How long is your to-do list today? If you own a business, manage the property, or even rent a building for your company, there are never enough hours in a day, right? And your focus is to keep the business running. Making money often pushes property maintenance to the bottom of the priority list.
Unfortunately, delaying certain maintenance tasks can actually cause a lot of unnecessary expenses. So, how do you make sure everything from plumbing to pest control Melbourne businesses require is up to date? Let’s give you a 5-step plan to transform and simplify how you maintain your premises from now on.
Plan Ahead—for Everything
The first step will take some time but in the long run, it’s going to save you lots of hours—and money.
Chances are that at some stage something will go wrong, even if you’re good at preventive maintenance. Will you have a plan to manage a scenario like a fire in the office or a server being destroyed? For these disasters, you should have a recovery plan in place and everyone who plays a role must know their responsibilities. The motivation behind this massive task is to ensure your business can keep on functioning even if the worst happens.
For the short term, planning is also essential, simply to manage different maintenance tasks for categories like:
- Electrical
- Plumbing
- Pest control
- Water monitoring
- Fire safety
- IT and computer infrastructure
- General wear and tear of buildings
- The upkeep of the grounds
Determine people’s responsibilities and schedules for general maintenance as well as regular checks to ensure preventive maintenance can take place.
Use Technology and Automation
Now that you have plans in place, you’ll possibly be overwhelmed by the long to-do lists you and your team have. This is where you need to have a 21st century approach and start using technology to your benefit. A secret weapon many companies are using is automation:
- Collecting data through sensors, rather than with manual checks
- Automated reminders for upcoming maintenance tasks
- Allocating work orders automatically, wasting less time of maintenance managers
- Analysing data to determine when components will need replacing; can now happen faster when done by artificial intelligence
It’s also ideal to start sharing information on an online platform, ideally, one all your team members can access via their mobile devices. From accessing a product manual to uploading images during a maintenance check, all that information becomes easily available to everyone. Imagine the time you’ll save compared to hunting down paperwork in a storage closet.
Have the Right Team
To make sure all these tasks do get done without a glitch, you need the right people on the job. You want the job done right the first time, so you need people with the right experience and training.
This shows the value of employing individuals with the right skillset, even though it may cost you a little more. The higher expense will be a long-term investment. After all, you’ll quickly regret sending a newbie to fix the HVAC system if he or she ends up damaging it.
Prioritise Record Keeping
While everything is running smoothly, this point may not seem that important. The truth is, record keeping must be a high priority for any maintenance manager and you can’t simply assume someone in the office is taking care of it. You need to know where the necessary information is when you need it.
For example, the day you need information on a certain appliance, you’ll wish you improved your filing system. Or perhaps someone gets hurt on the premises and starts accusing you of not maintaining a safe working environment. That’s when you need those compliance certificates, your latest risk assessment, and safety certificates.
Here again, having access to digital copies may be your smartest option. The originals should be kept where they’re protected from water, fire, and theft.
Outsource
It’s possible that you simply don’t have what it takes to manage all maintenance tasks on your own. You may lack:
- Manpower
- Skills
- Tools
- Experience
- Cashflow
This is why outsourcing has become such a valuable resource. It often turns out cheaper to outsource tasks to experienced companies, such as pest control specialists, commercial plumbers, or electricians. It doesn’t make sense to hire someone full-time to handle these types of maintenance tasks, but you do need to have regular maintenance done. In Melbourne, you’ll find experts in various fields who are happy to provide ongoing maintenance services at affordable rates.
Final Thoughts
The hard truth is that you can’t ignore property management on your task list. Your premises form the foundation of all your activities, so don’t let it deteriorate.
Don’t let negligence incur unnecessary costs ever again. With the right methods, resources, and people in place, everything from pest control to electrical problems never has to give you a headache or disrupt your day again.
Stay one step ahead in maintenance, so you can focus on the parts of the job you really love.
