5 types of hybrid work schedules for your business
Two years into the pandemic, businesses across North America are in various stages of returning to the office, but employees are still expressing reticence when it comes to working full time in a traditional office environment.
Considering that a recent survey indicated 52% of North American workers have health concerns about reporting to the physical office space and 78% voiced a preference for some remote work, a hybrid work model would seem to be the best option. But with so many varied preferences, how can employers provide flexibility while also ensuring workplace safety and security for employees?
When it comes to hybrid ways of working, there are five main types of hybrid work models that your business could choose from:
- Remote-centric
- Office-centric
- Split week
- Week by week
- Choose your own hybrid
Remote-centric: The hybrid work schedule for go-getters
A remote-centric hybrid work schedule is one where employees are remote-first with the option to come into the office at their own discretion. For organizations whose workers might have gotten used to the fully remote days of the pandemic, corporate occupiers can stick with this schedule to give employees more freedom when it comes to choosing which environment they find most productive.
This schedule caters best to workforces that prefer remote options, but in order to keep a physical workplace open for those who want it, employers may need to reassess their space usage on an ongoing basis. With the right technology, managing and tracking space requirements can help businesses save money on utilities and provide an office environment that changes alongside the business.
Office-centric: The model for collaborators
An office-centric hybrid work schedule is one where employees commit to working in the physical office for most of the time, with some remote options available. This setup works well for businesses that occupy smaller workspaces and whose employee base expresses a great desire to work in-office on most days.
While this model of hybrid work looks closest to the traditional workplace people left behind in 2020, visitor management solutions and hotdesking tools can enable occupiers to meet the needs of employees who want to return in full while still remaining compliant with any local health requirements.
Split week: For the teams that work best together
The split week model of working involves scheduling different teams to gather in-office on different days of the week. Implementing this model is a good way to bring each individual department back into one collaborative space while still supporting remote work options.
In order to make this transition work best, occupiers can empower employees to coordinate with one another and schedule in-office time together by leveraging desk reservation technology. Employers can also take advantage of the reduced space usage to assess their utility needs and make informed decisions when it comes to their in-office requirements.
Week by week: For the business that needs occasional catch-ups
In this hybrid work schedule, employees come into the office for one week to perform certain duties that are best done in-person and then return to remote work for another few weeks. Implementing this schedule allows employers and their workforces to “sync up” on important tasks on a monthly basis while still empowering employees to work in the environment that suits them best 90% of the time.
Enabling this type of hybrid work will help foster a sense of community that can drive productivity in a workforce while still cutting down on utility usage. For occupiers, space scheduling and space management software solutions can go a long way in making this model feasible.
Choose your own hybrid: To meet the needs of all
While the previous schedules rely on internal feedback from a business’s employee base, a “choose your own hybrid” work schedule is one in which employers provide a menu of hybrid options to their employees and allow them to choose which one they find most efficient.
Enabling employees to work in a hybrid environment at their discretion may seem like a hands-off approach, but for bigger organizations with large workforces, this model could be exactly what the business needs to thrive. With the help of presence management tools, employers can still always maintain control over their workspace by monitoring who’s on site.
As hybrid work schedules remain a hot topic, it can be easy to forget that each decision an occupier makes can have an impact on the lives of their employees, and by extension, the productivity of their organization. By taking the time to properly assess each possible hybrid work model, gather feedback from employees, and consider the software solutions that could help you enact each model, your business can make informed decisions and prepare for the future of the workplace. Learn how a suite of workplace management solutions like MRI Workplace Central can enable your business to implement the best hybrid work model for your needs.
The Resident Voice Index™: Drawing parallels between UK and US social and affordable housing
The provision of affordable housing is an issue facing nations globally. At MRI, every day we see the potential for data and insight to help address problems faced by those who provide housing. Ashley Close, one of the Solutions Architects in our London offices offers a global perspective of the Resident Voice Index™ Neighbourhoods & Communities report.
For the past eight years, I have been based in the United States, working for MRI Software’s affordable and public housing division. Moving from Cleveland, Ohio to London during a pandemic has been an adventure, to say the least. One of the reasons that I chose to make this move was the opportunity that it provided to learn how different parts of the world provide housing assistance.
A company with the depth of resources that MRI has, has the potential to access data from around the globe – and use this data to help solve some of the sector’s biggest problems, such as food and fuel poverty and the need for safe and affordable housing.
My job has been to know how compliance and property management works, so that we can help housing providers improve their processes to achieve a better understanding of the challenges housing providers face.
Having served as the VP of the Board for the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH), I have been given insights into the struggles people face due to the lack of available affordable housing. As a newcomer to social housing in the UK, I’d like to share my initial thoughts on the sector, as well as provide my reaction to and analysis of the Resident Voice Index™ Neighbourhoods & Communities report.
Using the data that we have globally, if we can compare different approaches and outcomes around housing, we can find the best solutions. At MRI we have the voice, the experience and the access to residents to help gather more information from multiple stakeholders, as evidenced in the Neighbourhoods & Communities report. Data can give us the power to change how the world addresses housing and the challenges that arise within this sector.
UK social housing and US affordable housing: the differences
The UK and US share the same goal of providing affordable housing, however there are some differences between how the two nations have approached this. Housing regulation has often been impacted by events and lessons learned in each country. The UK Grenfell tragedy led to heavy regulation around building safety and questions being asked about listening to the voice of the resident in the sector. Looking to the US and the Surfside Condominium collapse, this may be the beginning of a similar movement in US regulation.
