10 New Year’s resolutions for a facilities manager

Yes, it’s that time of year again…Time to take a quick look at your past year of facility management. What worked and what didn’t? What should you resolve to do more often, or never do again? This year, make a resolution you can live with, and help your facility achieve peak performance at the same time. To give you a few ideas, Eye on Building Technologies has asked facility management experts at Siemens for a few practical suggestions:

1. Review last year’s successes. Take the time to review last year’s successes and share them with your team. One facilities manager in Minnesota holds a meeting with his facilities staff in early January for the sole purpose of reviewing what went well during the past year. His 1-1/2 hour presentation includes challenges that were overcome, projects completed within budget and letters of commendation from senior management.
   
   
2. Evaluate risk. If you have contingency dollars set aside for equipment failures, downtime or other negative events, evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of preventive measures — that is, processes and/or technology to reduce the chances of the event happening in the first place. Or evaluate the ROI of improving early detection of a problem, so that you can nip a problem in the bud with a timely correction. One example is the tempering equipment in your facility’s computer rooms. Instead of setting aside contingency dollars to cover the equipment when it fails, consider putting equipment or processes in place to lessen the impact of the equipment failure.
   
   
3. Catch up on deferred maintenance. If your facility has grown in size, but your staff size has remained the same, things can get so busy that it’s easy to put off routine maintenance on the chillers, air-handling units, fire and security systems and other equipment. If your staff doesn’t have the time for equipment maintenance, consider outsourcing the task.
   
   
4. Focus on one area. Pick a problem area that continues to cause dissatisfaction within the organization. Instead of simply reacting to all of the facilities-related complaints that have been coming into your department, take a step back and analyze them—see if they point to a larger problem with equipment, such as a chiller that is not sized properly. In other cases, the problem may not be in the equipment but in a process, such as failing to start your building’s chiller early enough on a hot day—before occupants arrive.
   
   
5. Communicate with management regularly. With your often-hectic workday, responding to complaints and other short-term problems, it can be easy to let this one slide. At least once a quarter, schedule a meeting with your boss, to outline your top priorities for the year, what projects you’re working on currently, and some of the positive things the department has accomplished. Don’t try to include this in a staff meeting, which is often crowded with many items on the agenda. Scheduling a one-on-one with your boss lets you set the agenda—and put your efforts in the best possible light.
   
   
6. Evaluate your staff. Complete a brief assessment of all of your department staff to determine whether they have the skills required to perform their daily tasks. As you probably are aware, facilities employees are in the service business, in which people skills are as important as technical skills. Once a year, take a step back and assess each employee in your department—and decide where they need additional technical or people skills. People skills include face-to-face communication, such as how to respond properly to a complaint by a prominent building occupant, or writing skills, as in properly writing a work order.
   
   
7. Invest in training. In addition to providing training for your staff, take a training class to improve your own personal skills and capabilities as a facility manager. Whether classroom-based or online, consider a refresher class on everything from new building-management technologies to computer skills to people-management tips. For information on customer training courses at Siemens Building Technologies, click here. Or make it a point to attend the trade show that you’ve missed for the last few years because you always had an “emergency” the day it was scheduled.
   
   
8. Organize. If your office has a mountain range of blueprints and owner’s manuals lying around, it’s time to clean out and organize the storeroom. If you’ve watched “Mission: Organization” on cable TV, you know that it can be difficult to let go of things, but a cleaner, clutter-free workspace is well worth the effort. Are your electronic documents getting out of control? Consider organization software such as site360 Plan Room from Siemens Building Technologies .
   
   
9. Network. Interact with professionals in similar jobs or professional organizations, and call your top five vendors for facility products/services. Ask them to update you on what new insights they have seen within their company or in the industry.
   
   
10. Share your knowledge. Volunteer a half-day of your time to represent your company or profession at a career day at the local high school or vocational center. Or schedule a mini trade show in your organization’s cafeteria to explain some of the behind-the-scenes work that is done by the facilities department. Ask vendors to participate. Does your organization have a Take Your Child to Work Day? This day is becoming increasingly popular, but it leads to a lot of employee downtime. Consider making your mini-trade show a part of this day so that you can take full advantage of the day. You’re not just showing your kids the importance of your work, but you’re showing other employees—and managers—in your organization the importance of your department.

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