We do that initial phase but we take it to the next stage and ask what employees a company is sending to our sites and then check the competency of those staff. That applies whether it is just as simple as manual handling or the use of step ladders, right the way to asking for their GasSafe certificate or their 17th Edition training.” Competency checking goes right down to the level of the individual employee and it identifies gaps in training for them. “We then have an agreed action plan with each company covering how they’re going to get their employees to a set standard of training,” remarks Michael. “We work with them and we expect the training to be agreed and delivered by them as required. That’s why we feel the suppliers that are working for us, who have gone through this, are a cut above the rest.”
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SUPPLIER BENEFITS This process of increasing the competency of suppliers isn’t offered as a fee earning service even though it provides benefits to them. There’s no cost to contractors to get on the approved list — they simply have to achieve the high standards that Cushman & Wakefield sets. But they do, as Michael points out, have to meet the cost of closing any identified training gap and they have to do it by way of delivering recognised accredited training: “There’s obviously a decision for themselves to make in their company to pay to have that training done and they can choose whoever they want to fill those training gaps. We just insist that they are accredited trainers, or the syllabus has been accredited, rather than someone simply walking off the shop floor and giving a tool box talk on ladders. The HSE and courts these days are looking for companies to prove their staff have had ‘confirmed learning’. Michael’s risk management responsibilities extend to the whole of the Corporate Occupier and Investment Services business area, which covers both the FM and portfolio management. As part of that, the company’s embarking on a unique project for the benefit of tenants. Up to now, the compliant standards achieved by properties have been report-
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SPECIALISTS IN SPORTS STADIA REFURBISHMENT/FABRIC MAINTENANCE A.N.D Projects LLP have been providing our expertise to the local London community and to clients nationally across the country, with custom design, build and refurbishment for over 20 years. Our customers keep returning to us and continue to recommend our services, which is a true sign of customer satisfaction. We always strive to achieve the highest standard of work by using experienced, top professionals to deliver your project on time and meeting all building regulations.
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ed internally and also externally for the clients that own the portfolios. However, as Michael explains, this is being extended further: “We have an external web portal called Tenant Assistant Programme, which we use to share details with tenants that occupy the buildings within multi-let. They too can have access to information on how their building is performing through to health and safety matters, which we feel is unique. “Each building is independently benchmarked and given a percentage score, so they have full visibility of what that building has achieved each month through the Tenant Assistant Programme. It is across every single building hosted on TAP so it’s a big achievement being able to communicate building safety and performance information to the tenants across the UK.” BUSINESS CONTINUITY Another focus recently has been on increased independent testing on the business continuity arrangements, looking at the ones in place for emergency situations. This has been the culmination of some
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steady work that has aimed to improve the operation of the FM team, particularly the helpdesk that deals with tenant queries, requests for jobs to be done and the reporting of faults. The overall aim was to improve the ability of helpdesk staff and FM teams to deal with site emergencies or disruptions. “On a sample of properties, we sent in an independent auditor to run a business continuity table top exercise,” explains Michael. “We had a scenario such as if some type of bomb incident occurred. For a large building where we have a presence on site, the responsible person had to take part in the table top exercise and explain how that situation would be managed. “It was necessary to show knowledge in reference to the emergency plans and training that they’ve received. The independent auditor would see what sort of answers and procedures they had for the various stages of the scenario they were taken through. This produced a score on how well they knew their plans and how well they’d utilise the helpdesk to assist them during the table top exercise.”
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PROPERTY MANAGEMENT: CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD WORKING WELL Each exercise was run within the context of a building since they’re all different to some degree. The programme was then extended to regional facility staff that manage smaller sites with multiple lets to test how they’d perform in the case of an incident on a business park or shopping centre. The outcome, as Peter explains, was to identify any deficiencies and then take action to correct them: “We have an internal report that confirms that our help desk works well in the area that we thought it would work well, although with a few minor tweaks required. “Our staff were proficient with their plans but there were a few additional paragraphs that we could add into a plan to help them. So, all in all, there’s nothing much required other than some minor tweaking and some additional practice. But the idea was to test the portfolio on what our capabilities are in that area, which is to the benefit of the tenants and of the people who own the properties.” It is, he maintains, just another example of the company’s innovative approach to property management: “We’re always looking at any different ways of making Cushman unique in the marketplace.” www.cushwake.com Tel: 020 7935 5000
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