FM World 13.3.14

THE MAGAZINE FOR THE BRITISH INSTITUTE OF FACILITIES MANAGEMENT | 13 MARCH 2014

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VOL 11 ISSUE 5 13 MARCH 2014

CONTENTS

16 | Stellar Astellas

22 | Does size matter?

26 | Business intelligence

NEWS

OPINION

FEATURES

06 Interserve acquires Initial in £250 million deal 07 Embedding social value into services delivery 08 Cadbury World Café, Birmingham 09 Think Tank: Sickness absenteeism 10 Business news: Graeme Davies on finding a USP by embracing new technology 11 Financial results show pre-tax profit drops 12 In Focus: Noel Clancy, chief executive of Shepherd FM

14 John Bowen reflects on risk management 15 Five minutes with Andrew Shaw 46 No Two Days

MONITOR 30 Legal: Melanie Stancliffe on flexible working law 33 Technical: Martin Button on the future of vending 36 Insight: Market intelligence

34 | Cream in your coffee

16

Working chemistry: Astellas’ refit of a Norman Foster building resulted in a BCO fit-out award and a new respect for the company’s FM function

22

A bigger picture? Interserve – already a large player – is to become larger still . But is big necessarily better in outsourced FM terms?

26

Fit for business: Business intelligence paves the way for smarter contract and service delivery management, says Steve Sawyer of Access Group

34

Daily grind: The move to in-company coffee houses has the potential to increase productivity levels as well as bring financial benefits

REGULARS 38 41 42 44 45

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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Simon Ball, business development manager, Interserve ⁄ Martin Bell, independent consultant / Lucy Jeynes, Larch Consulting / Nick Cook, managing director, Haywards ⁄ Rob Greenfield, group SHEQ director, GSH ⁄ Liz Kentish, managing director, Kentish and Co ⁄ Anne Lennox Martin, FM consultant ⁄ Peter McLennan, joint course director, MSc Facility Environment and Management, University College London ⁄ Geoff Prudence, chair, CIBSE FM Group ⁄ Chris Stoddart, director of FM, Regent Street Direct ⁄ Jeremy Waud, managing director, Incentive FM ⁄ Jane Wiggins, FM tutor and author ⁄ Chris Wood, FM consultant Average net circulation 11,920 (Jul 12 – Jun 13) FM World magazine is produced using paper derived from sustainable sources; the ink used is vegetable based; 85 per cent of other solvents used in the production process are recycled © FM World is published on behalf of the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM)

by Redactive Publishing Ltd (RPL), 17 Britton St, London EC1M 5TP. This magazine aims to include a broad range of opinion about FM business and professional issues and articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the BIFM nor should such opinions be relied upon as statements of fact. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, transmitted or stored in any print or electronic format, including but not limited to any online service, any database or any part of the internet, or in any other format in whole or in part in any media whatsoever, without the prior written permission of the publisher. While all due care is taken in writing and producing this magazine, neither BIFM nor RPL accept any liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein. Printed by Polestar Stones ISSN 1743 8845

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he phrase ‘intelligent client’ has always been contentious. What does it mean? A client that understands the ‘true cost’ of a service? One that shows genuine engagement with its service provider? One that won’t jump ship to another provider just for the sake of change? None of the above?

All of the above?

Whatever the definition, perhaps less is spoken about the concept of the ‘intelligent supplier’. That seems odd, because if we’re asking clients to appreciate what an FM provider is all about, doesn’t that understanding have to work both ways? Surely what’s really being sought is the ‘intelligent alliance’ – both parties working towards a natural fit based on a mutual understanding of each other’s aspirations. And if that’s to be the case, the supplier’s client selection process needs to be as rigorous as that conducted by the client, perhaps more so.

The idea that service providers should select the clients with whom they do business as diligently as clients choose them is hardly new, and you’d expect the companies themselves to say they do exactly that already.

However, when you look at the ebb and flow of contracts from similar FM provider to similar FM provider – particularly the larger deals – it’s easy to marvel at how such complex service provision relationships, procured and mobilised so diligently, can so readily fail not that long after.

Noel Clancy of Shepherd FM is quoted this issue on how companies that grow organically can provide a better and more consistent service, and when you see his firm’s 97 per cent client retention rate you suspect he could be on to something.

Shepherd focuses its client search on organisations that need its mission-critical hard FM specialism, so clearly things can be different when the client is, say, a public sector client with cleaning as its priority. So the real issue is in how to have supplier and client treat both these forms of service provision with the same rigour.

In the big news of the past fortnight, Interserve announced its intention to acquire Initial Facilities, subject to approval from shareholders. Does this mark a significant shift in the outsourced supplier landscape? Difficult to see otherwise, with Interserve certainly expecting to gain from the combined group’s economies of scale and a better balanced client / prospect portfolio.

But for every voice saying that big providers will be beautiful for larger clients, there’s another pointing to what they see as an opportunity for smaller FM providers to do better deals with smaller clients (again, see feature this issue).

That’s interesting, because not too long ago – following a flurry of international deals for banking clients – the thoughts of many were that globalisation of FM service provision would inevitably lead to fewer, larger companies playing the ‘economies of scale’ card. In this scenario, the midmarket would be hollowed out and only niche vertical players would survive this significant evolution of the market.

As for today, it will be interesting to keep an eye on service breadth and contract term lengths to see whether the smaller players can indeed manage to find more profitable, long-term ground as a result of a tighter cultural fit.

T

“Surely what’s being sought is the ‘intelligent alliance’ – both parties working towards a natural fit”

FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 05

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FM BUSINESS

SAM KESTEVEN

Interserve offers Rentokil £250m for Initial Services Interserve has entered into a conditional agreement to buy Initial Facilities from Rentokil Initial for £250 million.

In a statement, Interserve’s board claimede that the combined group will become one of the largest providers of support services in the UK, ranking in the top three providers in terms of revenue.

The statement also extols the benefits to be gained from the group’s increased scale, which it says will “underpin future business performance and growth and offer an attractive proposition for the customers, partners and employees of both companies”.

Interserve says the enlarged group’s “greater breadth of services and capabilities” will “allow the group to broaden its customer proposition”. Of particular note is the suggestion that the increased scale of the group will allow it to “self-deliver certain services that are currently subcontracted”.

Interserve further expects the combined group to be able to have a “wider addressable market” as a result of Initial Facilities having a greater proportion of contracts in the private sector.

Adrian Ringrose, chief executive of Interserve, said: “We believe that this acquisition will deliver significant strategic progress in growing one of our core businesses and will make us a top-three player by revenue in the UK facilities services market.

“The breadth and fit of the services we will now be able to offer, added to the advantages of increased scale and potential synergies, will create a compelling proposition, leaving us well placed for future growth. We look forward to bringing the enhanced capabilities of the enlarged group to a wider

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addressable market of both new and existing customers, whilst providing more opportunity for our expanded employee base. I am pleased to be able to announce this acquisition in parallel with Interserve’s full-year 2013 results, in which we report a 12 per cent year-on-year revenue growth.”

Mike Brown, managing director of Initial Facilities, said: “We will be a core part of one of the UK’s largest support services organisations and that focus will undoubtedly present new opportunities that all of our stakeholders can be excited about.

I look forward to working with the Interserve management team, who share the same ambitions for the company.”

The acquisition will be funded through a new bank facility,

.

Adrian Ringrose, chief executive of Interserve, said the purchase would make the company one of the top three in the UK facilities services market

together with the net proceeds of a placing of up to 12,897,771 new ordinary shares, representing up to 9.99 per cent of Interserve’s existing issued ordinary share capital.

Details of the transaction, together with a notice convening a general meeting on 17 March to approve it, have been sent to Interserve shareholders.

Multi-generational workers to become the norm The workplace will soon comprise four generations of workers for the first time, according to a newly published report.

The Future of Work, published by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), says that multi-generational working is set to become increasingly common as people delay retiring until their seventies or even eighties.

The report analyses the trends and disruptions shaping the UK’s labour market. It also predicts that the role of women in the workplace will strengthen, and that an increasing divide between those at the top and bottom of the career ladder will mean that while highly skilled, highly paid professionals will push for a better work-life balance, others will

suffer increasing job insecurity.

Technology will continue to evolve, pervading work environments everywhere, with many routine tasks becoming the domain of the smart algorithm, says the report. Multimedia “virtual” work presences will become the norm. As businesses seek additional flexibility they will decrease the size of their core workforces, instead relying on networks of project-based workers, the report adds.

Toby Peyton-Jones, director of HR for Siemens in UK and North-West Europe, said: “This is one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind and gives us an informed opinion of the way we might all live and work in the future. For example, if fourgeneration workplaces become

commonplace it will be the first time in human history that this has happened.

“What are the implications of that? Will we see intergenerational stress and culture clashes or will this prove to be a positive tension that is part of a wider diversity trend that will drive innovation?”

Andrew Mawson, managing director of Advanced Workplace Associates, said: “Organisations will need to sharpen up their expertise in behavioural change management to flourish.”

He added: “The issue for employers isn’t Generation Y as many have said. The report rightly identifies that the issue is managing an increasingly demographically diverse workplace population.” www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 17:11

NEWS

BRIEFS Servest stars in BBC role

Task force needed to guide ‘social value’ drive Ministers have been urged to set up a task force to define ways to embed social value into the frameworks that help providers deliver services.

A parliamentary roundtable on social value, organised by ex-cabinet minister Hazel Blears (above) and environmental solutions provider Veolia Environment, met last week to discuss the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012.

Nick Hurd, minister for civil society, Chuka Umunna, shadow Secretary of State for Business, Chi Onwurah, shadow Cabinet Office minister and Kevin Hurst of Veolia also attended.

The act requires the likes of

councils, schools and the NHS to consider the economic, social and environmental benefits to residents when choosing service providers, rather than simply picking the organisation willing to do the job for the least amount of money.

But there is a lack of guidance for commissioners and other companies competing for contracts on how best to create ‘social value’ and how to measure these benefits.

Ms Blears said: “If we can encourage commissioners to think beyond their immediate bottom line this will stimulate innovation among would-be service providers.

“That is why it is important that we get in place a framework so they can easily see what works

and what does not when it comes to deciding who should deliver a particular service.”

Mat Roberts, head of sustainability at Interserve-owned Landmarc Support Services, was also at the roundtable. He said that a key finding was “the acknowledgment that social value needs to be embedded, and frameworks established in order to enable companies to deliver and have a positive impact on the communities in which they work”.

Roberts added: “It is good to see that social value is gaining greater impetus, not just as a boxticking exercise, but as something that has real impact on individuals and communities.”

WORKPLACE

SHUTTERSTOCK/REX

Sickness absences have dropped since 1993 Sickness absence rates have fallen for both men and women since 1993, according to a report released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The number of days lost to sickness absences in the UK in 2013 was 131 million days, down from 178 million days in 1993.

Colds and coughs were the most common reason given for sick leave, but more days were lost to back, neck and muscle pain than any other cause.

The figures also showed that men consistently had a lower sickness absence rate than women. Sickness absence increases with age but falls after eligibility for the state pension. www.fm-world.co.uk

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“Women and men work in different types of jobs and when controlling for these differences and other factors that influence sickness, women were 42 per cent more likely to have a spell of sickness than men,” says the ONS. The figures also show there were lower sickness rates in the private sector compared with the

public sector, but the gap with the public sector has narrowed over the past 20 years.

The self-employed were more likely to have a spell of sickness than employees and largest workforces report the highest sickness levels, said the report.

Absences were lowest in London and lower among managers, directors and senior officials.

A report released last week by workplace specialist consultancy Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) showed that many office buildings were “a patchwork quilt of empty spaces”. Some of these empty spaces were down to sickness absences.

FM services provider Servest has won an £8.5 million-a-year contract with the BBC to cater for 18 locations including New Broadcasting House and Media Village in London, and MediaCityUK in Salford Quays.

The three-year contract, which starts on 1 April 2014, extends to 27 outlets including 24/7 staff restaurants, deli bars and Costa Coffee outlets as well as catering for meetings and green rooms, and for sporting events.

The contract has a possible two-year extension and 300 staff will provide a full range of catering services for 14,000 of the broadcaster’s staff and visitors.

BIFM guide to BEMS BIFM has published a new publication providing practical guidance for facilities management professionals.

The Building Controls and Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) Good Practice Guide is the latest in a series of new and improved guides to support standards and professionalism in FM. The guide defines what building energy management system is, how FMs can evaluate existing systems and the effectiveness of current controls as well as defining control strategies.

New broom at Serco Services contractor Serco Group has named its new chief executive.

Rupert Soames takes up the position in June. Acting group chief executive Ed Casey will continue in the position in the interim.

Soames is currently the group chief executive of Aggreko plc, the world’s largest temporary power generation and temperature control services business.

Last year a government audit revealed “potentially fraudulent behaviour” by Serco staff in recording prisoners as having been delivered ready for court when they had not.

Soames said: “The company has experienced significant difficulties but the work that Serco does is important to the lives of millions of people and I believe we can find a way through to a bright future.”

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06/03/2014 16:35

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PROJECT OF THE

FORTNIGHT NEWS BULLETIN

OCS invests in Agents4RM service business

CADBURY WORLD, BIRMINGHAM DESIGN: Holman Group OVERALL COST: £180,000 from Amadeus

Café’s chocolate factory treat A café in chocolate company Cadbury’s visitor attraction site has been refurbished in 21 days. Caterer Amadeus carried out the work over the three-week period.

The design of the eatery at Cadbury World in Birmingham was completely overhauled. Amadeus also improved customer service by retraining staff.

Features such as clouds, life-size cows and milk bottle lights were incorporated into the design. Amadeus designed the café and its menu around the insight that there is a child-like quality in everyone that would appreciate décor of this kind.

Emma Thorn, marketing communications manager for Cadbury, said: “We have added big purple cows to the café that reflect the brand and highlight the fresh milk that is used; this is reinforced by the inclusion of milk bottle lights.”

The aim was also to produce a café that celebrated the Cadbury Company’s legacy, Thorn said. The Cadbury Café attracts 600,000 visitors annually.

The cafe is a multi-use space for families, children’s parties and corporate hospitality so it needed to appeal to a range of audiences and be compatible with a number of uses.

As a part of the refurbishment, Amadeus also introduced clearer signage and increased the number of tills to improve the customer flow around the café and the experience as a whole for visitors.

Amadeus has also invited members of the local community in Bournville, to take part in events and to help direct visitors to the café as a free-to-enter destination at Cadbury World.

Kevin Watson, managing director for Amadeus, said: “During the short turnaround period, the team was faced with a number of challenges, including working to tight deadlines, limited budget and space availability, as well as trying to work with the existing equipment in the café.”

Watson, added: “We are extremely proud to have successfully mobilised the café, particularly given the constraints, and are confident that the visitors who come to Cadbury World will enjoy the very best in food and service at the newly refurbished café.”

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Service provider OCS has invested in international FM consultancy Agents4RM with a view to creating a global professional services business for the FM and built environment sector.

The business will be led by Agents4RM and provide a broad range of professional services aimed at the emerging markets in the Middle East, Asia and south-east Asia in addition to mature FM markets such as the UK, Europe and the Americas. Key target sectors for the venture include commercial and residential, shopping centres, healthcare and education.

The investment will allow Agents4RM to take its consultancy proposition to OCS customers around the world and attract new business directly. The OCS investment will also provide Agents4RM with the means to buy consultancy businesses in different nations to allow for wider international coverage.

The expanded business will have three key consulting strands: Professional consultancy, training and information management. The professional consultancy offering, which includes acquisition and joint venture advice, project management, asset management and strategic facilities management will complement OCS’s current service provider offering.

