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Q&A with Gavin Bates, UK Real Estate and Facilities Manager at Bosch

The year of 2020 marked the beginning of a new decade and, devastatingly, a global pandemic. Covid-19 has brought a lot of uncertainty with large changes and impacts on people’s health, work and businesses amongst others, which has forced many to adapt and readjust where possible.

As employees have slowly returned back to work throughout this time, Gavin Bates, UK Real Estate and Facilities Manager at Bosch UK, shines a light on how he and his FCM team have stepped up to ensure they have all of the correct measures in place to deliver a safe place of work for Bosch employees.

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Gavin tells us how the pandemic has enhanced his team’s visibility, is increasing the understanding and importance of their role at this time and what measures have been put in place to ensure health and safety is at its best for employees and to keep the Bosch factories running.

• What does the role of FM at Bosch look like?

The role of the FCM team here at Bosch UK is to ensure that our roughly 40 sites, which are a mix of factory and offices, are agile working environments for all associates. From setting up meeting rooms, company car management and site security, to catering, organising post and deliveries of goods to waste management, our role is extremely diverse. Alongside this we also oversee the new builds happening throughout the UK, whilst also maintaining existing factories and buildings themselves.

• What has changed about your job role since the COVID-19 crisis? E.g. home working, furloughed, redeployed?

Planning and ensuring services remain operational for business continuity whilst working from home has been challenging, however, we have had to adapt quickly. Splitting our site Facilities teams into working bubbles and discussing any issues virtually amongst the wider group is a new experience but one that we have embraced and seen some positives. The teams working at locations are able to dedicate more time to actual planned maintenance rather than reactive and the teams working from home are able to connect remotely to machinery and equipment and analysis data to predict any potential plant failures and costly downtime.

• What have you found most challenging about your job in FM since the lockdown?

Managing the closures and reopening of the sites was a big job and of course, a key challenge has been to ensure that when reopening the office, we made it as safe as possible for employees and keeping up the management of this.

Our office areas have been designed for collaboration between associates not segregation, so we have, like all other businesses, introduced reduced capacity on our sites and social distancing measures on our production lines. The physical building design has also brought challenges when managing social distancing many corridors, staircases, toilet lobbies are space restrictive and pinch points for associates, the planning and implementation for one ways systems with signage and communicated instructions for associates have been quite time consuming but necessary.

• Do you believe the pandemic has highlighted the important role of the FM sector and the part its people pay in keeping workers safe and buildings clean and maintained?

Yes, absolutely. Our work often falls under the radar but is crucial to the success of a business. The pandemic has given us a platform to demonstrate just how important safe, clean and well-maintained buildings are which is a huge positive for the FCM team.

• What is your organisation doing to ensure the safe return of staff to the workplace?

At Bosch UK the Health and Safety of our associates, visitors and others comes first. That’s why we are doing everything we can to protect everyone. Ahead of the return to work announcement, multiple measures were put in place to ensure employees felt comfortable, safe and confident. Everyone received the return to work guidelines document for clarity, starting from practices to do before you leave home, such as assessing yourself against the symptoms of Covid-19, what you need to know before arriving on site, the one way system put in place, PPE, sanitising safety stations and additional control measures. Everyone in the business is provided with a document on safety rules for visitors and contractors as well to cover all the bases.

• What do you predict could be the main changes to the FM sector due to the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic?

I definitely think that the FM sector will be valued, noticed and understood a lot more throughout the business. Our job of managing the health and safety of the sites will be more prominent than ever and will be the key focus for a while, along with all the other tasks we would do on a daily basis.

• What qualities do you think are most needed for a successful career in FM?

After working in the FCM sector for over a decade, communication, engagement and buy-in from your stakeholders are all absolutely crucial for being successful in an FCM role. By educating your associates and wider stakeholders on the ‘why’ behind initiatives like energy efficiency, or changes on site, everyone can contribute and help play their part in achieving your goals.