The Right to Buy scheme, allowing tenants to buy homes at a discounted price changed many lives in the UK and drastically affected the amount of social housing available. While the US does offer some home ownership programmes, these are not common and they do not erode affordable housing stock numbers.
Both countries face a shortage of affordable housing, and both continue to struggle with the issue but in my opinion, the UK shortage is somewhat self-inflicted. In the UK, a social home is for life, not just for crisis; in 2019-20, nearly ¾ of new social tenures awarded were lifetime tenancies.
The US by comparison, has a needs-based approach, doing annual recertifications of all its residents in order to find out if they are still eligible for housing assistance and if the amount of assistance needs to change based on their financial situation.
While this prevents people from living in affordable housing when they don’t necessarily need the help anymore, this places a greater burden on the housing providers and residents to maintain accurate compliance records. The amount of paperwork that needs to be maintained in order to qualify for affordable or public housing in the US is excessive and often, painful.
Creating a sense of community
The insights provided in the Resident Voice Index™ Neighbourhoods & Communities report have proven to be some of the most influential thought leadership pieces to be released by MRI Software. Up until now, this report has only been released in the UK, but it will also launch in the US and Australia.
I found the statistical data regarding the impact of the current actions of housing providers on residents’ sense of community to be disconcerting. Only 16% of residents felt that the current actions of their housing provider increased their sense of community. While this may not be overly surprising, it’s certainly a definitive datapoint that has initiated a dialogue for many housing providers. Should housing providers be responsible for creating a sense of community amongst their residents? If so, how do they go about doing this?
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused unique challenges for housing providers in both the US and the UK, not least around maintaining their communities. How do you create a sense of community, while upholding the necessary social distancing? The second Resident Voice Index™ report, which will be released next month, addresses themes pertinent to this question, having asked survey respondents about community support and life after lockdown.
Shared challenges, differing solutions
The challenges facing housing providers, residents and communities are, for the most part, similar in the UK to those faced in the US, with some notable exceptions. Safety has been a significant challenge everywhere, but the issue of gun violence for example, is more prominent in the US due to the lack of gun control legislation. These specific challenges are vastly different in the UK.
The four most prevalent suggestions offered by respondents in the Neighbourhoods & Communities survey to make their neighbourhoods feel safer were, increased police presence, improved lighting, tackling drug-related crime and ASB, and increased surveillance. The final suggestion is an interesting one as a point for how responses might differ between the UK and the US. London is one of the leading cities in the world for the number of surveillance cameras and it can, therefore be suggested that the presence of them has become normalised for many UK residents. Americans by contrast, often believe that surveillance conflicts with the right to privacy and so it is likely that US residents would have very different suggestions for improving neighbourhood safety.
Food deserts
In the Neighbourhoods & Communities survey, respondents were also asked to name what was Important for them to have access to within 15 minutes of their home. Healthy, affordable food shopping came out as the third most important amenity but only the seventh most prevalent within existing neighbourhood structures. The report states that, “As of 2018, over 1 million people in the UK were estimated to live in ‘food deserts’. These are neighbourhoods of 5,000-15,000 residents with access to two or fewer big supermarkets.”
Food deserts are an issue in the US as well, especially in high-poverty areas; they also disproportionately affect minority communities. Due to the size of the country, this problem isn’t going away anytime soon. Eating healthily can be more expensive in America and the time needed to prepare healthy food is not something that many low-income families have, which is a universal problem.
The Resident Voice Index™: delivering actionable insights
In the UK, those in the position of planning new housing and neighbourhoods, can use the findings of the Neighbourhoods & Communities report to improve the availability of healthy, affordable food, knowing that it is of great importance to communities. I look forward to seeing the rollout of surveys in the US and uncovering powerful insights such as these, that can improve how housing is provisioned.
MRI Software has proven that the best approach to solving these challenges is in sharing information. We have made the Neighbourhoods & Communities report available to residents, colleagues, competitors and policy makers. Maintaining an open dialogue between all parties is the only way to ‘level up’, as the UK would say!
The second Resident Voice Index™ report, Community Support & Life After Lockdown, will be released in February.
Article by Ashley Close, Solutions Architect, MRI Software 
IFRS 16: Knowing your leases 101
Welcome to the first in our series of IFRS 16 ‘101’ blogs, aimed at guiding you through the preparation required to successfully transition to IFRS 16 lease accounting in time for 1st April 2022.
In this blog, we focus on the importance of extracting, collating, and analysing your lease data and how this initial step in the process will set you up for success.
Knowing where your data is
The first thing to consider, and what is often the biggest burden when preparing for IFRS 16, is knowing where your lease data resides. Reliable lease data is essential in meeting IFRS 16 reporting requirements and without it you will simply not be able to comply.
It can often take weeks, or potentially months to collate, so it is vital to know where your leases are located as early as possible to build the foundations of a successful transition. In our experience, MRI has found that lease data is typically dispersed, whether that be across departments and entities or simply from a location perspective i.e., Stored in various software applications or in filing cabinets in a physical office.
Having worked with several organisations, the reality can be somewhat different to initial expectations. As an example, a recent client believed that its IFRS 16 transition would be quick and easy, only having to convert a couple of dozen leases. However, when it started to uncover its leases, it quickly realised that its portfolio was a lot more complex, with embedded leases, high volumes of equipment and the need to account for subleases. It then began to categorise and proactively collate based on asset class with lease types such as property leases, land leases, equipment leases, vehicle leases to name a few, which transpired in bringing hundreds of leases onto the balance sheet to comply with the new IFRS 16 standard.
