< Previous UPDATE www.fm-middleeast.com10 November 2021 Sodexo Middle East announced that it is committed to meeting the diverse market needs within the region’s healthcare industry by off ering a varied range of innovative services to hospitals and healthcare institutions. Sodexo has augmented patient comfort and safety, clinical support, and facilitated effi cient and smooth operations within healthcare sites in the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. In the Middle East, the Covid-19 pandemic led to a growth phase for contactless food services in 2020 with Saudi Arabia ranking fi rst in the region, reporting a 170% growth rate in the food delivery segment, followed by UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. The healthcare industry has mirrored this demand for contactless solutions as part of its food services. Sodexo Middle East has leveraged its food services off ering to over 4,300 daily inpatient meals, more than 4,500 daily meals for medical staff and 1,800 daily meals for visitors; managing an area of 60,000 sq. ft. In early 2021, to meet this growing demand, Sodexo Middle East launched its digital food ordering technology, One Klick – a food ordering mobile application which enables medical staff and visitors to order healthy meals through the click of a button, reducing the need for shared touch points and eliminating the risk of infection by limiting physical contact. One Klick’s user- friendly interface provides staff and visitors with a one-stop platform for all their in-house dining needs off ering nutritional information on every meal, discounts and promotions on meals, live status updates and convenient and safe payment options. The self-service ordering tool enables medical staff to indulge in healthy and exciting food menus, improving employee satisfaction levels in hospitals. STAT ATTACK FM IN HEALTHCARE Sodexo caters to changing Middle East healthcare market demands 12 million Renewable energy employment worldwide reached 12 million last year, up from 11.5 million in 2019, according to the eighth edition of Renewable Energy and Jobs: Annual Review 2021. 4 million While solar and wind jobs continued leading global employment growth in the renewable energy sector, accounting for a total of 4 million and 1.25 million jobs respectively, liquid biofuels employment decreased as demand for transport fuels fell. 39% China commanded a 39% share of renewable energy jobs worldwide in 2020, followed by Brazil, India, the United States, and members of the European Union. 24-25 million An International Labour Organization (ILO) global sustainability scenario to 2030 estimates that the 24-25 million new jobs will far surpass losses of between six and seven million jobs. 43 million IRENA’s World Energy Transitions Outlook forecasts that the renewable energy sector could employ 43 million by 2050. Explore Our New E-Commerce Website www.sanipexgroup.com Order Online Nowwww.fm-middleeast.comwww.fm-middleeast.com12 November 2021 COMMENT MEETING THE WORKFORCE CHALLENGE As part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 to grow and diversify the economy, there is focus on increasing the private sec- tor’s contribution in GDP from 40% to 60% while also significantly increasing foreign direct investment. At the same time, the Kingdom’s investor-friendly infrastructure is attracting more and more international organisations to move their regional hubs to the Kingdom. All of these factors are having a very positive impact on the Kingdom’s FM market, and in particular on the demand for high-end integrated FM service providers. Essentially, to meet the aspirations of Vision 2030, and of the ever-growing landscape of ultra-modern infrastructure projects, Saudi Arabia’s FM industry needs to transform and expand rapidly, and to adopt global best practices and standards in the way it manages and delivers its services. This inevitably means that the industry will experience a significantly increased in demand for both skilled and semi- skilled manpower, drawn from local and international markets that are already experiencing shortages. In a move away from the traditional manpower sourcing and recruitment methods and to counter the problems associated with illegal workers, the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has accredited Mega Recruitment (istiqdam) companies that are licensed to recruit foreign workers and to ensure that all deployment is in accordance with Saudi labour laws. Mega Recruitment companies are licensed to recruit and deploy personnel for both private and public sector organisations and are therefore set to play a major strategic role in helping the FM and other industry sectors meet the challenges presented by Vision 2030. FM service provider Initial Saudi Group is currently nearing completion of a major business transformation project that has