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Recent research by Service Works Group revealed a number of key insights into how performance measurement is used within the UK FM industry. Poll data gathered during the webinar, ‘Performance in FM: Theory versus Practice’, hosted by Service Works Group, in collaboration with the with the industry’s leading event, the Facilities Show, highlighted the fact that only 38 per cent of the 300-plus delegates who signed up for the webinar believe that their organisation’s performance management approach allows them to improve FM supplier performance.
Whilst performance management is clearly becoming an area of increasing importance for FMs, with 37 per cent of webinar attendees confirming that they are in the early stages of implementing performance measurement strategies, 18 per cent of the audience stated that they do not measure performance at all. Significantly, 8 per cent even believe that it has a damaging effect on performance with results being contested by suppliers.
It would appear that there is a widespread lack of understanding and agreement concerning the means for measuring FM performance. Thirty per cent of attendees stated that they felt the acronyms SLA (service level agreement) and KPI (key performance indicator), are confusing, whilst 24 per cent think that organisations are hampered by too many KPIs, and 14 per cent believe that SLAs are too loosely defined. Notably, only 31 per cent of the webinar audience agreed that the performance measurements are being broadly used as intended.
It would also appear that businesses are shifting how they define their expectations for FM service levels, with a strong bias towards output defined specifications. Only nine per cent of respondents use only input specs whilst 30 per cent use output specifications. Clearly, there are advantages and disadvantages with both methods, as indicated by the fact that 61 per cent of the webinar attendees use a combination of the two.
The concept of using gain-share contracts to share the proceeds of successful business, whereby FM suppliers are incentivised to innovate on outsourced services by being rewarded based upon the level of saving received by the client, has seen a fair take-up across the UK FM industry, with 29 per cent utilising gain-share contracts and a further 11 per cent considering using them.
With regards to the usage of technology to manage performance, the emerging trend for self-service was evident, with 33% of webinar attendees confirming they used this method within the FM operations. However, 53% still use manual methods to manage in-house and contractor performance and only 8% use mobile apps for that purpose.
The audience polls formed part of the webinar which was chaired by Cathy Hayward, deputy chair of the BIFM London region. It featured a panel of experts from the facilities management industry; Debra Ward, managing director for Macro, Tristam Slater, contracts and performance manager for King’s College London, respected international FM and organisational strategist Dave Wilson, and Mark Kirkham, director of Service Works Group.
To listen to a recorded version of the webinar, click here.