Quality of data
Finding out where your lease data is located is only the start. The next step is assessing the quality of the data both in terms of completeness and accuracy. In our experience, lease data quality is often poor when held in high-risk, non-auditable applications such as spreadsheets. Organisations frequently believe themselves to be ahead of the curve and in an advantageous position, however when digging into the data, information gaps and inaccuracies can become apparent and so begins a lengthy exercise to cleanse the data, reverting right back to the lease documentation.
Having comprehensive information is crucial. We find so often that organisations are focused completely on rent values and payment frequency for example, but then must search, find, and enrich the data to include any lease incentives (capital contributions) or costs (Ie: legal fees).
Getting the data in a suitable format
Once the data has been located, assessed, and cleansed, the next stage of ‘knowing your leases’ is getting the lease data in the correct format to maximise the accuracy of the accounting calculations and ready to produce the lease accounting schedules necessary for compliance reporting.
Whichever technology platform your organisation chooses, it needs to be robust, it needs to be able to handle the ever growing and evolving nature of your portfolio requirements, and it needs to facilitate cross departmental collaboration as the property and lease managers liaise with the lease accounting and finance teams. This is not just a standard that impacts finance, this is a fundamental change to the way your organisation manages and treats leases. Therefore, it is crucial that you have all lease data at a click of a button, accurate and in a suitable format to produce these outputs.
A guide to creating an effective building safety and compliance strategy
In the current climate of uncertainty, it can be challenging for property managers to know how best to manage building safety and compliance. With a raft of changes in legislation incoming, many with crucial details still to be confirmed, managers need to be able to respond quickly and flexibly to change.
In this guide, we’ll introduce the key pillars of an effective building safety and compliance strategy, and explain how building managers can implement this in a way that allows for agile responses to changing legislation, as well as empathetic communication with residents and leaseholders.
We’ll also include insights from industry leaders on the steps they’re taking to manage their own building safety strategies.
What’s changing in building safety?
Since the publication of Dame Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety three years ago, there have been ongoing legislative changes relating to building safety. Even with many details still to be clarified, it’s clear that in the coming years there’ll be a requirement for transformative change across the industry.
Key areas that property managers need to be aware of include:
The Cladding Crisis
Fallout from the cladding crisis is ongoing, with property managers finding themselves in the middle of a highly emotionally-charged situation as leaseholders find themselves liable for the costs of remedial cladding works which could put them in severe financial jeopardy.
For property managers, the ability to support leaseholders with not only the implementation of remediation work, but to provide transparent information on the associated costs and any available funding or financial support with empathy and sensitivity is key.
Industry insights: Lorna Kassoul, Systems and Projects Manager at Fexco Property Services
“We’ve been doing everything we can to keep our leaseholders in the loop with the legislation as it comes. We’ve had meetings with management company directors on sites over 18 metres high and have produced an information pack for people to read at their leisure, as well as setting up meetings to start looking into funding.
It’s difficult from our customers’ point of view because we’ve heard horror stories on the news about people going bankrupt and we wouldn’t want that to happen to any of our customers. We’re doing everything we can to keep our customers in the loop on costs that are coming down the pipe to them.”
The Building Safety Bill
The Building Safety Bill designed to address issues identified in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy is still in the process of being fully scoped, but one clear implication is the birth of the Building Safety Manager.
The definition of this role, as well as the implementation of the processes and tools to enable them to fulfil their responsibilities, will require a large-scale shift in how residential blocks are managed.
Industry insights: Benjamin Hume, Managing Director at Evolve Block Management.
“Industry and regulatory framework is expanding at lightning speed. There are so many areas to cover to make sure we keep our leaseholders safe.
We’ve employed a compliance manager in our business this year. Because of the way things are going and the complexity of some of our large estates, we thought it was best to bring in an expert to manage the operational compliance within our portfolio, so our property managers can do what they do which is relationships with our clients, residents and tenants.
Joining up the dots and binging everything together is the holy grail of information management for our blocks. Everything talks to each other, and there’s no chance of things getting lost.”
Fire Safety
Fire safety is an obvious priority as the fallout from Grenfell continues. In particular, the requirements for owners and landlords to actively listen to tenant concerns, and the concept of the “resident voice” will be transformational.
With a requirement for every building to have a resident engagement strategy, there are far-reaching implications for how property managers engage and communicate with residents.
Industry insights: Michael Toogood, Head of Residential Asset Management and Partner at Knight Frank
“There’s a quantum leap forward we’re going to have to make in a number of areas, and resident engagement is one key area. Going forward, the engagement we foresee is entirely different. We’ll be expected to disseminate information to tenants so they understand their responsibility to contribute to our management of the safety of the building. That’s going to be a huge change from what we normally do.”
The Golden Thread
Many of the new areas of legislation being introduced rely on a strong foundation of data being available for every building. The concept of the Golden Thread aims to make this possible, ensuring that key information is collected, maintained and shared throughout the life of a residential development, from design and construction through to ongoing management.
The division of responsibility for collecting and storing this data and the specific requirements are still to be fully defined, but it’s clear that block managers will need to update their processes to effectively handle Golden Thread information.
