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Technology has been changing the role of the facilities manager for decades. 

With automation and AI increasingly freeing them from day-to-day tasks, FMs are able to focus on strategies that add value to the buildings they manage and the companies that own them.

By improving employee conditions, whether that’s an actual physical change to the space or a behavioral change to a standard practice, FMs can impact the connection that employees have to their employer — i.e. their level of employee engagement, which Leslie Haber at TPD points out is both emotional and functional.

It’s how employees feel about their jobs and what they perceive they get in return for their hard work. And FMs have the power to influence that connection.

Most of Us Are Disengaged Employees

With some 70 percent of the US workforce disengaged or part of “The Working Dead,” as Matthew Loughran at B2C puts it, the problem of employee disengagement is large and extremely costly. 

In fact, Jacob Shriar at Office Vibe says the annual cost to the US economy is more than $500 billion.

Why so expensive? Because the link between employee engagement and productivity is direct and tangible, Todd Richardson at Emplify writes. He back it up with stats, too:

• Engaged employees more than double company revenue.
• Engaged employees outperform disengaged by 202 percent.
• Toxic workers cost employers about $12,000 a year in lost profit.

How to Improve Employee Involvement

Thankfully, the fix to employee disengagement is pretty simple.

Communication is key to healthy employee engagement, writes Loughran. This interaction needs to start with the onboarding process and continue through an employee’s tenure by way of questionnaires, regular check-ins and recognition.

William Kahn, professor of organizational behavior at Boston University, agrees. He’s the guy who came up with the concept of employee engagement more than 25 years ago. And as he tells Workforce, there’s one key way to improve employee motivation and involvement:

“Approach employees as true partners, involving them in continuous dialogues and processes about how to design and alter their roles, tasks and working relationships — which means that leaders need to make it safe enough for employees to speak openly of their experiences at work.”

What Does This Mean for Facilities Managers?

So, how can a facilities manager help with employee engagement?

First, recognize that the role of facility management is evolving. As rapidly as smart technology brings changes to the way buildings are built, maintained and run, FMs are branching out in their services.

“Today, high-impact organisations are no longer defining a facility manager or a facility management provider as someone solely focused on fulfilling services,” the team at Service Futures writes.

“In these companies, facility managers, whether in-or outsourced, are deeply embedded in the business through senior business-partner leadership roles, helping them gain recognition as valued talent as well as design and employee experience consultants.”

And then, make sure you understand what employee engagement is not.

It’s not about making workers satisfied at work or happy on the job. Leadership expert Kevin Kruse says satisfaction doesn’t set the bar high enough because a satisfied employee can still be easily enticed by another job. Simply being satisfied with a job isn’t a deep enough connection to stick around when a better offer comes along.

Kruse also points out that workers can be happy, but that doesn’t mean they’ll perform in such a way that increases productivity.

He says employee engagement is an emotional commitment. It means a worker will give what he calls “discretionary effort,” going the extra mile, selling just as hard at the end of the week as the beginning, being just as patient with customers at the end of a shift as at the beginning.

Knowing that employees need to be committed to the company, not just satisfied or happy, FMs can use the workplace itself as a tool to improve worker engagement. This is done by responding to employee feedback on surveys, and performing asked-for changes whenever possible. We’ll look at this in more detail later in the article.

Help Employees Work Smarter

Facilities managers themselves are benefiting from the use of artificial intelligence (AI), which automates mundane or repetitive tasks, and frees them up for more complex tasks. This is true for all employees, so having a workplace that welcomes new technology empowers workers.

“AI, as it is seen now, appears to be a point of augmentation instead of straight replacement,” writes the tech recruitment company Solving IT. “By removing certain tasks from the hands of workers, they can focus their efforts in a way that can increase their overall productivity.

The use of technology in the workplace can eliminate employee frustration, like bottlenecks in transportation or manufacturing systems, and having real-time information updates in health care services.

AI is also turning buildings into self-sufficient systems that can take care of tasks such as waste management, security, cleaning and maintenance, the team at ThinkFM writes. A ThinkFM poll shows a majority of people think AI will have a “significant” or “transformational” effect on FM in the next five years.

Whether that impact is significant or transformational has yet to be seen. However, the ThinkFM team says that AI will allow FMs to turn their attention from day-to-day operational concerns to “strategic decision making, analysis and solutions implementation for the business.” 

Make Sure the Working Environment is Safe

One of the top contributors to employee job satisfaction and engagement is feeling safe at work, Susan M. Heathfield reports at The Balance. She points to a Gallup survey that found 50 percent of employees need to know that their employer takes measures to prevent workplace violence and acts of terrorism.

FMs work hard to keep the physical environment comfortable and welcoming, but workers rank feeling physically safe as being more important than factors such as the work itself (whether a job is interesting or challenging) and career advancement opportunities.

Shaping the Work Environment

FMs can help employees and building occupants shape their own work environments by listening to their needs. Individual preferences and special accessibility needs can be ascertained directly, by talking to the person, or through information shared by Human Resources.

Tamara Lytle at the Society for Human Resource Management says the specific rather than general approach is necessary in today’s workforce because it is composed of people from different generations, nations and cultures.

So, for example, if one employee is having trouble with the noise distractions of an open office, a facilities manager could provide sound-cancelling furniture and acoustical dividers for that one worker, or even rework the design of the space into a hybrid open office. 

Turn the FM Department into an Exemplary Team

While the role of a facilities manager is evolving, an FM isn’t part of the human resources team. Any effort to improve employee engagement should not overstep the boundary between departments. 

However, if the facility management team in a company is large enough, its manager can use those employees as an example of how to successfully engage employees.

Here are two examples of how to do just that:

Foster Connections with Colleagues

If you work among friends, it’s much easier to be emotionally invested in the company. This is especially true in companies where teamwork is vital to company processes. The facilities management team can set the example and approach other employees in the company to participate.

These don’t have to be expensive events to be successful, notes Lytle. “There are many no- or low-cost options that often involve asking employees to contribute their own time or talent. As long as workers are approached in the right way, taking this tack can help people feel valued and appreciated for what they bring to the company.”

Let Employees Create Their Own Titles

Creative job titles can actually impact employee engagement and job performance. 

Chris Rhatigan at TinyPulse cites the example of a brewery where employees were allowed to make their own titles. “A survey of those employees found that they were 16 percent more satisfied with their work,” he writes. “They also more closely identified with the company at a rate 11 percent higher than other employees.”

And the title itself can promote the emotional connection necessary for engagement. Incentive expert, Paul Hebert, who is also Creative Group’s Senior Director Solutions Architecture, says every title in a company should have three words added: “...and Company Evangelist.”

So instead of Facilities Manager as an employee title, it would be “Facilities Manager and Company Evangelist.” Two things have to happen to make titles like this work, Hebert says:

1. The employee has to be told how to fulfill the role of company evangelist.
2. The employee will have to come up with things she is proud to say about the company.

“Finding and saying those things starts a process of discovery and positive thinking connecting them to the company in a more emotional level.”

Credits:

Tim Gouw
Brooke Cagle
Gina Zee