Facility Management (FM) has been siloed within organizations for far too long. Executives and other departments often overlook the work and capability of the department until there is a problem. This is why it’s more important than ever for Facility Managers to align their departmental goals and objectives with the goals of the organization.
Facility Managers have been competing for a permanent spot at the organizational table for years. Over the past two decades, high-achieving Facility Managers have moved the needle in this area by consistently showing how their work supports the organization’s success. They highlight how the efforts and work of the Facilities Department directly impact the overall goals of the organization.
That is why, as a Facility Manager, you need to get to know the company’s overall and specific goals. This includes knowing who is setting the goals and why. Below, I’m detailing what you need to know and the steps you can take to align facility management, including:
- The Impact of Aligning Facility Management with Organizational Goals
- Step-by-Step Guide to Align Facility Management with Goals
The impact of aligning facility maintenance with the organization’s goals
For the facilities department to be viewed as integral to the organization’s success, you must:
- Align the facilities department priorities to the goals of the organization
- Highlight areas where your department has helped the organization succeed
If you don’t do these things, others will likely view your department’s budget as disposable. This can lead to them believing it can be reduced or eliminated in tough times. Or worse, they will believe they can achieve the same results by outsourcing facilities to a third party. As a Facility Manager, you must continue to show the value of what your department brings to the organization.
When FM aligns with an organization’s goals, there’s a significant impact on the overall success and efficiency of the entire organization. Some of the key benefits experienced within the organization include:
Customer and Stakeholder Satisfaction
The impact of a well-maintained facility extends far beyond the physical infrastructure. It profoundly influences an organization’s relationship with its customers, clients, and stakeholders. Maintaining high maintenance standards ensures operational efficiency and plays a pivotal role in enhancing the organization’s reputation and fostering customer satisfaction.
A well-kept facility is a visible testament to an organization’s commitment to quality and professionalism. It sends a message that you care about the comfort, safety, and experience of those who engage with it. This, in turn, bolsters your organization’s reputation, contributing to a positive image in the eyes of those in the community.
Customer satisfaction is intricately tied to the condition of a facility. For retail businesses, a clean, well-organized store can make a lasting impression on customers, positively impacting their shopping experience and purchasing decisions. In the case of service providers, such as hotels or healthcare facilities, a well-maintained environment can enhance the overall satisfaction and perception of the services offered.
Furthermore, satisfied customers are more likely to become loyal patrons, returning for repeat business and recommending the organization to others. This, in turn, can drive revenue growth and build a strong, loyal customer base.
As you can see, a well-maintained facility is not just an operational necessity; it’s a powerful tool for reputation management, customer satisfaction, and long-term success.
Enhanced Safety
What is the goal of your organization? Is it to have more events that people attend? Will those events be at night when well-lit areas are important to prevent tripping hazards and provide a safer and more secure environment?
Maybe your organization is going to have an intrusive remodel performed this year. Is your team ready to lead the schedule of this remodel, including safety signs and coordination of contractors in areas away from staff, clients, or visitors? Will visitors or staff still have safe access to restrooms? How will you ensure that no one falls in any construction holes when at your facility after dark?
The safety of your employees and visitors is crucial for the success of your organization.
Safety is directly linked to the maintenance of the facilities. As you can see, you can only provide a safe facility if you are aligned with the organization’s goals and understand what and how the organization is trying to accomplish.
Adequately maintained facilities create a reduced risk of accidents and injuries. When maintenance activities thoughtfully align with an organization’s goals, safety is emphasized.
One of the primary advantages of this alignment is your ability to prioritize safety-related maintenance tasks. By ensuring that critical safety systems, such as fire prevention equipment, emergency exits, and safety barriers, are regularly inspected and maintained, you can significantly reduce the potential for accidents and injuries. For instance, well-maintained fire extinguishers can swiftly respond to an emergency, while clear and well-lit exit signs ensure swift evacuations during crises.
In addition, aligning maintenance with safety objectives promotes a proactive approach to risk management. It encourages identifying and mitigating safety hazards before they escalate into more severe problems. Addressing potential issues before they become critical creates a safer and more secure environment for employees and visitors.
Ultimately, the alignment of maintenance with safety goals is a testament to your commitment to the well-being of your people. It fosters a culture of mindfulness and responsibility, where safety is not merely a compliance requirement but a core value.
