Hybrid working in facilities management: pros & cons

In a post-covid world, hybrid working has become a staple of many industries and often, a deal breaker for some when deciding on their next role.

The challenge in navigating the demand for hybrid working is unique in Facilities Management, an industry that is a people’s business made up of teams cleaning, securing and maintaining properties and built on the importance of face-to-face relationships with staff and clients.

Throughout the pandemic, when remote working became the norm for many, facilities management naturally continued face to face, with essential work being done in areas such as healthcare. In many cases additional cleaning was required and essential maintenance continued throughout. Post pandemic our teams delivering services on the ground have returned to normal but those managing the teams on the ground have adapted to a new hybrid style of working.

Management and many Support functions that were previously in the office (or on-site) 5 days a week, now might only be in the office 2 or 3 times a week. So how does hybrid working and FM reconcile their uneasy relationship?

Some of the best people in the industry will not only want the option to work from home but demand it. This poses an obvious question for FM leadership and contract leads as to how they can manage these expectations whilst continuing to deliver high levels of service.

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Pros

• Time efficiency.

• Lack of commute in theory means more time spent at the desk

• Can flex workload to better suit work/life balance

• Better focus without interruptions of an office

Cons

• Decreased situational awareness of site

• Lack of social interactions

• Difficulty building relationships with teams and customers

• Inability to react in person to events or incidents

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Managing on-site teams, understanding the working environment, building customer relationships and reacting to unexpected events often require physical presence on site and is the cornerstone to effective and professional delivery of FM.

There is no getting away from it, remote working lessens the day to day understanding of what is going on on-site at ground level. It is a natural by-product of hybrid working and for many roles, that is a terminal failure.

An FM manager or Technical Supervisor might feel that they can complete all of their daily tasks from the comfort of their own home and on the surface, this might be correct. But if they are not there to observe their staff, soak up the environment and identify areas for improvement or be around for impromptu chats and relationship building, then inevitably performance, strategic leadership and innovation is bound to decline, how can it not?

By its very nature, FM is a reactive industry and a vision of how a day might be expected to pan out at 8am is often very different to the reality. The need to be agile and respond to the unexpected is a necessary part of FM Management.

There are of course also the intangible benefits which cannot be realised working from the kitchen table. In an industry where relationships are vital, the impact of things such as impromptu after work drinks and getting to know colleagues and partners on a deeper level also cannot be overstated.

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Conversely, good staff members will often be best placed to understand how their time can best be utilised and how they go about achieving KPIs and monitor or motivate their team.

But they can often be let down for people who might seek to downplay the impact of their working from home out of convenience or wishful thinking.

But that is not to say that the industry should dismiss the concept completely, when used correctly, it can be an important tool to draw the best and widest talent into a career in FM.

We will all have had days when we glued to a specific task with a set deadline where in reality, escaping the distractions that come with an office to increase focus is the best course of action.

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Hybrid working when done correctly allows employers, managers and supervisors to enable their staff to work in an environment which better understands individuals circumstances and allows them to have the best of both worlds that past generations have not had the luxury of enjoying. That is something to celebrate and should be utilised where impact to business delivery is negligible.

For the vast majority, being able to pick children up from school, is a really important part of peoples’ lives. In my experience, most become more flexible and agile in terms of when and how they work and will more than make up for the time lost in the middle of the day to ensure that the ball is not dropped.

Ultimately, hybrid working has the potential when utilised properly to engender a happier workforce, better able to balance their home and work life whilst providing a wider talent pool for employers to choose from.

But as many industries adopt hybrid working as standard for all, FM needs to be cuter in its adoption, cautious of the second order effects of working away from the facility we are paid to manage.

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