Being human in a digital world

‘Building automation’ is a two-folded concept: the automation of the building and the personal skills involved in building automation. The focus must lean on buildings and humans because tech-led FM is as much about having a competent, digitally skilled workforce as it is about having environments that are equipped with the latest innovative technology. Technology and human integration go hand in hand and recognising this is the first step to unleashing the maximum benefits offered by any technological development. 

Techno-what?

There continues to be a lot of hype in the FM industry about having the latest automated tech or smart buildings but do people actually understand what this means or are they just caught up in the latest techno babble? We hear the words ‘building automation’ but what does it actually mean? Is it the automation of a building or are FMs actively building automation within their workplace? The words and phrases that are being bandied around with increasing frequency lack substance because people are speaking a language that they’re not fluent in. There is a distinct lack of concrete definitions. Often people are riled into thinking they’ve got to have “IoT” but they don’t necessarily understand the true need for it, the user journey or the output.

Style over substance?

Are smart buildings really smart? Anything can be automated, but will it bring benefits? Yes, it’s possible to arrive at an office where your choice of coffee has been pre-ordered and is waiting for you, just before you step into a meeting room that has been set to your preferred temperature. In principle it all sounds great, but when three more team members also join the room, your ideal temperature won’t be their ideal temperature, so the ‘smart’ automated system is flawed. 

Smart buildings or ‘building automation’ costs money and unless these facilities are managed correctly and people know how to use them to their benefit, organisations can spend a significant amount of money and nobody will see any results. Think about the number of people that have the latest iPhone XS Max but use the exact same functionality they used eight years ago on the iPhone 4, or the population of Microsoft users that have the latest Office 365 but use basic functionality they learnt at school 20 years ago. 

At Atalian Servest we’ve run tests with clients and our own users where we’ve stripped the ribbon in Outlook back to its core functionality i.e. just leaving basic mail and calendar functions for a month. 99% of the time people didn’t miss any of the removed capabilities because they didn’t have the knowledge to use them in the first place. The latest cutting-edge technology is of absolutely no value if the user isn’t upskilled to realise the true benefits available to them. Frustratingly, this is more often than not the same with automated buildings but on a much grander and more costly scale.

Additionally, there are many advantages to deploying technology such as robotic process automation to manage data flow and outputs more efficiently, which simultaneously reduces human error. This integration removes humans who just wrangle data from one Excel spreadsheet to the other. But the key to reaping the benefits of such software lies with people – in other words, workers need to upskill and build their own automation, rather than rely on trendy hardware or “gadgets” to do the work for them.

If technology is going to be integrated in FM it's fundamental that facilities managers first understand who the technology is for, and how it suits their requirements. Then they need a very clear goal of how they can make the most of it. Without a clear plan that is stress-tested at every step, there’s risk of huge financial outlay with little return. Everywhere I go I hope to find real-life examples of estates that have implemented building automation or an IoT system successfully and realised significant value not just from energy and basic usage management but where the end users have been upskilled enough to appreciate and change their behaviours. Sadly, more often than not, I still find this combination of people, process and technology to be lacking. 

Evolving human behaviours

One of the obstacles we can’t ignore is that humans are not biologically equipped to ‘see’ the digital world – we can see the computer screen, but we don’t see what’s going on behind it, nor can we see the cloud that connects our machine to everything else. A change in mindset is crucial for embracing technological developments. For any technology integration to work, human behaviour must evolve.  Adjusting 20 years of muscle memory for people who have got used to using workplace tools in a certain way won’t happen overnight. We need to give people the tools they need to ‘see’ and use the digital world to their advantage and help them change their own muscle memory automation when it comes to managing properties.

Developing a more tech savvy workforce 

We often hear that it is down to FMs to maximize the potential of a facility. However, there is not as much focus on how we help the FM maximize their own potential in this pursuit. In FM, of course there can be advantages of integrating technology but, as we have seen, technology is only useful if it is deployed in the right environment and, people know how to use it. Before the power of smart buildings can be untapped, FMs need to revolutionise their skill set. Tech isn’t going to work on its own and it’s the human know-how that’s fundamental in unleashing its potential. If smart buildings are full of not-so-smart humans, it won’t work.

So how do FMs learn these new skills to embrace the new digital outlook? How do we plug this knowledge gap? Traditionally the responsibility would have rested with the people services or L&D departments but these teams won’t necessarily have the expertise, which is also a hurdle. We need to look at who is training the trainer because nobody can expect people to just suddenly be fully adept digital gurus. That said, this is the way the technology industry works. When you buy a brand-new iPad it’s just assumed that you know the functions, you don’t get any training.

In order to stay ahead, FMs needs to be proactive and actively seek training to stay on top of our ever-evolving digital world. FMs need to step up and take responsibility to upskill themselves to gain competitive advantage. By the same token, organisations should offer them the support they need.

Atalian Servest has spearheaded our own digital champions programme to upskill and retrain people using our common platforms so we have competitive advantage and adopt a more highly skilled workforce that is competent in the digital environment around them. On a large scale we’re providing skilled digital workers that can get involved with more business-critical missions, rather than spending unnecessary time on mundane processing jobs. 

A true collaboration of technology and people creates value?

Millions of pounds are being spent in tech investment. A building could have the best technology in the world but if people don’t know how to get their laptop to project onto the screen or know what to do with the data that’s extracted from the automation, then the value is void. It’s crucial that the FM industry focuses less on the mod-cons of technology and more on developing its people with digital skills to change the way things are done. 

What’s more important, though, is this need for the FM industry to learn and embrace new automated technologies and to think about how to leverage automation to their customers benefit. In my opinion, it’s not building automation that’s going to have the greatest impact on the FM industry, but it’s building automation within our processes that’s going to be a game changer.

We’re humans living in a digital world. Digital is here to stay and it’s important the FM industry embraces that.