Top firms compete for top talent: that’s a fact that isn’t set to change any time soon. However, the post-COVID reality has changed the lens through which clued-in FM managers need to look at this issue.
Existing employees are adapting to more flexible, hybrid work schedules that’ll see them visit the office only a handful of times a week. At the same time, top talent is in higher demand than ever before as businesses seek to digitally transform their service offerings and ways of working. You want to recruit the best - just like your competitors. With comparable salaries and benefits packages, it’s the on-site perks that often become the deciding factor for top talent.
Here, we’ll look at making these complexities of the new normal work for you, shaping your FM user experience into a significant competitive advantage.
Making your office setup a selling point for your business is crucial to attracting new talent, yes. However, there’s another beneficiary group that’s often overlooked - and is arguably more important. Intelligent Facility Management is just as much about providing current employees with outstanding user experience, even when they can’t be in the office full-time.
Imagine a scenario where your employees actively look forward to the days they trade in the work from home lifestyle to head into the office. At the office, IT works perfectly - unlike their unpredictable home WiFi. At the office, they’re catered for and cleaned up after at every turn - unlike at home, where each meal made means prep and clear-up, too. At the office, they can find space to be left in peace to concentrate - unlike at home, where other obligations are always a few steps away. The office can take on a new role: a haven of productivity, a chance to check in, a welcome change of scene.
Those needs are there to be met - more so in the new normal than ever before. If you put the time into modernising your FM to meet them, present and potential employees will notice. Word of mouth has always been the best way to convince potential recruits that a firm’s employee experience really is all it’s cracked up to be. If your current workforce gushes about the exceptional, on-demand support you’ve provided as they transition into the new working reality, why wouldn’t top talent come to you?
Most likely, though, your current systems aren’t cut out for creating a tailored, tuned-in service that predicts and meets your employees’ every need, from parking, to socially-distanced wellbeing and productivity, to catering, cleaning and security. If you’re operating your FM using a tired web of legacy systems, across multiple providers that don’t communicate with each other, you’re fighting a losing battle.
You can’t collate the data you need to properly meet employee needs, let alone orchestrate the cutting-edge, predictive and intuitive FM setup you want to be running. A one-stop, data-driven and integrated Facility Management interface would see you turn that around.
Many top-level firms are marketing themselves as clued-in on the latest trends. Pre-pandemic, that might have meant huddle spaces, bright, airy and aesthetic interiors, vegan lunch options… you name it. That could have worked as a decent introductory aesthetic, but to engage top talent long-term, the back-end of your setup has to be just as enticing as the front-end.
Think about it: you’re trying to hire the best and the brightest, who’ll work on ensuring your company’s external interactions are world-leading. As consumers in their day to day lives, your employees are also used to the likes of Netflix, Airbnb and Spotify - sites that work. So why should they put up with feeling like they’ve stepped right back into the 1990s when they engage with your FM interface?
To keep top talent happy with your HR, finance and booking systems, intuitive perfection is a must for your employee-facing FM.
While your talent is the all-important group that won’t stand for less than top quality FM, the rest of your workforce will be sure to notice - and appreciate - a modernised, streamlined, one-stop approach.
Take onboarding as we know it: separate trips to HR to sort your paperwork, to IT for your login and hardware and to FM for your access card can take up the best part of a day. That’s precious time wasted for the company and the new recruit. It’s unproductive for both parties, as well as a dull and tedious introduction to your company for the fresh talent.
By combining HR, IT and FM in a one-stop portal, you’d revolutionise future onboarding. No doubt about it.
One aspect of this streamlined, full-service hub is particularly relevant right now, too. Re-boarding employees into a hybrid in-office and from-home setup will entail complexities in calculating the standard benefits they’re due. The back-and-forth to outline these new entitlements could easily turn into a bitter, time-consuming nightmare for finance and employees alike.
The good news is, that’s entirely avoidable. With a single agile, adaptable interface to input the details, your employees and finance brains can breathe a sigh of relief - then get back to the real work.
Data-driven FM is the single, key factor forming the foundation of a winning strategy to bring in top talent to your firm, while revolutionising your current employees’ experience.
With the parameters of working shifting as we settle into the new normal, and employees making their way back into the office, your key window of opportunity is clear. Plug into your data to deliver above and beyond current - and future - employee expectations. The key is establishing a one-stop, integrated interface to manage your FM. Right now, that’s never been easier to achieve.
Is your FM set up to meet the demands of the top talent you need to attract? Find out with our quick checklist.