By Ian Ellison, Workplace Geeks

Listen to episode six now: From facilities management to facilities transformation

As we approach the end of the podcast series, Chris and I are in a reflective mood. If The Science of Service is the banner to showcase Mitie’s drive towards facilities transformation, what have we learnt? What are the implications for the future? What parts of our adventure have stood out the most?

A lot has happened in the world since the start of the project. Geopolitical dynamics have changed, economic and climate pressures continue to mount, the hybrid working debate is now firmly post-pandemic and digital technology advances at pace.

Generative opportunities

When we began planning the series, awareness about generative AI was beginning to ripple outwards from Silicon Valley. Some critics flagged the risks of putting faith in technology whose ‘black box’ functionality – its mysterious ways of working – can only ever be partially understood. Yet advocates broadcast AI’s benefits for many facets of modern life, including work, education and healthcare. While this debate continues, it seems like most progressive organisations are either already using AI or exploring its uses. Before the pandemic drew attention elsewhere, business concerns centred around the impacts of automating operational work. So, while the advances in generative AI began many years ago, the current focus has shifted to include even more complex managerial tasks. Is this exciting? Or of concern?

On location with Mitie

Episode six of The Science of Service Podcast, presented by me, Ian Ellison, and my Workplace Geeks co-host, Chris Moriarty, begins by revisiting some of our favourite Mitie client sites. We’ve seen the sustainable technology of ground source heat pumps deployed on an epic scale at Lloyds Banking Group’s Halifax headquarters building. We’ve witnessed security data fuelling Real Estate Management UK’s control centre intelligence deep in the heart of London landmark, The Shard. We’ve learnt how the app-based ability to order a barista-brewed coffee, piping hot with a personal touch, has transformed workplace experience at Royal London. We’ve heard how smart work management applications at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, have made a difference to both patient experience and health outcomes. And yes Chris, just for you, we’ve finally met those shiny Mitie robots.

Tech + people = not just different, but better

But robots, in all honesty, are just the tip of the technology iceberg when it comes to Mitie’s future aspirations. Perhaps it’s all that humanoid-heavy clipart on social media skewing perceptions. Because it’s actually data – and our increasingly sophisticated analytical computing power to drive insights from it – that is the real transformative hero here. This runs through the ‘digital plumbing’ described by Mitie’s Chief Technology and Information Officer, Cijo Joseph. Echoing this sentiment, Mitie’s Data Director, Dan Blake, reminds us that it isn’t only generative AI that will transform workplaces. It’s AI combined with vast quantities of often unstructured data and computational power.

If there’s one recurring theme we’ve seen in every episode of The Science of Service Podcast, it’s that technology + people = not just different, but better. There’s one piece of clipart that gets this just right – Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, where one of the hands now belongs to a robot. It says a lot. As pointed out by Mitie’s Chief Marketing Officer, Maria Winn, we need both machines and humans for the foreseeable future.

Rhetoric or reality?

But what does this mean for the vast FM sector workforce? Will they embrace this transformational change? Mitie’s Chief People Officer, Jasmine Hudson, views the situation optimistically; it’s one rich with learning and development opportunities. At the helm of a technology-backed workforce, Jasmine stands firmly committed to a team-focused, values-based workplace.

I wondered out loud, in my first blog, whether ‘The Science of Service’ was clever facilities management rhetoric or a true reflection of the sector’s transformation. To conclude the series let’s defer to Mitie CEO, Phil Bentley: “I think ‘science’ and ‘service’ was a good juxtaposition of two words that don’t always go together, but really captured in our imagination what it is we were trying to do.”

And do you know what? I think they really have.