The COVID-19 era has been a challenging time for facilities management staff as they focus on extensive cleaning and indoor air quality issues. However, there are several other large issues that have impacted their profession, including The Great Resignation, supply chain shortages, lead time and building commissioning, inflation, environmental sensitivity, and networking.
Facilities Management Compliance Week 2022 recently had a panel discussion aiming to address those issues. Dave Irvin, Associate Vice President of Facilities at Florida State University, moderated the discussion entitled “COVID-19’s Impact on Facilities: How Facility Professionals Are Keeping Up with the Challenging Times.” Panelists included Kurt Neubek, an architect specializing in Strategic Planning and Healthcare/Medical Architecture at Page Southerland Page Inc., and Camilla Yamada, Director of Building and Engineering at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
COVID-19 Cleaning
Industry professionals should realize that their work, which was previously thought of as behind-the-scenes, is now front-and-center, because of the pandemic.
Irvin said that colleagues from different departments ask questions related to the health and safety of buildings, such as whether there are M13 (particulate) filters in the HVAC system, cleaning protocols, and other issues regarding compliance.
“I think this is going to be the new normal in terms of having lots of folks who will be helping us in terms of compliance issues,” Irvin said.
Yamada explained that facilities professionals have been tasked with keeping up on the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.
Additionally, colleagues have asked her about installing portable HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters, which she does not advocate in every location due to Seattle Children’s Hospital’s advanced ventilation system.
Neubek said that while facility professionals will meet compliance issues and respond to user feedback, sometimes the professionals need to explain to users why certain things are not possible.
“I heard stories of surgeons demanding ‘make this operating room (OR) negative pressure,’ No, you don’t make ORs negative. You still want the OR positive because otherwise there’s all kinds of things that happen when you start messing with that,” he said.
Great Resignation
The Great Resignation is a term to describe the large amount of people who voluntarily left their positions during the COVID-19 pandemic for a variety of reasons, and this has posed problems for facility management professionals.
Irvin said that his team at Florida State University has 40% of its positions vacant.
“There is a huge demand for architects, engineers, trades folks,” he said, adding that he hopes inflationary pressures will not affect this. Irwin said that the university has its own apprenticeship program to help meet those demands.
Meanwhile, Yamada said that at Seattle Children’s Hospital, she is seeing people not just move around to different jobs but also retire or pass away from non-COVID-related causes.
To help with staff shortage issues, Yamada said the hospital has a four-year engineer apprenticeship program for the 18- to 25-year-old age group which would allow someone to be able to get a high-paying position at the hospital without needing to have a college degree.
As for Neubek, he said, “As part of this Great Resignation, we do see people move around a lot. I read that it happens more with entry-level jobs than in professional terms.” He said that almost all his offices throughout the country are hiring.
Supply Chain Issues
The ability for facility management professionals to plan upcoming construction projects and finish those already under construction has been greatly impacted by supply chain issues.
Irvin said that these problems have been problematic for projects under construction at Florida State. “We’ve had contractors who have canceled their bid and basically said pay us more or we’re going to walk off the job,” he explained.
There are long wait lists, between four and 40 weeks, for construction materials such as light-weight steel trusses and insulation.
“Several of the big projects we have underway have been delayed,” said Irvin. “For instance, we had to delay the opening of our Student Union for four months because parts for the building control systems aren’t going to be here on time.”
Lead Time and Building Commissioning
As a result of supply shortage issues, necessary design changes, and the Great Resignation, there is increased lead time and decreased building commissioning timelines.
Lead time is the time between when a project is under construction and when it is completed.
Building commissioning ensures buildings are delivered to an owner’s project requirements, which typically results in fewer change orders.
At Seattle Children’s Hospital, construction continues on a new 400,000-square-foot hospital building. It will have operating rooms, laboratories, and a pharmacy and is expected to open in April.
Yamada said, “There were lots of lead time issues,” adding that building commissioning on the project was shortened from nine months to three.
“As the owner, I want everything to be as commissioned as much as possible,” Yamada said. She explained, “You have to work to find a balance between your commissioning agency and your contractor and be very clear, from a facilities perspective, about exactly what it is you need in order to be successful from Day 1.”
Inflation
Supply chain issues have already resulted in inflation, which could have a huge impact on feasibility.
“Inflation has been running three-quarters to 1 percent per month. If that keeps going, that could be 8 percent, which is much more than people have been budgeting” regarding construction projects, Neubek said.
If inflation continues at this rate or higher, it’s likely a construction slowdown could result as projects become more expensive.
While Florida State wanted to start constructing new buildings in three to four years, Irvin explained, “We have to predict a worst-case scenario if inflation continues, which means a big business school project, which would have been $88 million, is now $120 million, and now it’s not feasible.”
The cancellation of those projects is problematic, as the university was hoping the new buildings would replace old ones that have compliance issues.
Neubek explained that historically design and construction can go through cycles which are sensitive to high inflation. “It’s kind of a boom-bust cycle, feast or famine.”
Design
Some materials are not available, forcing projects to be redesigned so that alternative materials can be used.
“We are designing things differently today because of what hopefully are short-term shortages. How long they will take to recover from will vary with the commodity or the materials,” Neubek said.
This affects projects under construction and those being planned because it’s not known when some of these materials will be available again.
Environmental Sensitivity
Facility management personnel should work to embrace initiatives such as reducing a project’s carbon footprint, resiliency, and sustainability, according to Neubek. Some of these initiatives are compliance issues, as they have already been adopted into building codes.
Yamada also feels facility management staff should learn about EDI, electronic data interchange, which expedites the exchange of information between companies and vendors and customers.
Neubek said that all of these require a whole new skill set for facility management personnel. He said it’s comparative to “driving a ship to driving a submarine because everything is so much more self-contained.”
Networking
Neubek encourages facilities management professionals to keep up with today’s standards and trends, as well as to further develop their soft skills.
Irvin encourages them to make sure they follow government regulations by relying on their professional networks and attend panel discussions.
“I know we are probably all Zoomed out, but I think this does allow us to connect across the country with folks we probably wouldn’t have been able to connect with before,” he said.
Learn more about the challenges that facility management professionals are facing by watching “COVID-19’s Impact on Facilities: How Facility Professionals Are Keeping Up with the Challenging Times,” available for free on demand by clicking here.