New-look Health & Safety law poster Workplaces are being urged to display a new and updated Health & Safety Law Poster before legislation in April makes it compulsory to do so.

Workplaces have been required to display the current Health & Safety poster in a prominent position since 1999 as part of the Health and Safety Information for Employees Regulations.

But from 5 April 2014, all workplaces will need to have the revamped poster design in place. A new pocket card has also been produced to replace the Health & Safety leaflets that have to be circulated to employees based off-site.

Workplace supply firm Slingsby started selling the new poster in 2009.

Lee Wright, marketing director at Slingsby, said: “The old Health & Safety law poster is a familiar sight, but it’s a visually unappealing with too much small text and despite it being easily recognisable to millions of people; very few have ever read it.

“The new poster is designed to be easy to digest, with less text and it contains colour images that immediately make it more eye-catching. Another change is that employees are no longer required to write contact details for local enforcing authorities and Employment Medical Advisory Services on the new poster. Instead, there’s a helpline that employees can call with any queries.”

Wright added: “Lots of organisations are still using the old poster and the majority of these are unaware that these changes are just a few months away, so there will be lots that will miss the deadline.”

Delay on OK for new SIA licensing scheme The Security Industry Authority (SIA) has delayed the implementation of a new licensing regime for security businesses.

The SIA is the organisation responsible for regulating the private security industry in the UK. A timetable for the implementation of the new system was confirmed by the SIA in October last year.

But at a meeting of the SIA’s Strategic Consultative Group with the Home Office last week it was announced that the necessary arrangements to allow the SIA to start accepting business licence applications in April 2014 are not yet in place, and therefore the “open for business” date had to be postponed.

The Home Office said it would announce a revised business-licensing timetable “as soon as possible”. It added that the industry would be given at least three months’ notice of the new date.

The legal requirement date remains 6 April 2015. By this date all regulated security businesses will need to hold an SIA business licence.

To qualify for an SIA business licence a security business must demonstrate that it is “fit and proper” to supply security industry services. The SIA will consider any issues relating to identity, criminality, financial probity, and integrity and business competency. www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 15:59

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Not important 5% Quite important 20%

THINK TANK

WE ASKED 100 FMS… How important is the FM in your organisation regarding the maintenance of productivity through reduced sickness absence?

The number of days lost to sickness absences in the UK in 2013 was 131 million, down from 178 million days in 1993. That’s what an Office of National Statistics report released last month shows about sickness absence rates – they’ve been falling, for men and women, since 1993.

Colds and coughs were the most common reason given for sickness absence, but this kind of illness accounted for about 27.4 million days lost. More days were lost to back, neck and muscle pain than any other cause. Last year, musculoskeletal problems accounted for the greatest number of days lost (30.6 million days).

So we asked to what extent

FMs can manage and prepare workplaces to avoid absence because of either musculoskeletal or airborne infections. Also, how important is the position of the FM when it comes to productivity through sickness absence?

For some, FMs can play an important role in dealing with such issues. Musculoskeletal problems at work can originate from poor posture. Desk workers slumped hours on end staring at a screen with routine actions – combined with repetitively operating a mouse – negatively affect neck, back and hand.

One respondent said: “Facilities management may contribute to

supportive health elements of the workplace by changing office physical factors.”

Another pointed out that this would include “skilled evaluation of each desk worker’s seating and IT screen arrangement rather than tick-box form-filling”.

Designing an office that encourages regular getting up and walking around is also a factor here and FMs can have some feedback into that. Offering individual fitness evaluations and managing on-site fitness centres are also ways FMs can ensure that employees keep fit and healthy.

But as one FM said: “How much spending the employer commits to

Very important 75% on provision for staff will always set the facilities manager’s limit.”

Others said the FM’s role was only quite important in this regard as employees were increasingly paying for their own fitness needs through gym memberships.

For others, this area is not in an FM’s remit. One respondent said: “I use HR performance management and regular reviews to ensure my team are only absent in genuine cases. I try to foster trust and goodwill so that it is a positive and nice place to work.”

Join the FM World Think Tank LinkedIn group by visiting www.tinyurl.com/fmwthinktank

ISTOCK

Debate heats up over buildings energy performance gap The performance gap between the predicted and actual energy performance of buildings will not reduce unless clients and end users see the issue as a priority, according to speakers at Ecobuild.

In a debate titled “The performance gap – is there a solution?” speakers agreed that the performance gap exists, but that there had to be more urgency from building users if it is to be eradicated.

Nicholas Pollard, chief executive, construction services at Balfour Beatty, said: “The reality is that any government work [on reducing energy performance] is completely irrelevant if customers don’t want it or don’t rate it. Before fuel costs went up, people www.fm-world.co.uk

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were rarely worried about what mileage their car did.”

Rob Pannell, managing director at non-profit the Zero Carbon Hub, suggested that carbon statistics should not be taken for granted.

He said: “The industry isn’t always delivering what it says it is delivering. In one

organisation, there was a 300 per cent difference in the carbon emissions quoted [to what was delivered].”

All speakers agreed that the evidence of a performance gap in buildings is well established, but the industry is less clear about the solutions on offer.

Speakers were quick to emphasise that the Government Soft Landings scheme is still not widespread enough to be having a significant impact.

The scheme requires designers and constructors to spend more time on constructive dialogue with clients, and in setting expectations and performance targets on energy and end-user satisfaction.

Pollard said: “It [Government Soft Landings] is still a work

in progress, but if you want a quick win, it is by revisiting existing complex buildings, retuning them, and training and educating people who use them.”

Rob Manning of the Building Information Modelling (BIM) task group and lead for implementing the government’s Soft Landings scheme, suggested that more benchmarking tools are required.

“It’s very difficult to set hard targets when you depend on the prediction tools,” he said.

Other speakers at the conference backed the use of tools such as BIM to close the energy performance gap.

The 10th Ecobuild conference was held at the ExCel centre in London.

FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 09

06/03/2014 16:53

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ANALYSIS

Embrace new technology to find a USP GRAEME DAVIES newsdesk@fm-world.co.uk

Demands placed on FM suppliers have mushroomed as client needs have become ever more complex.

And this has been intensified by an increasing desire for ever more efficient service delivery because of competition in the industry and clients’ heightened expectations of cost savings.

One way FM suppliers can drive down costs and enhance

service delivery is to use information technology and increased connectivity to improve margins and make their services more “sticky” with end clients.

New technology can also allow FMs to better control their workforce and their level of service delivery. An increasingly connected world cuts down on costs and allows for better response to any issues

that occur across a portfolio of sites. The improvement in communications brings greater clarity to a relationship and also better accountability, which should translate into better performance and client satisfaction.

Certain FMs have harnessed technology better than others, using advanced systems as a USP to win contracts.

Mitie’s MiWorld portal, for example, can be accessed by any client with an internet connection and presents it with a dashboard detailing the performance of its property portfolio into which Mitie can also plug in its energy services, allowing the client to see the total cost of occupancy for each of their sites or the whole portfolio together.

Advances mean smart meters are read remotely, buildings can be monitored and managed from

Contract wins

NEW BUSINESS Servest Group has won a £9.1 million cleaning contract with the London Borough of Sutton. The seven-year contract with a three-year extension option is for daily specialist cleaning of all council offices and selected schools.

It starts in April 2014. Servest has worked in partnership with Sutton since 1995.

Surrey County Cricket Club has extended its contract with Compass to deliver food services at the international Kia Oval ground until 2021. Compass Levy Restaurants, Compass’s sport, leisure and hospitality sector, will continue to deliver food and beverages, retail services and conferencing and events facilities on both match and nonmatch days at Kia Oval Cricket ground 10 | 13 MARCH 2014 | FM WORLD

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under the contract worth an expected £50 million in turnover.

Elior UK has secured a five-year catering contract with the University of Dundee. Serving staff and students from 62 different countries, Elior will provide hospitality and catering across two sites on campus. The company is investing to create the Garland Café in the Wellcome Trust building, a dining space for customers to relax, work and socialise. The second operation will open later this year on completion of a new £16 million Centre for Translation and Interdisciplinary Resources (CTIR).

Kudos has been awarded a five-year contract extension worth almost £1 million to provide culinary services for

staff at fashion mecca Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge, London. Kudos initially won the contract in March 2004 and the latest extension will see it based at the store through to 2019.

Carillion has secured a £7 million deal to provide facilities management services to three public organisations across Scotland. The FM and construction services giant will provide engineering and soft services to more than 180 sites in the three organisations’ portfolios.

The contract combines the National Museums of Scotland, the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration and Historic Scotland into a single contract that runs for five years with the opportunity to extend it for two more.

ISS Facility Services Integrated Solutions is providing integrated services to security business Assa Abloy.

ISS will carry out planned and reactive maintenance, security, landscaping and cleaning across three production and distribution sites in Wolverhampton.

Assa Abloy, global leader in door opening solutions, is the UK’s largest lock group, providing security products for a range of markets.

a central hub, and a workforce can be more efficiently deployed.

Computer Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) arrived many years ago as PCs became more prevalent, but advances in communication in recent years, accompanied by the growth of Building Information Modelling (BIM), have made it a very powerful tool. Integrating BIM, which models the performance of buildings, into CAFM systems allows providers to offer a more holistic service. Dutch FM service provider BAM integrated its BIM services, with help from Autodesk, into its CAFM offering last year in a bid to improve the operating efficiency of new buildings.

There are many examples of savings made by deploying better systems. For example, Nationwide Building Society chose Styles & Wood’s iSite Hub for its asset management.

By bringing together all its suppliers into one central, intelligence-driven hub and then relocating resources iSite claims to have produced savings of 18 per cent for Nationwide without affecting service delivery or satisfaction.

Large-scale clients now have high expectations of the service they will receive, which is why FMs have invested in either developing such systems in-house or buying in expertise.

Smart meters, mobile comms and building mapping all allow clients to access information about their portfolios at the click of a mouse. Ever more appliances are going to be internet-enabled to create an increasingly connected service for clients, and FMs must innovate to stay ahead of the pack.

Graeme Davies writes for Investors Chronicle

www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 16:41

BUSINESS Financial results round-up: Sector BRIEFS sees little light amid the gloom Services providers Serco, Kier, Interserve and Carillion all released their end-of year results for 2013 over the past fortnight.

Troubled contractor Serco saw its profits drop by just over 60 per cent in 2013, it revealed in its end-of-year results this week.

Pre-tax profit fell to £106.6 million for the year to 31 December 2013, from £281.1 million in 2012. It also had to pay £21 million in other indirect costs during the year.

Serco’s involvement in last year’s tagging scandal affected its business.

Ed Casey, acting group CEO, said: “The events of 2013 absorbed management’s focus and, therefore, interrupted the normal process of improving efficiency and developing our business into new areas.”

Construction, services and property group Kier showed a 90 per cent jump in adjusted pre-

Pre-tax profits have fallen for several large construction-to-FM players

tax profit for the first half. There were over £450 million worth of new contracts in the service division.

Substantial awards in the housing maintenance, utilities and highways sectors, including a three-year Sheffield City Council housing repairs and maintenance contract, also helped to

strengthen the group’s position.

British support services and construction firm Carillion posted a 13 per cent fall in pre-tax profit after it reduced its energy services and British construction businesses.

The company, which maintains British railways, roads and military bases, posted underlying pretax profit of £174.7 million for the year.

Support services and construction company Interserve also reported pre-tax profit falling 62 per cent to £68m, down from £180m the previous year.

International infrastructure group, Balfour Beatty, which constructs roads, rail, airport and port infrastructure as well social housing, water treatment facilities and hospitals, said its results were “disappointing” with pre-tax profit falling 32 per cent owing to difficult conditions in UK construction.

VIRGIN/SHUTTERSTOCK

DHL has a ticket to ride with £30m Virgin trains deal Virgin Trains has awarded DHL Supply Chain a £30million contract to manage its onboard catering services.

The three-year deal is DHL’s entry into the rail catering market, managing end-to-end supply chain from new project innovation and procurement to supplier deliveries onto trains.

DHL aims to create a range of menu options using locally sourced and healthy ingredients.

It also will implement a number of green initiatives to support Virgin’s environment agenda.

The contract runs across the strategically important West www.fm-world.co.uk

10_11_BusinessNews.indd 11

DHL on board with West Coast Mainline

Coast Mainline, stretching from Glasgow to Euston and serving in excess of 30 million passengers a year.

Martin Phillips, head of

catering logistics at Virgin Trains, said: “Our goal is to be the best and most innovative rail franchise operator in the UK. “To do this we needed a strategic partner who shares our ambitions and DHL proved a great cultural fit. By focusing on our core competencies I’m confident we can deliver something truly exceptional.”

Paul Richardson, managing director of specialist services at DHL added: ”By applying our first-hand knowledge of the airline, public sector and retail industries, we aim to redefine the customer experience.”

CBRE goes shopping in UK Global firm CBRE, is to manage and deliver facilities management services to 21 assets within the investment portfolio of a UK property developer and investor.

Development Securities plc’s portfolio consists of assets across the UK, predominantly shopping centres including The Furlong Shopping Centre in Ringwood near Southampton, Swanley Shopping Centre in Kent, the Kingsland Shopping Centre in Thatcham and Atlantic Village in Bideford, Devon. Its UK portfolio spans 1.5 million sq ft.

Kier names new chief A new chief executive has been named for the construction, services and property group Kier.

Haydn Mursell will take up the role after current head Paul Sheffield steps down in June.

Sheffield leaves after 30 years with the company.

Mursell joined the group in 2010 as the group finance director. Sheffield said: “Since I joined Kier in 1983, the group has grown enormously, both in scale and the services it offers.

I’m very proud of what we have accomplished, but feel it is now the right time to transition the leadership of the group.”

Aramark acquires Lotus Aramark Ireland has acquired the business and assets of Sligo-based Lotus Facilities Management.

The acquisition is a provider of facilities management, project management and services to public and private sector organisations throughout Ireland.

Aramark Ireland is the largest integrated services provider in the country, employing nearly 4,000 people.

FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 11

06/03/2014 16:41

FM BUSINESS IN FOCUS

THE ISSUE: How to grow as a service provider while avoiding client churn THE INTERVIEWEE: Noel Clancy, chief executive, Shepherd FM

Mutual respect The relationship between an FM provider and its client is routinely debated. But where ‘intelligent client’ is a phrase close to many lips, ‘intelligent supplier’ is a less frequently deployed term.

Surely, though, suppliers ensuring that their chosen clients are a cultural and technical match for them is as important as the client making a similar determination? And it’s clients who want just such a relationship that are the target for Noel Clancy, managing director of Shepherd FM. Part of the £750 million turnover Shepherd Construction Group. Shepherd FM saw revenues grow 30 per cent last year. Similar growth was recorded the year before, and Clancy expects the firm’s 2014/15 budget to project 30 per cent growth once again. And there’s something else that sets the firm apart – a client retention rate of 98 per cent.

What’s driving this growth and astonishing retention record?

Clancy puts it down to how he and his team focus their efforts on clients most likely to appreciate the value of Shepherd’s facilities service. The company’s client base has a hard FM bent, the result of its roots as part of Shepherd’s construction and engineering arms. But today’s full service mix 12 | 13 MARCH 2014 | FM WORLD

12_BusinessFocus.indd 12

includes major corporate clients and an expanded variety of service that includes an interiors arm set up in 2011.

The key is that Shepherd vets potential clients in a similar way to the client vetting them. The aim is to get to the root of the service requirement and how it affects the client’s business, and achieves mutual respect.

In particular, Shepherd’s work is with clients whose facilities service requirement is missioncritical to their business; clients with perhaps a built-in incentive to fully appreciate how their facilities service provider operates.