Industry insights: Michael Toogood, Head of Residential Asset Management and Partner at Knight Frank
“Very few buildings have this information. Many developers protect their position by taking charge of the management for a number of years post-completion, and it’s not in their interest to hand over information gained in these early years as it could be used to pursue a warranty claim or defects liability action.
This legislation will make it compulsory for developers to deliver this key information, and some buildings will have to create that information. That will be very expensive on existing leaseholders, but is absolutely critical. You can’t do your management job, particularly in health and safety, unless you have that Golden Thread of information.”
What does a successful safety and compliance strategy look like?
With so many anticipated changes to stay on top of, and so many details still to be confirmed, it’s not immediately clear what processes and systems will look like in practice. Instead of making concrete process changes, it’s instead necessary to build in agility and transparency at every stage possible, making it as straightforward as possible to manage not only the anticipated changes but future legislative developments too.
Industry experts are united in their agreement that a few key pillars are critical in building the foundation on which block managers can quickly and effectively respond to new building safety legislation:
Efficient information management
The collection and management of a huge range of data is likely to be necessary to maintain compliance with the Building Safety Act, from inspections of fire doors through to maintaining an audit trail proving that issues identified in inspections were promptly resolved.
Putting in place the required data collection to prepare for legislative changes such as the Golden Thread, and to ensure that Building Safety Managers have the appropriate information at their fingertips, requires a robust management platform. Reducing reliance on paper or manual processes will be key, as well reducing data silos or duplication across multiple systems to reach a single point of truth across all information relating to a residential development.
Automation of key processes
With an ever-increasing number of critical responsibilities for block managers to take action based on reports from residents or the outcome of inspections, it’s essential that robust processes are put in place to ensure that nothing is missed.
Automation plays a key role in ensuring that data collected during inspections is actioned, and that a clear audit trail is maintained. Setting up workflows to automatically manage task creation and monitor outcomes not only saves valuable time and resource, but helps block managers ensure that processes are fool proof, reducing the risk on noncompliance.
“Integration is key. If you have reports with a workflow right through to an action to raise a purchase order and monitor that action, the integration between reporting and property management is critical.”
Michael Toogood, Head of Residential Asset Management and Partner at Knight Frank
Visibility for customers throughout
Transparent communication with customers is set to become a legislative requirement with the advent of resident engagement strategies. However, visibility and transparency also impacts several other areas, from cladding remediation works to the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on residents.
As residents and leaseholders are themselves face uncertain and frightening changes, it’s crucial that block managers have not only the right information but are also able to communicate with empathy and understanding, ensuring the best outcomes for their customers. This means implementing robust processes and maintaining high quality data, whilst freeing up resource within their teams to focus on the human aspect of building safety.
“Over the past few years people suddenly find that they are living in a home that, they once felt secure in, but that now feels significantly less secure. There’s a huge amount of uncertainly, loneliness, stress and isolation and a lot of confusion, and we have a responsibility to solve some of that.
We need to choose the right partners and the right employees with the right values. It’s not all about cost, but about other things too.”
Nygel Scourfield, Executive Director at ReSI Property Management.
Collaboration between stakeholders
With so many anticipated changes, it’s not surprising that block managers are anticipating a complex and uncertain period of process and systems transformation. Every organisation has its own unique challenges, which means that even as details of legislative changes are confirmed, the precise actions needed to ensure compliance will be different for every business.
During uncertain times it’s vital to have strong partnerships with stakeholders, and an open an honest relationship based on a shared vision of success. By working proactively to engage and collaborate with partners across all aspects of their businesses, block managers can ensure they’re primed to respond quickly to changing requirements and to offer the most appropriate support and solutions for their business’ individual circumstances.
“We’ve been delighted by the way that MRI has worked with us and some of our critical issues by getting under the skin of what Knight Frank’s key concerns are means we’ve got a fundamentally better solution that if we hadn’t allowed you to come in and get to know, warts and all, what is worrying us.”
Michael Toogood, Head of Residential Asset Management and Partner at Knight Frank
How we can help
At MRI Software we’re a trusted partner to more than 70 ARMA members and hundreds of recognised names in the residential sector. To find out how we can support you on your way to creating an effective building safety and compliance strategy, get in touch today or download our ebook – Plan ahead for the golden thread – the critical role of technology for residential property managers.
Understanding fuel poverty as an asset risk
In 2019, there were an estimated 3.18 million people living in fuel poverty in England alone; 15% of those were thought to be social housing residents. Homes with unfit insulation and sustained underheating can cause long-term issues with assets. A deep understanding of an organisation’s housing stock can help identify where improvements should be made.
In general, housing stock in the UK is amongst the oldest and most fuel inefficient in Europe. This, paired with the rising cost of living are risk factors for residents to fall into fuel poverty and suffer the associated physical and mental health impacts, as well as for housing stock to incur damage and costs. If somebody is in fuel poverty, then they’re unlikely to be able to heat their home properly – and not having properties heated means that they could be falling into disrepair.
This is a financial risk to organisations, with damp and mould needing to be rectified and repairs needing to be undertaken. If households are unable to heat their homes sufficiently, this will remain a persistent problem for housing providers; whilst a household remains in fuel poverty, costly ‘band-aid’ repairs for mould and damp are likely, becoming expensive ‘solutions’ in the long-run.
Social housing providers working with legacy assets, for example 1960s high-rise blocks, are dealing with buildings that were built with very poor insulation. This is a structural issue, which can be hard to address. Infamously, one of the tactics used in recent years to insulate these buildings has been to overclad them, leading to disasters, loss of life and the ongoing cladding scandal.
