Overview
From regulatory requirements to occupier expectations, the FM sector faces a series of challenges in ensuring that buildings serviced nationwide are performing to the highest possible level. Ageing buildings, as recently highlighted by news around the historic use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), impose greater safety, maintenance and sustainability considerations; the energy crisis brings about volatile costs during highs and lows of demand; plus, building occupiers expect high-quality facilities that are capable of meeting changing needs.
Increasingly, organisational strategies and regulations such as Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards force FM professionals to incorporate more long-term thinking and sustainable practices into day-to-day work. However, a host of opportunities exist, include aligning FM practices with organisational needs to gain mutual success, and embracing innovation to overcome the challenges ahead. What does all this mean for maintenance strategies and the people putting it into practice?
To best meet the challenges and opportunities ahead, FM professionals must create an optimised strategy which covers the key issues in play.
Join the IWFM and Wates to discuss:
- The pillars of future maintenance strategy – what it is, how to devise the main priorities, the ways to engage stakeholders, and how to meet regulatory demands.
- The need to reflect the four maturity levels, from reactive to predictive, ensuring a truly comprehensive, resilient and flexible future maintenance strategy.
- The evolution of FM skills and future workforce needs: defining the competence requirements to achieve the best maintenance outcomes, sustainability, procurement, and more.
- The changing nature of technology: how to incorporate a data-driven approach to strategy, the effectiveness of recent innovations and what barriers remain to further embracing technology.
David Hemming, the technical author of our newly launched Guidance Note: Next generation maintenance: challenges and opportunities will briefly present the new guidance, after which he will be joined by Stephanie Welch and Anthony Collett to discuss the key challenges and opportunities.
Speakers
Antony Collett
Antony is a strategic director with a broad background in the facilities services sector, amounting to over 20 years of experience. Prior to joining Wates Group in January 2023, Antony undertook senior roles at firms such as Mitie, Integral UK LTD, Verisae and Orange. At Wates Group, Antony plays a key role in the firm which delivers planned and responsive maintenance to more than 350 properties. Antony holds a qualification from the LBS.
David Hemming
David has worked in a broad range of senior roles across various sectors, including defence, government, and higher education managing large and complex estates. These roles have included Managing Director, Strategic Estates for the UK Parliament and Director of Estates and Facilities at Leeds Beckett University. His most recent position is Interim Director of Estates and Facilities Management with the University of Sheffield.
David champions the importance of a strategic and integrated approach to all estates delivery. He has wide-ranging experiences across estate management, capital delivery, soft and hard facilities management, transport, logistics and all aspects of sustainability. He is committed to delivering high quality services in customer focussed environments and has a wealth of experience in estates Net Zero Carbon delivery. David is a chartered civil engineer and has recently been awarded fellowships from both the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM).
Sofie Hooper
Sofie Hooper leads on the IWFM’s wider policy and public affairs work, helping to raise the voice of the Institute, its members and the wider workplace and facilities management sector. She engages with stakeholders to ensure best practice is taken on board and concerns affecting workplace and facilities professionals are mitigated.
Covering a wide range of activities and areas, sustainability, workplace and building safety form the core agenda. Sofie has been leading on IWFM’s Building Safety Manager work programme, feeding into the legislative process towards the Building Safety Bill. She provided the Secretariat for the Competence Steering Group’s Working Group 8, which developed the Building Safety Managers competence framework.
In addition to being the co-author of the Group’s report, Safer people, safer homes: Building Safety Management, she is a regular contributor to Facilitate. Building on WG8’s recommendations, Sofie is a part of the Interim Executive of the Building Safety Alliance, a cross sector collaboration which is working to improve holistic building safety competence across the occupation phase. She is also a part of the Steering Committee for the DLUCH sponsored PAS 8673, which is setting the competence specification for Building Safety Managers.
Stephanie Welch
Steph is a Workplace and Facilities Management professional with over a decade of successful experience at Arup’s London offices. Steph is interested in advancements in technologies that provide intelligent data, encouraging smart working across her discipline, such as the use of sensor technology to manage plant life cycle, as well as smarter ways of improving the journey to achieving Carbon Net Zero and creating truly adaptable buildings meeting business and social requirements.
Steph is passionate about ethical FM, sustainability and circular economy and is an advocate for collaboration to develop offices to best serve those working in them. Steph is committed to developing her team through learning and mentorship and was incredibly proud to have won the 2020 ‘IWFM Manager of the Year’ Award.