Compliance issues are a big factor, and Clancy points to Shepherd’s banking and legal services clients.

“Reputation protection is key in financial and legal services, so compliance is key,” he says. “Talk to any banking head of corporate real estate and he’ll say keeping the lights and power on is his number one priority.”

People power Clancy points to the many “technically gifted” compliancefocused individuals on his staff who have come to Shepherd having previously been employed at larger service providers.

So taking on more clients means a strong selection process,

but it also needs the right people. Clancy and his senior management are focused not just on matching their existing staff to new clients, but in bringing in the right people in the first place.

“Many larger operators have grown by acquisition and inherited issues around subcultures, TUPE and churn. But we started from scratch and have been very selective about who works for us and who we work for.”

Getting the right people and deploying them properly is the big challenge, says Clancy, and one critical to his goal of continuing Shepherd’s robust organic growth.

“The less I get the team wrong here, the less our managers get their own teams wrong, and so on down the chain. If we can manage our staff recruitment at all levels, then why should our levels of service be diluted?

“It’s also a question of how you grow. If our 30 per cent growth had come from 20 new accounts and we couldn’t resource that, or we didn’t do our TUPE well or didn’t mobilise the contract as

well as said we could, we’d have trouble sooner or later. Growth needs to be carefully managed.

“How we handle TUPE transfers is important. We’re not scared to tackle non-performance. TUPE is not just pass through for us. We give the people we inherit a clean slate, but tell them plainly what we expect. We can’t afford not to.”

The company also provides the same employment terms and conditions to its cleaners as it does to its chartered engineers. “I don’t see that elsewhere in the market place,” says Clancy, who admits that operators running large, public sector soft FM contracts with thousands of cleaning staff may not be able to offer the same.

Yet when Shepherd chooses its employees of the year “we say to them, it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it that makes you stand out”.

Future plans “For me it’s not what the work is, it’s who the client is, and where we might go with them.

It’s not the size of the contract, it’s where it might lead. This is one of the few industries in which you can’t say that getting bigger is necessarily a strength. Indeed, the opposite can be true if you’re not careful,” he says.

Next on the agenda is a new software product designed to help managing compliance. It’s software that will put more onus on frontline staff to collect data on mobile devices to allow Shepherd and its clients to look at their properties’ compliance performance from the desktop.

“It’s a major investment for us.

We hope to launch it in the next couple of months,” says Clancy.

“The less I get the team wrong here, the less our managers get their own teams wrong” www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 17:11

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03/03/2014 10:45

FM OPINION THE DIARY COLUMN JOHN BOWEN

“YOU CAN SPEND YOUR BUDGET ON MITIGATING THE IMPACT OF SOMETHING UNLIKELY TO HAPPEN OR ON SOMETHING THAT SUPPORTS YOUR LONG-TERM OBJECTIVES”

University Local Estates Authority

LEAR N IN G R ISK M A NAGEM EN T

John Bowen is an FM consultant

he recent flooding raises the question T of risk management and brings into sharp focus the principle of integrating risk management into the decision-making process I used to do a lot of recruitment assessments looking at candidates’ operational acumen. To test their ability to assess priorities and the consequences of their actions, I gave them a weather disaster.

The good candidates would be the ones who kept the objective to save as much as possible while accepting that there would be some loss of property and, probably, life.

Some would be so determined to save everyone and everything that they would lose a lot of both.

Such artificial scenarios do test how people approach risk and help to show how they consider the consequences of their actions.

When we have to balance finite levels of funds against where they will be best used we have to assess the consequences of a risk event occurring against the likelihood of the event occurring. Eight weeks or more of dire weather would have seemed unlikely last November. Even the long-range weather analysis didn’t forecast

what we have suffered, but the consequences were predictable. It is one of those things that no one will notice if you get it right, but you can look bad if you get it wrong.

Consider yourself in this position: you can spend your budget on mitigating the impact of something that is unlikely to happen or on something that supports your longterm objectives. These are choices we make all of the time in our private lives, but few of us get to make them on a national basis.

Another of the things that you have to factor in is the long-term effect. The short-term populist actions of politicians have little place in commerce, but we have to live with them. Long-term infrastructure plans are often

NHS Trust

ridiculed, but we wneed things like HS2 and better airport facilities for the long-term health of the country.

It is lonely at the top when you have the hard decisions to make, but use the tools, apply some skill and think through the consequences of your actions and you are on the right path. While some can do this well naturally, it can be learned.

Decisions need to be the best that they can be at the time that they are made and including risk management in the decision process is essential. The chances of getting it right every time are slim, but if you make your decisions well you will likely be right more often than wrong.

BEST OF THE WEB Views and comments from across the web As a facilities manager, what are the key considerations when relocating a business? (BIFM group) Mick Bourne: I think one thing that often gets overlooked when relocating a business is the possible loss of experienced staff and operation skills due to commuting. This always requires factoring in as much as infrastructure and facilities.

Scott Ewing: Regarding the physical move, make 14 | 13 MARCH 2014 | FM WORLD

14_Opinion.indd 14

sure you know the exact location of where items are coming from and where they will be going to. There’s nothing worse than the finance department telling you that “you” have lost a box of their invoices, or ending up with a load of “lost boxes” that you will end up unpacking.

Have you noticed a difference in how your business approaches FM and what are you doing to continue

promoting the value of FM? (BIFM group) Andrew Porter: I agree that recognition is growing – albeit slowly – but when consulting for clients I have noticed how few FM organisations bother to promote themselves and publicise their successes.

Rob Farman: We will know that FM is gaining recognition when the opinion of professional institutions and leading practitioners engaged in FM are heard in

Parliament (e.g. select committee or cross-party group), on the radio and on the television.

Should facilities managers work more closely with SHEQ managers? (BIFM group) Malcolm Lawrence: I suggest it’s more a question of having a purpose-built safety management system that FM can sensibly follow, and health and safety advisers that can help them to make

each site compliant. In my experience, many FM companies go for construction-style SMS systems that don’t fit their businesses, and then the manager is out on a limb trying to make it work for his particular site.

Paul Kelly: The overall aim is shared and there must be a joint approach with H&S and FM, and indeed all relevant parts of the business. Priorities on a day-to-day basis will vary but there must be that trust and integrity. www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 15:07

You can follow us at twitter.com/FM_World facebook.com/FMWorldMagazine

,

BEST OF THE

FMWORLD BLOGS Stand up for better meetings Dominic Irvine, founding partner of Epiphanies LLP The ‘smart’ phone vibrated on the table with each message. A glance at the message was followed by nodding to pretend he was listening to the speaker before he tapped out an email on his laptop. Finally, just as we thought the topic was done, he interjected with a point vaguely related to the topic that left us all slightly bemused.

So many meetings are inefficient and ineffective due to either a disregard or a misunderstanding of what constitutes value or a misplaced sense of capability in being able to do two things at once. There are three problems in the scenario described: a) Many people in business do not understand the price of what they are doing in terms of the sales that will need to be made to pay for their time; b) There is a mistaken understanding of how effective it is possible to be when multi-tasking; and c) Technology is both an enabler and a severe constraint on effectiveness.

Yes, video conferencing and phone conferences have a role, but face-to-face meetings remain the most powerful mechanism for communication in business.

Top tip: Next time you are faced with poor behaviour in a meeting, get attendees to calculate the cost of the meeting in terms of the profit from sales.

The nonsense of multi-tasking: I’ve had enough of people pretending to listen while using their phones: now I don’t bother trying to have the conversation, I stop talking. If you ever want to see how people can’t concentrate on two things at once, try it.

Read the article in full at www.tinyurl.com/qepnh6t

We are all becoming Millennials Darcy Jacobson, Globoforce This Millennial Generation, born between 1982 and 1999, will constitute 75 per cent of workers by 2025. Employers who win their hearts will win the war on talent. There are those who think millennial attitudes will shift as they age and fall into the same patterns as older generations. But the truth is, we are ALL becoming millennial.

Consider these seven qualities that we tend to attribute to our youngest workers, and how they really describe the way we’ve all changed: ● Millennials are digitally connected 24/7: I’m a Gen Xer and I sleep with my phone next to my pillow. In a meeting with mixed generations, it dawned on me that every one of them had their phone. We are all connected by mobile devices. ● Millennials don’t stay for the gold watch: No one ever stayed for the gold watch.

When they do stay, they stay for their co-workers and their work. Average tenure rates with millennials in the workforce are around 4.6 years – the same since the 1980s. ● Millennials desire continuous positive feedback: We all do. According to Gallup, managers who give little or no feedback fail to engage 98 per cent of staff, and those who concentrate feedback on strengths cut staff disengagement to under 1 per cent. ● Millennials demand flexibility: This generation didn’t discover flexibility. But their advent has coincided with a recognition that staff wellbeing is good for business. ● Millennials want to give back: Morality has re-entered our cultural dialogue with this generation, but they are not alone in caring about these ideas. They want to work for companies with a strong mission and cultural values. Well, so do we all. ● Millennials expect to be developed: Stagnation affects employees in every life stage, We all respond to hopes of learning or advancing in our careers. ● Millennials need social approval and crowdsourcing: The more workplaces make that possible, the more workers in every generation will thrive.

Read the article in full at www.tinyurl.com/oq23x4y

www.fm-world.co.uk

15_Opinion.indd 15

FIVE MINUTES WITH NAME: Andrew Shaw JOB TITLE: Founder and managing director of BSG

BSG’s UK FM Industry Survey shows that suppliers focused on the strength of their client relationships had higher levels of contract retention. Because of the continued pressures felt by FMs, measuring and improving client relationships is the key to success in 2014.

While an improving economy is optimistic for all businesses, in the FM industry a number of pressures remain. This is not the time for providers, large or small, to take their foot off the gas.

Contract loss is the biggest risk for FM providers in 2014. It prevents growth and gives competitors an unnecessary advantage. So managing clients well is the key. Our research paper this year revealed that the strongest relationships were with those providers who survey their clients and respond accordingly.

This is the first step in boosting growth and will help to ensure success in a competitive market in 2014.

The best strategy for success is to understand, improve and adapt – and always with the end-user in mind. For service providers, greater engagement with clients will be the key to profit and growth for 2014 and beyond.

On the whole, small providers have stronger relationships with clients in comparison with larger providers. However, this does not mean they are exempt from potential difficulties.

FMs continue to face the pressure of juggling a wide range of services. As a result, they will turn increasingly to their providers for those added-value services. We anticipate that margins will remain tight and competition for new contracts fierce.

They should also be aware of the changing market, such as in the public sector. As budgets remain tight, this will also provide an increase in opportunities for outsourced services.

FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 15

06/03/2014 15:53

FM FEATURE

ASTELLAS

MARTIN READ

The move by pharmaceutical giant Astellas to refit and occupy an abandoned Norman Foster building has resulted in a BCO fit-out award and a burgeoning respect for the company’s FM function. Martin Read reports

WORKING CHEMISTRY 16 | 13 MARCH 2014 | FM WORLD

16-21 Astellas.indd 16

I

f the striking frontage of 2000 Hillswood Drive in Chertsey looks familiar, it could be because the building was designed in the 1990s by iconic architect Sir Norman Foster for a completely different occupier (computer games manufacturer Electronic Arts).

Having lain empty for five years, the building was taken over by fast-growing international pharmaceutical business Astellas in 2012 where its radical fit-out has received www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 16:35

DAVID CHURCHILL PHOTOGRAPHY

ASTELLAS

wide-ranging acclaim. Last year, the British Council of Offices awarded the project its 2013 ‘Best Fit Out of Workplace’ award. The judges praised a workplace that had been turned from a “tired, redundant building” into “an inspiring place to work”.

So today, 2000 Hillswood Drive is a colourful, dynamic and wellappointed workplace.

Different levels retain the elemental theme introduced when the building was first www.fm-world.co.uk

16-21 Astellas.indd 17

opened, and the mix of openplan space, meeting rooms and congregation space has been well received by an initially sceptical workforce.

From HR into FM But although the fit-out project is a good showcase of how an FM department can grow through its own management (via the canny use of project management consultants), it also contains a sub-plot in which an individual office manager finds,

and then fits herself into the FM profession.

Indeed, Katy Blundell is the archetypal FM success story.

All told, she’s been with Astellas for 15 years, starting out as office manager with Yamanouchi, one of the partner organisations in a big 2005 merger that saw two smaller pharmaceutical businesses, Yamanouchi and Fujisawa, join up to form Astellas.

Post-merger, the newly enlarged Astellas business

relocated to Lovett House in Staines, Surrey, then also into several other buildings nearby, before realising that its rate of growth necessitated the need for another, larger building in which everybody could be under the same roof to collaborate more effectively. All this activity – the merger, the move into one building, the doubling of its real estate footprint, the move into one building again and the taking on of another 20 per cent of real estate – had all been undertaken FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 17

06/03/2014 16:36

FM FEATURE

ASTELLAS

MARTIN READ

“The work the FM team put into the move, design, relocation and implementation has encouraged the staff to see it in a new light” with the same sized in-house team. Indeed, initially, Blundell was one of just six Yamanouchi UK employees, at which point in her career she did the traditional “bit of everything”, in this case organising (among other things) the payroll, pensions, life assurance and golf society events.

“Facilities for me was such a wide-ranging topic, and I’m a people person, so it appealed,” says Blundell, who had been surprised in her previous role by the exacting nature of some of the company’s senior level medical staff (there’s an element of traditional hierarchy in the structure of the pharmaceutical business).

“I still have a link to HR,” she says. “For years I reported to a senior HR director, and she had an FM background so we had a bond. Today, I report directly to the European director of corporate real estate and FM. It’s a recently introduced job title, and it’s helped raise the profile of FM both here and in our European offices.”

Before the merger, when Yamanouchi moved to an office in Egham, it was Blundell who ended up running the relationship with that building’s landlord – something that proved to be her first exposure to the fast-paced world of FM. The 2005 merger saw Blundell associated with a project to re-fit the merged operation’s Egham offices, and it’s at this stage that consultancy Procore, which has since gone on to represent the company throughout its recent facilities projects, first became involved.

Procore was brought in to project-manage the newly merged company’s move to new premises in West Byfleet.

That was “a huge building and a huge challenge”, says Blundell who, following this project, 18 | 13 MARCH 2014 | FM WORLD

16-21 Astellas.indd 18

was invited to move from office management into a permanent role within the company’s newly formalised FM department).

The Hillswood move When Astellas acquired the freehold of Hillswood, Procore was appointed as project manager and cost consultant for the relocation, overseeing the refurbishment and fit-out.

(The company also acted as SKA assessor.) The project saw Astellas move down from three buildings to just the one.

Astellas Pharma Ltd, the sales and marketing affiliate for the UK market, is also based in the building.

Now committed to a career in FM, Blundell, with a postgraduate diploma in facilities

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www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 16:38

ASTELLAS

Previous page: restaurant and breakout space has proved popular Far left: the move to open plan offices forced a cultural change

DAVID CHURCHILL PHOTOGRAPHY

Bottom left: the distinctive Norman Foster design

management under her belt, became a key player in Astellas’ project to move to 2000 Hillswood Drive in 2012.

Her profile rose dramatically within the building as a result of that exercise, in which Blundell was part of the senior staff team involved in all aspects of the move and fit-out.

“In our previous building there was an element of ‘Oh, facilities – you’re the people who top up the photocopier and toilet paper,” says Blundell, “but the move project definitely increased the profile of FM. “Normal attitudes exist within some, in that FM is seen as being there to clean up and make sure things work,” says Blundell, “but www.fm-world.co.uk

16-21 Astellas.indd 19

I think the relocation to the new building – and the work the FM team put into the move, design, relocation and implementation – has encouraged the staff to view it in an improved light. I get a lot more respect now because everyone knew I was involved in choosing the building.” Senior people in the steering group soon appreciated that Blundell was deeply involved in a very highlevel role.

