4 Communication Tips For Facilities Managers

While you may manage facilities, what you really manage are systems, and those systems are made up of people. How can you support those systems so that they work smoothly and efficiently? When you’re striving to become an exceptional facilities manager, you need to hone your communication skills.

Communication Tips for Facilities Management

Using a consistent and efficient communication system such as facilities management software can help your team communicate with each other.

1. Communicate in the Cloud

Today’s workforce is mobile. While most people have a mobile phone, many in the Millennial generation prefer to work online through text, email, and other online systems. Choosing a web-based facilities management software, or IWMS, that allows all of your employees to submit work orders, create reports, and track assets online makes your workplace much more flexible, allowing an employee on the move to let another employee know about a room maintenance issue or generate a booking.

2. Keep Track of Requests

Today’s working environment is fast-paced, and while facilities professionals can keep up, it’s always a struggle not to drop the ball. When you’re managing facilities, inaccurate or forgotten information can mean that you don’t accurately track your inventory, manage your maintenance, or book your rooms. This leads to unhappy employees. Keep those balls in the air with a software system that remembers requests. You won’t misplace a room booking request, because it’s submitted through the system and you can double check who’s booked what room and when.

3. Schedule and Prompt

If you can meet needs before they happen, then everyone will feel like you’re an excellent communicator. When you’re managing facilities, you’re not only responding to requests, you’re also responsible for managing the ongoing needs of your facilities. These needs include managing inventory and maintaining your assets. Here, scheduling is important. You need a system that can track the separate needs of every part of every facility. Software such as asset tracking software and inventory management software support you in this goal.

4. Get the Data

Clear data helps you communicate current and future needs to your employees and helps you see past trends. For example, if you see that a specific room is chronically underused while employees flock to a different room for their meetings, software can help you detect this trend and move to understand it. Data collection makes these investigations more accurate and makes your facilities management more efficient.

If you simply track room bookings in your own system or on paper, you might sense trends but you won’t be able to generate reports like you can with facilities management software. This software can become a critically-important communication tool between you and your employees, allowing you to work together to make your workplace more efficient.

When you’re working to enhance your workplace communication, facilities management software can help. Make sure that you catch all of the details about facilities management requests and stop workplace challenges before they occur. Having effective software helps you focus on big-picture communication with your employees. Contact iOffice today to see how we can make your workflow easier.