4 Facilities Management Situations That Demand Data Collection Forms

Managing a facility means making choices every day. To make good decisions, you need to be well-informed. How do you know if the data you are collecting is relevant? Take a look at the key performance indicators for facilities for inspiration.

Using data collection forms is a great way to get the data you need without personally inspecting every nook and cranny of your facility. Find out the key data points to include on the form and which you can ignore.

Situation 1: Daily Cleaning Status Data

Walking into a dirty working environment is a quick way to demoralize employees. As a facilities manager, you do not want to get a call from executives complaining about poor cleaning. To keep yourself informed about the cleaning requirements for your facility, create a form to collect all necessary data. Don’t forget to keep up with preventive maintenance along with daily cleaning and repairs. For a standard office tower, your data collection form should track the following points:

• Cleaning Supplies Used. If your staff run out of key cleaning products, they will not be able to succeed.
• Additional Cleaning Required? This field will give your staff the ability to log a situation that requires more extensive attention, such as carpet damage.
• Repair Requirement. If your staff notices broken chairs or tables, or other critical office items out of commission, then they need an easy way to report that information to management.

For higher risk environments such as industrial facilities, capture additional information on your forms. For instance, maintenance staff may also be asked to track physical security data such as noting if secure rooms and storage facilities are left open.

Situation 2: Track Employee Satisfaction With Facilities

Defining success in facilities management is sometimes difficult. Your managers and executives may take a clean and organized environment for granted. To demonstrate your value and find areas for improvement, use data collection forms to assess employee satisfaction. Use a mix of scoring (e.g. scale of 1-10) and qualitative questions (i.e. asking for comments) to develop a full picture of employee satisfaction.

• Satisfaction with your workspace’s cleaning. You may need to specify that you are only asking about garbage and recycling maintenance.
• Satisfaction with shared work areas. Over time, you may break this down into high traffic areas such as meeting rooms and kitchens.
• Rating your interaction with cleaning staff. This data point will not apply if maintenance staff exclusively carry out their work after hours.
• What is one change you would like to see for maintenance? This is a departure from the above questions. Be prepared for a variety of responses, some of which may be beyond your responsibility (e.g. “my files are disorganized”). However, there are likely to be a few good ideas come through. Fulfilling those requests is an excellent way to delight your employees.

For the sake of simplicity, we recommend using data collection forms to assess employee satisfaction on a quarterly or annual basis. For additional guidance on understanding employee engagement and surveys, check out HBR’s article A Primer on Measuring Employee Engagement.

Situation 3: Parking Management

Keeping a parking facility safe and in good condition gives peace of mind to everyone who parks there. From a maintenance standpoint, what facts do you want to gather on your data collection forms for parking? Use this mix of reactive and proactive points to keep your parking facility in tip-top condition.

• Check the status of the lights. Ask your staff to regularly check on lighting throughout the area and report back on lights that need to be replaced. Lighting is important to maintaining safety.
• Vehicles lacking current parking permits. Take note of vehicles that lack a current parking permit, because these pose a security risk.
• Long duration parking. An abandoned car poses a security risk to everyone who uses the parking facility. Make it easy for your staff to report such vehicles.

Situation 4: Managing Your Organization’s Grounds

What if an employee slips and falls on ice during the winter at your company? That’s a situation you want to avoid in property management. If your responsibilities include maintaining sidewalks, public areas and grounds, you need a way to collect data so you can assign your staff effectively. Use these questions to inform the design of your data collection forms for grounds maintenance.

• Winter Maintenance Inventory Usage. Running out of salt during the winter is a painful experience.
• Track pest incidents. Ask your employees to report back if there are bee or wasp nests on the grounds so these can be removed promptly.
• Track status on third party work on the grounds. If you manage a large property, it is difficult to track every contractor coming through the area. Use your forms to track these activities.
• Update documentation on your grounds. Tracking the trees, bicycle racks, benches and other assets regularly means you will detect problems more quickly.