Why No One Thinks of a Facilities Manager Until It’s Too Late

Marketing, sales, business development and now…facilities management? Believe it or not, these are all essential components of a successful business even though you may not be all too familiar with the latter. Many companies overlook hiring a facilities manager, largely because they aren’t aware of how this position can support their company until the exact moment it’s needed.

You don’t want to be caught wishing you had a facilities manager when it’s already too late, so we’ve outlined a list of problems that can be avoided by hiring a facilities manager to effectively manage your office from the start.

You didn’t anticipate moving offices or expanding

You may not have considered expanding when you first started your business, which is why you likely didn’t think you needed a facilities manager to wrangle your lean team. But now that business is booming, you have no choice but to expand. Typically once a company reaches 200 employees is the right time to bring on a facilities manager to support the business and future growth. Moving spaces means dealing with complex building leases or even building ownership and small hiccups can mean the entire process quickly grinds to a halt.

Facilities managers have a vast amount of knowledge about lease terms and conditions so they can effectively move your company into a new building without a loss in productivity. Along with this, your manager will have a more holistic understanding of space management (and even space management software), as well as the way your workplace functions, meaning they’ll be able to recommend a building that will enable your company to continue growing.

You forgot about the operations

In a busy company, there might not be time to manage everything that keeps your workplace running. On top of that, you also need to consider what helps your employees complete their tasks in a timely manner. However, you also can’t afford to let blockers like Wi-Fi interruptions, faulty equipment or security concerns interrupt your employees’ daily work flow.

A facilities manager will be there to ensure your employees have everything they need—from the right type of work environment to collaboration spaces—so they can focus on completing their work efficiently while being comfortable in their space. This can include providing the right quantity of meeting rooms, ensuring utilities in the space are running properly and maintaining equipment to keep production running smoothly.

You didn’t anticipate so many challenges

Your workers complain about their contracts and working conditions, and in this tech age, miscommunications are at an all-time high. Enforcing company rules and responding to complaints may cause you to put out fire after fire instead of focusing on activities that grow your business.

All of this time spent managing your employees can be saved by working with a facilities manager. They’ll help to create rules and policies that benefit your company and manage employee requests utilizing request management software, while designing spaces that boost morale and encourage creativity and focus. When complaints are anticipated and disputes are handled quickly and effectively, you no longer need to be pulled away from your work to intervene.

You didn’t realize how time consuming finances were

When you’re running a business, there are certain activities that are extremely important, but can end up being a huge time suck. One of these is managing day-to-day finances. You might find yourself spending time overseeing cash flow and meeting different vendors. Even worse, you’ll notice you’re stressing out about revenue and profit and while feeling like your business is stagnating. Before you find yourself in this situation, hire a facilities manager to ensure your office runs smoothly. A dedicated facilities manager will be able to handle the day-to-day, while you focus on growing your business and other high-level activities. They will also help to make your financial systems more efficient, so you may even see savings instead of stress.

If you’re an owner of a small or expanding business, you probably won’t realize that you need a facilities manager until it’s too late. To keep your operations running smoothy, your employees working happily and you company growing, it might be worth investing now and seeing just what a facilities manager can do for you.

Feature Image: moerschy, Sebastian Pichler, tookapic, Unsplash, edar