The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is the main federal agency “charged with the enforcement of safety and health legislation.” They assure safe and healthful working conditions by “setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance.” It’s a part of the United States Department of Labor, and employers need to be sure that both their practices and their facilities meet or exceed OSHA standards.

Are you still using multiple vendors to maintain your facility? Using a single vendor versus multiple vendors for your facility managed services is an often debated aspect of the industry. But the truth is, consolidating services as opposed to carrying three or four extra suppliers can help streamline operational efficiency and save you money.

There’s a lot to be said for planning ahead when it comes to stretching your facility maintenance budget. In fact, it’s recommended that you start devising a budget for any given year at least 10 months in advance. That way, you can anticipate maintenance operations costs ahead of time. Here are five facility maintenance budget planning tips that you should start implementing today!

Staffing is one of the most important aspects of any facility. After all, it is the people that make any facility run. What’s more, these people ultimately become the face of the organization. That’s why you should take the staffing of your facility seriously.

Management often tosses out or discontinues good facility programs because they believe it didn’t achieve the desired outcome. But don’t give up so easily. Tossing out the entire initiative and simply dismissing it because it “doesn't work” deprives you of the opportunity to learn more about your organization. Instead, you need to look deeper to understand what went wrong and how you can remedy it.

Since the majority of service employees aren’t on salary, how can you incentivize them to be more productive when their pay depends on the amount of hours worked?

Inventory management and tracking can be a headache. However, there are some solutions you can implement in order to make it less of one.

With so many tasks tugging at you every day, being strategic is not always an easy feat for managers. Prioritizing daily activities may seem pretty self-evident, but prioritizing long-term changes across your organization, well, that's a different story.

Is culture something you either have or don't have, or is it something that you can actively build? Both. For many individuals, corporate culture sounds like a very abstract, fluffy thing you use in Marketing and that's it. But truly successful companies make culture an integral part of their operations. If you’re interested in improving the company culture at your facility, it’s something that can be done; you just need to know how to go about it.

Maintaining your facility is time consuming enough, which is why it might be wise to consider outsourcing all your service procurement activities to a trusted partner. Encompass Onsite (EO) works with institutions of all sizes and industries to find the right suppliers in order to save time and reduce stress, all the while ensuring minimal disruptions, high levels of quality, and continuity of service. We work with with our clients' teams to implement procurement best practices, provide category intelligence and increase spend visibility.

Finding a cleaning company for your project seems easy enough on the surface, but the reality is that it can be quite complex. Part of the reason, is that almost every company likely tells you close to the same thing: “We will give you the lowest price, and the best quality”.

Cleaning and disinfection are costing more than ever before. We need to clean and disinfect multiple times a day, provide cleaning materials for self-disinfection, and pay special attention to the brands we're using. Not every cleaner is created equal, and the wrong choice could be the difference between a healthy staff or a complete outbreak. COVID-19 has changed how we think about disinfection, and Americans are more aware of the germs lurking on surfaces. How do you control costs while also keeping occupants safe?

Building owners often think that having in-house facility management will save them money. But, what about the hidden direct and indirect costs that we often don’t think about? From turnover to insurance costs to materials, the cost of having an in-house team can quickly get out of hand. In this guide, we will dive into the costs of having an in-house facility management team. While on the surface, it may seem more efficient to have an in-house team, you will see hidden costs to this structure.

There is a big misconception in business: in-house is always best. The problem with this notion is that you can't easily scale, vendor management is in-house, and technology is an added expense. While these are downfalls you'd see in most departments, they are very evident in the facility management department. With COVID-19 running rampant and buying and selling off properties the norm, it has never been more clear that outsourcing facility management has its benefits.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a major problem for businesses and organizations around the nation, it's worth taking a hard look at whether you're prepared in the event of an outbreak at your business, facility, or other location where people congregate. Here are some of the most critical tips that can help you identify, manage, and recover from outbreaks of COVID-19.

There are many reasons you might need to scale your FM services. From scaling back because of a temporary building closure to scaling up due to a remodel, there are many reasons your needs might change. The problem lies in that scaling is a human resources nightmare, and a LOT of work. From hiring employees quick and efficiently, to the paperwork and legalities involved in laying off workers or hiring new employees, it takes a lot of time and effort. But, that doesn't need to be the case. In fact, with the right system set-up, adjusting your FM workforce can be easy.