Procuring a facilities management company to support your business can be a complex task. Today, there is a growing spectrum of considerations to ensure your relationship with your service provider has staying power.

The right facilities management company can support, improve and enhance your business operation in several ways while helping to reduce your operating costs and supporting you to deliver better occupier, employer and customer experiences. In turn, these improvements are contributions to staff retention, talent attraction and contract wins. But finding the facilities management company that is the right fit can also help your business meet broader business objectives – like sustainability, for example.

A significant aspect of the procurement process is governed by cost – particularly in the current difficult economic climate, but this means finding a service provider that best suits your current and future business needs is even more important.

Here are some key questions to ask yourself before procuring a facilities management company to support your business.

Which facilities management services does my business need?

The first step is critical – considering which facilities services you need and making sure the companies you’re considering are equipped to deliver them. But a basic delivery of service is the minimum requirement. To reap the benefits of a successful relationship with your facilities management company, consider the services and sectors they specialise in and look for evidence of their service excellence. You may want to consider first whether you’re looking for a provider to deliver hard FM or soft FM services. Or partnering with a provider who can deliver the full range of total facilities management (TFM) services for a seamless service experience. At Anabas, we specialise in creating premium, memorable experiences for our clients through our TFM offering. We uniquely map the touchpoints where our FM services impact our customers and tailor these for each client to ensure a world-class experience for their employees and visitors.

Which facilities management delivery model does my business need?

It’s important to choose a service provider whose delivery model suits your business operations and objectives. Do you need one or a range of your FM services delivered to one or more sites? Or would a full suite of integrated services be the best fit? If your main objective is to transfer associated operational risk to a team who can manage the full burden of FM provision, an integrated facilities management will likely be an ideal partner. It may be that your catering offering is a specific service you’d like to hand over – if so, you’ll want a specialist in food and drinks but not across cleaning and security, for example.

Does the facilities management company have the capacity to support my business now and into the future?

Pairing the size of your business with your prospective service provider is a worthwhile exercise. From a service delivery perspective, it’s important to find the right ratio of FM team to your team to ensure the facilities management company you choose has the physical capacity and strategic ability to deliver excellent services on your scale today and as you grow. If your organisation functions across multiple sites nationwide, you’re going to need a provider with the ability and capacity to deliver service excellence wherever your business operates. That means your provider will need to understand the way your business functions across your locations and have an appreciation for the nuances of each.

Does the facilities management company’s values align with mine?

The best partnerships are the ones where both parties understand each other’s values and everybody gets something out of the deal. Perhaps you’re a tech-led business at the cutting edge of industry innovation. If so, you’ll need your FM team to share your belief in the power of technology and digital integration to improve your business – and it’s likely their working modality will fall neatly alongside your own, which means a smoother and more succinct launch of your working relationship. If you’re a people-focussed operation, the key to success will rest in the highest levels of face-to-face experience with diversity at its core. Ask the right questions at the early stages of selection to ensure your values are reflected in your facilities management provider.

Does the facilities management company share the same ESG commitments?

Make sure to choose a service provider who has ESG commitments in place and that can align with your own. Ethical procurement is now a key component of business development strategies. Research shows that up to 60% of a business’ operational carbon can be traced to its supply chain, so this is where due diligence will be focused to ensure you and your suppliers are working together to create a supply chain that shows you’re prioritising sustainability, providing social value and meeting upcoming legislation.

As a TFM provider, it is our responsibility to guide change within not only our organisation but across our supply chain and our clients. By taking the lead, we can ensure the right initiatives are in place, with realistic targets and measurable impact to drive positive change. We do this by evaluating our approach to every client contract, from the range of required services through to the values and vision that act as the cornerstone in our journey together.