“We knew we had to really communicate the project,” says Blundell, who set up a website to allow staff to track photographs of the fit-out project as it developed.

“People were very nervous of moving in here, because

we were going from a very static, traditional work style to workstations, allocated storage and agile working. There was a lot of nervousness about all this, but you could almost feel the transition they went through when they walked through the door. They all thought, ‘Wow, this is fantastic’, although for the first few months people had to get used to the new work style.

They’ve settled down now.“ The pharmaceutical profession in general, and Astellas in particular, tend towards using closed office spaces, particularly for senior staff. With Procore and project manager Stewart Holmes, the Hillswood fit-out saw a deal struck in which the balance of

rooms to open-plan was reversed.

“We’ve introduced banks of secondary areas to support the overflow,” says Procore’s Stewart Holmes. “Those departments know that they can overflow into that area. It’s just about getting that level of comfort.“ It’s been more than a year since the move, but Blundell is still bumping into people who tell her they love how the building facilities work.

“I think one of the reasons we won the award was because we had significant challenges we faced on the project but still managed to deliver and move in on time. I think we used between 80 and 90 per cent of our old furniture and AV equipment from our previous premises here at Hillswood.”

Furniture made redundant by the move was all disposed of to charities and as much of the AV equipment reused as was possible. “The only thing that was really new here was the loose furniture – furniture needed to accommodate the alternative work settings and FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 19

06/03/2014 16:39

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03/03/2014 10:57

FM FEATURE

ASTELLAS

MARTIN READ

Left: the ‘Street’ area on the ground floor Below: formal meeting space

support the agile workstations,” says Blundell.

And in their review of the project, BCO judges praised the way in which the refitted space “encourages employees to interact with their fellow workers – particularly important in a field of merged organisations – and the numerous visitors to the company”. The “street” area on the ground floor was praised by judges for its café, restaurant and the both open and closed spaces set aside for formal and informal meetings.

The BCO reported how “Astellas deserves praise for its confidence to take on a building specifically designed by Norman Foster for a very different type of occupier, and one that was in a state of considerable disrepair having lain empty for five years.”

Indeed, there were plenty of problems that the fit-out project team had to overcome. The fitout budget had to absorb the cost of fixing a leaking roof and façade.

Problems with the roof meant that the fit-out project needed careful financial management.

“As a result, not all of the mechanical and electrical equipment was replaced brand new so we had to strip out, but we still had to do some significant mechanical work.

When we started the groundfloor ‘street’ had no heating, so we introduced radiant panel heating. We really had to cherrypick what we prioritised, but when we moved in everything was functional,” says Blundell. www.fm-world.co.uk

16-21 Astellas.indd 21

Retendering of services With the move complete and a year of operation available for analysis, Blundell has been overseeing Astellas UK’s re-tendering of its FM services, a process that is set for completion

by April. The exercise in reassessment of these services was the CRE and FM department’s response to an international, company-wide programme to see what new operational efficiencies could be achieved.

Before the Hillswood relocation the incumbent total FM provider, Emcor, provided all FM services, both hard and soft, with the exception of catering. With the move on the horizon, Emcor was given a one-year extension to see the client through the move. During that time the type and scope of FM services was reviewed, although ultimately the same services were specified, albeit

“Not all of the mechanical and electrical equipment was replaced brand new, so we had to strip out, but we still had to do some significant mechanical work” as single services. Astellas put out all services to tender, opting to award separate contracts to “best in class” suppliers. With Hillswood located some way from other local amenities, the catering facility is vital, as are the co-located sports amenities and facilities (such as showers) that support them. The site has 24/7 guarding, with other FM services delivered from 7am to 6pm.

Astellas opted to go with single-service suppliers for optimum performance, and Procore was again employed to help set up supplier engagement days as part of the procurement process. Emcor was also invited to bid on the individual service contracts.

Mobilisation of the new single service contracts has been staged over three months to allow for any initial glitches to be ironed out.

For Blundell, the future looks bright. She has every intention of overseeing the facilities requirements that the next stage of development for the fast-growing company brings, whatever they may be.

FM has had various reporting

lines in the past, but today the company fully values the impact FM can have in supporting the business and its operation.

“The next six months will be interesting,” says Blundell. “We will be working really close with our suppliers, making some small improvements.”

And as part of the facilities services project, Blundell’s own job description was evaluated, as was the need to support.

“With five suppliers working on site and our wanting to present them all under one banner and adopt a one-team approach, I needed some backup,” says Blundell. “I have a new facilities officer starting in March and we’ve also take on a new health and safety officer.

“Over the years as facilities manager, I’ve been involved earlier and got a heads-up on things happening. I’m comfortable that if they were to take on anything else new, we would be able to absorb it, be it mergers, takeovers or whatever.

“In 15 years my job has never stood still,” said Blundell.

“There’ll always be another project on the horizon.” FM FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 21

06/03/2014 16:40

FM FEATURE

SCALE OF FM PROVIDERS

DAVID ARMINAS

A

IKON

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s much as Rentokil Initial is happy to let go of its Initial Facilities division, Interserve is just as happy to buy it, although the deal needs shareholder approval at a general meeting on March 17.

Rentokil Initial group performance last year appeared rosier when taking away results for its Initial Facilities Services division, a provider of Total FM (see box, p.25).

The group is going back to its core businesses of pest control, hygiene including medical waste disposal, and workwear, all of which are mobile offerings; specialist operatives driving to client buildings where no continuous on-site presence is required. Operating margins have been better for these specialised services.

Rentokil will look to grow organically as well as by acquisition, for which about £50 million a year has been earmarked for global purchases.

This month Rentokil acquired the family-owned Bestway, Chile’s largest pest control business and a major hygiene provider. The group also will look for deals as a subcontractor to Total FM providers, including Interserve.

Interserve – already a large player – just got larger. Interserve said the purchase would position the group as one of the largest FM providers by turnover in the UK and drive future growth through offering more services self-delivered. Bruce Melizan, executive director at Interserve, says: “The deal blends two different portfolios, combining Interserve’s strength in the public sector with Initial Facilities’ greater focus on the private

22 | 13 MARCH 2014 | FM WORLD

22_25_ServiceProviders.indd 22

BIGGER PICTURE?

Interserve hopes its purchase of Initial will give it greater weight when bidding for larger FM contracts. But in the current market, is bigger necessarily better? Will the £2bn Interserve juggernaut bowl over the smaller big players? David Arminas reports

sector, and similarly with the different focus on hard and soft FM. We believe the offer for customers, whether single or bundled service or TFM, to be considerably strengthened.”

Add Initial’s turnover of £534 million to the £1,196 million of Interserve’s own UK support services business and you get a £17.3 billion turnover division.

The workforce will double to nearly 50,000 and contract split

will be 50-50 between Initial’s private sector and Interserve’s public clients.

Now the serious business of merging businesses starts, where efficiencies are gained by stripping out duplicated backoffice management functions.

But those will be few, according to a spokesperson for Interserve.

“It’s not like we’re taking over a plc where there’s a big overhead,” says Melizan. “It’s a corporate www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 16:42

SERVICE PROVIDERS

www.fm-world.co.uk

22_25_ServiceProviders.indd 23

FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 23

06/03/2014 16:42

FM FEATURE

SCALE OF FM PROVIDERS

DAVID ARMINAS

“Smaller companies can sometimes be more agile, operate with more flair for innovation and be more flexible in delivery” division and most of the workforce is frontline.”

Also, the merged business will not be turning its back on Initial’s mainly single-service and bundled contracts as it seeks out increasingly large total FM deals, he says.

Mergers such as the Interserve and Initial deal are wrapped up in talk of better procurement, greater movement of experienced personnel between different contracts, best practice lessons learned from one sector are passed over to another sector – usually private to public.

Big is beautiful?

Proponents of such deals argue that big is beautiful. Critics decry the larger company’s ability to wipe out opportunities for smaller companies.

Is one size better than the other? Do large players hoover up more contracts, leaving fewer and fewer deals for mid-sized and smaller FM providers?

Within the wider business context, acquisitions and mergers such as Interserve’s offer for Initial are a “natural business progression”, says John Bowen, FM business consultant and chair of the BIFM’s procurement special interest group.

True, a combined company will look for synergies through cutting duplicated back-office management functions – to make the overall group more efficient.

The idea is that saving can be passed down to the customer, but not always, Bowen believes.

In such deals there also can be “homogenisation” of services, he says, where the larger grouping looks to standardise services such as engineering call-outs, cleaning, reception and others.

“Larger businesses may not want to have different services for different clients, it can be inefficient,” he says.

For some buyers of FM 24 | 13 MARCH 2014 | FM WORLD

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services where cost is a factor, this might be what seals a contract with large FM provider.

But smaller to medium-size companies can sometimes be more agile, operate with more flair for innovation and be more flexible in delivery, and that could clinch the FM deal.

“The entrepreneur factor comes into play, further down the food chain,” says Bowen. “This could be within companies with a turnover between £150 million

and £250 million.”

Furthermore, the larger company may not be interested in retendering for a contract held by the small business it has bought. There could be bigger contracts where the merged group’s resources are better placed. This opens the door for medium-sized businesses to pick up the larger group’s discarded smaller deal.

Smaller clients may find themselves somewhat ignored by

their FM supplier who has just been acquired by a larger player, says Martin Pickard, managing director of consultancy FMGuru.

Consolidation of the biggest suppliers can offer stability in FM delivery, making them less risky for FM buyers wanting to do large deals. Becoming a top five player in UK FM – depending on who you class as FM – will do Interserve and Initial no harm and there will be lots of synergies to be exploited.

“But the smaller clients of both merged suppliers may find their FM outsourced management is distracted during the period of flux following the acquisition,” says Pickard. “Buyers within many SMEs often want to engage with similar size FM service providers. The last thing an FM buyer needs is an FM contract with a provider 100 times bigger than their size,” he adds.

Small is beautiful?

One FM chief executive who believes small is beautiful is Martin Holt, chief executive of provider Bellrock, formerly called SGP Property & Facilities Management.

SGP was hived off from AIM-listed Johnson Services Group in August to private equity firm Lyceum Capital. The £32.2 million deal created an SME – rebranded as Bellrock – whose turnover is around £50 million, but which manages FM upwards of £200 million worth of contracts. Bellrock’s business model with its 500 employees could be a bellwether for future SME facilities providers. It selfdelivers little but manages a supply chain of national and local providers.

The Interserve-Initial deal is good for the sector and ultimately “a good opportunity” for SMEs to pick up contracts that larger companies don’t think are worth putting resources www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 16:42

FLICKR/ALAMY

SCALE OF FM PROVIDERS

into, says Holt. He saw some of this at Mitie, where a £5 million contract became increasingly less important as the years passed on from the Dalkia acquisition.

Holt was at Dalkia when Mitie brought the business in mid-2009 for £130 million and he integrated the smaller business into the bigger one.

So is the Interserve-Initial deal the way of the future?

“And also of the past,” says Pickard.

“All the big players in the FM industry got there with a lot of help from acquisitions going back many years. I can’t see that stopping, although the number of midsize players is getting low at the moment.”

Pickard predicts that there could be some interesting mergers in the near future as lines between FM and real estate continue to blur.

“This will throw up more cross-sector deals like the CBRE/ Norland one in November.”

Los Angeles-based real estate group CBRE bought Norland Managed Services for £250 million, allowing the company to self-deliver hard FM to its UK and European Global Corporate Services business.

“After CBRE’s acquisition of Norland, the only other large privately owned M&E contractor – Integral – may be vulnerable to a similar offer,” says Gareth Hollyman, director of property and asset management at JLL. Fewer private finance initiative (PFI) contracts have had an effect on FM suppliers. Hollyman sees some medium-sized Total www.fm-world.co.uk

22_25_ServiceProviders.indd 25

FM companies that based themselves on PFI deals looking to be more singleservice niche market players.

Even so, regional mediumsized Total FM companies have a chance at deals even in the face of stiff competition from much larger national and global players.

JLL is retendering this year its asset management contracts on a regional basis and regional companies will have a good look in.

“Big is not necessarily beautiful. It depends on how the ‘big’ is run,” adds Hollyman.

A well-run regional FM supplier with low overheads can compete favourably with large players. And not all large players, including Interserve, cover all services and can deliver to the required standard as many local/ regional providers, he says.

Interserve’s acquisition of Initial is good for the buyers of FM services only if service levels are maintained. “There should be a clear increase in value from the enlarged group, through either cost savings from back-ofhouse activities or wider services offered to higher quality.”

Growth is good, but how you grow is just as important. If, as Bowen suggested, small will become medium only to become larger, are players like Bellrock destined to grow through acquisition?

Not necessarily, says Holt: “We’re looking at acquisitions, but of energy services and technology platforms, not anything that would make us a self-delivering business.” FM

THE FIGURES

THE £250 MILLION DEAL The seller – Rentokil Initial group Initial Facilities operates in UK, Ireland and Spain ● Services including cleaning, catering, security, M&E, energy management, compliance, integrated total facilities management ● Employees 22,000 in UK (25,000 total) ● Revenues, £534 million for year ended 31 December 2013 ● Adjusted operating profit: £25.8m Rentokil Initial group will focus on its three core businesses of pest control, hygiene and workwear. Excluding Initial Facilities, the group’s total revenue for year ended 31 December 2013 was £1.76 billion. ● Rentokil’s net operating margin for year-end was 11.2 per cent, but would have been 13.1 per cent without taking Initial division’s results into consideration. ●

The buyer: Interserve group, FTSE 250 company UK support services employees: 26,750 UK support services division results: ● Revenue, £1,196.6 m – up 7 per cent on 2012 ● Division contributed to group operating profit, £56m – up 25 per cent from 2012 ● Division won a five-year, £150m contract with the BBC last year, extendable to nine years, at more than 150 sites, including New Broadcasting House in London and MediaCityUK in Salford. Services include critical broadcast engineering, business continuity and a workplace support model. ● Outlook: Particular focus in 2014 on procurement of services for the UK’s Defence Infrastructure Organisation, where Interserve is incumbent on two of the six contracts on which it is bidding. ●

FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 25

06/03/2014 16:43

FM FEATURE

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

STEVE SAWYER

FIT FOR

BUSINESS Business intelligence paves the way for smarter contract and service delivery management. Steve Sawyer, director of professional services solutions for business software provider Access Group, explains

IKON

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iven a more positive outlook for the economy and the strength of M&A activity in the FM market, you might be forgiven for thinking that things were starting to get easier. While the sector remains robust as larger players acquire their smaller counterparts in a bid to provide complementary services to clients across an expanding number of sectors, certain issues remain.

Expansion often brings greater business complexity. Facilities management providers are operating in a highly competitive environment; tight margins are coupled with the pressure to provide more value-added services to retain contracts and increase overall profitability. This is a numbers game. And if you don’t have your finger on the pulse you’re likely to suffer.

You can picture the scenario. Operations managers are working hard on sites across the country, delivering great service and keeping clients happy. But underneath they’re overservicing contracts, re-chargables are not being attributed and procurement is a little loose, to say the least. Over time, those contracts are not as profitable as first thought and, at worst, actually operate at a loss. When margins are tight it’s easy to haemorrhage money. With this in mind, FM providers are turning to business intelligence (BI) tools and integrated systems to help them shape up and get ahead of the competition.

