Managing Staff In A Crisis

Managing Staff In A CrisisHow can facilities managers meet their targets while the crisis continues to change almost every aspect of their role? When it comes to training and managing the workforce, Erik Paulsson, Sales Manager UK, of workforce management company Quinyx has the answer.

Facilities managers have always mastered the difficult balancing act of determining the right mix of people and resources across their sites. Covid-19 has challenged their capabilities like no other event before and there is simply no precedent for what is still going on.

Many of the recommendations made to facilities managers have to recognise certain trends that had been going on for some time, but which are now causing them to make permanent changes. These include a reduced number of people on sites in order to keep them safe, and an interruption to normal schedules as staff demand greater work time flexibility. In addition, Brexit threatens to restrict access to workers at the exact time companies need to manage a whole set of new tasks around cleaning and sanitisation. Facilities managers can therefore be forgiven for wondering how they can keep walking the tightrope.

In short, costs have risen, timelines have been thrown out and service level agreements have been seriously challenged. While there are no simple answers as the pandemic continues to threaten any attempts to establish a new normal, there are ways to make workers’ demands for greater flexibility from way before the crisis work for both them and management.

Facilities managers need to be confident that they have the right people and resources for the tasks at hand, but at the same time, know they can respond to unplanned events and demand fluctuations. And by unplanned, I mean the emergence of what is now called hybrid workspaces, where the role of space will have to change often and at short notice to accommodate new ways of working that no one can yet precisely define. Right now, we are all in an experimental phase where everyone is doing their very best and learning new ways to do things, some of which will soon become best practice.

Again, the keyword is flexibility. Scheduling tools now need to be able to optimise scheduling, forecast shifts to improve productivity, and control costs as well ensure compliance with regulations on hygiene and social distancing. And at the same time, they need to provide flexibility to staff whose role has been elevated to that of a frontline worker with new responsibilities to site tenants and visitors.

Workers will also need to take on new roles, move between roles and even role share, often at a moment’s notice, which will require a greater level of automation that respects the needs of the business as well as the worker. And those workers may be contingent rather than full-time, so systems must be able to accommodate their potential lack of experience and familiarity with their new environment whilst equipping them to work effectively from shift one, day one.

Analyst Gartner talks about how employers are starting to play an expanded role in their employees’ financial, physical and mental well-being. Support includes enhanced sick leave, financial assistance, adjusted hours of operation and child care provisions. Gartner adds, “The current economic crisis has also pushed the bounds of how employers view the employee experience. Personal factors rather than external factors take precedence over what matters for organizations and employees alike. Employing such measures can be an effective way to promote physical health and improve the emotional well-being of employees.”

Here are three actionable takeaways for Facilities managers to help them capitalise on the opportunities that the future presents, as well as knowing they are doing all they can to make their staff happy and motivated.

  • Good staff scheduling and rostering can be optimised using artificial intelligence that has the power to analyse volumes of data, both historical and immediate. This can then be extended to create accurate forecasts, which in turn leads to lower labour costs and better skills-to-task matching. The result is happier staff because for them, the flexibility they are seeking is already built in.
  • Continuing the happy staff theme, being able to integrate workforce management easily and seamlessly with related apps such as payroll, HR, and workflow tools enables collaboration at scale, well suited to the current crisis but expected to emerge as business as usual.
  • Happiness for staff also comes from recognition and rewards, not in the conventional paper-based ways, but delivered directly to the devices they use every day, using the apps and screens they are most familiar with. Employers can deliver clear mission statements, so staff are confident and understand the importance of their contribution, while also being able to give immediate feedback, choose reward badges and get motivated for schedules and tasks to come.

www.quinyx.com

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Managing Staff In A Crisis