2020 Put Risk Management In Property Services To The Test – How Well Did We Cope?
Some project and commercial risks are predictable. These are easier to plan for and mitigate. But, as former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously pointed out, there are things that ‘we don’t know we don’t know.’ These have the potential to create the most chaos.
Chaos or severe disruption is something that has to be avoided at all costs if you are providing large scale property services to social housing tenants – particularly when they involve vulnerable individuals. For every significant known and quantifiable risk, there has to be an assessment, mitigation actions and a contingency plan should the worst happen.
Unknown and unquantifiable risks are an order of magnitude more challenging. Organisations have to respond quickly, be flexible and able to stay focused on values and priorities: culture matters!
A healthy, partnership culture is obsessed with how to keep things going and minimise disruption above all else.
Brexit and Covid-19 were pretty rigorous stress tests for many organisations’ approaches to risk management. It’s one thing to plan for the possibility of a flu epidemic, but few organisations had considered what would happen if a virus was so transmissible and potentially lethal that people couldn’t visit the office and had to wear specific PPE as a matter of routine – particularly in environments such as somebody’s home.
Which Brexit Would We Get?
Brexit, on the other hand, was ‘known’ in the sense that we knew it would happen ever since 2016. But up (almost literally) until the last minute there was a range of scenarios and a huge variation in potential impacts affecting labour and supply chains. It wasn’t feasible to wait until we knew what the final deal looked like before making plans.
Early on in the Brexit process, Osborne established a specific working group to track developments and advise the company, our suppliers and our customers. We consulted extensively with our supply chain partners and customers so that we had the fullest picture possible of the risks. Thanks to careful planning the effects of Brexit so far on our business have been manageable. But it’s early days and we’re still keeping a close eye on events.
Mobilising a Contract as Covid Rates Took Off
Covid-19 was an even bigger challenge. It hit just as we were embarking on the mobilisation phase of a major responsive repairs and voids contract. We worked closely with our client and established a joint risk register. We kept everything on track even though key collaborative activities had to be quickly switched to online meetings.
Naturally, there were difficult situations and problems that had to be worked through. But it’s pleasing to reflect that our projects and partnerships with customers and suppliers emerged in good shape following the most testing circumstances we could possibly have imagined. We put this down to our partnership culture and the adaptability and positive mindsets of our teams.
To find out more about Osborne’s approach to managing risk in social housing property services, contact Jo Fletcher ([email protected]) or visit our Property Services webpage.