positioned it as one of the most agile and capable FM providers in the Kingdom. Intrinsic to its success has been drawing on the expertise and experience of Mega Recruitment company, Workforce Saudia, one of the companies that form the group. As part of the Initial Saudi Group, Workforce Saudia has a heritage stretching back over 35 years and has developed a unique and highly professional approach to providing innovative, end-to-end staffing and HR solutions to many of the Kingdom’s national and international organisations. It has also, through its work with the wider Saudi Arabia Group, gained a deep and thorough understanding of the FM industry and the specific manpower needs of FM companies. Workforce Saudia believes in building strong partnerships with its clients, thoroughly understanding their staffing needs in order to provide the right As the FM industry fl ourishes in Saudi Arabia, the increasing demand for skilled and semi-skilled personnel could become a major challenge. Ahmad Houri, chief operating offi cer at Initial Saudi, looks at how Mega Recruitment companies will help FM providers and the wider KSA market meet that challenge MEGA RECRUITMENT COMPANIES ARE LICENSED TO RECRUIT AND DEPLOY PERSONNEL FOR BOTH PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANISATIONS. personnel, supported by world class end- to-end business support services, from recruitment and visa management, to HR support, payroll and other employee and client services. In today’s highly competitive workforce market, Workforce Saudia also understands that properly qualified, competent and loyal staff are a major asset and it works tirelessly to ensure that the rights of all the employees it provides are protected and that they are supplied with the facilities, benefits and support to which they are entitled. Vision 2030 will bring an exciting future to Saudi Arabia and, as the economy diversifies into areas other than oil, many industry sectors are expected to grow rapidly. As a Mega Recruitment company, Workforce Saudia will play a key role in ensuring the Kingdom has the workforce it needs and, importantly, that its many organisations and their employees are supported by world class HR solutions. Ahmad Houri, chief operating offi cer, Initial Saudi.www.fm-middleeast.com COMMENT November 2021 13 he Expo 2020 was officially opened on 30 September 2021. The main site of Expo 2020 Dubai is a 438-hectare area (1083 acres). Maintaining such a site is a mammoth task. In our FM @ Expo 2020 feature (page 26), we have companies talking about what is different at this site. Farnek, at the Expo 2020, manages the entire facilities in the Opportunity District, which consists of a cleaning team of over 1,000 personnel and a technical team of almost 200, along with the adjacent Al Fursan Park. This entails cleaning and technical services. In addition, Farnek was awarded the contract for Expo Village, for which it is responsible for managing the reservation services, concierge, front office and housekeeping, for the 2,273 apartments. The total manpower for the Expo Village is nearly 500. Dr. Greg Ward, managing director, Transguard Group, says: “Transguard has contracts with 17 pavilions, is providing security in many Want to enter the debate? If you have any comments to make on these issues, email the editor at rajiv.pillai@itp.com. VIEWP INT Expo 2020 is upon us and we have some great insights as to what some companies are doing diff erently and what standards are being set by the Expo site itself RAJIV RAVINDRAN PILLAI Learn and grow with Expo T About the author Rajiv Ravindran Pillai is the editor of Facilities Management Middle East. high-profile locations across the event and has deployed upwards of 3,000 employees in various designations and capacities. In short, we are playing a strategic role in the success of Expo, and it is thanks to the hard work of our passionate teams that we are meeting and every day we are exceeding expectations for both Expo itself and for its pavilions.” The other important thing is the stadards set by Expo 2020 which is a set a list of principles that are in line with the UAE labor law. Tarek Nizameddin, senior executive director at Ejadah, says: “These principles focus on ensuring fairness in the recruitment mechanism, making certain that employees understand the terms and conditions of work, as well as guaranteeing a just and non-discriminatory treatment of employees. full, guarantee a safe and healthy work environment and provide access to grievance and remediation mechanisms.” It will be a great 6 months of learning and development for FM firms at Expo 2020. INTERVIEW 14 November 2021www.fm-middleeast.com Mohammed Al Sharaf, divisional CEO of IFM Holdings, talks about Eltizam’s growth and its acquisitions WE’VE SEEN THAT THERE HAS BEEN A CORPORATE RESTRUCTURE AND YOU’RE NOW THE DIVISIONAL CEO OF IFM HOLDINGS – WHAT WAS BEHIND THIS? Yes, Eltizam as a group has grown significantly over the last 12 months, now having 15 entities. We restructured the group into 4 subsidiary holding companies. The core facilities management companies now sit under IFM Holdings with executive directors being responsible for the individual entities. WE’VE ALSO SEEN VARIOUS ANNOUNCEMENTS ABOUT ACQUISITIONS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. PLEASE ELABORATE ON THAT. We’re always looking for opportunities. 