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www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 15:09

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

A big problem that still prevails in the sector today is the reliance on multiple disparate software systems across the organisation. This lack of integration creates a real headache for FM firms as invaluable information that can help run the business better cannot always be easily accessed.

Days are often spent pulling reports, or a client chases for an update on figures and there is a mad scramble to oblige in a timely fashion, giving an outward appearance of professionalism and control.

But FM companies that really excel as they expand and continue to effectively service their clients have solid processes and integrated systems in place, coupled with business intelligence tools to underpin their successful growth. This means that staff are not rekeying information multiple times, saving time and effort. There are fewer errors and information is available faster, which means it can also be analysed and acted upon faster. Vital if you’re going to win in the FM business; running a highly efficient and tight ship, along with the ability to have instant access to information, is essential to have any chance of making intelligent, timely decisions.

Costs and KPIs In any industry, FM or otherwise, it’s also how you put the information you have within your business to good use. Today’s mobile technology makes it possible to access BI dashboards on the move, slicing and dicing data, dissecting the profitability of contracts, finding out where profit drains are, drilling down into the detail of problem areas and then looking to resolve them. FM providers can use BI to get instant feedback on the profitability of a site or contract. They can see the margins it’s making, how resources are being used against contracts, expected hours versus actual hours against revenue, the services received but not invoiced and splitting revenue down by different services – all this information by division, region, site or contract.

Profitability could be hit for all manner of reasons. As mentioned earlier, it could be because of over-servicing clients, not recharging every item accurately – or even worse, the project was not costed properly in the first place. Let’s face it – even in the best-run companies problems occur. The key is to be alerted to the fact as quickly as possible, find a solution and learn from the mistakes.

Understanding where the loss-making contracts are occurring as soon as possible means that this can be presented back to the client in a bid to renegotiate www.fm-world.co.uk

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FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 27

06/03/2014 15:09

FM FEATURE

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

the contract. Where this is not possible it may be necessary to terminate a contract that is no longer viable in a bid to improve profitability.

With the systems, reporting and business intelligence in place it means providers can accurately measure exactly what is happening and recognise trends, focus on solutions and reset course if necessary. This knowledge and experience means FM providers can leverage their experience and sharpen their offering when quoting for similar contracts too, strengthening the effectiveness of bid management teams in the process.

There’s no truer saying than “cash is king”. BI dashboards alert providers to cash flow issues and clients who are not paying their bills on time. It can show the cash collected by contract and how fast it’s being collected. Keeping a close watch to make sure recurring invoices are being automatically billed every month and that credit control is getting the cash back in from contracts is paramount. When you have wages that need to be paid each week you don’t want cash flow to be impacted.

The same applies to procurement. A major area of importance, it is critical to leverage buying power by having everyone adhering to a structured workflow and dealing with preferred suppliers.

Business intelligence is helping providers know exactly what procurement costs are associated with which contracts, track purchases against budget and understand the percentage of total costs. This means that it can see which contracts are the most expensive and that any rechargeable costs are being invoiced in a timely fashion so that one contract isn’t putting cash flow at risk. With business intelligence being able to look across all systems and highlight any lurking problems, it is possible to address them before they become magnified.

Acquiring new business In an acquisition-hungry landscape you want to be sure that you have a solid methodology in place to bring a new business on board. Check everyone is using the same systems, being measured and monitored in the same way, and ensure that the acquired company is contributing to the overall business success in the way that due diligence suggested. But, as the acquiring company, the FM provider may not want to move everyone over to one system straight away; it’s often a delicate balancing act. In this situation BI tools can be used to easily import data from disparate systems into dashboards so the FM provider can really start to understand what is going on in the acquired company before making changes.

The more that the use of BI is ingrained within the business the more effective the FM provider 28 | 13 MARCH 2014 | FM WORLD

26-28 Fit for business.indd 28

STEVE SAWYER

becomes because the focus turns to analysing the data and asking the right questions. How can we improve, what areas are the acquired business excelling in and what can we learn from them?

How can we better integrate their offering into our whole FM portfolio of services and is there any better way we can deliver these combined services that add value to the client and our own business?

Having access to meaningful information means that the FM provider is more inclined to analyse what they’re doing and how they can further differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Building client relationships When you can access information in an instant, the next step is to become more proactive with clients. This means providing live, graphical data on contract status for each site, from the number of calls being resolved to granular detail on what orders have been placed with suppliers and the quantity and cost per item, so both parties to drill down into the detail.

Pushing information out in this way, through interactive real-time dashboards, is not only professional. The transparency can help to build better business partnerships – essential considering that contract loss is one of the biggest risks. Fostering stronger relationships with clients and letting them see they can totally rely on your service provision means they are less likely to retender the contract. It also means FM providers can spend more time creating innovative propositions that better meet client needs. This can only strengthen their position as they grow their business, especially with increased competition for new contracts.

Business intelligence helps FM providers to take the guesswork out of their decisions and get their business in top shape, making it more effective as a whole. It’s about being agile, having the edge on the competition, responding to strategic trends as they occur and staying ahead of the game. Information is power – when it’s made meaningful. Having the right information at hand helps to drive better decision-making. Better decisions about how to improve contract management, better responses when tendering for new business, and overall better innovation in service provision and delivery. It’s decisions like these that ultimately will take a FM firm from the realms of ordinary to extraordinary in the value they ultimately deliver to the client. when tendering for new business, and overall better innovation in service provision and delivery. It’s decisions like these that ultimately will take a FM firm from the realms of ordinary to extraordinary in the value they ultimately deliver to the client. FM

“In an acquisitionhungry landscape you want to be sure that you have a solid methodology in place” www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 15:09

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FM MONITOR MELANIE STANCLIFFE

LEGAL UPDATE

Melanie Stancliffe, partner, Thomas Eggar LLP

F LEXIB LE WORK I N G: A L EGA L CH A N GE OR A CU LTU RAL CH A N GE?

he government may have delayed T implementing the wide-ranging Children and Families Bill, which is still undergoing amendments, but employers should be now be preparing for its impact on their businesses A seismic change to a business’s obligation to consider flexible working requests was due on 6 April. The government says the changes will not now come into force on this date, but has failed to stipulate when they will.

Currently, any employee with 26 weeks’ service can request – not require – to work flexibly to fulfil their caring responsibilities.

They must be making the request to care for a child under 17 years of age or for an adult in need of care and they are only allowed to make one request in any 12-month period. If the employee meets these requirements, his or her employer is obliged to follow a strictly timetabled procedure to consider the request. Once it receives the written request, an employer must:

1 Meet with the employee within 28 days of receipt of the application; 2 Write to the employee with a decision within 14 days of the meeting; 3 Allow the employee 14 days to appeal the decision; and 4 If the employee appeals agisnst the decision, hold a further meeting within 14 days of receiving the employee’s appeal and write to the employee with the appeal decision within 14 days of the appeal meeting.

This is set to radically change once the Children and Families 30 | 13 MARCH 2014 | FM WORLD

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Act becomes law. First, and most importantly, all employees will be entitled to request to work flexibly after they have completed 26 weeks’ employment.

That employees will no longer need to have any caring responsibilities will level the playing field between those with caring responsibilities and those without and if we are to believe the national press, dissipate the resentment of those colleagues who do not benefit from working flexibly. Whether for studying, pursuing sporting activities or a better work-life balance, an employee will be able to apply to their employer to change the hours they work, the time they work and the place they work and the employer must consider it.

In this economic climate a flood of requests is unlikely. It is to be expected that facilities managers will see increased use of the request process and more management time will be required to consider requests as there is a greater attempt by employees to challenge their working patterns.

Second, and this time to benefit of employers, there will be a removal of the rigid

procedure and time limits once the act becomes law. Instead, an employer will be required to deal with a flexible working request in a “reasonable manner” and to notify the employee of the decision within three months of the application. This can only be good news for employers who have failed to jump through the procedural hoops in time and faced paying a penalty of eight weeks of the employees’ pay. Care will still be required – employers may face difficult decisions where employees have lodged overlapping or competing requests to work flexibly and, of course, the spectre of making a decision that treats one employee unfavourably because they have a protected characteristic must still be considered.

Extending the right to request will normalise working on a more flexible basis. Just as a parent or carer’s request should not have been seen as unusual or audacious up until now, employers will come to expect applications to work outside of the 9 to 5. As a result, many employers will embrace flexibility for all their employees, where it fits the business model.

Some businesses are already flexing their approach because they have found that a more flexible workforce saves office costs and makes for better employment relations, staff retention, motivation and morale.

The universal right to request to work flexibly will

“An employee will be able to apply to their employer to change the hours they work, the time they work and the place they work”

remove perceptions of ”special treatment”. Because most of those making these requests under the current regime are mothers it will also be a positive step in combating discrimination against women in the workplace.

It will influence a change in workplace culture, not by compulsion, but because of the equal opportunity for all employees to have their requests considered.

Not every request must be accommodated once the law changes. An employer will still be able to refuse a request for eight business reasons:

1 The burden of additional costs; 2 Detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand; 3 Inability to reorganise work among existing staff; 4 Inability to recruit additional staff; 5 Detrimental impact on quality; 6 Detrimental impact on performance; 7 Insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work; and 8 Planned changes.

In practice, it will be harder to merely pay lip service because an employer will have to show it has given the request serious consideration. Also, as flexible working requests increase, an employer that routinely rejects requests will lose credibility with its workforce and be less attractive to potential recruits.

The Children and Families Act marks a balance between employee-friendly legislation and cutting red tape.

Brace yourselves – its influence over time will produce powerful results. FM www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 14:39

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03/03/2014 11:00

FM MONITOR MARTIN BUTTON

TECHNICAL

Martin Button, managing director, UK Vending

THE F U TU R E O F T H E V EN DI N G M ACH I N E

he future role of the vending machine in the midst of our burgeoning coffeeshop culture is a matter of debate. Here, Martin Button looks at how the market, and the functionality of the machines, is changing

T

The vending industry has a curious history and there has been vast growth during the long life span of vending machines, from ancient the Greeks dispensing holy water for coins to the fantastic singleserve technology now available in many workplaces.

The requirement of the 21st century dictates much of the new-age technology in these machines and the large range of products they now dispense.

The vending machine can easily be taken for granted.

Imagine not being able to grab a drink at a train station at any time of the day. Or not being able to start your day in the office with a comforting hot beverage at the click of a button.

In films or TV programmes you will often see a vending machine of some type, highlighting how much its use is taken for granted.

1⁄

The Market

A huge part of the vending market is hot drinks, and arguably, this is where we have seen the most growth in terms of both demand and technology. Over the past few years the consumer has changed habits when it comes to purchasing hot drinks; the demand for range and quality is now higher than ever. The continued growth of the coffee shop culture results in employees www.fm-world.co.uk

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making taste comparisons with the high-quality drinks they are buying from large chains. This has driven the standard of the office coffee machine to an all-time high.

Luxury drinks such as fresh-leaf teas, herbal teas, creamy lattes and even vast ranges of coffees are available at the touch of a but0ton and are very high in quality, taste and equally delivery.

The single-serve machine is the office hot drinks machine of choice; this hot drinks delivery method serves the freshest possible drinks straight from airtight foil packaging. It is the simplest to use, the cleanest and the easiest to maintain.

As for water machines and dispensers – organisations legally have to provide water facilities for staff and therefore the demand for the machines is very high in the market. If plumbed in, they must be fitted with a water filter. Having a water filter connected between the mains water supply and the machine limits limescale and therefore removes the thin layer of film from the top of the drink.

2⁄

Functionality and Design

The basic mechanics of many vending machines are the same as they have been for decades. As the old saying goes, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” and for a great number of machines in

the industry this is the case. One of the main changes made to vending machines during the years is the accepted payment methods. In a world where contactless payment cards, bar code readers and even biometric payment methods are becoming the norm, vending machines need to provide a platform to cater to these systems.

There is a huge range of payment methods that people opt for and consequently this technology has been dramatically brought forward.

This ranges from the basic card or cash payment to background databases with stored biometric details so customers in a school or office can pay with a touch of a finger. The old tried-andtrusted coin cash method is still very much the preferred option.

Location is key when installing a vending solution.

Having smaller compact machines in separate points of the space instead of one machine in one location creates a number of benefits, for example, convenience to the employee and reduced or no queues.

Modern offices and workplaces are becoming incredibly innovative; naturally, the vending industry is duty-bound to meet this demand and supply stylish machines that fit the location.

Beautifully sleek, well-lit and clean machines are now entering the market to meet the aesthetic demands of the workplace and many machines are looking futuristic. Machines are adopting subtle blue glows, space-age silvers and professional midnight blacks.

3⁄

Thinking of the world

We live in a world that is now recognising products for their environmentally friendly

efforts and qualities. This has influenced designers and manufacturers in the vending industry to incorporate improved power consumptions, energy efficient light bulbs and ecofriendly heating processes.

New-age machines are being developed with standby modes and other power-saving technologies that not only help the environment but also reduce power consumption and running costs for the owner.

Separately, the vending world is becoming very conscious of the product going into the machines.

This is far more manageable with hot drinks machines, therefore many drinks supplied for bean-tocup or single-serve machines are becoming Rainforest Alliance and UTZ Certified.

These certifications are committed to improving the lives of farmers, their families and the environment in the developing world and will contribute to solving the complex challenges facing the coffee, tea and cocoa supply chain.

4⁄

The future of vending

From our five decades in the industry we have made several predictions for the vending market of the future.

We believe the most significant changes will be the use of touchscreen technology. Although already in existence, This technology will become standard across coffee, water and snack machines. Such technology has been revolutionary over the past few years and taken over much to the computing market. It appears to be an obvious and natural progression within the vending industry. FM FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 33

06/03/2014 14:39

FM MONITOR JAMIE HARRIS

OVERVIEW COF F EE IN THE WO R K P L ACE

s well as a move towards more informal work environments and break-out areas, millennials (generation Y) want easy access to quality coffee in the workplace.

Jamie Harris reports

A

According to its report, NextGen: A global generational study, PricewaterhouseCoopers expects that almost 80 per cent of its own workforce will be Millennials by 2016. The phrase describes people born between 1980 and the early 2000s – workers with new demands on the workplace and how they want to work.

Employers are testing out what works best for this particular demographic. Remote working, for example, although some organisations, such as Yahoo!, have since implemented a ban on working from home.

For 20 per cent of their working week, employees of Google are able to work on projects of their own choosing, and it’s rumoured that Gmail and Google News came from such individual projects.

But as a this new generation of employees enters the employment there has been a visible shift in how the corporate workplace looks, feels and is used. Millennials want a more informal working environment in order to harness this creativity.

Cafeterias and break-out rooms are increasingly being used as informal meeting spaces; places to work in, rather than just places to chat and eat.

The growth of in-house coffee houses is also part of this trend.

Such outlets not only have the potential to further increase 34 | 13 MARCH 2014 | FM WORLD

34-35 Monitor.indd 34

productivity levels, but they also offer financial benefits.

From bean to cup The UK is fast-becoming a coffee-loving nation, but this not a new phenomenon. The first coffee house in England was opened in 1652 in Oxford. Costa Coffee’s first store opened on Vauxhall Bridge Road in London in 1978. You may be surprised to learn that Starbucks didn’t reach British shores until 1998.

In 2001, according to Jeffrey Young, managing director at research organisation Allegra a considerable amount of time Strategies, there were 1,382 spent out of the office. branded coffee chains in the UK. John Broad, training and In 2013 that number rose to an development manager at estimated 5,531 outlets.

Ringtons Beverages, a supplier of Last year, one in five coffee and machinery, coffee shop visitors sees the extended time visited coffee shops away from the desk as every day, according to a problem. The solution, research from Allegra believes Broad, is to Strategies. An estimated bring the coffee closer to 1.7 billion cups of coffee the office.

