Real life examples of great facilities management

I’ve been fortunate this week to come across some fantastic examples of service delivery and client relationships by FM service providers this week, which I’d like to share with you.

A prospective client was running later for a bid presentation, and had inadvertently left his case (with laptop) on his train as he rushed to Paddington for the meeting. As you can imagine, as soon as he realised, he began to panic. The CEO from the service provider heard what was going on and got straight onto his helpdesk, asking them to send someone to Paddington. Within an hour or so the helpdesk team member knocked at the door of the meeting room and reunited case and owner. Talk about demonstrating how FM solves problems! As an aside, it turns out the individual from the helpdesk had had to pay £20 to retrieve the case, which he duly paid. But rather than ask the owner, in front of a room full of the bid team, he waited till later on and quietly had a word with the CEO, who reimbursed him. That’s true customer service! (aAnd yes, the prospective client awarded them the contract!)

The second example comes from a PFI school, where one student was shouting at a member of the FM team ‘..and anyway, you’re only the caretaker!’ This was overhead by the FM and the Head teacher, who were on a site walkabout at the time. The Head called the student over and asked him, ‘Who is the most important person in this school?’. ‘You, Sir’, came the response. ‘No’, said the Head, and asked the question again. Eventually the Head pointed out that the caretaker was in fact the most important person – he was up at 5 o’clock every morning, opened the school and the gates, turned on the lights and heating, prepared the rooms and so on. The student went away, tail between his legs, having learned that everyone has a role to play. What makes the story so special is that the client, in this case the Head, understood the importance and value of FM and was prepared to ensure everyone else did too.


Do you have stories to share? Please get in touch with Liz Kentish The FM Coach coach@lizkentishcoaching.co.uk or call us on 01778 561326

Stress? What stress?

I attended a great event this week – were you aware it was Stress Awareness Day? The event was run in conjunction with the Stress Management Society (www.stress.org.uk), and here is a snapshot of the key learning points.

What is stress? Have you found that we tend to relate stress to our emotions, and how it makes us feel? In fact, stress is actually a physical thing – it gets our heart beating faster, makes us sweat, heats our bodies up and so on.

We all know the ‘fight or flight’ scenario, and how our ancestors developed this response to enable their survival. It seems that these days, when we’re not often faced with man-eating animals, we’re getting stressed (ready to fight or flee) in situations where we can’t effectively use that response. This means that stress becomes counter-productive, and in these situations we need to find ways to either ‘lighten the load’ or give more support (coping strategies).

From a facilities management point of view, we’re particularly interested in risk management, because our organisations can be liable for putting increasing pressure onto individuals and teams. We should also be looking at how our workplaces can be more effective if we teach people how to cope with pressure. Dame Carol Black suggested that every £1 invested in wellbeing brings a return in productivity terms of between £3 and £6.

One of the main messages from the experts is that we shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help. And, to use my own favourite saying, one I use often with my coaching clients:
‘Fit your own mask first before helping others’.

If you’d like to talk about how coaching can help your own work-life balance or stress management, please get in touch with Liz Kentish The FM Coach coach@lizkentishcoaching.co.uk 07717 787077