2020 and 2021 have been turbulent years throughout the world. Whilst we had to be extremely flexible and innovative with our operational approaches to combat the challenges brought by the pandemic, we were also looking up and across the market for expansion opportunities. Eltizam and IFM Holdings have been building a strong foundation for the past 7 years, in terms of operational effectiveness, team dynamics, client base and our financial position. Unfortunately, many companies suffered during this time or decided to restructure and exit some of their businesses. With the support of our shareholder, IHC, we actively sourced opportunities within the market that would complement our existing portfolio and support our growth strategy. In all, there was about 15 companies that we had some sort of engagement with, leading to 2 acquisitions by IFM. Fixis Facilities Management was acquired in January and then Inspire Integrated was GET BUSY BUYING acquired in July. With the recent announcement that ADQ has also become a shareholder in our parent company Eltizam, we are confident that we can continue to achieve our ambitious plan of both organic and inorganic growth. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THESE TWO COMPANIES? There are various reasons why we look to buy certain companies. This can include providing different services (sometimes complimentary to our existing businesses), operating in a different sector or geographic location etc. We also place a large emphasis on the cultural fit, as we need to integrate the company into the wider Eltizam Group and our “Get Wonky” culture. We would only consider buying a company that we believe we can enhance and develop on what’s already there. With Fixis, we saw the potential to concentrate on single residential towers – they are a smaller company but dynamic and excellent for that sector. They also had a solid presence across Dubai. This allows our existing FM business, Tafawuq, to focus more on larger communities, commercial buildings and special projects such as the Louvre in Abu Dhabi. Inspire Integrated was a very different deal. They were a much larger, more established company but operating in different sectors such as the high-end commercial sector and the energy sector. This provided a foothold into these sectors as well as delivering economies of scale with our other FM companies in the group. WILL YOU BUY MORE COMPANIES? We’re always open to discussions and have an active pipeline of transactions that our in-house team lead. As I mentioned earlier, if we see there is a good fit, it supports the long term vision of the group and we see a commercial opportunity then we will give it serious consideration. WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE NEXT 12 MONTHS? We’ve obviously been very busy this year and this will continue into 2022 and beyond. We have opened up Tafawuq Egypt where we will have nearly 1,000 staff by the end of the year. This has been a strategic move that we have been working on for the last 12 months with our Egyptian partners, the master developer Al Ahly Sabbour. We will continue our geographic expansion with entry into KSA in the future. Additionally, we will be focusing on the post-integration of our newly acquired entities. Whilst we generally have a 90- day integration plan, we then have a post- integration period where we look for additional synergies and opportunities between the newly acquired company and the existing companies. Another big feature for 2022 will be our continued technology adoption. Not all solutions are applicable or cost effective for each client, so we’re building on our range of technology offerings. We’re generally product agnostic, and with so many different facilities ELTIZAM AND IFM HOLDINGS HAVE BEEN BUILDING A STRONG FOUNDATION FOR THE PAST 7 YEARS, IN TERMS OF OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS, TEAM DYNAMICS, CLIENT BASE AND OUR FINANCIAL POSITION. INTERVIEW November 2021 15www.fm-middleeast.com managed, we have great testing grounds before we roll them out. We also benefit from the proprietary technology that is developed by our in-house team of experts which is a key differentiator for IFM's companies. Examples are the adoption of our cleaning robot, I-traps for pest control, Nestro which holds all QHSE transactions electronically and client Power BI