2001 a year are consumed in “Providing quality the UK. beverages on-site for BRANDED With outlet growth in staff reduces the number COFFEE the industry at 5.9 per of employees leaving CHAINS cent, Allegra predicts the building and buying IN THE UK that the UK coffee shop coffee elsewhere. market will exceed Businesses find this 2013 20,000 outlets (of which reduces downtime as 7,000 will be branded) staff aren’t leaving the BRANDED and a turnover of £8.7 building for as long, or COFFEE billion by 2018. at all, and are therefore CHAINS That’s a lot of coffee, not losing momentum.”

IN THE UK as well as adding up to Ben Forbes, marketing

1,382

5,531

director at Sodexo, believes that the market for coffee will always be healthy.

“The hot beverage traditional vending market has contracted over recent years as more people are embracing the growing high street trend for fresh bean-to-cup coffee. Even through the recession of the last few years, we have noticed that the one thing people were not cutting back on was their daily treat of a quality coffee.”

However, simply providing a pot of coffee in the kitchen or a coffee vending machine may no longer suffice, according to Simon Esner, director at BaxterStorey. He puts the shift from vending machine coffee to manned outlets down to the demand for a better-quality product.

“Vending machines might www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 16:43

COFFEE

Jamie Harris, FM World reporter

A franchised outlet can also be a money-spinner. Prices at in-house coffee houses are generally much cheaper than on the high street and they will still yield a profit.

Finding a suitable location in the building can be tricky, particularly with floor space at a premium. Larger organisations may use their atrium as an open-plan outlet. But others have simply installed a coffee cart – a standalone kiosk – from which workers can grab a drink to go.

King Charles II tried to ban them – but we”re now a nation of coffee-house lovers

PETE SEARLE

“More people are embracing the growing high street trend for fresh bean-to-cup coffee. Even through the recession we have noticed that the one thing people were not cutting back on was their daily treat of a quality coffee”

Vending previously have been an office staple, but they’ve fallen out of favour after failing to offer the same quality and value for money that a barista can. A barista can consistently deliver great coffee in a way that a vending machine can’t. A great coffee doesn’t just come from how the bean has been roasted – it is also due to the barista and maintenance of the machine – factors a vending machine cannot account for.

“However, with the rise of in-house baristas, it is essential that providers realise the importance of maintaining and exceeding high standards. It’s our job as a service provider to offer something more than the high street, and it’s our responsibility to ensure maximum usage of our client’s real estate.” www.fm-world.co.uk

34-35 Monitor.indd 35

Installing a branded coffee that can cost as little as 15p. outlet is not essential to provide Some systems even use fresh quality coffee, says Broad. He milk and loose tea so you get has seen a recent surge in the an even higher standard of popularity of fresh-brew and product.” bean-to-cup machines Karl Atkins, retail in his business. director at Compass “Using fresh coffee Group UK & Ireland, beans ground to order believes that the to produce a fresh and increased quality superior-quality coffee vending options ALLEGRA is increasingly popular. available in the retail PREDICTS “Although this sector are set to make THAT THE machinery and the their way into the UK COFFEE SHOP MARKET workplace as a more coffee itself can cost WILL EXCEED a little more than affordable option. instant coffee you can “Hot beverage OUTLETS consequently charge vending machines are AND A more for a cup. It’s TURNOVER OF developing rapidly,” fairly common practice says Atkins. The large to charge upward of high street coffee £1 for a good-quality chains retailers are BY 2018 vending machine capitalising on the beverage, which gives awareness of their a great return on a cup brands and reaching

20,000 £8.7 billion

out to new markets through the use of these machines.

“We expect that there will be an exponential rise in the number of these machines on the high street over the next 12 months – in supermarkets and office buildings too,” adds Atkins.

Caffeine nation A supply of high quality coffee in close proximity to those who want access to it in their workplaces is arguably a greater priority than providing hot meals in-house.

Smart organisations seeking to cater for all generations are taking advantage of the nation’s caffeine addiction not only to make a profit, but more importantly to turn the workplace into a more informal and productive environment. FM FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 35

06/03/2014 16:44

FM MONITOR MARKET INTELLIGENCE

INSIGHT

The figures on this page have been compiled from several sources and are intended as a guide to trends. FM World declines any responsibility for the use of this information.

ECONOMY

SICKNESS ABSENCE IN THE LABOUR MARKET FOR 2013

VAT rates: Standard rate – 20% (from 4 January 2011) Reduced rate – 5% Zero rate – this is not the same as exempt or outside the scope of VAT

Although minor illnesses were the most common reason given for sickness absence from work in 2013, more working days were lost through back, neck and muscle pain than any other cause.

The overwhelming reason given for sickness absence last year, accounting for 30 per cent, was minor respiratory illnesses.

These tend to have shorter durations and accounted for about 27.4 million days lost.

But the greatest number of days lost were because of musculoskeletal problems in 2013 – at 30.6 million days lost.

Mental health problems such as stress, depression and anxiety (but excluding serious mental

Bank of England base rate: 0.5% as of 6 March 2014.

The previous change in bank rate was a reduction of 0.5 percentage points to 0.5% on 5 March 2009.

Source: Bank of England (bankofengland.co.uk)

Consumer Price Index (CPI): The Consumer Price Index (CPI) annual inflation fell to 1.9% in the year to January 2014, down from 2.0% in December 2013. The rate fell below the Bank of England’s 2% target for the first time in four years. The fall in the rate resulted from price movements for recreational goods & services, furniture & household goods and alcoholic beverages & tobacco.

Source: Office for National Statistics

200

NUMBER OF WORKING DAYS LOST

National Minimum Wage NOTE: The following rates came into effect on 1 October 2013: Category of worker

Hourly rate from 1 Oct 2013

Aged 21 and above

£6.31

Aged 18 to 20 inclusive

£5.03

Aged under 18 (but above compulsory school age)

£3.68

Apprentice rate, for apprentices under 19 or 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship

£2.65

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36_Insight.indd 36

2013 4.4 DAYS PER WORKER

2013: DAYS BY REASON MUSCULOSKELETAL PROBLEMS 31M (BACK AND NEXK PROBLEMS) MINOR ILLNESSES 27M (COUGHS AND COLDS) STRESS/ANXIETY/DEPRESSION 15M

150

125

100 93

95

ENERGY CONSUMPTION

97

99

01

03

05

07

09

11

13

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY DATA BUILDING OUTPUT FOR Q4 OF 2013

ENERGY CONSUMPTION BY END USER , MILLION TONNES OIL EQUIVALENT 2012

Commercial properties, excluding factories – and the activities within them – account for about 8.25 per cent of the UK’s energy consumption.

Other non-domestic buildings – such as schools and hospitals – add about 4.75 per cent to this.

Transport and domestic uses are by far the largest sources of energy consumption.

Energy consumption in commercial, other non-domestic buildings and residential properties increased in 2012, having fallen the year before, and this variation is put down to the extreme weather experienced by many areas of the country.

The seasonally adjusted estimate of construction output in Q4 2013 is thought to have risen by 0.2 per cent when compared with Q3 2013. During this time there was an increase in the volume of new work of 0.7 per cent, but a decrease in repair and maintenance work of 0.5 per cent.

Construction output in December 2013 is estimated to be 2.0 per cent higher in comparison with November 2013. The pattern seen in the quarterly data is repeated in the monthly data, with new work showing growth (3.4 per cent) alongside a fall repair and maintenance output (0.2 per cent).

When comparing the 2013 annual data with 2012, the output of the industry is estimated to have risen by 1.3 per cent (£1.49 billion). During these 12 months new work increased 2.4 per cent (£1.62 billion), but there was a slight fall in repair and maintenance of 0.3 per cent (£0.14 billion).

The estimated annual volume of construction in 2013 of £112.6 billion is 3.9 per cent higher than that recorded in 2009, 12.2 per cent below its 2007 peak (£128.2 billion). Output fell 1.0 per cent in Q1, but grew steadily to show three consecutive quarters of growth for the first time since Q3 2010.

Source: British Council for Offices

Source: Office for National Statistics

11.5

6.6

43.2

53.2

24.3

1.8

Industry (including factory buildings)

Other

Source: (www.ons.gov.uk)

EMPLOYMENT

1993 7.2 DAYS PER WORKER

175 MILLIONS

Source: HM Treasury (hmrc.gov.uk)

health conditions such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia) also contributed to a significant number of days of work lost over the year, at 15.2 million days.

Activities in Activities in Domestic Transport commercial other non- consumption domestic property property (excluding industry and transport and distibution)

www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 14:17

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

Driving energy efficiency Bill Wright, ECA Head of Energy Solutions says new company obligations will boost the role of building services We are starting to see the effects of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive, which came in at the end of 2012, on the UK commercial and public energy efficiency markets.

EU member states are required to implement their own legislation by 5 June 2014 and this is likely to influence the role of building services professionals as organisations look to this community to help them meet statutory obligations.

METERING AND RETROFIT The first requirement is that all consumers should have access to information on their energy use – the job of the UK smart metering programme.

Organisations that are heavy users of energy should have extensive metering installed already, but businesses of all sizes will be encouraged to install energy metering systems to comply with Building Regulations.

EU states must also establish a longterm strategy for the energy efficiency retrofit of existing commercial buildings.

All publicly owned buildings must lead with improvements at a rate of 3 per cent of floor area per year from this year. This is a large and potentially expensive project that should deliver a good deal of work for building services providers.

AUDITS Regular energy audits will also be required to identify areas of improvement and document progress, with all ‘large businesses’ needing an energy audit at least every four years.

The scope and content of these audits, as well as the requisite qualifications for energy auditors, are now being agreed, however, the first audits will need to be carried out by the end of 2015, so we expect definitive detail very soon.

This pushes energy efficiency up the priority list and could result in major energy efficiency work for companies, who will have to publish their results and state the steps they are taking to implement recommendations made in the report.

www.fm-world.co.uk

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ESCOS Member states are also required to encourage the creation of ESCos, Energy Services Companies, who work with clients to help them manage their energy usage, reduce costs and comply with legal obligations. This market is very well established in Europe and beginning to take off in the UK. Many ESCos provide a complete service, covering all aspects of the company’s energy use, including paying bills, acting as a consultant on energy improvements, providing energy efficiency services, maintenance and monitoring new measures.

Smaller service companies may get involved providing energy management and

Building services contractors you can trust For the gold standard, hire an ECA member on your building project: • Work guaranteed by ECA • Thoroughly vetted • Rigorously inspected and tested • Working to the latest standards • Safety compliant and/or SSIP assessed • Adhere to ECA’s Code of Fair Trading • Full support & backing of the ECA Visit www.eca.co.uk to find ECA contractors

implementation services rather than the full finance option.

GET READY The dsirective will have a significant impact on the UK energy market; organisations and building service professionals need to be aware of its potential reach.

Clients and specifiers can join ECA for free for access to our expert advice and guidance on a range of topics from energy efficiency installations and management to retrofit projects.

We offer vital web tools designed to make your job easier, including an energy saving calculator and simple energy audit checklist.

based in your area Join ECA for free as a client associate • Free technical helpline • Free H&S advice • Free subscription to ECA Today magazine • ECA website login for exclusive member-only content • Access to ECA’s BIM and Energy Solutions e-forums • Discounted BSI and IET publications • Preferential rates on training Call ECA Membership on 020 7313 4800 or visit www.eca.co.uk/client quoting FMWorld5

FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 37

06/03/2014 16:00

BIFM NEWS BIFM.ORG.UK

BIFM Scotland region hosts its first CMME at the Royal Bank of Scotland Business School at its global HQ in Edinburgh SCOTLAND

CMME event The BIFM Scotland region hosts its first Corporate Member Monthly Event on 26 March at The Royal Bank of Scotland Business School, which is in its global HQ in Gogarburn, Edinburgh.

Although heralded as a corporate occasion, this free event is designed to inform organisations and individual members in the Scotland region about ways in which they can work with and engage with BIFM. James Sutton, BIFM’s chief operating officer, will discuss BIFM strategy and how the institute supports organisations and individuals across the UK, as well as highlighting some new initiatives that are being or have been developed.

The Scotland region chair, Michael Kenny, will highlight the committee’s plans for 2014 and beyond, and discuss ways to engage staff across the region, including site visits, conferences and exhibitions, and awards.

This event will also give delegates the chance to network with peers to discuss key issues, as well as giving the opportunity to meet BIFM head office and regional representatives. The agenda for the evening includes: ● 6pm: Networking with welcome drinks/food ● 6.45pm: Opening address from James Sutton, BIFM COO ● 6.55pm: Michael Kenny, regional chair ● 7.15pm: Networking with drinks/food ● 8.30pm: Close BFIM would like to thank RBS for sponsoring the evening by providing the location and BaxterStorey for providing the hospitality. i For further details visit www.bifm.org.uk/cmme or email jimmy.gilchrist@ gpplantscape.com.

38 | 13 MARCH 2014 | FM WORLD

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RISING FMs

FM GUIDANCE

Bad weather stumps FMs GRITIT, the UK’s leading winter gritting and snow clearance company, has produced a new guide to help businesses establish a more proactive approach to coping with extreme weather.

The guide is in response to the results of recent research, commissioned in association with BIFM, which found that 78 per cent of respondents (predominantly UK facilities and maintenance managers) believe that UK businesses fail to prepare adequately for unpredictable winter weather.

Surprisingly, despite this, 85 per cent of industry professionals do not intend to change their winter risk management plans.

Even though severe weather was identified as the top cause of disruption for businesses for three years running1, the research also highlighted that 41 per cent of personnel receive no training to respond to the effects of adverse weather, such as ice and snow. Instead, some maintenance staff are expected to possess this know-how instinctively.

What’s more, businesses face mounting costs from loss of business owing to closure as a result of adverse weather, as well as untold costs because of reputational damage.

According to the Health & Safety Executive (2H&SE), liability claims related to slips and trips in the workplace are also on the increase, and 38 per cent of respondents to the recent research admitted to two or more ‘slip and trip’ incidents in 2012.

The guide goes on to point out that half of respondents did not have their risk management plans assessed by their insurer, explaining why only five per cent of respondents had seen a fall in their insurance premiums.

For a copy of ‘Your guide to winter preparation’ visit www.gritit.com. i 1 Weathering the storm – the 2013 Business Continuity Management Survey, Chartered Management Institute, March 2013. 2 H&SE, 2013 http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/ causinj/slips-trips-and-falls.pdf

KEEP IN TOUCH » Network with the BIFM @ www.networkwithbifm.org.uk » Twitter @BIFM_UK » LinkedIn » Facebook » YouTube » Flickr

Akin departs Claire Akin, chair of the Rising FMs special interest group, is stepping down from the role. She has been on the committee since 2010, and chair from 2012.

During her tenure she has been a strong driving force behind the group, working to promote FM as a career of choice. Rising FMs are aimed at potential, new and existing participants within the FM profession to provide practical careers advice: CPD learning, development and networking opportunities for those looking to progress their career within FM, regardless of age or experience.

Under her stewardship the Rising FMs committee won BIFM Special Interest Group of the Year in 2012 and 2013. BIFM would like to thank Claire for her contribution to the institute and the development of the profession. Sajna Rahman, deputy chair of Rising FMs, will be acting chair until an AGM is held where a new chair will be formally appointed.

KNOWLEDGE

Safety first Simply Safety is the first book to collate all available guidance and significant legislation into one publication. It also demonstrates www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 16:00

Please send your news items to communications@bifm.org.uk or call +44 (0)1279 712 620

what is required to manage a small to medium-sized business.

