Enhancing the task of Office Maintenance using Balanced Scorecard

Nearly every organization aims at providing an environment that is conducive to work and that assists employees in using their potential maximally

One of the ways to achieve this is by maintaining the workplace in the best possible condition. This involves carrying out the "background" work to enable the "front workers" focus on core issues rather than getting engaged in "not-so-important" tasks. It is important since building a good infrastructure is one thing and sustaining it at the similar level is an altogether different domain. >From this reality springs the need for "Office Maintenance".

Some of the jobs falling in this bracket include "carrying out the cleaning work", "maintenance and repair tasks" and "ensuring the security of the building". Though in small-sized organizations, the issue is often neglected and does not receive the deserving attention; mid- and large-sized companies know the place held by it.

Consequently, some organizations either construct a group on their own to do these jobs, while some might opt for outsourcing this "behind-the-scenes" area to an organization which excels in handling it. Outsourcing of this task has come up as a profitable opportunity for a number of companies. This explains the manifold increase in the size of the industry. However, it came with its own costs.

There are various hurdles faced by the ones who exist in this sector. A major challenge faced by companies carrying out this process is the need for resolving clients" problems "at the earliest". This "real time basis" resolution demands immense coordination in manual interaction. Subsequently, the information flow needs to be very apt and accurate. One can do this by going the "electronic way" to prevent instances of miscommunication.

Further, the frequency of services that come under "office maintenance" varies considerably. Some of these would be needed at regular and fixed intervals whereas rest can be one-time in nature. For instance, cleaning definitely should be done more often than repairing tasks; which in turn is carried more number of times than the security solutions installation. However, irrespective of this need, the answers have to be in place, whenever required.

Yet another addition to the list of challenges is the quality of services offered. The underlying aim of framing "office maintenance solution" is "preventing the recurrence of problems". Taking care of this, the quality of output must be up-to-the-mark to avert the happening, again. This is particularly true of the risk and security measures. These are the concerns, which cannot be afforded to be "taken for granted".

The accumulative effect of all these difficulties is seen on the "performance of the office maintenance process". To handle the issue in the way "it is supposed to be", one can opt for "BSC" approach.

Clubbing of indicators can be done under categories like "Financial Perspective", "Quality assurance Perspective", "Internal Operations", "Employee education and safety Perspective'.

Financial Perspective can be had with KPIs like "% rise in other Operating costs", "% rise in material cost" and "% increase in training expenditure". This helps in gaining a successful bifurcation of expenditures. Quality assurance is possible with "number of eco-friendly solutions offered", "number of quality standards met", "frequency of inspections" and "% increase in positive feedbacks". This category is to ensure that certain and acceptable level of quality is provided to the clients.

Further, Internal Operations can be had using KPIs like "% savings in time per unit of task performed", "effectiveness index per employee", "number of office maintenance tasks undertaken" and "number of communication platforms offered". Lastly, Employee education and Safety Perspective can be obtained with "average training hours conducted", "number of safety measures", "% reduction in injury rate" and "policy compliance level". This "quantitative and measurable" approach used in a BSC approach can holistically gauge the performance of office maintenance process and consequently it ensures that premises are always in the perfect shape.