Why HR and Facilities Management Leaders Should Be Friends

by Mike Habeeb on May 17, 2017
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Committed facilities leaders like you work tirelessly to provide a comfortable, safe, ergonomic, technologically sound and efficient workspace for their organization’s workforce. Often, this means communicating with the heads of each department to achieve buy-in for new software and processes. But while you may consider the head of IT your closest ally in the drive toward a digitally driven and highly engaged workforce, there’s another department that can help you meet your objectives and benefit from your expertise.

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GettyImages-666979550.jpgSo what’s the new workplace dream team poised to solve your company’s biggest challenges? HR and facilities management.

I know what you’re thinking. You’ve already established a good rapport with the head of HR. They handle their duties and you handle yours — what more could you possibly do for each other? But a few routine employee onboarding/offboarding emails and sporadic elevator chats aren’t enough.

Today, we’ll explain what successful facilities leaders gain from maintaining a close bond with HR.

Attracting and Retaining Talent

From the initial interview to day one on the job, an employee’s first impression of their new employer often sticks. A messy, disorganized first day can make a new hire feel forgotten and undervalued — not exactly starting the relationship on the right foot. And with so many companies struggling to recruit and keep highly qualified candidates, making a positive impression is critical.

For both HR and facilities management, employee engagement and retention is a top priority. Not only does high turnover reflect poorly on the each department’s effectiveness, but it also creates more time-consuming onboarding and offboarding work and impedes both teams’ ability to work proactively.

But by working together, HR and FM can ensure a seamless experience for new employees. Imagine walking into the lobby on your first day and being greeted by digital signage, finding your new workspace using the company’s simple wayfinding app and discovering that you’ve already been set up on all necessary tools and software. Now that’s a warm welcome!

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Of course the above scenario wouldn’t be possible without a streamlined flow of information between HR and facilities management leaders. To achieve the best outcomes, you need to share data regularly. Skipping this step means thwarting any effort to create a seamless digital experience for your workforce.

Facilities leaders know their facilities management software is only as powerful as the data its fed. In other words, even the greatest tool in the world won’t do much if you’re not integrating it with other tools and databases. Your IWMS should easily interface with the HR team’s preferred HRIS. (And if it doesn’t, it’s time for a new IWMS.)

Linking your IWMS and HRIS makes the onboarding process much easier for all parties involved, eliminating redundancies, ensuring all employees have access to the tools they need to be productive and proving HR and FM with a wealth of usage data they can use to drive future decisions.

How HR and Facilities Management Can Begin Building a Bond

HR and FM leaders are busy people. Both professionals bear the tremendous burden of keeping the workforce happy, healthy, engaged and productive. Finding time to collaborate on processes can seem nearly impossible, but taking the time to do so can eliminate future headaches for both teams.

The best way to kick off the relationship is with respect and empathy. Here are three things facilities leaders can do to forge a bond with HR:

  • Start by highlighting a few common goals and shared challenges.
  • Make an effort to share trends and insights you’ve gleaned from data you’ve collected.
  • Keep them in the loop on any decisions you’re making about the facility that will impact the workforce.

Overall, working together will make both of your lives much easier, help solve major challenges and ensure you’re able to meet the needs of the workers you both serve.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Habeeb

With 14 years of IWMS sales experience in the CRE and Facilities sectors, Mike has an in-depth understanding of the goals and priorities of prospective customers. Mike has a broad understanding of the IWMS marketplace, and is skilled at working directly with organizations to align them with the ideal technology for their needs.

Capterra Ratings: ★★★★★ 4.5/5