Shrinking profit margins during the pandemic led to organizations cramping their real estate space and making their employee list leaner to optimize costs. Also, with business being hampered, organizations had the tough task of keeping their employees busy throughout the day, especially companies that offered maintenance and similar services that required only intermittent involvement of the staff during the day. To overcome this problem, they started leveraging the advantages of the gig economy in which their employees would only be available on call. Employees would no longer be on the company payroll but would step in whenever there was a need.
This concept is not new; it is already a reality in many industries – beauty and food delivery are good examples of the same. Most of these service providers are registered on aggregator platforms, and rush to meet the requirements whenever customers place a service request on this platform. In the post-Covid scenario, other industries too are re-imagining possibilities for this kind of mobile service delivery to leverage its benefits, Integrated Facilities Management (IFM) being one of them.
This kind of flexible service delivery model can be a boon for IFM organizations as it helps to create a talent pool, and dip into this pool to engage people according to their skills and requirements. It can also help to reduce their excessive dependency on migrant labor.
Why mobile teams are necessary for IFM companies
Workplaces now require a variety of services like Housekeeping, Food and Catering Services, Office Maintenance and Technical Services. Each of these services are required only for specific durations of the day. Hence, having mobile teams to provide service at different offices in a certain area of the city can work to the best advantage of everyone – staff, company as well as client organization.
For example, Facilities Management in a workplace is usually required in the early morning hours, during breaks or after office hours. The team remains underutilized for the rest of the day. If they could be deployed at different offices in the same complex, in nearby locations or even different offices of the same organization to optimize their services and time, it would work out to everyone’s benefit. It would also translate to cost optimization for all the organizations.
Food services peak during mealtimes – to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also, specific items like chapati are only served during lunch or dinner. Required staff can step in at the required rush hours to provide services and then move on to other locations or switch to other jobs.
Similarly, teams that provide technical services or maintenance services are only required whenever there is a need. It’s either a repair or regular maintenance. They can be available on call and do not need to be present throughout the day.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
END OF ARTICLE
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