We recently held a webinar on Field Service 2.0: Bringing Best Practices To & From the Front Lines…Everyday. Guest speaker, Heidi Anderson-Rhodes, illustrated how UGL Unicco incrementally transformed their Field Service and Maintenance Management programs by establishing a customer-centric Continuous Improvement Program. Despite being a large and diverse company, UGL Unicco dedicated themselves to making an honest assessment of areas they needed to improve, scouted out pockets of excellence from across their geographically disbursed workforce, and established a standardized library of best practices and front line solutions. A mountain of a project, certainly, but one that ultimately enabled them to better service their clients.

A few tips to establishing your own Continuous Improvement Program:

1. “Standardize” your Standard Operating Procedures- SOP’s should have a consistent format across the board

2. Tap into your organization’s subject matter experts- they’re your best resource for creating SOP’s, KPI’s, and all the other fun “process” documents that are necessary for any Continuous Improvement Program

3. Get your hands dirty! Go in the field to uncover challenges and great practices (these are happening every day and many times go unnoticed)

4. Checklists, checklists, checklists:  UGL consolidated forms from across their operations into a series of 4 easy to follow checklists – i.e. one for Operations, one for Financial & Reporting, one for Employees, and one for Health & Safety.

5. Create a knowledge repository to store best practices and Process Improvement Forms on an ongoing basis. And then encourage people to share solutions they’ve developed through a reward and recognition program.

We are all suffering from symptoms of information overload. The daily onslaught of more and more data means that some of it will inevitably fall through the cracks. You may file away 25 e-mails one day, and overlook ten other important ones. You may communicate important preventive maintenance data within one building and neglect the rest of the portfolio.  Let’s face it, there is only so much time in the day.  Every day we make hard decisions on which people, activities, and processes receive a piece of that “time” pie.

Because of this, the ways in which modern real estate processes interact are increasingly complex. Facilities and Operations Teams, business systems, and data must work seamlessly together in order to deliver on the promises of optimal productivity, improved occupant service and satisfaction, and quicker decision-making time frames.  A good workflow must allow for that information to seamlessly pass between people, systems and…brace yourself you’re not going to like this one…portfolios.

More importantly, a good workflow allows you to “automate the mundane.” A phrase we like to use a lot here at Building Engines – and not just because our operations and maintenance management system allows you to do it, but because we really believe it, is that people in the real estate operations business are always in overdrive and always putting out fires.  Once you get your workflow and processes in order, you’ll be amazed how much extra time is freed up for more valuable activities.

Building Engines will be hosting a Webinar in early August where we will tackle best practices for handling large teams, workflows that “automate the mundane,” and other valuable insights for increasing productivity and managing data across your organization.

Now, add that to your follow-up cue.

Developing energy-efficient buildings can lead to dramatic cost savings, but building owners must plan their forays into energy data management by taking careful, measured and iterative steps.

Our new white paper outlines the key elements required for a successful energy data management (EDM) strategy. It also discusses the tremendous benefits of succeeding in EDM. At the same time, it provides insights into the potential causes of EDM program failure and ways to avoid making such mistakes.

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Integrated & Innovative Solutions for Enhancing Building Security

Date/Time: Tuesday, June 1 at 1:00pm EST
Presenters: Brian Matthews & Dave Charles, Lenel

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Be My Guest:

Why Hospitality Matters in Commercial Real Estate

An educational & networking event for real estate owners and managers in Chicago.

Imagine if your business depended on retaining your tenants, not every year, but every single day. Let Michael Nenner, Director of Rooms at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago give you a primer from the world renowned “Four Seasons University” executive course on customer service and excellence.

What you will learn:

• How to build a customer service and loyalty program & instill a culture of service
• How to set your service programs apart from the competition
• How to implement and measure your program
• How to attract and retain the right kind of people for your brand

Who should attend:

• Senior Commercial Real Estate Operations Executives
• Asset Managers
• Directors of Tenant Services

Date:Wednesday, May 12th
Time: Registration: 7:30 am,  Breakfast: 8:00am
Location: The Ritz Carlton Chicago; 160 E. Pearson Street
Featured Speaker: Michael Nenner, Director of Rooms at the Ritz Carlton Chicago

By now, we have all head something about the importance of optimizing our websites so that they can be found by search engines. While search engine optimization, SEO, does play an important role in generating inbound leads, a website devoid of value will ultimately result in those leads bouncing right over to the next site.

In today’s high-speed, internet-based world, websites are a dime a dozen. How do you set your site apart? Create complimentary, quality content that allows your users to engage in a value-added experience. Content is king, and if you want a little, you have to give a little.

But don’t make the mistake of developing a content-driven campaign and forgetting about the people who got you there: your clients. You can never truly establish yourself as a thought leader without tightly integrating your fresh, new content development efforts with your clients.  Are you proactively and regularly touching base with them? Are you providing them with articles and relevant information? Are you asking for their feedback?

Remember: Content is King. But a bird in hand is better than two in the bush.

I recently traveled to California to visit a friend who helps run an outdoor/environmental education camp in Julian, CA. While she could host her own comedy show about life at the camp and some of the “camper situations” she faces on a daily basis, she does take the learning part of the experience very seriously. And trust me when I say, she faces a lot of impediments to that goal ( read: cranky urbanite pre-teens who are missing Gossip Girl to learn about the importance of composting).

At Camp Stevens, when a camper conflict occurs, they use H.A.L.T. – a method for finding what’s really wrong when your “having a moment.” Believers of the H.A.L.T system claim it helps you discover the root of your mood by exploring your most basic needs: are you Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired?

I have to admit, at first I laughed this off as “lets-talk-about-our-emotions-psycho-babble.” But when you really think about it, is there anything else that truly causes us to lash out or get stressed out?

Maybe there is some food for thought as this applies to the workplace.

Suddenly jumping between projects and can’t focus? Hungry.

Being nonobligatory to client’s request because your stressed out from picking up your co-worker’s slack? Angry

You get the picture. Maybe, just maybe, if we take a moment to think about what’s causing us to react negatively in a situation, we might just be able to alter our behavior and ultimately be a more positive and productive employee. Go figure.