It is written by Robert Greenfield, group director of safety, health, environmental and quality for GSH Group plc, and Michael JW Morgan, managing director of Safety Action Services Ltd. Robert is a past deputy chair of BIFM and current chair of the BIFM Health & Safety Specialist Interest Group. Michael is deputy chair of the SIG. Employers and FMs are taken through straightforward stages to assure legal compliance in their workplace. As safety practitioners, the authors have come up against the many pitfalls of health and safety, and Simply Safety imparts their knowledge and experience.

Its key points are to: Enable employers to fulfil their health and safety duties; ● Achieve a high level of compliance; ● Keep staff, visitors and members of the public safe; ● Reduce costs of accidents and downtime; ● Improve staff morale; and ● Protect the reputation of your organisation’s brand name. ●

Simply Safety will be updated every six months in hard copy or e-format for Kindle. i BIFM members can buy the book at a discount at https://createspace. com/4165974, password ‘BIFM Discount’. Members need to enter ‘ZHST4ZT5’ as the discount code.

Members can also purchase a Kindle e-book version, which offers considerable savings.

LONDON

Boat trip Lancaster Cleaning, Class 1 Personnel and Wilmott Dixon Interiors have signed up to sponsor the annual London region boat trip.

Held on the HMS Belfast in July, this is always fully booked with a long waiting list. Last year www.fm-world.co.uk

38-40_BIFM news.indd 39

BIFM COMMENT

James Sutton, chief operating officer, BIFM

THE WORKPLACE AND BEYOND

here are numerous conversations taking place in a variety of forums about the changing nature of the workplace. It’s something that came through strongly at the Workplace Futures conference in early February and a subject that isn’t going to go away soon.

We believe that FM sits at the heart of this evolution, but if we are going to begin to demonstrate our true value to organisations and wider society, we need to be sure that we are involved in the broader conversations that take place outside of our profession.

And we need to follow this up with tangible evidence demonstrating FM’s impact.

This is something that we were keen to reflect when we launched our updated strategy last October. If we are going to position FM as being essential for business, economic and social prosperity, then we need to be involved in broader conversations rather than talking to ourselves.

At BIFM we are keen to demonstrate that FM touches so much in everyone’s daily lives and therefore has a huge influence on the wider world. It is when you take a step back and assess the environment in which we all live our lives that you realise how farreaching and important our profession is. But it is not FMs we need to convince of this impact.

At BIFM we want to support the profession in the broader conversations that are taking place within industry. To highlight the impact FM has on a company’s productivity, efficiency, risk management, employee engagement, customer experience and how it represents its brand inside and out.

Nowhere will this be more evident than at our ThinkFM conference on the 13 May 2014. In the past we have focused on bringing the leading thinkers in our industry together to talk about best practice and latest trends in FM. But this year we are taking a slight change of direction and have worked hard with our headline sponsors, Workplace Law, to bring you a cross-section of people from different sectors, specialisms and backgrounds so that we can view FM from a number of different perspectives.

We’ll hear from those who can discuss FM’s impact on people management, finance, energy, diversity, inclusion and social mobility. We’ll discuss the future of our profession as the lines blur between different functions in an organisation and we’ll still have a healthy dose of our peers talking about how they do what they do.

ThinkFM will also play host to the premiere of our FM TV programme, created in association with ITN Productions.

It will be a day that not only helps us do our jobs better on a daily basis but also discusses, digests and celebrates the contribution our profession makes to the bigger picture.

I’m certainly looking forward to it and I hope to see as many of you as possible there on the day.

T

“WE NEED TO BE SURE THAT WE ARE INVOLVED IN THE BROADER CONVERSATIONS GOING ON OUTSIDE OF OUR PROFESSION”

i Learn more about ThinkFM at www.thinkfm.com. The website includes speaker and session details, online booking and details of the new ThinkFM app.

FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 39

06/03/2014 16:00

BIFM NEWS BIFM.ORG.UK

more than 200 FM professionals gathered to network. The 2014 date and booking details will be announced soon. Tickets cost £30 each and entry includes one drink, a hot and cold buffet and entertainment.

The sponsors: ● Lancaster Cleaning & Support Services has a reputation for cleaning excellence, value and personal care. It has a strong presence in the City of London, the West End and Canary Wharf. The company cherishes professionalism, leadership, reliability, trustworthiness, positive attitude, flexibility and initiative in its colleagues.

The training academy ensures that colleagues have the right competencies and a route for continuing development. Staff engagement is measured annually in the colleague engagement survey, Your Voice Counts, enabling Lancaster to improve engagement and aid retention by specific contract, even location and line manager.

Class 1 Personnel specialises in the supply of temporary and permanent staff to more than 13 different sectors including FM, industrial, driving, transport/ logistics and catering/hospitality through its three London offices.

It services some of the most prestigious names in the industry.

The growth of the company is down to the knowledge and skill of its operatives and loyalty of its customers. Its approach to recruitment means it will not make promises it cannot deliver and keeps recruitment simple by trying to exceed expectations. ●

Willmott Dixon Interiors is a fit-out and refurbishment specialist providing services and solutions nationwide with project values ranging between £250,000 to £30 million. The ●

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company’s diverse expertise spans private and public sector projects, including offices, hotels, retail, leisure and higher and further education facilities. It is committed to excellence and achieving consistently high value, high performance for all clients.

SOUTH YORKSHIRE

Workplace SIG On 20 March the BIFM workplace special interest group hosts a free event at Sheffield Hallam University, asking: “How ready is your organisation for changes to its workspace?“ Organisations might perceive a need for new workspaces for a variety of reasons, and there are all sorts of potential design possibilities. But what if we were able to pause to reflect on whether we are ready to embrace such changes? What should readiness entail? What if we could use this idea to channel our FM energy and resources more effectively to increase the likelihood of successful changes to our workspaces?

Join the SIG and Sheffield & South Yorkshire group to discuss, network and participate in a live data capture exercise using an innovative new framework. You will: Learn about the challenges of approaching workspace change; gain insight into a pragmatic tool to help you self-diagnose and prioritise your organisational workspace changes; participate in a ‘live’ data capture research event (using TurningPoint technology) to explore the notion of ‘readiness’ more broadly; and consider the genuine strategic organisational contribution of FM. The event is hosted by Sheffield Hallam University and sponsored by TSK Group.

BIFM members can register for this free event at https://www. eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-ready-isyour-organisation-for-changes-toits-workspace-tickets-10411319537

BIFM TRAINING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR FMs: HOW TO USE AND MANAGE THIS ESSENTIAL COMMUNICATION TOOL EFFECTIVELY

ocial media is revolutionising the way businesses and people communicate. From instant, very public feedback and comments, organisations and individuals are adjusting to a new way of connecting with the world around them.

FM is still an emerging market with a relatively poor track record in marketing and communications. Social media is a challenge for companies still working out how to describe themselves and what they want to say. Effective use of social media requires a different approach, but companies shouldn’t lose sight of communication and marketing basics, including simple messaging, brand consistency and knowing your audience. If FM providers and individuals using social media tools keep these in sight they can exploit the power of social media to enhance their profile, cement relationships with customers and employees, and gain invaluable feedback on their products and services.

Best practice for effective use of social media covers five key areas:

S

Content: Move away from publishing information and instead get involved in conversations with peers and customers. Consider photos and videos above text comments as they are more likely to be shared or liked. ● Timing: Research shows that it’s best to email early in the day, tweet late in the day and don’t forget the weekends for both Twitter and Facebook. ● Audience: Create an audience by creating interesting content, putting social media links prominently on your organisation’s website and incentivising existing fans and followers to share material. Follow, befriend or engage industry commentators. ● Maintenance: Understand that although the channels are free, you need time and resources to create content and manage interactions. Maintaining the initial enthusiasm for social media is half the battle. ● Measurement and evaluation: The key to measuring success is setting goals. If awareness is the key goal, you might look to show increased brand mentions in social media or a greater share of the online voice and so on. If sales was the goal your website traffic data might help you to track a rise in visits, a reduction in paid search costs and so on.

A new one-day course to provide delegates with a comprehensive introduction to using and managing social media in the facilities management sector – at both individual and organisational level – runs on 30 April or 17 September 2014. ●

For further information or to book call 020 7404 4440 or email info@bifm-training.co.uk

www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 16:01

FM DIARY

Send details of your event to editorial@fm–world.co.uk or call 020 7880 6229

INDUSTRY EVENTS

CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP

18-19 March | IFMA Facility Fusion 2014 A high-level facilities management education, leadership training, industry-specific best practices and all-inclusive expo.

Venue: Ottawa, Canada Contact: Visit www.facilityfusion. ifma.org/ottawa

26 March | The evolution of the FM professional - enabling business From 6pm. The purpose of this event is to bring together industry leading employers, business leaders and FM professionals to discuss the challenges of equipping individuals with the core skills, expertise and knowledge.

Venue: The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU Contact: John Nahar at john.nahar@bifm.org.uk

7-10 April | Ergonomics and human factors 2014 Organised by the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors.

Full programme to be confirmed.

Venue: The Grand Harbour Hotel, Southampton Contact: Visit www.ehf2014.org.uk 13 May | ThinkFM 2014 - the workplace and beyond Speakers at the ThinkFM conference will include Professor John Hinks, global head of innovation, CRE and FM, Zurich Insurance; Lord Redesdale, CEO at the Energy Managers Association; and Nicholas Holgate, joint chief executive, London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Venue: Kings Place, London N1 9AG Contact: www.thinkfm.com 14-16 May | British Council for Offices annual conference The 2014 Conference will focus on discovering new ways to create modern and innovative work environments. Speakers include Richard Kauntze, chief executive at the BCO, Isabel Oakeshott, political editor at The Sunday Times, Dr Gerard Lyons, chief economic adviser to the Mayor of London, and Martin Vander Weyer, business editor at The Spectator.

Venue: ICC, Birmingham Contact: Visit www.bco.org.uk 17-19 June | Facilities Show 2014 – 15 years at the heart of the FM industry Organised in association with the BIFM, Facilities Show has established itself as the top meeting place for the industry. Opportunities to connect with peers and colleagues, see solutions from more than 400 suppliers and gain insight from influential industry experts.

Venue: ExCeL London, 1 Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock, London E16 1XL Contact: Visit facilitiesshow.com

41 | 27www.fm-world.co.uk FEBRUARY 2014 | FM WORLD

41_Diary.indd 41

CHANNEL ISLANDS REGION 2 April | Guernsey careers fayre More details to be announced soon.

Venue: Beau Sejour, St Peter Port Contact: Chris Robins at chris.robins@specsavers.com NORTH REGION 19 March | One man’s muck is another man’s brass From 8am. Organised with North region, sustainability and retail special interest groups. Includes a food waste presentation by Mitie and Yorkshire Water, Hallmark’s CSR manager on waste revenue and a sustainability sig update.

Venue: Hallmark Cards, Dawson Land, Bradford BD4 7HW. Contact: Sue Gott at sue.gott@hallmark.com or visit www. tinyurl.com/lkebt2b SCOTLAND REGION 26 March | Corporate members – meet the Scotland Region committee From 6pm, including BIFM COO James Sutton on BIFM strategy and Scotland regional chair Michael Kenny highlighting the committee’s 2014 plans.

Venue: The Royal Bank of Scotland Business School, RBS Global HQ, 175 Glasgow Road, Gogarburn, Edinburgh, EH12 9BH Contact: Jimmy Gilchrist at jimmy. gilchrist@gpplantscape.com or call 07721 556646

executive Gareth Tancred on BIFM plans for 2014. A panel discussion follows.

Venue: Croke Park, Jones Road, Dublin 3 Contact: Aoife Cooling at aoife_cooling@mastercard.com

Venue: Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus Atrium level 2 (via main entrance) Owen building, Sheffield S1 1WB Contact: Ian Ellison at i.ellison@ shu.ac.uk or book at www.tinyurl. com/q9ghage

SOUTH REGION

25 March | Improving sustainability via behaviour change: FM industry and research perspectives From 5.30pm. Speakers include Professor Susan Michie, ‘Introducing the UCL Centre for Behaviour Change’, and Richard Jackson, ‘A waste and recycling project with a focus on behaviour change’.

Venue: Drayton B20 Jevons (Lecture Theatre) University College London 30 Gordon St London WC1H 0AY Contact: Simon Grinter at simon. grinter@london.gov.uk

18 March | Does gender make a difference in the workplace Tim Oldman, CEO at Leesman, explores the different needs of women in the workplace compared with those of men. From 5.30pm.

Venue: BUPA, Victory House, Trafalgar Place, Brighton, Sussex, BN1 4FY Contact: Victoria O’Farrell at viccam@me.com or book at wifmandsouthern.eventbrite.co.uk 26 March | Legionnaire health and safety Evolution Water Services is to run a portion of its course material that will be beneficial to BIFM members. Followed by a question and answer session.

Venue: Specsavers, Forum 6, Solent Business Park, Whiteley, Hampshore PO15 7PA Contact: Email Ian Fielder at ian.r.fielder@gmail.com 30 April | Benchmarking: Tool or torture?

A debate on benchmarking.

Why do so few organisations use benchmarking tools?

Venue: Chichester – TBA Contact: Email Ian Fielder at ian.r.fielder@gmail.com SOUTH WEST REGION 14 March | Quarterly training day – FM strategy Talks from Frank Morris at F1 Impact, Lucy Jeynes at Larch Consulting and Tony Jay at Wales Millennium Centre. Speakers in the morning session are followed by an afternoon interactive workshop.

Venue: Bristol Hilton Hotel, Woodlands Lane, Bradley Stoke, Bristol BS32 4JF Contact: Email Richard Greaves at richardgreaves@voomeroon.co.uk or visit www.tinyurl.com/pm6zlyn

SOUTHERN IRELAND REGION SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS 31 March | Challenges of sustainability in FM seminar From 9am. Presentations from Alan Gallagher, head of operations at Croke Park; Peter Jones, head of FM EMEA at CBRE, and BIFM chief

20 March | How ready is your organisation for changes to its workspace? Workplace SIG Presentation on the challenges of approaching workspace change.

3 April | Women in FM - Miss Representation screening Meet at 5.30pm for a 6pm start. Screening of the 2011 documentary film, followed by a panel discussion.

Venue: Mace Group, 155 Moorgate, London EC2M 6VB Contact: Email Debra.Ward@ macemacro.com 9 April | International - Global research on wellbeing in the workplace Details TBC Venue: Steelcase’s London office.

Contact: Claire Sellick at clairesellick@btinternet.com 9 April | Risk & Business Continuity - Business resilience forum Speaker presentations covering emergency services liaison, business continuity plan testing and firearms incidents.

Venue: DSM Work Area Recovery Facility, The Old Hangar, Sibson near Peterborough PE8 6NE Contact: Visit tinyurl.com/ bifmresiliance 28 May | Sustainability and the south region – People in FM and sustainability Understanding the issues around training, education, HR and sustainability.

Venue: Pall Europe, Unit 5, Harbour Gate Business Park, Southampton Road, Portsmouth PO6 4BQ Contact: Email Ian Fielder at ian.r.fielder@gmail.com FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 41 www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 14:17

Appointments

Call the sales team on 020 7324 2755 or email jobs@fm-world.co.uk For full media information take a look at www.fm-world.co.uk/mediapack

Technical Services Manager x2 • • •

1 to be based at Woburn Forest - MK45 2HZ | 1 to be based at Elveden Forest - IP27 OYZ Circa £50K pa, plus 19% Annual Bonus, Relocation Assistance and Benefits 160 Hours per 4 Week Period

Center Parcs people have one thing in common: we come together to work hard and with a sense of purpose, bringing the best of ourselves to create wonderful and memorable experiences for our guests in the great outdoors.