Addressing net zero
One thing helping organisations drive transformation for these problems in the long-term is the current move towards setting carbon targets, which all social housing organisations are now doing. The public know that home emissions need addressing as well. Activist group, Insulate Britain’s sole demand in their protests is for the UK government to undertake a ‘legally binding national plan’ to ensure all homes are insulated to be low energy by 2030, and by 2025 to fund the insulation of all social housing.
At the present moment, housing providers in general, are taking a ‘fabric-first approach’, which means that if it’s possible to better insulate a property, they will take action. Taking this step decreases the amount of fuel that’s required to heat a property, which should prevent more people going into the catchment of ‘fuel poverty’. Addressing this however, is not necessarily as easy as it sounds – particularly for older properties where it can be a challenge to insulate them to a high standard.
There are many issues around retrofitting for homes in order to insulate them to the required standard. Beyond the ‘fabric-first approach’, there are proposals from the government to encourage households to switch from using gas boilers to heat pumps. Gas boilers in homes are responsible for 1 in 7 tonnes of the UK’s carbon emissions, which is mainly due to poorly insulated homes, rather than faults with the boilers themselves.
The answer is not however, as simple as changing all properties to heat pumps. They are less flexible than boilers and one of the prerequisites for the switch is that homes are properly insulated to start with. In fact, the heat that they deliver to radiators is at a lower temperature than that from gas boilers. This means that they don’t work properly unless insulation is addressed first.
This year, a report from the UK Committee on Climate Change explained that in recent years “minimal progress” had been made in insulating buildings adequately and in moving towards low-carbon heating. At current estimates, the move to low-carbon heating in homes will take around 700 years to achieve. With so many living in fuel poverty, more accelerated strategies need to be adopted.
Case Study: Could the Nordic approach help the UK?
In 2017, Stockholm’s mayor made the claim that “fuel poverty is non-existent in Nordic countries.” The Nordic model includes setting minimum heat standards for homes and legislation to include heating costs in rent. District heating models where municipalities are responsible, rather than households, are also popular.
For example, in Copenhagen, Denmark 98% of heating needs are delivered by an authority-led system following legislation that compelled citizens to sign up to the city’s heat networks. Currently, these systems run by burning biomass but work is being undertaken to switch to fossil-free alternatives, demonstrating that once these networks are installed, they can be adapted to keep up with the latest technologies.
In the UK, some headway is being made. For example, in Wales the government has pledged £150m for social homes to improve insulation, clean energy and carbon reduction. This kind of funding can assist housing providers in achieving their net zero goals and pass on savings to residents in the form of cheaper energy bills. Additionally, in 2021 a ban was announced on new build social homes that use fossil fuels for heating.
How MRI Asset Management can assist organisations in addressing fuel poverty
For housing providers, asset management systems can assist with the diagnosis of fuel poverty. This is because it is not solely about trying to use IoT or meter readings for identifying fuel poverty, instead MRI’s Asset Management system brings together many data points that can be indicators. The solution knows the materials that the property is made from, the current levels of insulation, the current heating system and the EPC rating. This can then data model each home’s theoretical running costs, if not the actual running costs.
From that point, users have the base information to calculate which households could be at risk of fuel poverty. If you know a household’s income, the body of evidence becomes more compelling. Some of our customers may use Tenancy Analytics to assess the income side of the risk of fuel poverty, others can use the data in Asset Management to substantiate that risk. This can give them the opportunity to model questions such as, ‘if the same tenant, was in a different property, would they have a different level of fuel poverty?’
Across the housing sector, providers and partners are rising to the challenge of addressing fuel poverty. From transforming stock to the immediate actions of crisis management for households in need. The Housing Associations Charitable Trust (HACT) have given over £1m worth of vouchers over the past year through their Energy Hardship Fund, which assists households experiencing fuel poverty. We were exceptionally proud to have been able to support this initiative. In the long-term, housing providers have the will to address fuel poverty and the duty to cut carbon emissions in their homes by improving insulation. Comprehensive data management can be a key part of driving these changes in an efficient and cost aware manner.
If you would like to talk further about how technology can be used to support you to address fuel poverty in your homes please get in touch at socialhousing@mrisoftware.com
7 top trends for facilities management in 2023
Explore the key trends and topics that FM teams across the globe should be focusing on in 2022, from the continued adoption of hybrid working, through to a greater adoption of the IoT and AI.
Every year the boundaries of the facilities management industry noticeably shift. As new technologies emerge, expectations change and working practices evolve, this industry must react to successfully meet these.
With the digital transformation of the sector showing no signs of slowing, facilities management software is steadily being accepted as a core business tool in organisations of all shapes and sizes. But this software is just one aspect of FM that has greatly changed over time – something that will continue for the foreseeable future.
How has facilities management evolved through the years?
It is remarkable to consider how far the facilities management industry and FM software has progressed just in the past few years.
Building managers are no longer bound to spreadsheets and T-Card systems to manually oversee operations. The power of a robust CAFM system can be held in the palm of engineers’ hands. Smart building technology is enabling teams to create the most comfortable environments possible for employees, residents and customers.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also had a noteworthy impact. Approaches to on-site working shifted dramatically, and the FM sector needed to adapt accordingly. Technology and techniques have needed to become increasingly mobile and flexible, and there is a heightened expectation from today’s workforces about their wellbeing at work.
