Key performance indicators for building managers

If you are the appointed building manager (or employee of a facilities management services provider) how are you tracking against key performance indicators KPIs in your strata property?

Management theories behind planning and executing business goals have been around for as long as humans have been trying to sell their products and services to each other, but the acronyms KRAs (key result areas) and KPIs (key performance indicators) generally became widespread in the 1990s. It was this decade that saw the concept of performance indicators gaining momentum. Organisations were finding better ways to understand the progress teams or individuals were making toward key business goals on a regular basis. The days of waiting till the end of the project to find out if a strategy was a success were over.

KPIs are the quantifiable measures of performance, established to be assessed over time as a gauge to whether a certain business goal or objective is being achieved. Where KPIs are well documented and promoted within the business (and to clients) they tend to provide clearer targets for team members to work toward, which flows on to team members being able to make better decisions around day-to-day tasks. This all might seem a bit farfetched for a residential strata caretaker with management rights, but as you reflect on your own performance as a caretaker, facilities manager or building manager, KPIs in your business will provide an objective benchmark to measure against.

Interestingly I had a discussion recently with a commercial facilities manager who had been long-term engaged by an international FM brand who told me that the Number 1 KPI for FMs in that business was “diversity and inclusion”.

What?

That might be a good KPI for the human resources department when recruiting personnel, but I’m not exactly sure how diversity and inclusion assists the building manager on the ground with ensuring the functionality and amenity of the building.

Effective KPIs for building managers

Getting the KPIs ‘right’ is important so they resonate with the worker and encourage performance. If the KPI doesn’t make sense, or is unachievable, success will be difficult to achieve. So, what are some more relevant and effective KPIs that would specifically serve a building management role?

To create effective KPIs for worker performance, you need to start with identifying the business goals or key result areas KRAs.

KRAs generally include in simple terms:

• Deliver the products and services as per the Agreement;

• obey the laws;

• secure a top-up or contract renewal for repeat business; and

• make a profit or at least, don’t go broke.

So how do you measure that you are delivering all the products and services under your Agreement as effectively as possible to ensure maximum productivity and profitability?

The first step is to understand the minimum standard required under the Agreement and work from there.

This usually starts with analysing the Schedule of Duties and breaking them down into groups:

• Administration and reporting duties such as reporting to the building owner, processing invoices for payment.

• Regulatory compliance management duties, such as keeping pool water testing records, updating the WHS Plan and the Evacuation Plan, managing inspection records and timely rectification of defects in the fire protection system.

• Specialist contractor repairs and maintenance duties, such as obtaining quotes and coordinating repair works.

• Soft services duties, such as ensuring the cleaning and gardening duties plus handyperson repair tasks are being delivered.

• Customer relationship management such as ensuring the client is fully informed, happy, and satisfied with your services.

Once the duties are broken down into groups or KRAs you can then apply your KPIs.

Think about what evidence you could put together to verify performance in each KRA above?

For example:

1. Administration and reporting: Your Agreement requires you to report on things requiring a hazard or risk, or needing repair etc. so how do you prove you are doing this for your client? Probably the easiest way to provide evidence of delivering this duty is to issue a Building Manager’s Report on a regular basis to your client - monthly is best.

The KPI for this KRA would therefore be:

“We deliver the Building Manager’s Report monthly, at the end of each month”.

2. Regulatory compliance management: Your Agreement requires you to coordinate and arrange specialist contractors and consultants to ensure the statutory maintenance of the essential services occurs within the common property of your building and so on… Statutory maintenance is required by law and if you fail to deliver infringement penalties may apply, so how do you prove you are doing this work for your client?

Probably the easiest way to provide evidence of delivering the regulatory compliance outcomes of your role is to develop a Regulatory Compliance Schedule and keep it updated. A sample Regulatory Compliance Schedule can be found in Chapter 24 of the ABMA Building Management Code. For good order’s sake the Regulatory Compliance Schedule could be added as an attachment to the Building Manager’s Report each month.

The KPI for this KRA would therefore be:

“We complete the Regulatory Compliance Schedule each month and include as an attachment to each Building Manager’s Report.”

3. Specialist contractor management: Your Agreement also requires you to scope repairs, obtain quotes and seek approvals from the building owner. Once approved, you are required to provide access and enable the works to be done, then check or validate the invoice claims and provide work-in-progress updates to the building owner. So how do you prove you are doing this work to your client? The work-in-progress updates can be logged in your Building Manager’s Report each month, but the audit trail of quote requests, approval dates, work order numbers issued, and invoices received and processed could be detailed in a simple spreadsheet.

The KPI for this KRA would therefore be:

“We keep a spreadsheet of all quote request dates, quote received dates, approval dates, work orders raised, and invoices received, and add the month’s data as an attachment to the Building Manager’s Report monthly, at the end of each month.”

4. Soft Services: Your Agreement either requires you to deliver the cleaning and gardening duties, or it requires you to supervise them. Either way, how do you prove that you are doing these duties?

We all know that the mirror inside the lift could be cleaned at 7:00 am each morning, but have finger marks on it by 7:15 am and look like it hasn’t been cleaned, so how do we keep an audit trail of vigilance in delivering our soft services works? How do we prove that we are checking that lights are working and replacing globes? Probably the easiest way to prove soft services duties are being done is via a daily Soft Services Checklist, signed off by a senior staff member confirming duties were performed and at what time.

The KPI for this KRA would therefore be:

“We keep a Soft Services Checklist of all cleaning, gardening and handyperson tasks performed, which is signed off by the senior person and add these Checklists as an attachment to the Building Manager’s Report monthly, at the end of each month.”

5. Customer Relationship Management: This is a tricky one. How do you set measurable targets for effectively managing the client relationship to ensure the top-up or renewal application is successful? Homework for you!