Tackling Asset Management Challenges: Staff Shortages

It’s hard to imagine a time when social housing providers faced such huge and profound asset management challenges. In a brief series of articles, we’ll look at where the system is under pressure and explore potential solutions.

Many providers and their repair and maintenance teams have significant repair backlogs that are partly the result of Covid-19 lockdowns. There are compliance gaps in many areas and a need to plan energy-efficiency retrofits.

Meanwhile, material prices have escalated and skilled labour is in short supply across the construction sector.

Labour Shortages

Effective asset management that prioritises planned, proactive maintenance over reactive repairs is hard to implement if labour shortages mean you are running flat-out just to keep up.

Achieving adequate staffing levels is obviously the key. But what if the people you need just aren’t available? If you can’t find all the staff you need, your only option may be to arrange property services delivery so they are more productive and you need fewer staff.

To do that you have to work more efficiently: eliminate wasted effort, improve first time fix rates and coordinate work streams as fully as possible.

In most cases these are achievable goals – as Osborne has demonstrated across multiple property services partnerships.

Systems and Processes

Systems and processes are usually the best starting point. During contract mobilisation we put a lot of effort and urgency behind designing the IT systems, integrations and applications that will maximise productivity and efficiency.

As a result, the social housing providers we support find that they can deliver more without any increase in the budget. In year one of a major property services partnership, Osborne completed 12 months of planned work within 9 months. In year 2, the work programme expanded by 30% within the existing budget.

The systems we implement also give our customers – and their customers – greater clarity about the status of repair and maintenance programmes.

Solving the labour shortage element of the asset management challenge probably means investing in better systems and processes rather than employing more staff. This is also a much more sustainable model as the advantages of a more streamlined service will endure well into the future.

For more information about Osborne’s approach to proactive asset management contact Jo Fletcher ([email protected]) or visit our resource centre.