The result is a workplace where employees can confidently perform their tasks, knowing that their organization prioritizes their safety, and visitors can engage with the organization without undue risk. This alignment is a win-win, enhancing safety and your organization’s reputation.
Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
In any organization, it is easy to have your department get lost in the day-to-day tasks required to keep your department running, and this is especially true in Facility Management. Every Facility Manager knows that they will not only need to have their team complete the day-to-day tasks, but they will also need their team to respond to emergencies quickly and efficiently.
With all of the responsibilities that fall on a Facility Management Department, it is easy to lose track of the overall goals of the Organization. As a facility manager, you need to constantly and consistently stay in tune with the goals of the organization and preach the importance of those goals to your team.
The organization’s goals should be placed in the top tier of your planning, and your Facility Maintenance Plan should align daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual tasks so that they are driving toward helping the organization achieve its goals.
For example, if you’re in charge of an organization that invites people into your facility, such as a church, how would your facility management team help with that goal? The answer is you need to provide a well-maintained, clean, well-lit, safe, and aesthetically appealing facility for people to enjoy and want to come to.
As you can see, your work can be aligned with any organizational goal. It’s your job to make sure that your team is helping with those goals and that you can show how Facility Management contributes to achieving those goals.
Improved Asset Lifespan and Better Asset Utilization
How would aligning the Facility Maintenance Department with the organization’s goals possibly extend Asset life cycles or reduce expenses?
Knowing your organization’s goals is a key to the planning of your Facility Maintenance Plan. It is the cheat code that allows you to provide a well-functioning facility while lowering costs.
It starts with knowing what the organization wants to achieve and how it plans on doing that. Do they hold events at night, or can you program your HVAC equipment to run at a lower temp at night during the winter and a higher temperature at night during the summer? If so, not only will you reduce expenses, but you’ll also extend the life cycle of your HVAC equipment by not requiring it to run as often.
On the other hand, if you program the HVAC equipment to run less at night and your organization is planning events, workshops, a second shift, or anything else at night, you will run into issues.
Also, knowing what type of activities will be taking place in the facility allows you to accurately plan the type of flooring, HVAC, lighting, and more that will have the longest life cycle and will be the most functional for the task at hand.
Therefore, instead of making arbitrary or reactive decisions, you can strategically allocate resources to replace or upgrade assets precisely when needed to meet their objectives better. This redirected allocation leads to more efficient resource utilization and avoids unnecessary expenditures.
Budget Planning
How can you plan your Maintenance Budget if you don’t know your Organization’s goals? The answer is that you can’t!
Not only does being in lockstep with your Organization’s goals allow you to allocate your budget towards tasks that align with those goals, but knowing the goals also allows you to make specific budget asks when needed.
For example, if you know your organization is trying to attract top talent to join the team, but your office space is dingy, dirty, and has poor heating and cooling, you now have a specific ask so that you can align the maintenance with the Organization’s goal.
Information is power, and if you are kept in the dark, you will also be a Facility Management Department that is reactive instead of proactive. If you want to show that the Facility Management Department is important and needed, know the Organization’s goals and help them achieve those goals!
Adaptation to Changing Needs
Adaptability and flexibility are key attributes for the long-term success of any organization. As goals and priorities naturally evolve in response to market dynamics, technological advancements, or shifts in strategic focus, aligning FM with these changing objectives becomes essential.
You can adapt maintenance strategies in real-time by aligning maintenance with the organization’s evolving goals. This means that maintenance activities can be recalibrated to meet the organization’s current needs, ensuring optimal allocation of resources. For example, if an organization begins to focus on sustainability, FM can adjust to prioritize energy-efficient upgrades or waste reduction initiatives.
Moreover, as an organization expands or diversifies, its facility portfolio may change. This could involve acquiring new properties or downsizing existing ones. Aligning maintenance with these transitions allows for a seamless transition in managing assets. Decisions regarding when to expand, consolidate, or divest assets can be made based on a thorough understanding of their condition, performance, and alignment with the evolving organizational goals.
Step-by-Step Guide to Align Facility Management with Goals of the Organization
You must show the Facilities department is not only willing but also capable of contributing to the organization’s overall success. Let’s get into the step-by-step details of how to make it happen.
- Assess the current maintenance status of your facility
- Talk to executive leadership to learn the goals of the organization
- Meet with key personnel from each department to hear their thoughts
- Identify and create a list of the goals of the above individuals, departments, and executives
- Create a facility maintenance plan that incorporates these goals and helps the organization achieve these goals.
