Site Services

I was just having a conversation with a person who is employed for a large company working in a department known as "Site Services". As its name suggests, this department is responsible for building maintenance as well as logistics and coordination- getting the equipment in place to facilitate the employee’s work activities in that office. This employee’s work content and location and that of his fellow site services department members is just about to change considerably.

Currently, the thirteen members of the department are assigned to specific company buildings. They are based on-site such that if a problem or requirement arises such as boxes need carrying or cupboards moving, the employee in that company can visit the site services people in the building, or more likely, just give them a call. (Have you noticed how little in-building mobility there is- someone working a couple of floors away from you may just as well be across town in the normal course of events). The same site services people then try to deal with that particular requirement- whatever its nature and form. Currently, they spend much of their working time, like so many of us, waiting for something to happen, on-site in case something happens, rather than actually working on a task.

The work content of these site services people will in the future be made much more dynamic and higher value-adding. Instead of being assigned to a building, most of the site services staff will be assigned to a trade. They have all learned a trade such as plumbing, tiling, security and so on- but currently, they rarely use or develop these skills- they mainly fetch and carry items, deliver the post and so on and so forth.

But even after the change, they will not spend all of their time doing the same sort of jobs related to their particular trade. For example, in emergencies and during staff shortages, they will be needed to do other things- most of which they will be used to from the time they were assigned to a particular building.

The change from location to trade means that the same site services employee will be responsible for carrying out their trade in several buildings. For example, if a problem arises with burglar alarm on one of the buildings, its the security specialist with the expert skills who gets telephoned, who will probably have to then travel to the building in question. This travel requirement is not too onerous or environmentally damaging, because the buildings are located close to each other- its more a question of picking up a tool bag rather than getting in a vehicle and driving to the location.

This change is a positive move from job content that is primarily fetching and carrying to the development and deployment of a person’s skills.

As with all changes, the site services people are a little apprehensive, but they have been told that none of the dozen people in the department will lose their jobs. Both the employees and the employer will benefit from change in the work content and the greater flexibility that has been introduced into those jobs.

All too often when talking about unorganization, I talk about knowledge workers and content industries and so on. But the truths apply equally to "manual" trades- the imperative is always to achieve personal excellence in your trade and other lifestreams.

 

Author: Simon Buckingham

What do you think?

To make a comment to the author, send e-mail to simon@unorgan.com