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Interior Space Supports Talent Management Success For Organizational Leaders
Over the last decade, security has been the top priority of facility management professionals across every focused segment for building use. Additional areas of concern include prioritizing the health of building occupants, which varies by building segment use. An additional challenge facing facility professionals is starting to impact their scope of responsibilities, training, and team sizes: employee recruiting and retention. Peer leaders in organizations that depend on the proper operations of the facility teams are asking them to do more. The facility must now impact existing employees and potential candidates in meaningful ways as a motivating environment. The building must “earn the commute” of the associates that work there. A new way to approach the “neighborhood” of work supports both individual (home) and team (shared) work. Great neighborhoods slightly change as needed when new people move in, or a new shop opens on the corner. At work, change is constant, but the space has rarely adjusted to the new personalities. That will change to earn the commute long term.
These plans for change were once sporadically budgeted for capital improvements with several years between a refresh. In today’s employment environment, waiting for refresh and major capital releases may be preventing your colleagues from effectively attracting and retaining the best candidates for their department. To maintain ongoing flexibility and more frequent interior changes facility managers can work with Starnet interior contractors.
Visualization Tools Speed Decision Making And Organizational Support
How can a facility management professional address “earn the commute” challenges from their peers at speed with confidence and efficiency?
Spaces in the new flexible workplace are modular, movable, and multi-use. Spaces that “earn the commute” can support different types of work and be reconfigured or modified easily as a system. Technology and furniture are elements that can support the ongoing change and commercial flooring provides enhanced flexibility and functional support.
To create organizational energy around changes in the office, new tools are being deployed to speed decision making. A visualization tool called Roomvo (shown above) is being deployed by Starnet commercial flooring contractors. Starnet’s Roomvo tool helps facility professionals capture actual images of the existing space and convincingly visualize the same space with new designs or types of flooring. This process takes seconds using a mobile device and has unlimited repeatability for comparing different results. Too many choices can be overwhelming for your internal clients, but the proper guidance from Starnet sales professionals narrows selections to expert recommendations. If you choose, the Starnet Roomvo visualization tool can eliminate weeks or months of internal deliberation to get a project funded and started in a few days.
Real Time Quality Management System Provides Data Validated Field Labor Quality Assurance
If my facility is constantly adjusting to attract and retain talent, how can I ensure the work being done by my contractors is high quality? How can I award contracts using objective measurements beyond the price?
One of the greatest challenges facing facility managers is managing their network of servicing contractors. Traditionally, due to lack of objective measurement tools, price has driven the selection of contractors and service providers. This creates issues long term as the compromises made by contractors to reach the winning price points are not transparent to the facility manager. The symptoms of poor execution by interior contractors to hit a project budget can result in business disruption or failures after the labor and manufacturer warranties expire. A subjective level of assurance facility managers can count on are the manufacturer supported credentials and business longevity of Starnet members. Most have been successfully serving their markets for many decades and can provide documentation of manufacturer support for their operations as well as client references.
Starnet interior contractors are also deploying real time quality management tools in the field that prove their capability using data. The field workers of Starnet members, employed or subcontracted, are in the best position to manage quality and improve long term outcomes. Field workers have traditionally lacked the objectively documented Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) and life of the project data collection tools needed to protect facility manager investments. Starnet members deploying Floorcloud (shown above) to their field teams can provide detailed reports documenting the remote monitoring and SOP data for every step of the construction process. Starnet Floorcloud reports allow facility managers to validate quality work of the general contractor as well as the flooring contractor in new construction or renovation work. Along with the price as an objective measurement tool, the facility manager can expect a fully detailed report detailing day by day site SOP’s and any deviation from manufacturer specifications. Floorcloud tools improve the productivity of Starnet professional flooring contractors and provide the facility manager precise documentation of project detail — from delivering and acclimating the flooring through the post installation and initial maintenance procedure — as recommended by each manufacturer. Facility managers can employ Starnet members using Floorcloud applications to determine the objective quality of their contractors and easily determine where to invest their time building a long-term relationship.
Ongoing Service By Professional Interior Contractors
Starnet interior contractors provide powerful tools to help facility managers with consensus decision making and they can objectively document the quality of their field work. What are some of the other value-added capabilities Starnet members can provide facility managers?
Infection control, slip and fall hazard prevention, chemicals of concern, and sustainable operations have all established repeat mentions in surveys of facility professionals and Starnet members have solutions in every case. The capabilities of Starnet members continue to expand as facility professionals ask for more services from their trusted contractors. All members will provide reliable and insightful suggestions for product solutions and many can also provide design services directly or through professional partnerships. In addition, the members can address nagging facility management concerns around tiled restroom facilities, high wear countertop applications, and wall protection systems.
Managing the people temporarily displaced by renovation work can be a challenge for facility managers and some Starnet members can provide a full system of furniture lift and secure moving containers for personal effects. The plan of action and repeatable process provided by Starnet members in renovations of occupied offices will minimize or eliminate business disruptions. Design trends are blending common areas and private space as well as interior and exterior layouts in many segments of the market from K12 to hospitality. Starnet members are responding by providing exterior solutions such as synthetic turf for water starved regions and installation, maintenance, and protection of exterior concrete and paver systems. To complete the value story for a facility manager, Starnet Floor Care provides earth friendly ongoing care and maintenance of all flooring surfaces and many additional options such as high bay cleaning, fabric care, and disinfection services.
By changing the work environment and experimenting more often to give people more of what they need and expect, organizations can create a better work experience and improve attraction and retention outcomes. When people like working from their office, they are more engaged, connected to the organization’s culture, productive and likely to stay. Facility management leaders can effectively address the impact the physical workplace can have to meet employee needs and build a more resilient organization that can thrive in an era of change and uncertainty. Because of these systems of support, facility managers can feel confident expanding the scope of work they share with their Starnet contractor partners.
Since 1992, Starnet Worldwide Commercial Flooring Cooperative has served the industry as a trusted partnership of commercial flooring professionals and quality flooring manufacturers. More than 180 independent contractors doing business in more than 390 of the top markets across the United States and Canada have become invaluable partners for facility professionals and Starnet’s manufacturing partners. Starnet members ensure improved project outcomes, complete customer satisfaction and reduced costs for the life of the interior space. Starnet members serve commercial end users with a full portfolio of flooring products, qualified installation, furniture lift, access flooring, subfloor repair and recovery, and continuous care of soft and hard surface flooring and fabrics. The membership’s strength in numbers creates a combined annual volume of over four billion dollars.
Visit www.starnetflooring.com to find a local member and Partner For Success!