Let’s dive in further.
1. Assessing the current maintenance status of your facility
Whether you are just starting in the role of Facility Manager at an organization or have been there for years and are shifting focus to better align facility maintenance with the company’s goals, the first step is to assess the facility.
You can’t plan for what you don’t know.
A facility overview is simply a general review of your facility that focuses on the facility as a whole and leaves out the smaller details. The minor details are vital for maintaining your facility, but you first need an overview.
Familiarizing yourself with your facility also allows you to learn how and what maintenance has been performed in the past.
Although an overview is meant to look at the bigger picture items and capture snapshots of the details, it will quickly give you the insight needed to begin making maintenance decisions for your facility.
2. Talk to executive leadership to learn the goals of the organization
Working from the top down is important when aligning FM to the organization’s goals. You can begin by reviewing the company’s vision and mission statement. Take time to look at their website and marketing material to see how they are working to portray the organization to the public.
Meet with executive leadership to learn more about the goals of the organization.
Here are some Questions you should ask:
- What are the goals of the organization (or your particular department)?
- I would like to ensure that Facility Management is continually aligned with the organization’s goals. Is there a time that we can meet again to discuss how Facility Management is working toward helping to achieve these goals?
- How has the Facility Department helped or hindered reaching Organizational goals in the past?
- Have Organizational goals been updated or changed lately?
- What about the Facility would directly impact the achievement of the goals of your department and/or organization?
3. Meet with key personnel
When taking over an organization, you’re not only trying to learn about the physical facilities but need to meet everyone, from lower-level staff to executives, to learn what the goals are for each department and their viewpoint on facility management.
Take the time to meet with different department heads to get to know their experience with facility management and their concerns so you can find out how you can help.
Personnel from each department are important, regardless of whether they’re considered an executive or part of a lower-level department. Each person has a unique perspective that can help you see the big picture of facility maintenance needs.
Investing some time into these people will also show that you care about them as well as the facility. Once people know that you are continuously improving the facility and that their voice matters to you, you will have them on your side. You will often get those individuals helping to keep an eye on the facility along with your team.
Do not make promises to these individuals that you are not positive you can keep. Instead, let them know that their input is important and that you will work with each department to try to improve the facility continuously. Although you cannot do it in a day or a week, with their help, you will continue to make the facility a better place to work and visit.
4. Connect the goals of individuals with the organization as a whole
Once you have gathered information from the different levels within the organization, look for the areas that overlap. Doing so allows you to prioritize facility projects and maintenance.
When your team shows that they can be counted on to help meet Organization and Department Goals, your team will be counted on and ensured a seat at the Executive Table.
5. Create and implement a Facility Maintenance Plan that prioritizes the organization’s goals
Once you have learned the organization’s goals, your next step is to devise a plan of how the facility department can help achieve those organization and department goals.
Many of these goals will be met simply by providing a well-run, clean, safe, and appealing facility. However, ensure you can contribute to all goals that facility management can impact.
While creating the FM plan, you need to address how to match up the organization’s goals with the facility’s current status. For example, suppose the goal is to have a safe, clean, appealing facility for visitors, clients, and staff to enjoy each day, but you have an outdated facility that is not well-lit, looks dingy, and dirty. In that case, you cannot start to match up with the goals until you can show improvement.
The organization’s goals will lead you in prioritizing how you will implement your facility maintenance plan.
Don’t forget about the regular maintenance
Remember, any time you are trying to help achieve organizational goals, you can never let your day-to-day maintenance plan go by the wayside. It is important in facility management to have a clear, focused plan that you follow through to fruition. Along the way, ensure you align with the organizational goals, and you’ll be successful in all aspects of your facility management plan.
Create an atmosphere of continuous improvement and show all stakeholders and visitors that the Facilities Department is there to perform their daily tasks and help the organization achieve overall success.
Be the go-to team that other departments know they can count on for help when issues arise, or new ideas are floated around. If you want the resources to run a well-functioning facility department, you must work to get organizational buy-in as to the importance of the maintenance of the facility.
When other departments know they can count on you, you will make your department integral to the success of your organization!
Learn how to put the management back into Facility Management
If you’re ready to move from reactive maintenance to a preventative Facility Maintenance Plan customized to your organization, schedule a free consultation call to explore your options for training and assessments.
