In order for your business to run as smoothly and efficiently as possible, whilst prioritising your employees’ wellbeing and their experience at your company, it’s essential to maintain good health and safety standards in your office. This means ensuring that your office building is safe and hazard-free, promoting good health in employees and boosting productivity and output. Health and safety covers a wide range of things in your office, from equipment to hygiene. Ideally, your employees and clients visiting your office should be comfortable, and they should enjoy their experience, which is why it’s so important to uphold high standards when it comes to health and safety.

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Why Soft & Hard FM can be crucial to your business

When it comes to running your company in an efficient way to maximise output and productivity, it’s essential that everything in your office runs as smoothly as possible. 

This means keeping your facilities working and maintaining your environment, and when issues crop up, they should be dealt with quickly to minimise their impact on day-to-day business. 

That’s where soft and hard FM services come in. 

FM stands for Facility Management - essentially, the services that ensure your office is a healthy, safe and hygienic environment for your employees to work in. 

This way, you can boost productivity in your employees - as studies have shown that people work best in a clean, safe environment - and you can keep your business operations running smoothly. 

In this article, we’re going to explore soft and hard FM services and why they’re crucial for your business.

What are Soft FM Services?

Soft FM (Facility Management) services are the things that make your office safer, healthier and more comfortable for your employees, clients and guests. 

Studies have found that employees experience overall better well-being when they’re in a more hygienic office, and it can also improve their health, leading to less sick days and higher levels of productivity. 

Often, in comparison to hard FM services - which we will explore in more depth later on - soft FM services are the side of office maintenance that people often tend to forget about, but it’s important to understand the effect that little things like being in a clean space can have on employees. 

In addition, having a well-presented, clean and safe office space presents well to clients, giving a good and professional first impression. 

What Soft FM Services Should You Consider for Your Office?

There are several different soft FM services which are ideal for offices, to make it a nice place to be for employees and guests alike. 

Some of the soft FM services to consider are as follows:

• Decorating: Having a creatively-decorated workspace is great for both employees and clients. In terms of employee output, studies show that brighter colours in offices helps boost productivity. Interior design and decoration that reflect your brand colours and your identity as a company also creates a good first impression when your clients visit your office. 
• Car parking: Simple things like car parking are great benefits which your employees and clients will appreciate. It can be difficult to find parking depending on where your office is based, so providing this, ideally free of charge, is a great perk. 
• Catering: Another thing employees and clients will really appreciate is catering. Lunch breaks are a great time for your team and clients to get together and wind down a little, and it’s even better if this can be done over a great meal. 
• Waste management: No one likes seeing rubbish around the office or outside the building, especially if you’re looking to make a good impression on your potential new clients. That’s why having a management system is important to ensure you have a way of disposing of your office waste. 
• Cleaning: The most important soft FM service, and one which can be forgotten about easily. Having a clean and hygienic office can have a massive impact on the mood of your employees and clients, and it can even help improve the health of people with asthma and similar allergies while they’re at work. 

Why are Soft FM Services Crucial for Your Business?

When you’re running your business, you want things to go as smoothly as possible. For this to happen, you need your employees and clients to be safe and comfortable when they’re in your office. 

This means maintaining and providing a wide range of facilities - such as cleaning and catering, as we explained above - which help retain both employees and clients, as well as making a good impression on anyone new joining your company or requiring your services. 

In short, to keep soft FM services are crucial for your business because they keep employees, clients and guests healthy and happy when they’re in your office. 

What are Hard FM Services?

While soft FM services are all about your office and the health, safety and comfort associated with your space, hard FM services concern the physical things in your office and building, such as plumbing, air conditioning and heating. 

Hard Facility Management services are therefore essential for your employees and clients to be able to properly use your office. Without hard Facility Management, your office - and therefore your company - won’t be able to function and run effectively. 

Hard FM services like air conditioning are essential in offices, where there are laws around keeping the space at a comfortable temperature. In fact, many laws around health and safety and conditions in offices depend on hard FM services, including plumbing and fire safety equipment.

What Hard FM Services Should You Consider for Your Office? 

There are several hard Facility Management services worth considering for your office, many of which can help you uphold the necessary health and safety conditions as prescribed by law.

Some of the hard FM services you could consider for your office are as follows:

• Lighting: For your employees to do their jobs, you should have emergency lighting installed. This way, if the first lighting system fails for whatever reason, there will be a backup option to ensure that business continues as usual.
• Plumbing: In order to keep everyone in your office comfortable, it’s essential to make sure that all your plumbing is working at all times, so everyone has access to toilet and water facilities. Consistent plumbing checks and maintenance can help you detect and solve plumbing issues early on before they have too much of an impact on how your office runs. 
• Fire safety: In line with laws around office health and safety, it’s essential that you provide fire safety equipment, and that you maintain it. Your fire safety equipment must be in working order at all times, so that in the unlikely event of a fire, your employees, clients and guests are as safe as possible. 
• Air conditioning: As we’ve already explained, air conditioning can massively impact your employees’ and clients’ comfort levels, which can either limit or improve their experience in your office. Especially if your office gets particularly hot in the summer months, it’s a good idea to install air conditioning and remember to clean and maintain it through the year. 

Why are Hard FM Services Crucial for Your Business?

Hard Facility Management services are essential for your business. This is because, if any of the physical materials, facilities or structures in your office fail or have issues, it means your company won’t be able to run properly until the issue is solved. 

In addition, hard FM services can also help you meet health and safety standards in your office, from your air conditioning maintaining a comfortable temperature, to working fire safety equipment saving lives. 

When it comes to Facility Management, it’s important to consistently maintain and check that everything in your office building to ensure everything is working as it should, to help minimise problems down the line.

Why Soft & Hard FM Services are Crucial for Your Business

Essentially, there are two things you’re juggling when running your business: firstly, keeping anyone who’s in your office comfortable and safe, and secondly, ensuring your office and business is running smoothly without any physical issues in your building. 

This is why both soft and hard Facility Management services are crucial for your business to run smoothly. They are also both essential when it comes to retaining both employees and clients, as well as keeping everyone healthy and happy when they’re in your office.