Keeping an eye on the ball means forward planning, well placed regional events and swift follow up training sessions that aim to reach all their staff across the UK
20 April 2007
I've been wearing my BIFM North region hat the last few weeks and we have been very busy holding six events in a five week period. Planning an event starts around six months in advance and involves the sourcing of speakers, venues, sponsors and refreshment. Each event has a CPD value and we have committed to covering each BIFM competence via our events programme in each two year period.
Once the subject has been decided we then have to match the dates with our speaker and a venue. Most of the speakers and hosts give their time and/or facility free of charge so it is important the venue is right for them. The date can be crucial too, generally events on Mondays and Fridays aren't that well attended and we also miss the holiday season if we can. Breakfast meetings are popular as they allow busy FMs the opportunity to be back in the office by mid morning although other events take place in the afternoon.
With a region that stretches from Hull to North Wales up to Carlisle and across to Newcastle it is difficult to hold the events in areas that all members can attend so mostly we aim for the bigger cities with better transport links allowing the majority to attend.
So far this year we have covered subjects such as water conservation, project management, CDM, legislative updates, education in FM, asset management and building control. On top of this we have so far held six regional networking meetings in Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester allowing FMs the opportunity to discuss varying topics in an informal manner with their industry peers.
Back at Hallmark we are in the final stages of planning our EHS event where we take our awareness road show around all our UK sites and also visit our field- based staff. We have 1,300 merchandisers working on client sites around the UK who generally meet three or four times a year. Their managers have offered great support by coinciding these meetings with our EHS event allowing us to get to as many of them as possible. For those we don't get to we will be issuing either electronic or mailed out versions.
The following week is more sedate with us spending most of the time at our Bradford sites and finally on the Friday afternoon taking the team for a well deserved drink to recognise everyone's input. This year as well as focussing on safety in the office, manufacturing and distribution, we are also majoring on driving safely.
I am keen this year that we follow up on the event by keeping environment and safety on the agenda all year. In the months following the event we will be holding power hour training sessions while the event is fresh in people's minds and we will be distributing newsletters every two months as well. It takes a lot of organistion and effort but if you haven't tried something similar I would encourage you to do so.
Ian Broadbent is director of group property services at Hallmark Cards and the BIFM FM of the Year 2006
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