As an industry, facilities management has always adjusted in response to changes in society, demographics and technology – 2022 will be no different. Below we discuss 7 of the standout trends that FM professionals should keep in mind for the year ahead.
1. FM teams consolidate their visibility
While it is hard to take away positives from the pandemic, this significant shift did place the efforts and duties of FM teams in the spotlight like never before. Previously working in the shadows, these professionals were pushed to the forefront to ensure the wellbeing of employees, residents and others was secured in these challenging circumstances.
Whether it was keeping workplaces clean and disinfected, organising safe maintenance routes, or reconfiguring space, FM professionals were more visible than ever across all types of facilities.
2022 will concentrate on FM teams consolidating this visibility, and not let things revert back to the way they once were. With more people aware of the role these teams play to keep everything in working order, we anticipate that they will be more frequently referred to for their insight when forging company-wide strategies.
As organisations increasingly rely on data-driven decisions, the expertise of FM professionals, and the information gathered by their software solutions, will be relied upon more than ever to guide companies forward.
2. Continued adoption of hybrid working
One trend spurred forward by the pandemic that will continue to gather steam in 2022 is hybrid working:
- 98% of people would choose to work remotely, at least part-time, for the rest of their careers (Buffer)
- One in three workers would be willing to quit their job if it didn’t offer flexible working (Robert Half)
- Over 70% of office workers want more flexible remote work options, while over 65% want more in-person time with colleagues (Microsoft)
As this approach to working becomes widespread, with the growing adoption of flexible hours and hot-desks, FM teams must be prepared to implement these without impacting on the quality of their output. This may include the facilitation of co-working and managed workspaces, or introducing mobile apps that enable teams to work effectively regardless of where they are.
If your company is not yet set up for hybrid working, this year is the time to start. Looking into smart building technology, enhanced space management and mobile solutions will put you in a strong position to reap the full benefits of hybrid working in your organisation.
3. Shrinking real estate footprints
Due in part to the shift towards hybrid and remote working, many organisations in 2022 will be seeking to reduce the scale of their real estate. Rather than pay over the odds for expensive office space that is no longer required due to a reduced number of employees on-site, steps will be taken to cut out these costs.
However, these actions will require FM teams to review how their buildings are configured to accommodate everyone on-site comfortably. Space and move management will be top of the agenda, so smaller layouts can serve larger groups of people when necessary, and create environments more suitable for hot-desking and collaborative working.
Companies will find themselves increasingly reliant on robust facilities management solutions to ensure that their organisations can adapt to a more compact environment, with no decrease in their employees’ quality of life or their day-to-day productivity.
4. Environmental and social responsibilities
2021 arguably brought environmental issues and climate challenges to the forefront more than any year prior. People are increasingly conscious of the need to turn the tide to protect the health of our planet, and regulations are being – and will continue to be – introduced in response to this.
These regulations will no doubt impact all forms of buildings and organisations, which will need to take strides to reduce their carbon footprint. So, we anticipate many FM teams to start moving in this direction in 2022, harnessing their software solutions to address energy consumption. This could include:
- Utilising smart building sensors to only switch on lighting, heating and other climate control systems when spaces are occupied
- Introducing energy management software to track energy usage in real-time and identify opportunities to reduce consumption
- Adopt asset management software to extend the lifecycle of components, reducing the need to manufacture and acquire replacements
5. Addressing new regulations
Each year brings with it a flood of new rules, regulations and standards that facilities management teams must get to grips with, and 2022 is no different.
For instance, in the UK the Building Safety Bill will change the health and safety processes surrounding high-rise residential buildings and hospitals. Responding to the events of the Grenfell tragedy, this sets new responsibilities for the ‘Accountable Persons’ to ensure all mandatory safety measures are in place in a built environment.
This is just one of numerous updates that will be introduced across the year, and as ever FM teams will need to stay informed of these in order to avoid compliance-related penalties.
This makes a solution like our distinct SFG20 module beneficial. Because it automatically performs updates to the latest SFG20 standards, companies can rest assured that facilities maintenance is being conducted compliantly.
6. Harnessing IoT, AI and connected devices
While the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) have been available to the facilities management industry for a while, every year this technology continues to evolve and become more readily accessible to organisations globally:
75.44 billion IoT devices are anticipated to be installed worldwide by 2025 (Statista)
Yet, while this technology is now more available than ever, relatively few businesses are reaping its benefits. We expect this balance to be addressed in 2022 as awareness of these devices and sensors continues to grow.
For example, AI-based facilities management systems can automatically generate maintenance schedules, repair reports, replacement requests and more without any human involvement. This can greatly improve efficiency and productivity, particularly when these tools can perform outside working hours.
IoT and connected devices will also empower FM teams to maintain quality, comfortable workplace environments remotely. Whether this is automatically adjusting climate control settings, or capturing data from entry points that can steer crucial operating decisions, this technology will be relied upon more heavily this year than any year before it.
7. Movement towards predictive maintenance
Finally, we anticipate 2022 to be another massive step towards the adoption of predictive maintenance or planned preventative maintenance (PPM).
It is still the case that too many organisations rely on reactive maintenance practices, which are more costly and less efficient than planning works in advance. By having FM software in place that understands the assets within a building, teams can predict when they need maintenance to keep performing optimally.
Planned preventative maintenance unlocks numerous benefits to any organisation, including:
- Extended asset lifespans
- Minimal risk of business interruption
- More organised workforces
- Better budget management
In addition, AI and IoT technology have a part to play here. By tracking the performance and behaviour of assets over time, this experiential data can inform PPM schedules based on real-life feedback, meaning that over time asset maintenance will only improve.
