Solved Provision of Facilities Management Assignment – “HBC Bank operates a network of 50 branches throughout”

Director of Human Resources

Review of Provision of Facilities Management

Facilities management is provided within the Bank’s property estate as follows:

Retail network, Eastern region (30 branches)

Cleaning:  Arranged locally by each branch and using directly employed operatives: no supervision, quality ranges from good to unsatisfactory, cost averages around €12/m²/annum.

Fabric maintenance: Managed through the estate’s co-ordinator at Eastern regional office, five-yearly condition report, work let to local contractors on an approved list. Annual costs typically €13/m²/annum

Engineering services maintenance: Also managed through the estate’s co-ordinator at Eastern regional office: let to four engineering maintenance contractors based on the geography of branches. Annual visit plus reactive maintenance. Annual costs, typically €15/m²/annum

No review of the performance of any facilities service provision over the last five years. Statutory compliance issues appear to be dealt with on an ad hoc basis with no formal recording regime in place.

Retail Network, Western region (20 branches)

Cleaning: Arranged through Western regional office using three national contractors: good supervision, quality ranges from good to satisfactory, cost averages around €18/m²/annum

Fabric maintenance: Managed through the estate’s co-ordinator at the Western regional office: eight-yearly condition report, work let to local contractors on an approved list. Annual cost typically €14/m²/annum

Engineering services maintenance: Also managed through the estate’s co-ordinator at the Western regional office: let to three engineering maintenance contractors based on the geography of branches. Contractor visits six-monthly, any reactive maintenance carried out only during the six-monthly visit. The annual cost typically €15/m²/annum Estates co-ordinator demonstrated an awareness of the need to incorporate the facilities management function with the Bank’s business strategy but at a very simplistic level. Statutory compliance issues are addressed through the estates’ co-ordinator, who appears to spend an inordinate amount of time and effort ensuring this is achieved, possibly at significant expense to the Bank.

Corporate Properties

Cleaning, fabric and engineering maintenance: Let through one Total Facility Management contractor. The contract is run by the property manager – corporate services. Anecdotal information suggests the current level of performance is not good. There are no performance monitoring procedures in place. Annual cost €45/m²/annum

The property manager relies entirely on the management contractor; no formal performance review process is in place. There is an annual renegotiation of price but the basis for this is far from clear. Statutory compliance is managed by the FM contractor who, in turn, has delegated the role to the engineering maintenance contractor. Records are in place but not all are up-to-date.

Benchmark data for similar properties to the banks’ entire portfolio produced the following information:

Cleaning €10/m²/annum, Fabric maintenance €12/m²/annum, Engineering maintenance €12/m²/annum

There is an urgent need to improve the quality of service provision of facilities management in both branch and corporate properties. I propose seeking competitive tenders from recognised Total Facilities Management service providers to bring all facilities management provision under one umbrella. A detailed specification is required which identifies the exact requirements of HBC Bank, including how the performance of the successful tenderer will be monitored.

I seek your approval to start this process.

M Ryan, Facilities Director

Facilities Director

RE: Review of Provision of Facilities Management

Mike

Thank you for your detailed and carefully researched analysis of the current FM situation within HBC Bank. It certainly appears that there is room for improvement. I agree that it would be appropriate to consolidate the provision and confirm you should go ahead with your proposal.

Since you have only been employed by HBC Bank for six weeks, you will not have had much opportunity to be involved with the strategic policy development of the organisation. Over the next twelve months, there will be a major investment programme put in place to update the information technology systems to better develop our telephone and internet banking facilities to maximise their potential, and there will be some restructuring/re-deployment. All of this will have a potential impact on our staff. I need you to provide an understanding of how your FM service provision proposals will fully support the work of our employees.

The Head of Customer Services is the person responsible for employee working conditions, ensuring that these further the business of HBC Bank and have the right impact to provide good customer service. He needs to be aware of and buy into your proposals.

I note your concerns about statutory compliance in relation to property matters and the different approaches across the estate.

I myself have some concern also about the possible risk to the business of such a fundamental change. I need to be made aware of the content of the specification and the monitoring regime.

Kindly ensure the information is provided within the next five working days.

Brian Duff, Director of HR