By Richard Gelder, Client Engagement Lead for Construction & Property

As we begin a year which will hopefully represent something closer to business as usual, facilities management (FM) and commercial maintenance contactors are facing major challenges resourcing the temporary and freelance skills they need to meet demand.

According to the most recent RICS Facilities Management Survey, 55% of respondents they are having difficulties sourcing workers in building operation and maintenance. Similarly, 40% of respondents reported problems finding workers for support services.

This is also happening at a time when businesses need to expand workforces fulfil new contracts. The same RICS survey found that over 80% of facility managers, service providers and FM consultancies expect their workloads to increase over the next nine months.

This begs a serious question: how can the industry solve its skills crisis in the short-term, scale up to meet 2022 targets – and at the same time stay 100% compliant with employment regulations?

As we move into 2022, here’s my take on the top five challenges that hiring managers need to face and overcome to find the answer.

1    The need to source more temporary workers

The problem for many FM businesses right now is that they need to recruit new workers in a period when skills are in potentially short supply. Post-Brexit, the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence reported that 1.3m overseas workers had left the UK over the previous year. Almost 700,000 non-UK born workers had left London alone.

One solution to this is to source more temporary skills to fill gaps. However there is currently high demand and competition for self-employed and temporary agency workers across all sectors that is putting pressure on available numbers.

To solve this problem, FM hiring managers need to look beyond their limited number of preferred agencies who are likely to be struggling to fulfil requirements and explore different models to resource temporary workers. One option is to explore the potential to partner with a Neutral Vendor Managed Service Provider. This will increase choice and quality of candidates and provide greater access to a diverse supply chain of suppliers.

2    Managing issues around foreign workers and compliance needs like IR35

The new points-based immigration system that came into effect from January 2021 is making it particularly difficult for facilities managers and providers to hire skilled foreign workers. 2022 is likely to be no different. There is also confusion over the responsibilities of employers to undertake right-to-work checks.

Changes to off-payroll working rules brought in with IR35 last year also remain a challenge within the FM sector. Businesses need to audit their working practices to determine who falls inside of IR35 and decide the employment status of every worker, even if they are working through an agency.

The best way for hiring managers to solve these problems is by partnering with a recruitment specialist that can complete all checks necessary for compliance on their behalf.

3    Managing and delivering on social value

FM businesses must also take account of the Social Value Act when hiring staff and bidding for new public and private sector contracts. The Act was updated in 2020 and made more robust. This means FM businesses now need to consider the make-up of their agency supply chain more carefully than ever before, ensuring that it contains a percentage of local, SME, start-up and social enterprise suppliers for delivering on areas like cleaning and maintenance contracts.

Again, partnering with a specialist that can provide greater access to a diverse supply chain of suppliers that delivers against social value requirements will help.

4   Challenges around modern slavery and clarity of worker status

With the need to recruit temporary agency workers rising, there is also an increasing requirement for employers to make sure all the candidates they engage are safe and eligible to work.

Currently, this is usually handled via a retrospective review process. In many cases this means temporary workers are often in place for several months before being identified as non-compliant.

Hiring managers need to review these audit and screening processes – and make them much more proactive – if they want to build a more stable temporary workforce. This will also help avoid non-compliance caused by forged right to work documents, breaches of Agency Workers Regulations or serious offences like modern slavery.

5   Controlling and reducing costs

Many hiring managers in the FM sector currently find it difficult to get a clear picture of their organisation’s engagement with contingency and agency workers. Many of these problems stem from the increasing number of suppliers many contractors are now having to use to source the temporary workers that they require to meet demand.

Under this model it is time-consuming to gather reports across multiple agencies, and almost impossible to receive data in a consistent format to get visibility on what they’re spending on who, where and why.

This lack of data prevents accurate forecasting and is a barrier to insight that could help control costs better. To solve this problem, hiring managers should also be looking at ways they can develop access to real-time business intelligence that will significantly improve visibility and forecasting.

 At Matrix SCM, we specialise in solving these challenges with a Neutral Vendor approach that delivers increased choice and quality of candidates, guaranteed compliance checks before candidates start a project and management information that provides greater visibility over spend and usage of agencies.

If you would like to find out more about our approach, we’ve recently produced a buyer’s guide for hiring managers in the facilities management sector that will help you explore your options.