This year, the theme for World FM Day is ‘Enabling Positive Experiences’, to emphasise the significant role facilities management plays in setting and managing the scene for and delivering exceptional customer experiences worldwide across multiple sectors.

In support of World FM Day, JohnPaul Pearson, Commercial Manager at Anabas, demonstrates how ‘Back to the Floor Days’ create a positive experience for staff across the business.

As a business, we look at the detail and how we can make our clients’ workspaces work well for them. Small decencies also applies to our business ethic and our focus on little touches that make our people and our customers happier. Our ‘Back to the Floor’ scheme sees our senior leadership team all spending a minimum of two days per year working at one of our client sites alongside staff at all levels, delivering services from helpdesk to cleaning through to maintenance.

We work across multiple sites with teams working in varying shift patterns, during the day and in the evening. This helps us to not only connect with the team and build a great rapport with our people, it also enables us to spot what works well in our business and what doesn’t for our clients.

BENEFITS TO THE BUSINESS

• Creates a genuinely positive and memorable experience;
• Enables senior managers to understand first-hand the roles within the business and also the challenges faced on a daily basis;
• Opportunity to build a genuine rapport with the team;
• Staff feel their opinions matter when they see changes happen as a result of the time spent with senior management on the floor;
• Creates genuine engagement; and
• The ability to see firsthand what works well and what doesn’t for our clients.

POSITIVE OUTCOMES & RESULTS

As a result of spending a day working alongside the Anabas helpdesk, feedback gained played a part in the decision to purchase a new and improved CAFM system.

After spending time with the engineering team as a mobile engineer for the day, difficulties in completing timesheets whilst on the job were highlighted. As a solution, a new App was developed and introduced providing a significantly easier way for time to be logged whilst on the go, enabling more time to be spent doing work during the day and less on administration.

Our engineers also let us know that breathable clothing is really important for them and we were only too happy to oblige after quite literally walking in their shoes for a day. And on the subject of shoes, it was also agreed following feedback that staff should be able to purchase and wear suitable footwear that was comfortable for them rather than be made to wear standard and issued shoes.

TAKE HOME MESSAGE

Better, more effective efforts come from people who feel that they’re a part of a company’s success and who can say they are understood, heard and appreciated.