Best Practices for Facility Management

A diverse and complex role, facility managers need strong solutions that account for multiple factors. These include:  the size of your company, phsyical space, resources, people, culture, industry, and assets.

What Does Facilities Management Entail? 

Effective facility management takes a comprehensive approach focused on people, technology, and infrastructure. With the right strategies and software, facility managers can drastically improve employee productivity and high operational efficiency.  

You need a strong solution to streamline and unify tasks in complex work environments.  

Visitor Management 

A visitor management system is the modern solution to productive, secure facilities. Tracking entries and exits is essential. Manual tracking limits the receptionist to the desk, or interruptions to the workflow may occur throughout the day, causing mistakes in data entry. You are wasting valuable person-hours on time-consuming tasks that are completed faster and more accurately through visitor management software. 

Moreover, office buildings have many entrances, and tracking all visitors can become a challenging task. You may need more human resources to fulfill the mounting requirements of your organization, resulting in high wages. So, it is better to deploy a secure solution like iLobby's facility management platform for smooth organizational function. 

Emergency Management 

Keeping your building ready to respond to emergencies is essential for facility managers. Emergency management is all about planning and taking measures to cope with potential harms and dangers. There can be financial, physical, medical, or safety concerns, such as: 

• Severe injuries 
• Earthquakes 
• Fire and explosions 
• Major power failure 
• Animal bites  
• Accidental poisoning 
• Cyber attacks 
• Human threats 
• Data loss 

Emergency management software automates core functions, improving your ability to react and respond in an emergency. For example, advanced mustering and mass emergency notifications allow you to disseminate critical information to everyone in your building quickly. These tools enable you to increase the speed of evacuations and allow two-way communication for safety updates and check-ins. 

Workplace Security 

Workplace security risks involve both internal and external factors. Protecting the health and safety of employees, equipment, and physical space is necessary.  

Access control systems, security cameras, and visitor management are necessary to prevent these factors. Integrating denied parties lists into your facility management system allows you to perform seamless visitor screening. 

Ensuring that your employees are safe in their working environment provides peace of mind and enhances productivity to a great extent.  

Learn more about managing facility security across multiple entry points and locations > 

Facility Management Best Practices for Operational Excellence  

Here are the best practices for you as a facilities manager to increase productivity and operational excellence. 

Take Advantage of Technological Solutions and Building Automation 

Organizations of all sizes, particularly complex enterprises, benefit greatly from automation. A streamlined customizable workflow maintains consistency, increases visibility, and improves facility efficiency. 

Many facility managers have found that automating processes like facilities maintenance management led to increased efficiency. Automated facility management puts services on autopilot. These systems work through triggers — each action triggers an optimal reaction, which reduces the manual work to a great extent. 

Automated and cloud-based visitor management systems enable control over all facility management tasks through one centralized dashboard. 

Using these systems ends manual paperwork, shredding paper sign-ins in favor of digital visitor logs.

Invest in an Access Control Solution 

Access control integrations enhance the security of your building. Working with new or preexisting access hardware, you have complete control over who is in your building - even when managing remotely. 

Visitor access control systems can automate approvals, eliminating the need for security officers. This is especially valuable in improving employee safety after hours. 

Moreover, they also limit access to data and data processing units. Protect yourself against data breaches, which are common and expensive to resolve. 

Decrease Operational Costs by Focusing on Energy Efficiency and Savings 

Decreasing operational costs is all about planning and implementing the right strategies. As a facility manager, you should deploy building systems that can save and reduce energy consumption costs. You should take the following steps to ensure energy management, especially for commercial buildings: 

• Instruct staff to turn off office lights, computers, and other equipment at the end of the day.  
• Use compact fluorescent bulbs to lower lighting energy use by 50% to 80%. 
• If your organization produces its own energy, make sure to use fuels with affordable costs and high efficiency. If possible, consider renewable energy, such as wind and solar power. 

Develop an Action Plan to Boost Productivity 

Developing an action plan gives function and direction to your facility management system. Here is how you can create the right plan for your organization: 

• List down all the improvements you want to execute with your team.  
• Go for technological solutions that meet your requirements. 
• Focus on solutions according to their importance and priority. 
• Explore a facility management strategy that works best for you and your team. 
• Make an optimum schedule to meet all of your deadlines.  

For a complete insight into facility management, read our facilities management handbook. 

Equip Your Facility Management Team with the Tools They Need for Success 

Facilities management is no longer a manual job. Equip your facility with industry-leading tools from iLobby to simplify complex operations. 

iLobby is a turnkey solution for complex work environments. It optimizes and automates critical facilities management tasks to enforce safety protocols, achieve regulatory compliance, and fulfill site security requirements.  

Book your demo today and discover the iLobby difference.