How to choose the best facilities management provider

Improving Facility Management: Evaluating Provider Capabilities

Assessing existing client relationships is a fundamental step in determining the proficiency and effectiveness of a facilities management (FM) provider. Typically, FM contracts span around three years, but longevity in client relationships, extending beyond five years, signals a provider’s ability to deliver consistent, high-quality services.

Key Performance Indicators

Excellent FM providers will set out a clearly defined list of KPIs that they’ll stick to in order to help your business get closer to its goals. Make sure that they will lay out relevant KPIs and report on these in a clear manner that you can understand. The point of outsourcing is to make your job easier, so if you’re unable to understand the results that they’re getting, how, and why, then they’re probably not right for you. Always ask as a good FM provider will be able to adapt to your exact needs.

Be sure to check their KPI achievement if it’s available too as this will also give you a strong idea of how effective they are as an FM organisation. If they can’t stick to many KPIs, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to for your company.

Tailored Solutions for Your Needs

Every organisation has its own set of needs and wants, so you should always make sure that yours are going to be met by your new facilities management provider. To be the most effective, FM needs to integrate with your overall goals and truly become a part of your organisation. Are they able to get to know the ins and outs of your business, and tailor their FM services to become a part of your organisation’s own structure, planning, and goals?

Reliability and Independence

Outsourcing FM functions aims to streamline operations and make your life easier. Therefore, you need a provider who’s able to work independently to get the results that you need, without too much support from your management.

Check that the provider is confident in working without much support, sticking to KPIs, and understanding exactly what needs to be done and how to do it for your specific organisation. You’ll need them to be able to adapt to your environment easily without a major transition or constant support, and help your business to achieve its goals independently.