Nagendra Sharma

For Sharma, the biggest challenge in the current industry continues to be managing transport operations, HSE awareness and talent retention. “With so much infrastructure development happening in a city like Bengaluru, the roads continue to be clogged most of the time, the success factor lies in keeping stakeholders duly informed about the challenges and to promote flexible work options/working hours, car-pooling and leverage public transport. We need to continually empower and coach our staff to retain them,” he opines.

Facility managers need to start thinking beyond cost cutting and look for value creation through implementation of new and forward-thinking technologies that will allow employees to concentrate on core businesses. This will improve the efficiency of the workforce, believes Sharma. “FMs are responsible for the energy management, HSE, waste management, recycling and water management, as these are directly responsible for increase and decrease of carbon footprint. FMs should be instrumental in educating employees on energy management, water conservation through rewards programmes too,” says Sharma.

Technology implementation is going to be one of the key competencies for any FM to sustain in the industry. With millennials being large stakeholders of the current workforce, they need everything at the tip of their finger. Hence, FMs need to leverage technology in transport management, cafeteria management, helpdesk management, etc, to make the workplace most efficient.