How Effective Facilities Managers Prioritize Core Issues
In one of our most recent blogs, we gave you 4 tips to maximize efficiency. Our second tip talked about focusing on one task at a time by prioritizing maintenance requests. Today, we want to dive deeper into prioritizing and look at how effective facilities managers prioritize core issues.
If you recall from that blog, we encouraged you to consider time, risk, and benefits. Today, we’re going to add three more to those considerations for a total of six to keep in mind.
First, a recap
Our first guideline was, “Tasks that take less time should be completed before those that take more time.” This is pretty simple: if it takes 10 minutes to change a flickering bulb, but 2 hours to vacuum the carpet, change the bulb first. Flickering bulbs are a major headache (sometimes literally) for employees.
The second guideline was, “Tasks with high risks for mistakes should be done before others.” All this means is that if you are fixing a safety-related issue such as an outlet, focus on completing that task before moving on to something like an external building appearance issue to ensure .
And the third guide was, “Tasks with higher benefits should be completed before others.” This is pretty wide ranging to be honest. It can include everything from HVAC concerns to who you have as a tenant. You don’t want the Fortune 500 company frustrated over a lack of priority anymore than you want the small business owner ready to move out if the roof leaks over their desk.
Next, take into consideration safety concerns
Remember when we mentioned external building issues just now? We specifically said “appearance” because cosmetic issues are very low priority. However, if your parking lot is a sheet of ice, that’s your top concern for the day!
Remember, safety is always number one. So what happens when you have two competing safety issues? That’s where you use our three guidelines above to figure out which is more important and demands immediate attention.
Really, it comes down to common sense
Our second new guideline is to use your best judgement. Let’s go back to HVAC for a moment. If the weather is cool out, most tenants probably aren’t using the air conditioning, meaning you can easily set aside (or de-prioritize) a thermostat-related issue if there are more pressing concerns in the building. Whether the building owner hired you directly or you’re in charge of a multi-building operation, the fact is you’ve gotten where you are today because you know how to run a facility. Use that experience to figure help you plan your maintenance schedule.
Finally, who do you have as a tenant right now?
Here is where it can get a little bit dicey. If you have a long-term, reliable tenant who suddenly has a host of maintenance issues, it may be in your best interests to keep them happy. Then again, you also can’t neglect others in your building and devote all of your attention to them. There’s a balance to keeping all of your tenants content.
Prioritize core Issues based on these 6 rules
Though as a bonus, a good rule of thumb would be if the request comes from your manager, it probably supersedes anything else we’ve said today. Time, risk, benefits, safety, common sense, and tenant considerations are all important as is responding to requests that come from above.
The best way to prioritize core issues is to work with an integrated facility manager like LESCO360. With our team on your side, all you have to do is let us know about the issues and we’ll take care of it from there, prioritizing them for you, following up with the vendors to ensure the job is completed, and keeping you in the loop at all times!