Introduction
Premier college is one of the oldest colleges in UK that was established in the year 1906. The college mainly to offer various diploma and certificates in business related courses. The college has been commented in ensuring that it produces the best student in business related courses. The college has managed to attract large numbers of local student from UK and international student. The college mainly offers some its courses in collaboration with Bright Star University. Due to the growing large number of student population the college has therefore agreed to share some facilities with Bright Star University. This is to ensure that the college continues offering quality education and it remains to be the first choice, of many students.
Background
In order to facilitate the sharing of facilities a joint committee was formed to help in implementing the necessary procedures required to ensure the facilities are share by both instructions. The joint committee was formed from the senior management members of Premier College and Bright Star University. Being the facility manager of Premier College I was chosen to represent the college in the joint committee that was to help in the managing of the shared facility. I therefore wish to use this report to explain to the joint committee my role in the management of the shared facilities. The report also wishes to highlight various ways the joint committee can be able to ensure that they effectively manage the facilities. I will also use the report to highlight the need for space planning in facility management. Moreover the report will also highlight the important of ethics in the management of the facilities. Finally I will also highlight some of the problem associated with room allocation. I therefore wish to present a copy of this report to the joint facilities management committee to help them understand my role in the committee and various ways it can be able to manage the facilities effectively.
College
The motto for Premier College is “education is the key to success”. The management has therefore been committed in ensuring that the educations they provide enable the student to be successful in life. The college mainly offers courses in business related field. The courses offered by the college include front office, information technology, secretariats among others. Most of the diploma courses offered by the college take a period of two years consisting of three semesters. While the certificate courses take a maximum of six months. The college offers most of its courses at low fee compared to other colleges in UK. Moreover the college offers scholarship to the needy study to ensure that even the students from poor background are able to pursue their career goals. This has enabled the college to attract a large number of students. Due to the increase in the number of the student the management of the college has been forced to device some ways to deal with the growing student and the staff population. The management has therefore decided that one of the ways to help deal with large student population is to share some facilities with Bright Star University.
Shared facilities
The college wishes to share some cleaning services with the university to ensure that the entire student and staff compounds are maintained clean. The college will also share some car parking space since the space available may not be enough for the growing large student and staff population. Moreover the two institutions will also share front office, reception services and security within and around the building. It is also evident that the two colleges will also share porterage, janitorial support room allocations and space planning.
Important definitions
Facility management: refers to the management of all facilities and their associated services an resources to support the various goals of the an organization ( Redlein, 2004, pg.18)
Space planning: refer to the process by which organization optimizes the available space to ensure that it is able to meet its goals ( Karlen,2009, pg.1).
Ethics: refers to various guidelines on how people in an organization should behave.
Facility management
The facility management helps to integrate all the aspect of the workplace in any organization to ensure that there is smooth performance of the organization (Georgoulis, 2008 pg.10). The facility management is therefore concerned with managing overall strategy of the facility. It is also concerned with the management of the space to ensure that the available space is maximally utilized. Moreover the facility management is also involved in designing and maintaining the organization facilities. This implies that in the case the joint facilities committee has the responsibility of ensuring that the shared facilities are well maintained (Georgoulis, 2008 pg.10). The joint committees should also ensure that they plan for the available space to ensure that there is maximum utilization of the available space. Moreover the joint management committee has the responsibility of ensuring that the shared facilities maintain various aspects of safety and health. This can help to ensure that the shared facilities are able to provide quality services to both the student and the staff from both institutions.
Health and safety
In the management of the shared facilities it is important, for the joint management committee to ensure that health and safety of both the staff and student is given the first priority. The management therefore needs to carry out various staff and student training programs. This is to help ensure that both the student and the staff are well informed on various safety measures the one can take in the case of an accident. The management should also try to do some risk assessment on the shared facilities (Mann, 2009, pg.203). This can help to ensure that they combat the risk at their source for instance drying immediately a slippery flour to avoid accidents (Ray 2007, pg.75) Moreover, the joint committee for the facilities management should also ensure that cleaning services are properly executed. It is also important for the committee to ensure that every room is installed with firefighting equipment and other first aid kits (Mann, 2009, pg.203)
Ethics
The joint management committee should ensure that they adhere with the ethical guideline in the management of the shared facilities. The committee therefore needs to adhere with the principle of respect of person (Mandal, 2010, pg.130). This implies that the joint management committee should exercises honesty, openness and integrity in their operation. Moreover the committee should ensure they exercise principle of justice in the management of the facilities. This implies that equality and fairness in the management of the facilities should be maintained. This can help to avoid any possible conflict between the student and the administration of the college.