dashboards. YOU’RE NOW CONSIDERED A VETERAN OF THE FM INDUSTRY IN THE UAE, WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE TRENDS MOVING FORWARD? Thank you, I suppose! Over the last 4 or 5 years we have seen a lot of consolidations in different sectors, from real estate developers to banks to diversified conglomerates. This has been driven in part by the need to provide better value to customers and one of those ways is to provide similar, and ideally better, services at a reduced price. By companies consolidating, there is an opportunity to reduce overheads and benefit from economies of scale. The FM sector is an excellent example of this. Generally, it’s a lower margin sector, so lots of small improvements can have a big impact to the bottom line. This is why we focus on 2 main areas – creativity and scale. The creativity can be related to our operational delivery, the effective utilisation of technology, how we partner with clients, what we self-deliver, what we outsource, how we provide our overhead support functions etc., everything gets reviewed and assessed for effectiveness. The size of an FM business delivers benefits through the economies of scale that can be realised when they develop or purchase products or services. Small to medium size companies often can’t justify developing new systems or techniques as the cost of potential failure is too great – the bigger we are, the smaller the relative impact of our research and development cost. Similarly, when we are buying at scale, we are in a better position to negotiate prices and payment terms which we can then pass on to our clients. Mohammed Al Sharaf, divisional CEO of IFM Holdings.www.fm-middleeast.com16 November 2021 FM CONFERENCE 2021 REPORT T he Facilities Management Middle East Conference held on 29 September at the V Hotel Dubai, Al Habtoor City, brought together the FM community to discuss about FM contracts, worker welfare and training. The sponsors for the event were Ejadah as Platinum Sponsor, and Adeeb Group, Emirates National Facilities Management (EnFM) and YAEMCO as Silver Sponsors. Here is the report. FM CONFERENCE 2021www.fm-middleeast.comNovember 2021 17 FM CONFERENCE 2021 REPORT www.fm-middleeast.com18 November 2021 FM CONFERENCE 2021 REPORT “Current FM contracts favours the client” Tarek Nizameddin, senior executive director at Ejadah spoke about some of the unresolved issues in FM contract process, especially the lack of FM-specific templates for contracts. At the Facilities Management Middle East Conference 2021 held on 29 September at the V Hotel in Dubai, Nizameddin, who was the keynote speaker, set the tone for the event that discussed FM contracts, worker welfare and training. Nizameddin said: “Only a few clients develop their own FM contracts. Clients are still depending on construction templates that includes parameters not really relevant to our industry, such as liquidated damage, warranties, etc. Why am I requested to provide 12 month warranty on cleaning contracts?” The major issue is that such contracts heavily favour the clients and are non- negotiable, added Nizameddin. He elaborates: “We are told to take it or leave it [when it comes to contracts]; either accept it or you are disqualified, which is not fair. And to add insult to injury, those contracts are favouring clients. We know what it takes to deliver the service that our client requires. But unfortunately clients are not willing to listen. The contract is drafted by their legal team and in most of cases the legal terms are not even reviewed by the client’s operations team.” Another challenge Tarek said is the gap between the date the contract is awarded, and the actual contract signing date. Giving an example, he says: “We get selected for a project and in some cases we receive a letter of intent. The next morning or the same day you receive an outlook invitation from the client for mobilisation. But I have not received the contract yet as it is under revision. Sometimes it takes up to four weeks to a couple of months, until it has the internal approval from the client’s department. But what about the risks that I’ve taken over the past few months, which is not accounted for?” Nizameddin pointed out that the clients also have the right to suspend the service or terminate the contract. “Sometimes they give you one month’s notice or two month’s notice [before they terminate]; but you as service providers, you don’t have this right.” In a nutshell, Nizameddin says that clients are leaving FM service providers with two options: either to accept the risk, which means service providers have to increase their price, or they will have to decline the opportunity, which means that the client will lose the opportunity of dealing with reputable service providers. However, Nizameddin says that there has been some improvement lately. “The positive news is that