Workplace management has evolved into mainstream facilities management and gained popularity over the last decade for further rise. The progressive culture of work around the world is becoming more demanding and is screaming for more efficiency and optimisation. This is paving the way for strategic and well-informed workplace management solutions. 

ISO defines FM as an “organizational function which integrates people, place, and process within the built environment with the purpose of improving the quality of life of people and the productivity of the core business”. Reflecting on this definition highlights that workplace management has always been the core of facilities management, and has somehow not been in the spotlight until recently in certain parts of the world.  

In the past eras, this concept was emphasised more for large corporate organizations that had high traffic. In-depth studies on these cases are now recommending such strategies to be applied to medium to small-sized companies too with the objective of achieving staff wellbeing, increase in productivity as well as achieving cost optimization. It's no secret that inflation is on the rise and real estate space costs have escalated. This makes it critical to ensure each aspect of the workplace is analyzed and modulated to accommodate the needs and demands of the ever-changing landscape of the economy, environment, and society. 

So, the question naturally arises, why do we have to package it as workplace management? Unlike the full facilities management scope, workplace management focuses on the needs of the business and the people rather than just providing maintenance. The target is to achieve much more efficiency in operating the workplace. 

Some of the aspects which can be helpful while putting together a strategy for workplace management are:

• Understanding the people and culture
• Office working & remote working (seating arrangements, furniture layouts)
• Cleaning and maintaining the workplace
• Technology and tools used
• Space utilization and optimization (meeting rooms, hot-desking)
• Ambiance, lighting, and temperature maintenance.
• Security and privacy
• Scaling up or down
• Accessibility to basic amenities 

The needs and demands of the employees have been drastically changing as every decade progresses. Welcoming the young workforce to acclimatize to the old ways is growing more challenging and advancements in the way we operate offices is key. Planning and executive the best workplace management solutions will help:

• Improve employee morale which in turn delivers better output. Workplace comfort gives the employees more satisfaction and it is to be treated as a key measure to ensure qualitative work
• Improve technology and automation thus reducing redundancy in manpower as well as achieving more work in less time
• Reduced cost of operation which is key to maintaining the bottom line for any business

In short, good workplace management strategies support building and maintaining a well-balanced infrastructure for people to operate at their maximum capacity. This promotes growth and reduces oversight to unplanned hurdles. This is also helpful in successfully managing future scalability in an optimised manner.

This article is written by Fahad Mohamed, Director for Dubai and Northern Emirates regions, Adeeb.