FOCUS FACILITIES MANAGEMENT - COVID-19
TESTING
TIMES
28 MAY 2020
Over the last few weeks the facilities
management sector has been tested in
ways it has never been tested before. Business
continuity plans were ramped up to move o ice
workers almost overnight to working from
home, while essential building operations at key
sites, ranging from hospitals to supermarkets
were kept operational.
There was also, as Deborah Rowland, Director
Public Sector A airs, Sodexo Global Services
explains: “A really positive industry-wide response
to requests from the Government for support in
the fight against COVID-19. From building and
mobilising new ‘Nightingale’ hospitals or setting
up COVID-19 testing centres; companies that
are usually competitors have come together to
collaborate and meet new and evolving demands.”
Many of the country’s essential workers, as Phil
Bentley, Chief Executive of Mitie, points out: “Are
from the FM sector, keeping us safe and keeping
Britain working. Our ‘Frontline Heroes’ have been
magnificent and the industry as a whole has
responded well and pulled together.”
“The FM sector has responded really well to
the crisis by acting responsibly, ethically and
professionally during a very challenging time,” says
Paul Bagust, Director, RICS Property Standards. “It’s
demonstrated its worth by being agile, flexible and
taking a calm professional approach in ensuring
that the services it has to deliver continue to be
maintained while – at the same time - looking a er
its own people.”
As Linda Hausmanis, CEO of IWFM says: “It’s not a
A range of FM thought leaders gave us their views on how the
sector has reacted to the COVID-19 crisis and how it might
respond in the weeks and months ahead. Sara Bean reports