The last few years has brought a period of economic uncertainty to businesses. Facilities management has also been affected.
In order to better manage risk, companies have looked for a way to cut down on their overhead expenses. In a lot of markets, finding companies to do facility management is actually a lot cheaper than trying to do it yourself. Larger companies have the advantage of having economies of scale work in their favor. By having larger machines, and more employees, they can often get the work done faster. Also, they are often better equipped to recruit and train employees. A lot of times facility maintenance work is the same from place to place, so if people are trained to do it for one building they can easily learn how to do it for a number building.
Building Owners are always looking for ways to cut their operating expenses. HBy hiring out some of the labor expenses is one way to cut down on your overhead. For instance, rather than having full-time janitors on staff, it may be easier to have people come in and work as contract labor. Contract labor is cheaper and if it is managed by an outside company it means that you don’t have to worry about turnover, or constantly having to train new employees.
Hiring out is a great way to help lower your company’s costs significantly. When you hire your own employees, you not only have to manage them, but you also have to manage their payroll, and take care of their withholdings, health benefits, and retirement pensions. If they don’t show up to work, then you have to figure out how to get the work done. Since a lot of facility maintenance work is done either late at night or early in the morning, there tends to be a high turnover rate that most companies have to deal with. The cost could be significantly higher to do it yourself then it would be to hire an outside company. Not only that, there are fewer strings attached when you use contract labor.
A lot of facility managers prefer hiring out the facilities maintenance of their business because it allows them to focus on the core areas of their business. These principal areas are the areas that are generating profit. An outsourcing company can do a good job because facilities management is basically the same. Once you know how to clean a carpet, or repair a broken window, you have can do it anywhere. If you’re going to pick an outsourcing company, make sure that they are licensed, bonded and insured. You also want to make sure that they have been in business for a while and that they have a program in place to effectively train their employees. Furthermore, you want your current facilities manager to make sure that all the work is being done correctly.
