From the structuring of contractual relationships to the embedding of wellbeing, this year’s organisation category winners demonstrate extraordinary examples of service innovation and creativity.
Impact on Society and Social Value
PM Training
PM Training, part of the housing association Aspire Housing, is a social enterprise based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. It provides FM services to residents of Stoke-on-Trent City Council through its ‘Homeworks’ division.
The Homeworks programme seeks to blend commercial expertise and training to deliver home and community improvements with social outcomes for people and businesses.
A structured training programme is designed for young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), having left school with few or no qualifications. It gives young people a way to progress from school into a job role through FM work experience, and is aligned to apprenticeship standards.
As a social enterprise, PM Training’s work with Stoke-on-Trent City Council supports the latter’s aim of preparing young people for adulthood and improving their skills and employability.
The collaboration has helped more than 492 young people aged 16-18 to progress into sustained employment in the city as a result of learning new trade skills.
Students work with trade supervisors and tutors to provide services such as grounds maintenance, painting and decorating, carpeting and aids and adaptations, all carried out for vulnerable residents. This work affords young people early experience of the FM sector while gaining valuable behavioural skills.
PM Training uses the SROI (Social Return on Investment) and HACT (Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust) social impact models to show the added value that the Homeworks programme delivers. For every £1 invested, £7.80 of social value is created in communities across North Staffordshire.
PM Training sees further opportunities to expand Homeworks across the Aspire group to incorporate other services such as housing repair and maintenance, asset management and compliance, as well as soft FM – all with the aim of allowing more people to progress into sustainable employment and improve their lives.
Key takeaways
- Success rate of over 86 per cent of young people progressing from the Homeworks programme into an apprenticeship, training or further employment;
- The Homeworks model has been recognised as an exemplar and Best Practice by OFSTED;
- The Homeworks social value model has, for four years, returned £7.80 for each £1 spent;
- The HACT social value calculator measures the impact of the service;
- Around 350 learners go through Homeworks each year, with a progression rate of 72 per cent into apprenticeships, further education or sustained employment;
- Since 2011 Homeworks has delivered 210 16-18 apprenticeships, 119 19-24 Apprenticeships, 163 25+ apprenticeship; in total 492 apprenticeships and 201 other training opportunities; and
- Many who start their post-school experience with PM Training are employed by PM Training to share their experiences and to help to develop the next generation of FM professionals.
Technology
Matrix Booking Hubs Network Collaboration
The government’s recent roll-out of estate upgrade programmes has changed the type of workspaces available for public sector workers, which has led to the creation of several metropolitan working hubs.
UK civil servants in these departments have an array of locations and working environments to choose to work from, so several government departments required a booking system offering collaboration between departments, and third party organisations, while maintaining data privacy for individual organisations and departments.
The solution, Matrix Booking, is a resource-booking system. is used across government hub programmes run by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the Government Property Agency (GPA) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
It manages booking of rooms, offices, desks, car parking, transport, equipment, catering and additional services.
The system’s usage data can be used to share physical estates and identify demand for different types of space.
Results
- More than 100,000 civil servants access more than 200 public sector sites and 1,500 meeting and desk spaces through the single web and mobile application;
- Improved efficiency and effectiveness of the government estate – as well as additional process benefits such as multi-tenant visitor management for individual buildings;
- Employees are easily able to shorten their commute by working from a site closer to home;
- Increased collaboration between different government organisations.
Positive Climate Action
Barings
With the UK government committing to net-zero carbon by 2050, Barings undertook a radical transformation in its approach to its environmental policy – and in so doing winning the IWFM Impact Award for Positive Climate Action in the process.
By making public its commitments across nearly all areas of its business, the international investment company says that it now holds “a responsibility to lead by example”.
Barings made an open commitment to record the environmental impact of its global business operations, including the consumption of all resources, waste and emissions. The company also committed to reducing the environmental impact of its operations by lightening its carbon footprint, improving the efficiency of its resource consumption and factoring environmental issues into its business decisions.
