How Looking After Your FM Workforce Is Critical For Elevating The Customer Journey
By Owen Gooding, employee experience manager, Anabas.
Looking after employees is fundamental for employee satisfaction as well as retention especially in the FM industry which can have quite a high churn, particularly in frontline roles. Employee satisfaction and motivation has a direct impact on the service delivered to customers – FM is all about service to people. The pandemic thrust most businesses into a people first approach where supporting colleague wellbeing was critical. It shouldn’t take a global pandemic for this to be realised though. It is a key ingredient for a successful business model in FM.
Why Is Employee Wellbeing So Important In FM?
Employee wellbeing is fundamental and both the physical and mental sides of the coin should be recognised with the same importance. If a team member turned up to work with a sprained wrist for example, they might have their arm in a sling for the day so they can let it rest. This person isn’t going to be able to complete their job role effectively as a lot of FM roles include a physical element or are at least site based and involve movement. They’ll likely be uncomfortable with the pain and elongate the mending stage. Most managers would choose to send this team member home to rest, so they can come back to work feeling better in their physical ability to do their job.
A team member’s mental wellbeing might also be bruised. Maybe they’ve had sad news from a family member, something has caused them serious distress, or they’re generally feeling low. They might feel lethargic resulting in a less enthusiastic welcome for their building’s occupants or a less personable approach to dealing with any building incidents, falling short of the standards the business strives to deliver.
Mental and physical wellbeing of an FM team from frontline to head office is central to delivering high standards. Whilst some physical and mental impacts will be outside of an employer’s control, there are steps FM companies can take to support their workforce and protect them, both professionally and personally.
How To Support Employee Wellbeing
Protecting your FM team’s wellbeing will benefit your business. Colleagues need to feel embraced in a culture where they feel a sense of belonging, both to your company and the client site they work at; they feel a sense of purpose and pride in what they deliver for both businesses. Valuing every team member is critical for their happiness at work, as well as retention which reduces recruitment costs and changing personnel for clients.
Recognising good work and rewarding it boosts morale. Happy colleagues are more cheerful, sociable, and successful. They are often more productive and deliver a fantastic service with a good attitude. Implementing a reward and recognition scheme, for example, is a good way to spotlight great work and talent within your workforce and should be shared across the entire company to unite the workforce and aid idea sharing.
In FM the workforce can be so dispersed, most facilities teams are allocated to one client site so rarely get to network with the rest of their colleagues, others are part of a mobile team and work solo going from site to site. It’s important to be able to connect everyone with some common ground.
Keeping all employees feeling valued no matter their position is key for a successful workforce. Introducing a scheme where those in head office management positions spend quality time with site-based frontline staff is a sure-fire way to get everyone engaged. They can gauge an understanding of each other’s day-to-day operations, which spearhead’s collaboration and connection.
Providing a safe culture where people can be open and honest and take time for each other will go a long way. This could mean introducing mental health first aid training, so your team is better educated on how to look after each other as well as themselves, or offering counselling services for cases that require further attention. Investing in your team critically demonstrates their value to your business.
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