Future-proof your facilities with MRI Evolution
2022 will be an interesting year for the facilities management industry. Still not fully removed from the fallout of COVID-19, we anticipate this year to be an important one for:
- Consolidating the visibility and importance of FM teams within their companies
- Responding to the growing trend of hybrid working, and the ramifications this have on building layouts and space planning
- Ensuring companies fulfil even stricter environmental and social responsibilities
- Greater adoption of beneficial technologies such as the IoT, AI and predictive maintenance
To keep your own organisation on course to follow the trends that emerge this year and beyond, it is essential to have a reliable system at the heart of your FM operations.
MRI Evolution is the ultimate solution for total building management. Connect and control your entire facility through one central hub, responsible for managing every aspect of your organisation.
- Gain uninterrupted, end-to-end insight over your operations
- Benefit from complete asset management and smart maintenance planning
- View valuable business analytics through customisable dashboards
- Minimise costs with total oversight of your budgets
Get in touch with our team today to discover the long-term benefits that MRI Evolution can bring to your business.
8 problems resolved through workplace management software
Discover how introducing workplace management software resolves numerous problems affecting employee satisfaction and overall business performance.
Today’s top-performing companies understand the influence their work environment has on employee productivity and wellbeing.
A welcoming, well-structured atmosphere will boost morale and engagement. A disorganised, demanding environment will have the opposite effect. To avoid falling into the latter category, organisations must introduce systems to overcome workplace management issues and achieve the agility and stronger user experiences they desire.
This is where workplace management software enters the picture. Below, we will explore the variety of workplace problems this technology resolves, and the positive difference this can make to businesses of all sizes and industries.
What problems can effective workplace management software solve?
1. Wasted space
Space is a valuable resource in any workplace. Yet, many companies are unaware of just how much space across their facilities goes to waste:
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Approximately 60% of available office space is used in a typical workday
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The average company has 30-50% more space than needed
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Workstations are often vacant 50-60% of the day
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Just 13% of companies say their workplace is utilised over 80% of the time
Statistics provided by iOffice
Poor space utilisation can cost businesses thousands annually, cutting a sizable chunk into their operating costs. Having no solution in place to oversee the organisation of space can also be the catalyst for several further workplace management problems, including:
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Poor space design, hurting workplace collaboration and making it harder for people to navigate their surroundings
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Overcrowding in certain areas or rooms, while other space is left completely unoccupied
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Overlapped bookings of desks and workstations, particularly for companies with hybrid working models
Workplace management software overcomes these hurdles by capturing real-time spatial data across your facilities. This will identify any areas of your buildings that are left unoccupied most of the day – and the costs attached to these.
With this data in clear view, you can improve space planning significantly, whether it’s repurposing rooms or adjusting layouts to make these more efficient and collaborative. This will help you cut down unnecessary overheads and create a better environment for your teams.
2. Inability to harness BIM data
In a similar vein, BIM technology is playing a bigger role in building construction and management with each passing year:
The NBS 2020 BIM Report demonstrated that BIM adoption has risen to its highest level yet, with 73% surveyed saying they currently use BIM
When harnessed effectively, the data generated by BIM can help FMs understand facilities with absolute accuracy, and use this to maximise the lifecycle of buildings and the assets within them. However, all too often this data is left untouched, or cannot be comfortably translated into their existing FM software.
Effective workplace management software helps you reap the full benefits of BIM, allowing you to translate this data across all project document types, including COBie, wexBIM and IFC files. With this, FM teams can integrate this data into one, manageable 3D model, and gain total oversight over the lifecycle of buildings, facilities and assets.
3. Disorganised meetings and bookings
Few things grind productivity to a halt in the workplace like a poorly organised meeting. In fact, it is estimated that these cost UK companies over £43 billion annually.
On top of costs involved in meetings that overrun or aren’t run optimally, this can also cause a great deal of frustration or tension among colleagues. From a double-booked meeting room for two crucial client meetings, to arguments over who has dibs on a shared workstation, the lack of reliable facility booking software can cause a deeply unpleasant atmosphere.
Workplace management software can eliminate this problem by making room bookings straightforward and self-managed. Employees can always know what rooms are available and seamlessly communicate details to all attendees. With these systems in place, meetings run like clockwork, so people get the most out of them.
Find out more by reading ‘8 Ways Room Booking Solutions Boost Business Efficiency’.
4. Minimal data-driven decision making
Data drives modern businesses forward. However, if this cannot be captured or kept under control, it offers no value in how companies strategically plan their next steps.
That is a problem that many organisations face – they need data and analytics to guide their path, but these aren’t kept in one central location. This means that they tend to lead with assumptions, which will not reap the same benefits for company finances and overall growth.
Solutions like Live View, part of our workplace management software package, ensure that all crucial information is displayed in clear, easy-to-digest visual displays. With this oversight, teams are empowered to use this data to guide meaningful improvements to business processes.
Plus, by setting custom parameters for areas such as asset performance, stock levels or task completion, this helps you monitor whether your workplace is performing optimally according to your business goals.
5. Health and safety struggles
Part of creating a positive, productive workplace is reassuring employees that it is clean, safe and secure. If they feel uncomfortable in their surroundings, or that they might be at risk of either hazards or illnesses, then this will have a negative impact on their happiness and performance.