Through a wide-ranging series of initiatives and regular reporting on key metrics, Barings seeks to implement what it calls an “aggressive framework” for environmental management.
Results
- Barings encouraged the landlord at its head office, 20 Old Bailey in London, to switch to a renewable energy source for electricity in October 2019. It is on track to meet its target to switch to fully renewable energy by January 2021. Rain water is harvested at 20 Old Bailey for toilet use.
- Barings has reduced the number of deliveries it receives from its catering and other service providers, also ensuring its suppliers use only electric delivery vehicles.
- Barings’ contract caterer provides locally sourced, fair trade products. Its cleaning services provider, Principle Cleaning, has switched to chemical-free solutions, recycled paper and recyclable plastic bags. Barings sends no waste to landfill.
- Barings has changed its printing policy to reduce paper use; around 100 printing devices were removed and users must now be present at the printer to release a print job. These behavioural changes resulted in a 40 per cent reduction in paper use, saving nearly two million sides of printing.
- Barings produces monthly reports on energy, waste and carbon emissions in an educational format for the business’ senior management team so everyone across the business is familiar with the long-term environmental strategy.
Wellbeing
Authentic Wellbeing, EMCOR UK
Stress and anxiety were contributing to significant absence from work across the 4,400-strong EMCOR UK workforce – 7,717 days between June 2014 and May 2016. So EMCOR UK designed a five-year strategic ‘Embedding Wellbeing’ initiative to provide lasting behavioural change to solve its absenteeism problem, boost retention and embed positive wellbeing behaviours.
In 2016, EMCOR UK set up a health and wellbeing steering group to meet quarterly to act as a forum for employee consultation. The group, which includes individuals from across the workforce, advises on the development and implementation of policies, while recommending actions to the board.
The strategy was split into three core areas:
- Physical wellbeing included research into how indoor environments affect people, a sleep awareness programme and a bike-to-work scheme;
- Emotional wellbeing included mental health training, employee engagement initiatives and an employee assistance programme; and
- Financial wellbeing included debt support counselling, dental insurance, health plans and discount offers.
Results
- Turnover rate decreased from 23 per cent to 14.5 per cent; overall employee engagement score rose from 655 to 715, above the industry average of 693.
- Absences due to stress or mental health have fallen by 20 per cent, while more than a quarter of staff have accessed the financial wellbeing support hub and 354 employees have received telephone counselling.
- Average days lost per employee per year is 29, compared with the FM sector average of 38, and overall sickness absence has fallen by 5.7 per cent.
Collaboration
‘WeCo’ – at the leading edge of Vested partnership, Johnson & Johnson together with Sodexo
Sodexo’s relationship with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has lasted for nearly 25 years but the contract model was founded on traditional sourcing behaviours. So Sodexo and J&J developed a new working partnership, using ‘vested outsourcing’, a hybrid outsourcing business model whereby both parties focus on shared values and goals to create a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Effectively, J&J pays for the operation’s results while Sodexo is paid for the value its services provide, rather than for individual activities undertaken.
The vested contract created a virtual joint J&J and Sodexo organisation called WeCo, resulting in J&J’s engineering and property services team, and Sodexo’s facilities team, designing a joint vision and scope for its work over five years.
Both parties defined the scope of the vested model through a series of foundation rules of engagement. These included a focus on outcomes, not transactions; on ‘what’ not ‘how’ – and an agreement on clearly defined and measurable outcomes. The vested model was implemented through:
- Gaining an understanding of what each party expects and needs from the relationship;
- Aligning interests and contractual expectations; and
- Training to ensure the model’s outcome-based approach was understood by both teams on the ground.
Results
- WeCo created an initial eight-figure value of savings for J&J. Through continued collaboration, the initiative exceeded this original savings target;
- J&J was able to consolidate its supply chain and budgetary control across its EMEA sites. Each site now receives a standardised service and workplace experience; and
- For Sodexo, the model guarantees a specific return, and for J&J, cost certainty.