Methodology of the case study
The joint management committee should ensure that they draft the memorandum of understanding between the two institutions. The memorandum of understanding should clearly stipulate how each institution will benefit from the shared facilities. The joint management committee should ensure that they adhere with all the ethical guideline in the management of the shared facilities. This can help to ensure that the fairness and equality are maintained in the operation of the facilities. Moreover it is important for the joint management committee to give health and safety first priority in management of the facilities. This can help to prevent to ensure that the student and the staff members are accorded safe and secure environment.
Benefits of case student
The case study where the Premier College shares facilities with Bright stay university can be used to demonstrate how two institutions can able share facilities. The case study can also be used to show the important of ethics in the management of a facility. It is also evident that the case study can be used to show the important of maintaining health and safety in the management of facilities. Moreover the case also serves as an example to show how a college can be able to deal with high population growth. In addition the case study can be used to show how to academic institution can cooperate.
Limitation of the case
The case study only provides general information of how two institutions can share facilities. However, it does not provide the details explanation of how the two actually share the facilities. This implies that the case study cannot be used to a detailed sharing process. The case study only studies involves one simple case where two institutions sharing facilities. This implies that the data cannot be used to justify how institutions share facilities in a general population.
Role of facility manager
The following are some of the role I will play as the facility manager of premier college. First I will be involved in the planning for the usage of various facilities (Cotts, & Rondeau, 2004, pg.113). This is to help ensure that the facilities are maximally utilized for the benefit of the two institutions. Second, I will also be involved in designing and engineering a new facility to be shared by the two institutions. Third, I will also be involved in maintenance and operation management. This is to help ensure durability of the facilities, so that many students can be able to benefit from the facilities. Finally, I will also be involved in the facilities financial planning (Cotts, & Rondeau, 2004, pg.113). This will help to ensure that the facilities are able to use the effectively all the funds allocated by the various institution.
Business and need for space planning
Planning for available workspace is important to ensure that a business is able to respond to the specific needs for its customers. Planning can also enable the business to make the necessary arrangements for future adjustments. In this case the joint management committee needs to find out the actual number of both the staff and student who will be using the facilities from the two institutions. It is also important for the joint management committee to make necessary plans to include the interest of the student with special needs. This is to help in ensuring that the student with the special needs also feel as part of the society.
Problems with room allocation
Room allocation may pose problems to the management when the available space is not enough for the large student population. This has been the case before the Premier College shared facilities with Bright Star University. The joint management committee may face some problems in the allocation of rooms to student. First, the management face problem of demarcating the actual boundaries in sharing of facilities between the university students and college student. This can act as source of conflict between the university student and the college student. Second, the management may be faced with challenge of allocating rooms to the student with special needs. This is because the student with special needs have to be allocated room fitted with special facilities.
HFS and impact on Facilities Management
The health and facility systems have great impact on the management of the facilities. This is because the HFS helps to ensure that the facilities provides high health standard. The HFS helps to provide regular and sufficient cleaning of the facilities takes place. The management therefore needs to incorporate the HFS in the management of the facilities. This can help to ensure that assess of the facilities is regularly done to determine any possible risk associated with the facility. Moreover incorporating high health standard in the management of the facilities helps to ensure that the facilities provide quality services to its staff and the students. This can also help to improve the corporate image of the college and therefore it can be able to attract large number of students.
Ethics role in Facilities Management
The joint management facilities committee should ensure that they follow all the accepted code of ethics in their operation. They should therefore ensure that equality to all students is maintained during service delivery. The management should also ensure that they practice integrity in their operation. This can help to ensure that the various management operations are carried out in an open and transparent manner. Moreover proper management may help to improve the corporate image and therefore attract large number of students.
Recommendation
- The joint management committee should ensure that they uphold the accept code of ethics in their operation. this is to ensure that the college continues to attract large number of student both locally and internationally
- The joint management committee should ensure that the shared facilities benefit both institutions equally.
- The joint management committee should ensure that they health and safety are considered in the management of the shared facilities.
Conclusion
From the above it is evident the joint management committee should ensure that they uphold ethical guideline in the management of the shared facilities. This can help to ensure there is equality in the in the delivery of services from the shared facilities. It is also evidence that it is important for the joint management committee to plan for the available space to ensure there is maximum utilization of the available space. Health and safety of the facilities should also be incorporated in the management of the facilities. This is to ensure that the student and staff are accorded safe and secure environment. It is also evident that the facility manager plays a very critical role in the management of the shared facilities.
References
Cotts, D. G., & Rondeau, E. P. (2004). The facility manager's guide to finance and budgeting. New York: AMACOM, American Management Association.
Georgoulis,W. (2008) Facility Management: A Profession at Risk. New York. ProQest.
Karlen, M. (2009). Space planning basics. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.
Mandal, S. K. (2010). Ethics in business and corporate governance. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
Mann, D. (2009). Facility management: Human outsourcing solutions to clients. New Delhi: Global India Publications.
Redlein, A. (2004). Facility management: Business process integration. Hamburg: Diplomica.
