5 Facility Management Benefits for Employees

On the surface, facilities management solutions are designed for the people in charge. Facilities managers are the ones working on a daily basis to handle the myriad tasks that go along with running their buildings, overseeing everything from the allocation of space and supplies to the management of files on computers. Managing an office building is a Herculean task, and business leaders need software solutions that can help make their workloads palatable. 

The benefits of a facility management software don’t end there, though. When facilities management software is used effectively, the positive side effects trickle down throughout a company, from the management level to the mid-level coordinators to the employees on the ground floor. The beauty of facilities management solutions is they help make life easier for everyone who works in an office building, day in and day out.

Every worker at every level of a company has a need to use office resources efficiently, and facilities management software helps with precisely that.

Here are a few examples of how a facilities management software can benefit employees in your office.

Making the most of office space

Every employee has a vested interest in making better use of office space. No one wants to be cramped at a small desk, in a small cubicle, in a small office. By optimizing the way buildings allocate their space, companies can help free up some extra space for their workers, making them happier and ultimately more productive.

Currently, the business world is lacking in this area. Johnson Controls recently analyzed over 200,000 workstations and found that at any one time, only 49 percent of office desks are in use. This is a gross misallocation of office space, but luckily, software solutions can be used to measure where desks are being used too little or too much, helping companies make realignments.

Keeping remote workers connected

A big part of managing an office these days is supervising workers who don’t actually show up. A large number of employees today work from home instead of on site, but facilities management can benefit your by keeping on them anyway. Software can play a pivotal role in making remote workers feel connected to the office, giving them tools for connecting remotely and sharing data with their co-workers, and office space management resources can also give them temporary desks to use on the rare occasions they do come in.

Organizing meetings

When managers need to schedule meetings, it can be quite an ordeal. How do they reserve rooms? How do they track down all the supplies they need? How do they make sure everyone in attendance gets a seat? These are all difficult questions, but having the right software tools makes it much easier for company leaders to answer them.

Printing and copying documents

It may be true that printed material doesn’t carry nearly the same importance that it did, say, a decade ago. But offices do still occasionally need to print documents and make photocopies, either for disseminating memos to employees or for sending important documents to clients. Print management software can be used in these situations to budget for printing costs and monitor the status of print jobs.

Managing mail delivery

When employees get mail, they need to be notified in a timely fashion, and they need to rest assured that their companies’ mailrooms don’t lose or disorganize their parcels. Mailroom management software makes this process easy, guaranteeing that workers will receive the important mailings they need, when they need them.

A study of 131 US companies conducted by the Texas Centre for Productivity and Quality of Work Life showed that profits increased by up to 40% by focus on upskilling and other innovative work practices. Besides direct improvements in Facility Management performance and profit growth, organisations that train existing employees for new tasks can retain those employees much longer.

If you’re in charge of running the facilities for your company, you might think that an IWMS Software is just for you. But your employees will benefit as well – go about your day with that in mind.

Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in November 2013 and has been updated for accuracy and relevance.