What do you do if your employees are disengaged in Facility Management (FM)?

Identify the root cause. Talk to your employees to understand why they are disengaged. It could be due to a lack of recognition, unclear expectations, poor communication, limited growth opportunities, or other issues.

I think the disengagement of our employees puts a lot of question marks on our leadership and managerial skills as managers, and to overcome this challenge, we need to follow the below easy steps. 1. Delegate tasks based on employee competency. 2. Provide a short and simple instruction on how to complete the task. 3. Have proper follow-ups. 4. Support if need be. 5. Appreciate the result.

You need to find out why. What’s distracting them or what is preventing them from carrying out their management duties. Is it that the employees are not compatible and supplement each other’s tasks or is there a rotten apple that is polluting the rest because this is also possible. Try to change things up maybe by switching personnel between roles and sites.

Enhancing training programs with new challenges and development opportunities can reignite their interest in work. Ensure training is pertinent, engaging, and imparts skills applicable on the job. This investment in their professional growth can bolster their sense of value and commitment to the organisation.

In my opinion, encourage open communication. Create a culture of open communication where employees feel comfortable sharing their feedback, ideas, and concerns. Regular team meetings, one-on-one discussions, and feedback sessions can help improve communication.

One thing I found helpful is recognize and reward employees. Acknowledge and appreciate the hard work and contributions of your employees. Recognize their achievements, provide incentives, and create a positive work environment.

Recognition goes a long way. This helps build trust and respect. Show your team members that you appreciate their work ethic. Simple gestures like this can resonate with how they feel about their director(s) or the Manager. Happy team members make the day productive and less stressful work environment.

As a director of facilities, your team is built with technical hands-on experience, multitasking jobs in HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Janitorial, etc.. I have noticed the team likes to work on projects alone. They do not interact with other management and leave this up to me. How I fostered teamwork was based on who could work together. Once I learned the traits of each team member, I then knew how to put them together on tasks, building teamwork a little at a time. The efficiency of this caused the workday to be more productive. More projects were being completed quicker and with fewer issues. Fostering a happy team that can now take a lunch break together daily. Twice a week I buy lunch for the team and we discuss any issues or concerns.

Flexibility can be offered depending on whether the job can afford to allow this. As an FM I was able to help a few team members with this option for family responsibilities. This helped improve a longer work presence. After adjusting time schedules on the days affected, the team members worked a little later on these days. This helped me with any issues that could arise in this timeframe. It improved loyalty, respect, and trust. This balance was vital and has proven to be beneficial to myself and the team.