Workplace management software goes a long way to guaranteeing the cleanliness of a workspace is never in question. Through it, organisations can establish cleaning schedules that maintain a hygienic environment for everyone.
It can also give employees full vision of what activities are happening at what times. This provides them with reassurance that their workplace facilities are being looked after, which will encourage them in their approach to work.
For examples of how these solutions can tackle health and safety struggles, check out a number of our dedicated workforce apps:
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Cleaning Now
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Task Manager
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Adhoc Tasks
6. Uncoordinated workflows
Workplace management solutions can also play a powerful role in organising the tasks that keep workplaces in top condition. If the workflows of engineers, cleaners and other technicians are not coordinated effectively, the core functions and cleanliness of a building can gradually decline.
This will hurt employee morale and, if left unchecked, could inspire them to walk away. To prevent this possibility, this software helps to arrange and automate the delivery of these tasks. As a result, duties aren’t missed due to human error, and engineers have all the information they need to fulfil their role in making the workplace as welcoming as possible.
This means:
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Better workplace environments, allowing team members to thrive
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Boosted employee satisfaction, leading to stronger productivity
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More structured, less intensive experiences for technicians and FM teams
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Minimal unplanned downtime or disruptions
7. Poor project management
Approximately only 22% of organisations use a form of project management software (Workamajig)
Project managers are tasked with handling challenging processes with the aim of achieving positive results. Unfortunately, between them and these results is an extensive list of obstacles that may make or break the entire project.
Problems managing projects can emerge due to internal or external factors. But no matter the source, without a system in place to monitor and manage all aspects, this can cause costly delays and mistakes that send project planning completely off the rails.
This is another area where workplace management software can make a massive difference. A fully integrated Project Management solution can help teams oversee each milestone of a project through a straightforward, single task grid interface.
With this single, unified view of all activities, obstacles can be navigated smoothly, potential risks can be rectified, and profitability is preserved.
8. Overburdened helpdesks
Operating a helpdesk can often feel like a thankless, burdensome task. It is all too easy for requests and calls to overwhelm these teams, making life more difficult for the operators and causing jobs to bottleneck, delaying work from being completed.
Workplace management software can ease the strain on helpdesks and make their position more agile, while at the same time empowering employees to initiate maintenance tasks themselves.
Solutions like our Integrated Services Module (ISM) raise the responsiveness of helpdesks, enabling them to easily assign tasks through a simple drag-and-drop system, and rapidly complete data entry and task assignment.
Furthermore, apps such as ChatLog give employees the ability to directly report workplace issues to the FM team. This alleviates the burden on the helpdesk, and gives them a clearer indication of how tasks are progressing, improving their own wellbeing.
What is an IWMS (Integrated Workplace Management System)?
Integrated workplace management systems (IWMS) is an all-inclusive solution to support modern facilities management responsibilities. It fulfils five fundamental areas of FM:
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Real estate management
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Facilities/space management
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Maintenance management
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Project management
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Environmental sustainability
Through this, IWMS software covers every aspect of making workplaces as comfortable and efficient as possible, both for those working within them and the organisation overall. It is why MRI Evolution is designed to be a combined CAFM/IWMS solution – to be a total business management platform, sitting at the core of all FM operations.
Workplace management and workforce management
Our overarching workplace software incorporates a wide range of workplace management and workforce management apps – all built with the aim of streamlining operations, improving connectivity and creating the best possible workplace environments.
Workplace management
Our workplace management apps focus on engaging with people within a workplace, encouraging them to be actively involved in maintaining the quality of their environment and supporting overall employee satisfaction.
Together, these uphold a positive company culture, reinforce the cleanliness of workspaces, and inspire greater communication between employees and their FM teams.
Explore our applications below for more information:
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Our Info
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Our Say
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Our Events
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ChatLog
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Visitor App
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Book It
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Our Classified
Workforce management
Our workforce management solutions meanwhile concentrate on creating a smart network that connects your entire workforce, no matter where they are. This enables your remote engineers and teams to focus on their tasks without the need for constant in-person supervision.
Through this flow of data from remote sources directly and instantly into your CAFM/IWMS solution, you will be faster and more responsive, while everyone in your organisation has access to real-time information at their fingertips.
Explore our applications below for more information:
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Cleaning Now
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Task Manager
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Audit Now
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Adhoc Tasks
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Asset Manager
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Portering App
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Supervisor App
Is IWMS software suitable for small businesses?
Often, smaller businesses and start-ups will overlook the need for workplace management software, presuming that this technology is more applicable to larger organisations with broader property portfolios. Although their needs may be less pressing, ensuring employees have the best physical environment to work in applies to companies of all sizes.
Therefore, in order to compete with larger companies for talent and market share, smaller businesses should be seriously considering their workplace management solutions. This technology will help give their employees ideal workplace conditions, support recruitment and retention, and enable them to work at their most productive.
Plus, with access to space management software, this enables organisations to scale-up personnel or effectively restructure their environment to maximise efficiency as their business evolves over time.
Unlock the benefits of workplace management software
This article merely scratches the surface of the advantages that successful workplace management software can deliver to organisations at any scale. We hope that this has given you a stronger understanding of the problems this technology can resolve, and encouraged you to seek out the full benefits for yourself.
If you are ready to start that journey, speak to our experts at FSI. For over 30 years, we’ve helped businesses run smarter, empower their workforces to take ownership of their environment, and streamline facilities management duties into simple, effective solutions.
Get in touch today for more information on our workplace management solutions.