Outsourcing Facility maintenance has been receiving increasing attention recently. Ordinarily, the facility management department gives resources support for the core business as it concerns both optimizing building performance and ensuring the commercial success of any organization.

However, most organizations in Nigeria today solely focus on the financial aspect while choosing between the outsourcing and in-house facility maintenance options, thus excluding other non-financial aspects such as the extent to which the facility maintenance route contributes to improving internal business processes and the overall strategic health of the organization.

There is a need for a specific basis for efficient decision making when choosing between the outsourcing and in-house Facility management processes for the purpose of addressing organizational needs.

Although, it is currently difficult to find a framework or a simple guideline to follow when choosing the best approach to an organization’s facility maintenance activities. This article intends to fill this gap.

In this writeup, we present a perspective on the key variables to be considered in choosing between outsourcing and in-house Facility Maintenance processes in order to provide value-added services and to improve organizational performance to their customers.

Outsourcing Facility Maintenance Services

Basically, outsourcing an activity means the involvement of an external party to the management role of a specific task. The term contracting out can mean the same and are more used as the generic term to describe the process by which a user employs a separate organization (the supplier), under a contract, to perform a function, which could, alternatively, have been performed by in-house staff.

The decision to outsource enables organizations to achieve cost reduction, expand services and expertise, improve employee productivity and morale, as well as achieve greater potential towards sharpening the corporate image.

Outsourcing enables organizations to select the best service provider on the basis of wide-ranging experience, quality, and speed as well as performance efficiency from a business perspective. Outsourcing has a great potential in bringing a business-like approach to bear in areas which may have no run on traditional lines for a long time, introducing new ideas, technologies and new findings; providing attractive possibilities for existing and new staff with appropriate skills, upgrading assets and services as well as providing reduced costs through specializations and large scale economies.

Outsourcing vendors may be unable to deal with the volume of activities by the organization. This can lead to a high negative impact on the operations and service of the entire organizational process. To deal with this situation, many organizations tend to have a great discussion with the potential vendor about the level of activities they shall be engaging in. if the vendor does not have the capacity to handle such volume, the organization will know beforehand to look elsewhere.

At times there can be variance in work ethic between an organization and outsourcing vendor which might lead to Outsourcing vendor unable to perform a task in the specified time and fail to produce contractual results. This majorly can be as a result of inadequate contract performance measures and penalties outlined before the commencement of the activities.

In-house facility maintenance Services

This is a service that is provided by a dedicated resource directly employed by the client organization, where monitoring and control of performance are normally conducted under the terms of conventional employer/employee relationship; although internal service-level agreements may be employed as a regulating mechanism. emphasized the retention of the organization’s employees for the delivery of estate-related and facilities services are considered as in house service provision.

People who are in-house own their work.

In-house employees are usually perceived to perform better than outsourced employees because the outsourced employee may make decisions based on how they will affect their own employers, not the people for whom they are working for by proxy.

In-house solutions may offer the company the opportunity to grow people instead of hiring from outside, and so provide career prospects that reduce staff turnover.

A poorly defined scope will lead, almost inevitably, to problems in the management of the service with higher supervision costs and lowering of customer satisfaction. Consultation with all stakeholders is essential in this regard.

Without the delineation of roles and responsibilities, it can be difficult to measure the performance of in-house personnel.

Given that the organization’s management may be looking periodically at the market for external service provision, it makes sense for the in-house team to operate in a business-like way so that it can compete fairly if the need arises

One of the biggest threats to the success of the in-house team is complacency, which is easily noticed by customers.

Facilities management is a major function in a business organization and it should be procured in an effective way in order to create an environment that strongly supports the primary objectives of the organization. In house and outsourcing facility maintenance options are identified as major means of procuring facilities management while they have inclusive secondary options. In order to achieve the strategic objectives of an organization, the organization should consider the best options for the procurement of their facility Maintenance and select the effective approach which is best suited for the particular functions.

Organizations should ensure to take into consideration a wider range of key variables underpinning value-adding selection. There should be a marked withdrawal from the current practice of concentrating only on financials to the exclusion of other equally important variables that add value.

However, In the Nigeria context, some organizations favor a totally inhouse Facility Maintenance option while others literally contract out or outsource every service possible, yet others use a combination of both; it depends on the organization and the cooperate goals.

Outsourcing facility maintenance is a recommended option for all types of businesses and companies with or without internal facilities maintenance expertise as it can prove both more effective and more cost-efficient. An outsourced provider like SORS Investment Limited can take on some of the responsibilities of an organization or perform the entire facilities maintenance function, helping you and your business to focus on your core business activities.