By Geoff Grateley
Throughout my career, I have gained extensive experience in the facilities management market, working with some of the UK’s biggest businesses in both retail and corporate sectors. From there I have learned successful approaches to providing facilities management, including how to deliver change, delight customers, and develop and grow an engaged team, through cleaning, security and property management services. I have also learnt that there are several different approaches to delivering these vital services, and that some will have a better result than others.
As a consultant for Anchor Group Services, I have been impressed with their ‘non-typical’ approach to providing services for clients. Rather than the generic ‘tick box’ delivery of some suppliers, there are several key features of Anchor’s service that sets them apart. In the first of my three-part series of insider industry articles, I will go through some of these aspects in more detail and explain how Anchor adds tangible value for any business requiring facilities management services.
Client engagement
The team at Anchor really takes time to get to know and understand individual stakeholders, evaluating what is important to each and why, and what represents real value for each client. These insights are then built into a delivery strategy that is flexible and bespoke to the client’s needs, of fundamental contrast to the ‘one size fits all’ approach that I have seen implemented by many other FM providers.
During the course of their partnership with a client, I have witnessed Anchor building lasting relationships through a genuine connection and shared purpose – their clients’ goals become their goals and vice versa. The teams become aligned to deliver value through shared, transparent objectives.
The outcome is a results-orientated partnership, based on simple lines of communication, flat structure, and enabled through the latest innovative and effective technologies that are part and parcel of Anchor’s service offering.
Team engagement
In addition to fostering a great client relationship, the best facilities management partner must also genuinely engage their team. After all, an empowering workplace culture is key to a thriving business, and Anchor has striven to develop these principles throughout their organisation.
With FM teams located across the country, Anchor works tirelessly to engage their employees through an open culture, harnessing creativity and loyalty to implement and realise objectives together.
Aligning personal objectives with team members, developing capabilities together as a team and all the while ensuring that employees are listened to, empowered and at the heart of the services that the business provides, is vital. The team must all believe in the service they are delivering, embrace innovation and adapt with moving consumer trends and technology.
Anchor has truly worked to build the resources needed to develop team capabilities through a combination of people, technology, data, process, culture and governance. The team, from a cleaner or security officer to the CEO, are all working together towards a shared goal, and it is Anchor’s clients who reap the benefits of a united and engaged FM team.
Continuous innovation
Any service-based business that doesn’t stand still but continually looks to innovate and grow is a business that will always provide value for its clients.
At Anchor, I have witnessed an attitude to growth and innovation that is second to none. The team are continuously looking at ways to improve methods and services for their clients, from the latest security technologies, such as eGuarding, to switching to more sustainable cleaning solutions, adapting and evolving to integrate with their partner’s ESG goals.
Anchor gets to the crux of risk management from the outset, ensuring that business continuity is not only in place but also utilised as the basis for effective continuous improvement, leading to growth through customer experience.
These key service pillars of client relationships, team engagement and continuous innovation are, in my view, what underpins a successful facilities management partner. What makes Anchor so special is the way that each pillar is prioritised and used not in isolation but as the united, guiding endeavours of Anchor Group Services as a whole. It is this that sets Anchor apart.
In my next instalment, I will delve further into how Anchor Group Services uses tech to deliver the right solution for their clients and provide an insight into their unique digital approach.
See you next time,
Geoff
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