We have two immediate exciting opportunities to join the Senior Management Teams at our new Woburn Forest Village opening Spring 2014 and at our Elveden Forest Village where you will be responsible for leading a team of five Departmental Managers, Technicians and Grounds personnel, providing technical, maintenance, project management and grounds support to accommodation units, restaurants, retail units, sports activity units, Spa and swimming pools as well as over 365 acres of forest.

As a potential candidate, you will have at least 5 years previous experience of managing a sizeable technical team within a dynamic organisation, particularly improving quality standards and motivating employees to improve their performance. You will be a strong manager who challenges convention and always looks to improve processes. You will have gained at least 5 years technical/hard FM management experience in a leisure, retail, hospitality or other comparably complex environment and you will have an appropriate trade qualifications preferably in M&E or Building Services to at least ONC/HNC level. Experience of managing CHP units, Biomass boilers, District heating systems, commercial boilers and large M&E infrastructure will be a distinct advantage.

You will monitor guest satisfaction levels on the maintenance of the village and take action to remedy shortfalls, whilst ensuring your division operates within its agreed budget. You will play a key role in the Village’s compliance with Fire, Health and Safety legislation and energy reduction. This role offers you the opportunity to contribute to the control and quality management of the entire Village and the organisation as a whole. You will be required to fulfil Village Duty Management responsibilities on a rota basis.

At Center Parcs, we want our people to share in the success their hard work brings, enjoy a sense of wellbeing and a good lifestyle, and make the most of their time with us. We offer unique benefits such as discounted Center Parcs breaks, day visitor passes and free use of village facilities along with more classic benefits such as profit share and management bonus schemes, life insurance cover, 30 days annual leave (inclusive of bank holidays) and company sick pay.

Closing Date: Noon on 26th March.

Apply online at www.centerparcscareers.co.uk, and choose location(s) you wish to apply for.

There are various other roles available at our villages via our website.

Centerparcs Banner.indd 1 42 | 13 MARCH 2014 | FM WORLD

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06/03/2014 11:48 jobs.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 14:38

London FM opportunities FM Principal Associate London • To £75,000 + package One of the leading FM consultancies in the industry requires an Account Principal Associate to work within the Healthcare team. As the Account Principal, you will be responsible for the delivery of client outcomes through service delivery and sales.

The role is a combination of FM consulting, service delivery management and sector sales within the health market. This is a new senior position within the consultancy where you will be fast tracked into a leadership position within the wider business. Our client is offering a competitive remuneration for this new opportunity.

Ref: 248711

Estate Manager - Prestigious Portfolio London • £50,000-£55,000 A rare opportunity has arisen for an experienced Estate Manager to take ownership of a premier portfolio of 18 properties in the heart of central London, encompassing multi-tenanted office and luxury retail. This position requires an individual capable of balancing the demands of a multiproperty portfolio along with being the on-site contact for the client. You will manage two operations managers along with an outsourced supply chain across hard and soft services delivery.

The successful applicant will come from a managing agent background, and will have previously managed a high profile estate of commercial and retail tenants Ref: 215391

Offices globally www.cobaltrecruitment.com Please apply for any of the above roles by emailing apply@cobaltrecruitment.com or call 0207 478 2500 to speak with Claudio Rojas or David Bremner quoting the relevant reference number.

PLAN YOUR NEXT MOVE

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Go to www.fm-world.co.uk/jobs jobs.fm-world.co.uk

RECR_FMW130314.indd 047

FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 43

06/03/2014 14:39

FM PEOPLE MOVERS & SHAKERS

BEHIND

DATA

THE JOB

MARK BELL

TOPIC TRENDS

NAME: Mark Bell JOB TITLE: Senior facilities manager ORGANISATION: Facebook JOB DESCRIPTION: Working within the EMEA real estate team to create flexible working environments and to maintain all our hard and soft FM services

If you could give away one of your responsibilities to an unsuspecting colleague, what would it be?

My admin, expenses, etc. It’s always at the bottom of my “to do” list.

If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?

I would like to see smaller businesses win more FM contracts instead of the large TFM companies out there. You tend to get a better and more personal service from the SMBs.

What attracted you to the job?

Any interesting tales to tell?

The company – Facebook has changed the way the world communicates and I’m proud to be a part of that. It’s a great place to work; everyone is empowered to make a positive difference from entrylevel positions to the senior management.

I am currently working with the world-renowned architect Frank Gehry and his team to design the new Facebook London office. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

An “IT guy“, I guess. At college I was studying There are so many it’s hard to chose one. I guess computer networking before I it would have to be the fully got into FM. subsidised canteen. The catering YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE ... staff at Facebook do a fantastic Which “FM myth” would you job serving up amazing food “At Facebook the bar is set so high most like to put an end to? every day for the entire office. that you need to be on top of your Facilities do a lot more than just How did you get into regulate the office temperature. game to deliver a service that adds value to the office”

How do you think facilities management has changed in the past five years?

I stumbled into the industry really. Whilst studying I started working part-time as an office junior (making cups of tea, filing, photocopying, etc.). After a few months I was offered a job as a facilities assistant at the head office and that was the first time I started to consider facilities as a full-time job. Thankfully, I had a really good manager who helped me understand how to build a career in facilities and I haven’t looked back.

In recent years we have seen the growth of flexible working and I think this coincides with the improvements in technology. It’s a positive in my opinion as employees are now able to use the entire office, not just their desk, which means we in FM have to adapt to make sure the facilities can support the changing needs of all the employees.

What’s been your career high point to date?

And how will it change in the next five years?

Overseeing an office relocation in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was a truly humbling experience.

Facilities will continue to grow as an industry. In the next five years I can see it being a very popular career path after leaving education.

What has been your biggest career challenge to date?

Working at Facebook, the bar is set so high that you need to be on top of your game to deliver a service that adds value to the office. I have had to change my mindset of how a facilities department should support the office. I am also currently working on delivering a new Facebook office in London with an aggressive deadline to meet – that’s a challenge I’m looking forward to the coming months.

44 | 13 MARCH 2014 | FM WORLD

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Ensuring compliance with legislation

8

10

AVERAGE

MARK BELL

Introducing/ working with new forms of IT

4

6

If I wasn’t in facilities management, I’d probably be…

My top perk at work is…

facilities management and what attracted you to the industry?

OUR INTERVIEWEE RATES THE IMPORTANCE OF CURRENT FM TOPICS OUT OF 10. THE ‘AVERAGE’ SCORE (IN GREEN) IS TAKEN FROM OTHER RECENT INTERVIEWEES.

Working on energy-efficiency initiatives

7 8

Adapting to flexible working

5 8

Maintaining service levels while cutting costs

8

3

What single piece of advice would you give to a young facilities manager starting out?

Stay flexible; you never know what is going to happen next.

Do your friends understand what facilities management is?

Adapting FM to changing corporate circumstances

7

4

Not really – my daughter sums it up pretty well, “my daddy fixes things at work”. www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 16:53

FM NEWS

Call Jack Shuard on 020 7880 8543 or email jack.shuard@fm-world.co.uk For full media information take a look at www.fm-world.co.uk/mediapack

FM innovations ▼ NEC makes it personal NEC Display Solutions has announced the 6th NEC Solutions Showcase to take place at The Velodrome, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, on Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th May 2014.

Collaborating with over 50 best-of-breed hardware manufacturers and software providers, NEC hosts a unique opportunity to get hands-on with fully integrated display solutions representing the future of the industry.

Also new for 2014, the Showcase will run over two days allowing additional time to nurture the successful networking element of the event, enabling greater opportunities to develop existing and potential business contacts.

Register free for the NEC Showcase at www. showcase-nec.com. Follow @NECShowcase on Twitter.

▲ OCS seals ACC Liverpool security deal

▲ Toshiba AC shortlisted for five awards

ACC Liverpool, the arena and convention centre facility, has awarded a new security and stewarding services contract to total facilities management provider OCS. The potential seven-year partnership extends across the BT Convention Centre, Echo Arena, and the forthcoming Exhibition Centre Liverpool.

At the King’s Dock and Tate Liverpool, OCS security teams have provided a range of security services, including manned guarding, indoor patrols, CCTV monitoring, public safety management and car parking services, over the past seven years.

Jane Sheard, UK managing director of facilities services at OCS, said: “As service partners, we will help to raise the bar on customer service delivery and will support our client in investing in local employment opportunities.” W: www.ocs.co.uk

Toshiba Air Conditioning, a division of Toshiba Carrier UK, has been shortlisted for five awards in the Cooling Industry Awards 2013.

The accolades include a shortlisting in the Air Conditioning Product of the Year category for the company’s recently launched SHRM-i three-pipe heat recovery air conditioning system. It is believed to be the most efficient VRF system in the market at part-load conditions. Toshiba’s refrigerant leak prevention and management systems have also been shortlisted in the same category. The technology, which attracts BREEAM points, is being adopted by a growing list of national end users, keen to eliminate the possibility of refrigerant leaks from their buildings.

T: 0870 843 0333 W: www.toshiba-aircon.co.uk

▼ Another win for LCC LCC Support Services has won its fourth Golden Service Award, this year for cleaning excellence at the Grand Arcade shopping mall in Cambridge. The award was received by Lawrence Tew, LCC’s key account director, and director of operations Paul Lunn.

LCC has been winning Golden Service Awards for 20 years in a range of sectors including Offices, Use of Technology and Education. Winning client sites are SmithKline Beecham and The Cambridge College. LCC has also won for its exclusive IBMS client management technology system.

T: 01865 865549 E: peter@prman.org.uk

▲ Opale Launches Progressive Relationship Advancement (PRA) ▲ Futures Supplies gives a personal touch Futures Supplies & Support Services Ltd is pleased to be working with Personal Touch Cleaning Services Ltd (PTCS) to deliver washroom and cleaning products across all of its contracts.

In a brand new venture for the company, which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary in the cleaning industry, Futures Supplies will be delivering an ‘online web shop’ to enable PTCS customers to order products simply and effectively, to enhance the PTCS current offering to its customers.

Futures Supplies is assisting and developing systems and ways to help its back office administration and operations through delivering budget control facilities and help PTCS reduce and control its costs long into the future. PTCS ensures that all its customers receive the best possible service. W: www.futures-supplies.co.uk

www.fm-world.co.uk

45_Products.indd 45

Opale Management services has launched Progressive Relationship Advancement (PRA), a new process for initiating and repairing long-term FM outsourced contracts. After completing two years of engagement and research with multiple clients and suppliers, testing their findings with the BIFM, Opale identified a requirement for a different procurement and change methodology that sets the foundation for FM contracts that last beyond 10 years.

It has now deployed their approach with clients and is already seeing success in repairing troubled relationships and shortly will be using this thinking in initial tender engagements.

MD Neil Longley said: “There needs to be a better foundation on which to build longer-term FM relationships; a different approach that releases the market desire to have long-term relationships that suit the clients need within the limitations of more traditional engagement processes. PRA process does that with success.”

FM WORLD | 13 MARCH 2014 | 45

06/03/2014 17:50

FINAL WORD NOTES FROM AROUND THE WORLD OF FM

NO 2

DAYS

THE SAME

IDENTITY PARADED

ASBESTOS UPDATE

The BIFM's corporate member monthly events (hashtag #CMME) are proving a welcome addition to the early-evening networking circuit that the profession has cultivated so extensively. The last two in particular have been well supported by speakers and audience alike, and there was entertainment in particular at an event at Cushman & Wakefield's London HQ a few weeks ago.

A panel of three experts – Halliburton FM Sean Jones, Cushman & Wakefield's Rupert Warner and Jones Lang Lasalle's Gareth Hollyman – discussed the topic “The Evolution of the FM Professional: The Business Enabler” under the stewardship of BIFM deputy chair Liz Kentish. The difficulty with such a topic is just how quickly it can turn into a discussion about the perceived lack of identity.

“We suffer a bit from a lack of branding” said Cushman's Rupert Warner. “Are we FM, or are we workplace? I'm not sure that we as an industry have a fixed view on that.”

“We seem to have an inferiority complex,” continued Sean Jones. “All this complaining about why FM isn‘t on the board, etc. The key thing is the importance that other stakeholders place on FM. If they understand the value of the workplace, then they can.”

One audience member suggested that FM needed

Martin Burkhill-Prior, health and safety manager at TPS Consult, writes to us with the following: “I refer to the Legal Update article provided by Paul Reeve (FM World, 13th March 2014). I feel it is worth notifying the readers of FM World that the article contains a serious flaw.

“Paul Reeve states that asbestos was used extensively as a building material from the 1950s to the 1980s. This is somewhat inaccurate. I feel the article could well give a false sense of security to FMs whose buildings were constructed before 1950 or after 1990. Asbestos was used widely from the 1870s to the 1980s in buildings, with use declining slowly until stopping in 1999.”

Happy to make that clear, Martin.

TEAM PLAYERS Congratulations to Don Searle of recruitment consultancy Catch22 on his 15th year running the always enjoyable annual FM charity quiz night. FM World finished a creditable (well, we reckon) fifth place out of the 20 rival teams. Alas, our truly awful team name probably didn’t help.

to “talk to me in a language I understand – stop saying 'FM’”, to which Gareth Hollyman pointed out that the short form ‘FM’ first came about because people had become sick of trying to explain what facilities management was.

All of which sounded a bit – familiar. In fact, we've been here so many times that we’re expecting to see Bill Murray sitting on one of these panels any day soon.

That said, Liz Kentish’s idea for a facilities management sitcom as a way of getting across what FM does went down a storm.

So many possibilities! A pity that Only Fools & Horses, Outnumbered, Ever Decreasing Circles and (of course) Fawlty Towers have all been taken.

HAWKS A'LORDY en the Pest control is always interesting when rting creatures on the side of good are sporting talons, but it should not be surprisingg if ody the response from the public to a bloody great hawk flapping above people’s heads ds of isn’t entirely positive. In fact, the birds prey at London’s Paddington station are m can strapped to their handlers so no harm come to either pigeon or public.

London’s Metro newspaper reportss that the hawks have been brought in to

po disperse the pigeon population.

But are pigeons really such a menace?

In the report, a Nati National Rail spokesperson claims: “[The hawks] are her here not to kill, but to scare them. Onl Only in extreme circumstances woul would we kill a pigeon. Although pige pigeons are lovely birds, they are a menac menace because their droppings are un unhygienic.”

Birds capable of hygienic droppings? Unmentioned.

SHUTTERSTOCK

IN THE NEXT ISSUE OUT 27 MARCH

FEATURE: FM AND WAR MEMORIAL MAINTENANCE /// CASE STUDY: THE EXCEL CENTRE, LONDON /// LEGAL UPDATES: EQUAL PAY AUDITS/// SOLAR-POWERED GROUNDS MAINTENANCE /// WORKPLACE REQUIREMENT: ACADEMIA /// ALL THE LATEST NEWS AND BUSINESS ANALYSIS

46 | 13 MARCH 2014 | FM WORLD

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www.fm-world.co.uk

06/03/2014 17:22

E

NO NT W R OP IE EN S

Exceptional & inspirational facilities management Will 2014 be the year you join the illustrious line-up of winners?

We are looking for the best examples of exceptional and inspirational facilities management projects, people and organisations to showcase at the BIFM Awards.

Enter and share your achievements with the FM community:

www.bifm.org.uk/awards2014 awards@bifm.org.uk +44 (0)1279 712 640 #BIFMAwards HEADLINE SPONSOR

ENTRIES CLOSE 2 MAY 2014 (FM OF THE YEAR CLOSES 27 JUNE 2014)

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