we have started seeing some changes. We started receiving contracts with some reasonable terms, it’s not 100% but I can say that there is an improvement of 20-30%.” He also went spoke about employee welfare and things like staff accommodation, health and safety and paying salaries on time should be prioritised. “When it comes to the living conditions there should be washing facilities, catering, gym, libraries and entertainment. Also proximity to the work site should be less. It is not acceptable anymore that you have your workforce travelling for two hours every day from the staff accommodation to the work location.” “You should also provide good heath and life insurances. A simple math will show you that a very good medical insurance will achieve a lot of savings for you when it comes to sick leaves and your employees’ satisfaction. It will reduce resignations. Life insurance will not cost companies a lot of money but it will give more satisfaction to your employees. It will give them more assurance that will give provide a more stable workforce. “Lastly, it is very important to pay salaries on time. All the companies should be respecting this,” he concluded TAREK NIZAMEDDIN, SENIOR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT EJADAH, REVEALS ISSUES RELATED TO FM CONTRACTS AT THE FACILITIES MANAGEMENT MIDDLE EAST CONFERENCE 2021 Tarek Nizameddin, senior executive director at Ejadah.www.fm-middleeast.comNovember 2021 19 FM CONFERENCE 2021 REPORT The right way to mobilise At the Facilities Management Middle East Conference 2021 held on 29 September in Dubai, Mohamad Abou Laban, chief executive officer at Deyaar Facilities Management, spoke about the importance of getting the FM mobilisation right. Through his presentation titled ‘Effective FM Mobilisation – The Difference between Success & Failure’, Abou Laban communicated the need to get FM mobilisation right, which is basically the first stage of a project. “If you fail [at mobilisation], you immediately lose that rapport and trust with the customer.” He defined mobilisation as: “The action of organising and encouraging a group of people to take collective action in pursuit of a particular objective. Mobilisation brings the contract to life.” Abou Laban added the need to mobilise people on time, having the right equipment, and implementing the right processes on site. Also, there should be adequate communication with the customer, among other things. “There should be good culture and collaboration between us and the client. During mobilisation, we look at consultation with the client and the incumbent contractor if there was an existing service provider. We should look at choosing a transition team. “We need to look at performance management and how to report to that to the client. Risk mitigation is also very important. What risks we would see in a contract, and how can we mitigate them. All this ensures we have a good contract at the start.” He added: “The client has goals, and we need to align our FM strategy to his goals, so that he can reach his goals faster.” Abou Laban said that it is important to engage as early as soon as possible with the customer so as to understand the client’s needs and manage expectations because sometimes the expectations are very high. He added: “I always say under promise and over deliver for the customer, and he will be extremely happy.” The other issue Abou Laban pointed out is the lack of communication. He said: “Often times there is misinformation or lack of communication. We need to develop a communication strategy and keep all the interested parties informed on the transition activities [during mobilisation], depending on the size of the contract.” He then went on to reveal the five M’s of mobilisation: The first being manpower. You need to have the right staff and the right managers. Also, the right combination of old and new team members. The second is having the right material on site during mobilisation, The third is machines. The right equipment is essential. “You need to have the tools and the equipment ready for mobilisation at any times.” The fourth is the method. “You need to have specific worksheets for a certain size [of contract]”. The last thing is money. “You need to ensure that you’re paying people on time. You need to be sure that you hire the people on the right scale, and you need to be sure to pay the service provider and the suppliers on time.” Abou Laban concluded: “These five M’s, if you get them right, you are going to have a successful mobilisation.” MOHAMAD ABOU LABAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, DEYAAR FACILITIES MANAGEMENT, REVEALS THE DOS AND DON’TS OF FM MOBILISATION Mohamad Abou Laban, chief executive offi cer, Deyaar Facilities Management. THE CLIENT HAS GOALS, AND WE NEED TO ALIGN OUR FM STRATEGY TO HIS GOALS, SO THAT HE CAN REACH HIS GOALS FASTER. Next >